Vovinam
Việt Võ ĐạoA Vietnamese art founded in Hanoi in 1938 by Nguyen Loc. It rests on the principle of hard and soft together and has been tied to education and national confidence from the start.
Quick Facts
VietnamCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Vovinam
About Vovinam
Vovinam, in full Viet Vo Dao, was founded in Hanoi in 1938 by Nguyen Loc. His aim was not merely to assemble a fighting system but to give young Vietnamese something of their own under colonial rule — which is why it has been tied to education and national confidence from the start. Its central principle is cuong nhu phoi trien, developing the hard and the soft together. The curriculum covers punches, kicks, elbows and knees, along with locks, throws and weapon work including sword, staff and fan. The most conspicuous element is the attacking leg scissors, don chan tan cong: the practitioner leaps, clamps the opponent's neck or torso between the legs and drives him to the ground. The school recognises twenty-one variants; they are the art's calling card and are performed in groups at demonstrations. After 1975 vovinam spread with the Vietnamese diaspora to Europe, North America and Australia, and so became international before it had fully recovered at home. The world federation WVVF was founded in 1996, the art has its own competition rules for forms and free fighting, and since 2011 it has appeared at the Southeast Asian Games. After the founder's death the school was led as patriarch by Le Sang.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.