Bilateral Training vs Viral Entertainment

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Picture this: A young martial artist scrolls through TikTok, mesmerized by spinning aerial kicks and gravity-defying flips performed in perfect synchronization with trending music. Meanwhile, in a dim traditional dojo across town, an elderly master slowly guides students through the same basic movement—left side, right side, left side, right side—for the thousandth time. These scenes, separated by more than physical space, represent one of the most dramatic yet overlooked transformations in martial arts history.

What we’re witnessing is the quiet death of bilateral training—the ancient practice of mastering techniques on both sides of the body—and the explosive rise of one-sided performance spectacle. This shift reveals a fundamental tension between two radically different philosophies: martial arts as balanced personal cultivation versus martial arts as viral entertainment.

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The Ancient Wisdom of Training Both Sides

For over a millennium, traditional Chinese martial arts operated on a deceptively simple principle: practitioners focused on “posture, breathing, and performing the techniques of both right and left sides of the body”[1]. This wasn’t arbitrary tradition—it was survival strategy distilled into training methodology.

Traditional instructors insisted on bilateral training for brutally practical reasons: “You don’t want to train a technique on the right side for five years only to get jumped by a left-handed attacker”[2]. In pre-modern warfare and self-defense scenarios, asymmetrical preparation could prove fatal. Warriors needed to respond effectively to attacks from any angle, with either hand, in unpredictable circumstances.

But the reasons went deeper than combat readiness. Traditional Chinese martial arts philosophy emphasized the balance of yin and yang, with practitioners viewed as incomplete if they developed only one side[3]. This wasn’t mystical nonsense—it was practical wisdom about human development. Traditional forms “tend to encourage a range of movements that develop skills with both left and right sides of the body, and have a mix of techniques ensuring reasonably balanced muscular development”[4].

Perhaps most importantly, forms served as “functional mechanisms of communicating patterns of movement” and “traditional ways of safely practicing” life-and-death techniques[4:1]. In societies without written manuals or video tutorials, bilateral forms functioned as comprehensive databases of martial knowledge, encoded in movements that could be transmitted intact across generations.

The Birth of Modern Spectacle

Everything changed in 1949. Modern wushu was “developed in 1949 to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts” by the Chinese Communist Party as part of a broader movement to modernize China[5]. The goal wasn’t to create better fighters—it was to develop a uniquely Chinese athletic discipline suitable for international competition.

In 1958, the Chinese State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports led the creation of standardized forms for most major arts, establishing “a national wushu system that included standard forms, teaching curriculum, and instructor grading”[5:1]. This transformation manifested dramatically in practice. Contemporary wushu became focused on performance, where “every movement is ‘flashy’ to improve its appearance and level of difficulty” because “more points are awarded to more difficult motions”[6].

The philosophical shift was seismic. While “traditional wushu focuses on self-defense theory and application,” contemporary wushu “focuses on performance,” with “the actual form may have no real martial content”[6:1]. Forms were choreographed for stage presentation, typically performed facing one direction like dance routines, with movements timed to dramatic musical crescendos rather than the rhythm of combat.

The Psychology of the Spectacular

Why did this transformation happen so quickly and completely? The answer lies in a fundamental shift in human psychology and attention spans. Traditional martial arts training was built on a foundation that modern practitioners find almost incomprehensible: the value of repetitive practice.

Traditional training meant performing the same basic movements thousands of times, but modern students “expect variety and quick gratification” and “would rather learn 50 different forms poorly than master one form on both sides”[2:1]. The meditative aspects of martial arts—developed through repetitive bilateral practice—disappear when training becomes performance preparation.

Social media has turbocharged this preference for spectacle. Acrobatic, one-sided sequences generate likes and shares in ways that traditional bilateral practice never could. A “tendency to exhibit techniques that are more flashy and complex was observed in martial arts during the period following the 1960s,” especially in taekwondo with “an increasing emphasis on spectacular spinning, jumping or flying kicks”[7]. In the attention economy, a 15-second clip of a spectacular jump kick beats 15 years of balanced development every time.

The Science Behind Bilateral Training

The traditional emphasis on both-sided practice wasn’t just philosophical—it was biomechanically sound. When practicing martial arts “to condition your body, practicing on both sides is important to prevent injuries”[2:2]. Asymmetrical training creates predictable problems: strength and flexibility discrepancies between sides, leading to compensation patterns and increased injury risk.

In traditional Chinese philosophy, balance emerges from the understanding that “when one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa, without there being an absolute predominance of one over the other”[8]. This principle applies directly to physical training: practitioners need “the soft to balance the hard,” and “all that contact” from asymmetrical training means leaving class “with bruises” without the balancing recovery practices[9].

Experienced practitioners report that bilateral training reveals hidden weaknesses. As one practitioner noted: “When I practice on my non-dominant side it reveals weaknesses in the technique on my dominant side. Transitions that are easy and natural on my dominant side require thought and effort on my non-dominant side”[2:3].

The Tricking Revolution: Performance Perfected

At the extreme end of this evolution lies “tricking”—a “training discipline that combines kicks with flips and twists from martial arts and gymnastics” but “is not a martial art, though it borrows techniques from taekwondo, kung fu, wushu, capoeira, and more”[7:1].

Tricking aims to create an “aesthetic blend of kicks, flips, and twists” by combining “acrobatic movements from several traditional sports and martial arts”[10]. While purists may scoff, tricking represents the logical conclusion of the performance trend. It’s refreshingly honest about its goals: creating visually stunning movement without claims to martial effectiveness.

Unlike performance wushu’s continued insistence that its acrobatic routines maintain martial relevance, tricking explicitly abandons any pretense of combat application. This clarity is perhaps more honest than the hybrid approaches that try to serve both masters.

The Hidden Costs of One-Sided Training

The impact of abandoning bilateral training extends far beyond philosophical debates. Practitioners who train predominantly one-sided forms develop predictable vulnerabilities:

Physical Imbalances: Asymmetrical training creates strength and flexibility discrepancies between sides, leading to compensation patterns and increased injury risk[2:4].

Combat Limitations: In actual self-defense situations, practitioners find themselves unable to respond effectively to attacks on their “weak” side, as “seniors pick up very quickly on what is my dominant side and use it effectively to their own advantage”[2:5].

Lost Depth: The focus on flashy movements means “there is no cohesion of any kind between applications in the forms and our fighting. It is as if one had absolutely nothing to do with the other”[6:2].

The Enduring Wisdom of Balance

Traditional martial arts philosophy, grounded in yin-yang theory, teaches that “health and illness are not absolute realities but relative, and are governed by the same principles: they are constantly changing”[8:1]. This applies directly to training methodology: periods of intense practice (yang) must be balanced with recovery and reflection (yin).

The traditional belief holds that “younger people having more muscle tone matches the season of life that they are in, while older folks holding that kind of tension will actually accelerate the aging process”[9:1]. This is why many aging martial artists transition to “softer” styles like tai chi—they understand that balance evolves with life circumstances.

Finding the Middle Path

The evolution from symmetrical to one-sided forms isn’t inherently good or bad—it simply serves different purposes. Traditional bilateral training excels at developing martial capability, physical balance, and meditative awareness. Performance forms create athletic artistry, competitive opportunities, and audience engagement.

The real tragedy occurs when these approaches become confused or conflated. Students deserve honest guidance about what their training actually develops. A student seeking self-defense skills needs different preparation than one pursuing competitive success or social media recognition.

Some schools have found middle ground by offering “dual-track programs” with separate curriculum for students interested in traditional training versus those pursuing competition[6:3]. Others maintain transparency by clearly communicating the purposes and outcomes of different training methods.

Lessons for the Modern Practitioner

For contemporary martial artists navigating this landscape, several principles emerge:

Understand Your Goals: Be clear about whether you’re seeking combat effectiveness, physical cultivation, competitive success, or artistic expression. Different goals require different training approaches.

Recognize the Trade-offs: Performance training may sacrifice practical application, while traditional training may seem “boring” compared to spectacular alternatives[2:6].

Value Process Over Product: Traditional forms are “not superfluous” but rather “extremely sophisticated methods of developing mind/body unity and the accompanying powerful technique”[4:2].

Seek Balance: Whether in training methods or life philosophy, the wisdom of yin-yang suggests that “balance is really something that only shows up long term”[8:2][11].

The Path Forward

As martial arts continue evolving in the digital age, there’s room for both traditional and modern approaches. The key is maintaining clarity about their different purposes while preserving the deeper wisdom that made these arts worth transmitting across centuries.

Perhaps the ultimate lesson from this evolution is that martial arts, like all living traditions, must balance preservation with adaptation. The challenge isn’t choosing between ancient wisdom and modern innovation, but ensuring that in our rush to make things look spectacular, we don’t lose the profound insights that made these practices transformative in the first place.

Whether someone seeks combat effectiveness, physical cultivation, competitive glory, or viral fame, they should understand how their chosen path serves—or doesn’t serve—those objectives. In a world increasingly divided between extremes, the martial arts’ ancient emphasis on balance offers a timeless reminder: true mastery often lies not in choosing sides, but in understanding when and how to embody both.

  1. Chinese martial arts - Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2025. ↩

  2. Martial Arts Stack Exchange. (2024). Is practising techniques on both the left and right sides beneficial or detrimental to martial development? ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

  3. Yin and yang - Wikipedia; Tai chi - Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2025. ↩

  4. Martial Arts Stack Exchange. What are the purposes of martial arts forms? ↩ ↩ ↩

  5. Wushu (sport) - Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2025. ↩ ↩

  6. Martial Arts Stack Exchange. Contemporary Wushu vs. Traditional Wushu. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

  7. Tricking (martial arts) - Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2025. ↩ ↩

  8. Gwong Zau Kung Fu. (2022). The Yin-Yang Theory And Its Applications To Martial Arts. ↩ ↩ ↩

  9. Just Fly Sports. (2023). Yin & Yang of Training: Application to Training Organization and Long-Term Programming for Athlete Success. ↩ ↩

  10. Firestorm Galaxy. Tricking classes description. ↩

  11. Shaolin Yuntai. (2024). Yin and Yang: The Harmony of Duality. ↩