What is the main difference between Kung Fu and Karate?

Why in Karate the movement is usually straight|||kung fu is about relaxing into the punch, whereas in karate you put all of your might into it. this is a design fault because if you miss in karate, then you topple out of balance, giving your opponent time to hit you.





kung fu was made by studying animals in combat, then mapping this onto the human body. this made it a fighting force to be reckoned with. karate was dreamt up by a person in japan who started from scratch.|||The main difference is that Kung Fu (hundreds of different styles of it) was developed by monks in China for self defense, it flows very well and isn%26#039;t really a fighting martial art. It%26#039;s almost a dance, but the people who take it seriously and study it are very fit, some of the best physically fit people out there.


Karate was developed in Japan for combat without weapons. It also flows well, but not so much that it%26#039;s like a dance. It%26#039;s meant for straight-to-it fighting. Not just for self defense. They guys that take this seriously are also crazy.


I would say that the real Kung Fu guys and the real Karate guys (like Mas Oyama) are some of the best martial artists in the world.





In Kung Fu you would defend yourself from attack and be done with it, in karate you would defend yourself to kill the opponent (but as a student of it of course i would stop long before that, that is simply the mentality of the people that study it).


They are both excellent arts, if you get the real stuff (traditional).|||Not sure why you mentioned straight movement. Karate has many different movements, both straight and circular. There are many differences between karate and Kung-Fu.





First there are at least 300 to 400 different kung-fu systems. They vary greatly. Kung-fu comes from China.





Karate originally came from Okinawa. Later it became known and practiced in Japan. There are many different styles of karate in both countries.





The differences are to many to even think about listing. There are also many things that are similar. Each style of karate and Kung-fu really needs to be examined closely to understand the minute differences. all styles are only as good as the instructor and his knowledge.





EDIT: Breaking the Demon





You seem to be under the mistaken belief that karate is mainly linear movement. That seems to say that you have not had much experience with it. I%26#039;m not putting you down. I just think you need to do more research before making that kind of general statement. There are enough things to confusing other without us posting things that may make it worse. I%26#039;d have contacted you directly, but you don%26#039;t allow email???





EDIT: I agree with Bushido.... where did some of these answers come from??? It is obvious that some people have not done their homework before answering. And for the record.....Karate came from Okinawa. The Okinawans introduced it to Japan just after the 1900%26#039;s began. Karate was not in Japan before that. The Japanese had other martial arts before that time.|||the short very version.





kung fu is chinese and consists of hundreds of styles. one the major influences in its development were the shaolin monks. monks are peaceful by nature, and only intended it for self defense, to harm anyone was against there karma.





karate- originally to-de (chinese hand), is was developed on okinawa from chinese kempo and a few other system, there are round movements but it was intended to be much more lethal after bushi matsumura made change it. karate was developed for the shuri-te castle guards to defend the king. which may entail killing the person.


karate was developed by the peichin class (equivalent to the samurai of japan). if you research the titles of all the founders of systems. the majority held the title peichin or higher. an a number of them worker in the castle close to the king, matsumura, motobu, itosu, azato, these are just a few.





you have to different philosophies in there development, the monks were concerned about karma and the guards had to defend the king.





edit:%26gt;karate has both straight and circular movements|||Kung fu movements are both linear and circular, but it is more reliant on looseness and snap. It is the way it is because these styles are based on animals, movements of inanimate things (like flowers or trees) and because they come from a a background by being created by zen monks (shaolin temple is believed to be the birthplace of kung fu, and the great majority of martial arts of the world).





Karate is very rigid and steady, full of mostly linear (straight) movements because of its Okinawan heritage with he deep-rootedness of Naha-te and Shuri-te.





kung fu styles outnumber Karate styles, but that doesn%26#039;t mean that karate is not diverse. some karate styles rely a lot on looseness: like Shorin-ryu or Uechi-ryu (I think). And some kung fu styles are stiffer than others.





Karate is only but two or three hundred years old. Kung fu, however, is widely considered to be around 2,000 years old.|||Karate has many different styles as well as Kung Fu. Karate has been changing and mixing many different martial arts they%26#039;ve challenged and nowadays, some Karate classes in Japan teaches you how to defend and fight against MMA and etc. Like sprawling and etc. Styles like Kyokushin Karate is one of recently created style which mixes some Muay Thai in there and lately, if you watch Karate tournaments especially Kyokushin Karate, you%26#039;ll see that it%26#039;s not straight.|||Kung fu or rather Wushu is from China, it has hundreds of different styles, and it uses weapons.





Karate is from Okinawa and adopted in Japan, it has dozens of styles, and most do not use weapons.





Karate has roots in kung fu.|||where do some of the ppl on here get there information from?they must pull it out thier assses?its disapointing when it comes from ppl who seem to have a clue sometimes.


karate isnt straight movements and it does have weapons it also contains grappling,take downs and ground work.|||kung fu is for chinese take away cooks to defend themselves and karate was designed for samuri to beat up thier gieshas.|||Some good answers have already been given.





I would just like to point out that Kung Fu stems from 2 different roots.


Buddhist (such as Shaolin) and Taoist (such as Tai Chi Chuan.)|||karate was designed for not so bright farmers when weapons were outlawed. kung fu goes back thousands of years before karate and the techniques were developed, learned, improved and passed down father to son or student. these techniques, moves or styles of kung fu were kept secret and not taught to outsiders like you and me until bruce lee came along and went against the traditional rule of secrecy. he believed the art pure, beautiful and yes deadly when mastered. he taught respect for it, dedication on perfecting it, and shared what he knew of it with us. before he came along guys would just rough house brawl stand toe to toe and beat each other until one got knocked out. he showed us a 150 lb guy could kick a much bigger and stronger guy with incredible speed, timing and lightening fast, powerful pin point strikes. he hit you with his entire 150 lbs focused into a fist or a kick that would send a 250 lb man flying across the room. luckily he never went on a killing spree or thousands would have died. he would have been unstoppable in america with millions of couch potatoes. at a leisurely pace he could have walked the city streets at night randomly killing people left and right without even breaking a sweat.