Real and fake internal skills

Many people practice Wing Chun for health reasons or as a fitness system. Some practice the art as a part of their tradition or the tradition they want to be part of. There are those who practice the art as a surrogate religion or spiritual path. If you belong to any of these categories, this article is not for you. This article is for people who practice, or believe to practice, Wing Chun as a martial art, a system of combat.

At some point Wing Chun became an “internal” art, that is the latest trend in Wing Chun business. If the style is not “internal” it is not good enough, it is “inefficient”, not original, in one word worthless.  There are a lot of teachers who effortlessly “win” over a larger opponent in sticky hands drills and exercises, Wing Chun is done slowly and softly, like Tai Chi, they are doing inch punches and perform a lot of different “internal” power demonstrations. All these demonstrations look really cool and leave an impression of great skill and power, and with an aggressive marketing they are making audience to believe that those skills and power are genuine. Unfortunately truth is very much different from that impression.

Truth to be told, some of these teachers have good grasp of basic “internal” concepts, good, but unfortunately not complete, or they do but do teach it because their customers cannot accept it. Most of them are completely lost and have totally wrong understanding of what “internal” is.

Before we define what internal training is we must explain the place of Qigong in internal martial arts training. First thing that must be said is that Qigong and internal martial training are not same thing. These two disciplines are completely unrelated. Qigong is way older than any of the martial styles practiced today and had been developed and practiced independently of martial arts for the most part of its history. Qigong became a part of martial arts less than 100 years ago, during the republican period in China(1911-1948). Although incorporated in so called “internal” martial styles Qigong is still independent discipline and it is practiced separately from martial aspects of the these arts. So why many people believe Qigong is connected to martial training? Confusion came from Chinese teachers who are using term Qi describe some points is both disciplines. Term Qi, at least in earlier times was also used as a description of many other things, weather for example , but no one today mix weather conditions in martial arts training. Mixing Qigong with internal martial training or Neigong is one of the worst things that happened to kung fu after Boxer rebellion. Instead to be properly trained, people believe that breathing exercises and the lightest possible fitness training (what Qi gong in essence is) will increase their fighting abilities. “Qi” just bring martial training to the area of esoteric practice and once there martial arts are unrepairable damaged, at least for fighting purposes. Tai Chi is the best example, once extremely efficient combat style today is nothing more than a light exercise system and most of Tai Chi instructors do not teach ,even on theoretical level , any fighting applications. Historical sources are telling us that members of Chen village, a birth place of Tai Chi, had several successful fights and they repelled several attacks on their village in 19^th century (they used spears and swords to defeat large number of gang members who tried to raid their place). Today ,Tai Chi is concentrated on Qi cultivation and martial aspect of the art is for the most part lost. While practicing Qi gong may have some health benefits, it certainly does not have any combat value, it does not increase someone’s fighting abilities for even a smallest part. It is important to say that Qi gong in its essence is an esoteric art which main purpose, for what it was invented for, is reaching eternal life. People often forget this fact, or do not know it, or do not want to know it. Qi gong and martial training ,including neigong, can be parallel but they cannot be mixed .

Neigong or internal training is nothing more (and nothing less) than biomechanical efficiency. Often times Chinese teachers call this efficiency –Qi, making a lot of confusion. Every single teacher of “internal” arts claiming and some deeply believe in their claims, they are the only one who know the “secret” of internal training , or at least they are doing it better than others. Every one of them have couple of “secret” details which will be shared only with the most loyal students (those who payed the most). And most of them, I cannot say all because I haven’t seen all, insist that internal training is the opposite of external training in every possible way. They , insist that expression of “internal” skills must look exactly as they picture it, soft , fluffy , powerless and effortless. They also do a lot of  things they to prove their stuff works. But this is, I have to be blunt here , complete bullshit.  

Classification that divides styles on internal and external is a nonsense. History of that divide leads us to 1928 when Goushu academy organized a tournament and for pure marketing reasons, in order to advertise styles practiced by leading people of the academy, called their styles “internal” while all other styles were called “external” Shaolin styles. Before 1928 we don’t have such classification. The fact is one without another do not exist. Every martial style practiced long enough will eventually become internal. Internal is nothing else but the level of efficiency someone is using his body. At the beginning of every training, movements will be inadequate, led by conscious thought, not precise, performed with too much power ect. As the training progresses the efficiency of the movement will increase until eventually become internal. This is valid for all martial styles, not only Chinese. There are teachers who teach and believe that only specific  body structure and power generation can be considered “internal”. That is very far from truth, first, there are many different “internal” styles with different body structure and different ways of power generation, second , many style which are not considered “internal” also base their foundation on specific body structure ,relaxation, and explosive power (fajin).

Can some art be practiced internally from the very beginning? Yes, it can, and that is exactly what “internal” teachers are selling to their customers. From the very beginning they insist on the quality of movements that comes only after years of serious martial practice. And people quickly learn these things and develop them further. But there is a catch. If “internal” skills are developed form the very beginning that means only one thing, people cannot fight with them. The reason for this is simple. Like I said before, for internal skills are considered those which are relaxed , without too much muscle power, precise , fast etc. To develop these skills normally, a lot of extremely hard and painful , so called “external “ training is necessary. It is first necessary to be exposed to the real force that is used in real fighting, At the beginning there will be a lot pain, fear, uncomplete control of the body… but in time, body and mind are learning how to deal with the incoming force more efficiently until they reach such a level of coordination and effectiveness that they enter the domain of “internal” skills. Practitioner will through experience learn how to relax, how to instinctively and with a smallest amount of effort to deal with an incoming force. Only through hard training practitioner will be able to rely to internal power generation in real fight.  These skills are gained through hard and painful process and they will work in a real fighting situation, because they are trained and learned in similar conditions.

On the other hand, if “internal” skills are practiced “internally” from the very beginning, to be achieved and refined to match what is considered “internal” by most of the teachers today  all hard training (read sparring, realistic combat drills, training under the stress of the real fight) must be left out. All we can see in this approach is chi sao\push hands as an ultimate test of the skill. Of course in controlled and safe environment, where everyone does and think the same, where all people are compliant, these “internal” skills are working perfectly. Every time when these people get out of their comfort zone and try to prove their systems work, they got their ass kicked.

 I never saw anyone with internal skills passed basic level. Many believe that they achieved the highest level of skill but they are wrong. Level of their skill maybe the highest in their system and maybe high for noncontact discipline, but for full contact fighting these skills are just the basic foundation. Avoiding full contact training, instructors loose perspective and develop the skills in totally wrong direction, instead to be focused of real effectiveness they pay much more attention on visual effect. Of course, good visual effects brings more students which means more money. There is another reason for this. After being involved in kung fu since high school, almost 30 years now, I have noticed that vast majority of people involved in kung fu do not really want to fight, nor they want to learn fighting skills , they want to be a part of kung fu school for many reasons but fighting is not one of them. Also a large number of people simply lie them self and they practice light noncontact disciplines believing they will achieve great fighting abilities, especially through “internal” training and “qigong”. That is why it is so important for so many teachers to make their arts visually attractive. People who really want to fight, usually are going to classical boxing, kick boxing ,Muay Thai or similar disciplines, which are not visually attractive but everyone knows their fighting effectiveness.

Like I said, there is no one I saw whose internal skills passed level of siu lim tao , level where all these structure tests and chi sao were done. Chum Kiu level should be fighting level and at this level all these internal skills achieved previously ( and so nicely demonstrated by so many masters and grandmasters) should be applied in real combat . I still didn’t see anyone who can do that , further more I never found anyone who even talks about it , who even have an idea how to practice internal skills for real fighting.

To conclude this article, there is no difference between Internal and External training,  only the difference is level of biomechanical efficiency. If the training is not hard, painful, physically and emotionally demanding it is not martial training , it is fitness. If “internal” skills are practiced as the opposite to “external” that system is simply teaching wrong things.

Downfal of Wing Chun

First story

Wing Chun was created, in the some not precisely defined time period ,couple of hundred years ago. Besides a bunch of legends nothing is known about the creators of the art. What can be said with a great certainty is that creators of the art were extremely intelligent fighters who created a perfect fighting system for the specific purpose and usage. Not a style or and art but a system, originally constructed to be used on the boats of Guandong opera tropes. For this purpose ,Wing Chun is definitely perfect way of fighting, but the principles used as a foundation of the system allows it to grow, adapt, change, to evolve according to the situation and personal needs of the practitioner. The idea that is so popular today , idea called “Krav Maga” , “Systema”, “Sijal” ect was already invented long time ago and it is called Wing Chun.

Living in turbulent times of the end of the Ching dynasty in a country ravaged by constant famine , natural disasters  , absolute social , economical and political system ,under constant threat of foreign forces ,weak government control , internal political struggle, high rate of criminal activities members of the Guandong opera were forced to invent a system of fighting suitable for their line of work and  life and they came up with the conceptual system easy to learn and easy to be adapted for any situation. Members of the opera most of their time spent on overcrowded boats . Non of them was a professional fighter nor they could afford to pay some so they were force to defend them self. Being actors , prop masters , cooks , or boat handlers they didn’t have much time to practice martial arts . On the other hand, having at least some fighting skills was a matter of survival so opera members invented Wing Chun , a short, easy to learn  , knife fighting system perfect to be used on the boats (where they spent more than 90% of their time) . Long pole was of course the logical addition to the system because they were used on daily basis to maneuver the boats in shallow waters of Pearl river delta. System made for fighting on the boats worked perfectly on the boats .

At some point system left the boats and started to be practiced on dry land . Out of the boats ,Wing Chun was not such a great system. How do we know that ? Simply , only handful of people practiced the system , it was almost unknown until Bruce Lee made it famous , not more than 50 people practiced it the entire time before 1950’s and that was not because of some secrecy but because people choose systems for fighting in a condition they find them self at that particular period of time , and they tried to choose the best they could find.

Wing Chun is often popularized as the most effective, most direct, most efficient fighting system, yet we have no proof ,historical nor from present time that those claims are true. Some other systems proved them self as practical and useful in almost any situation, for sport or self defense like western boxing ,wrestling, Thai boxing , Kyokusin karate …So , what happened with the “perfect system of fighting” ?

For any given skill in order to grow and advance it is necessary to be tested in practice. While there are a lot of stories about almost constant fighting of Wing Chun ancestors in reality there is not proof they had even one fight. There is no better proof than the fact that wing chun is today as it was 150 years ago still perfect for fighting on the boats or narrow confined spaces , but not of much anywhere else. Wing Chun was passed down pretty much in unchanged form from red boats till today. Many people are happy with that , but vast majority of Wing Chun practitioners never fought and never even does sparring , because if they do , Wing Chun would look much different. Stories about 300 fights are just nonsense , if Leung Jan had 300 fights he would make better suited system for competition fighting , boxing is a sport , made for competition it works perfectly as well as  Thai boxing  , wrestling …

Wing Chun principles are almost perfect , they allow the art to be developed and adjusted to any situation or purpose , the only required ingredient is experience .

There is one simple truth valid in any point of history , higher social class , rich people do not fight , not for fun , nor money , nor they have time for such activities .People may believe differently , but that is the truth , rich people pay poor people to fight , that is how things are working since the beginning of civilization. Kung fu in the middle of the 19^th century became a status symbol , something like an expensive car today , people practiced kung fu because they could afford it , not for fighting . The question anyone should ask, what someone could gain by fighting ? Money ? Leung Jan , his students as well as some less known masters form that  time already had it enough . Fame? Leung Jan was already famous locally as a doctor and a rich person, as well as most of his students who were rich businessman.  What they could lose by fighting? Well, everything . They could lose life or health? Why would anyone who already had a good life risk to lose anything? They could lose wealth and their possessions if caught breaking the law (fighting, especially with weapons which was forbidden for Han people) . So why they would fight ? They already had everything they could possibly want and if engage in fighting , they could lose everything.

There are stories about Fung Siu Ching and Fok Bo Cheun , famous bounty hunters with great skills who had a lot fights with dangerous opponents .But , like in everything else connected to Wing Chun history there is a catch to these claims . First , there is no evidence these people ever existed . I know this is a blasphemy for some people but that is the truth. But let’s presume for the moment these people really existed , were they such a tremendous fighters ? Were they fought daily on their line of work? Of course they did , they would chase dangerous criminals and bare handed they would jump into the gang layer and fought of from 20 to 30 gangsters , some armed with guns. Every single day , just like in American B production movies. They could also fly and shoot lightning bolts from their fingers. Joke aside , the truth is they would probably have to fight sometimes but opponents were not well armed , well trained criminals with great fighting experience and with well organized gang behind them ,these people were often too much even for government forces . They would chase people who fail to pay their debts or owe  taxes , common people with no fighting skills , or petty criminals who were not much of a danger .

Lack of fighting is more than obvious in Wing Chun (as well as in most of “traditional” kung fu styles). Style didn’t change nor adapt for fighting since the time of red boats. Styles that don’t change become absolute and completely ineffective. Wing Chun did evolve and change but in a direction completely opposite from fighting, it grew in complexity, number of techniques and drills , it became total opposite to its self, Wing Chun training today brakes its own basic principles.  

Second story

Wing Chun is in hands of famous doctor from Foshan. Like many other kung styles , Wing Chun became a status symbol of  wealthy people from upper social class. Kung fu was never practiced on massive level before 20^th century. For the most part of its history , martial arts in China were exclusively  reserved for military. During Ching dynasty  besides the army a few new professions emerged which had the need for martial training  like police , caravan guards , bodyguards … still martial arts were rare , during the last period of Ching dynasty less than one percent of people practiced kung fu. Before Ching dynasty only the military officers had complete martial training , common soldiers just had infantry training not much different from any other army n te word of that period. Kung fu schools before Ching dynasty didn’t exist , only after Taiping rebellion kung fu schools emerged for the first time . These schools were very different from modern kung fu schools. It was not possible, like today to just walk into the schools, watch the training and join the class. For outsiders it was impossible to enter school. In order to be accepted as a student someone must be teacher’s relative or to have someone who would be a guarantee for his character and behavior. Being a member of kung fu school was not only extremely expensive but it was also a great honor. Criteria for nonfamily members to be accepted as students were extremely high.

Leung Jan had several students. Most of them were his relatives and also rich as much as he was , actually only three of his students were not his relatives. All of his students were members of his social class, all except one.  Man known as Au Tzu was from the lower social class. He could not afford extremely high tuition fees but he had great desire to learn and practice kung fu. He finally found a job in Leung Jan’s clinic and worked as some sort of assistant. After some time , seeing how big was Au Tzu’s desire to practice Wing Chun , Leung Jan made an exception and accepted him as a student. Au Tzu was a good student, he practiced passionately and reached high level of proficiency.  However , as much as he was good and serious practitioner he could not fit with other students . The social and cultural gap was to deep and eventually Au Tzu started to show open hate toward other students . His practical jokes at some point reached such a level that Leung Jan was forced to expel him from school. At that time , member of the school was equal to a family member and someone must do something seriously wrong to be expelled . This case was just an example of what will Wing Chun become some 100 years later, when Wing Chun becomes available to anyone and everyone.

 Third story

In early 50s in Hong Kong , running away from communists who just took over China, arrived Yip Man. He lost everything and the only way to support himself financially was to open a Wing Chun school. While there is no doubt he was very knowledgeable and  he made some significant changes in the art which made it more acceptable for wider population he was also responsible for further degradation of the art.

Yip Man wrote his version of “History” of the art .The most significant part of that is about his supposed last teacher, Leung Bik. Whether or not Leung Bik existed is not important, it is a custom in Chinese martial arts to choose legendary ancestor , real or mythological . It is also not important whether Leung Bik (who ever that person might have been) really taught Yip Man or not. What is important is a message sent through that short part of the story. Yip Man was the only representative of his lineage in Hong Kong, he could and did, unchallenged to write any version of the style’s history. He basically sent a message that through Leung Bik he got better, more original, more sophisticated version of the art compared to all other people from his lineage. In essence he said that his first teacher, Chan Wah Shun ,was not smart enough to comprehend and learn the complete system. From that point on the linage wars started, from which Yip Man’s style suffered more than any other, and spread like a wild fire all around Wing Chun world . This was a marketing approach which purpose was to gain as much students as possible. I am sure Yip Man didn’t want to case all these nonsense that happened after he died it happened never the less.

Second thing that degraded the art was the fact that only a few of his students actually learned a complete art , or at least what was complete in Yip Man’s system . Maybe 4 or 5 , all the rest had incomplete training . Yip Man didn’t issue rank level certificates and after his death ,everyone who even walked besides his school became a “Grandmaster”. Yip Man worked for money and payed the most attention to those who payed the most , he less fortunate people with less money got what they payed , incomplete system . There is nothing is what Yip Man did , people are now days coming and going from schools all the time , but at least there is some kind of control .

Yip Man started a new era in teaching Wing Chun, and that brought some good but also some very bad things. He opened the door for lies , fake histories , senseless struggle for as much students as possible  and all means are allowed. This struggle brings the worst in people and we have very ugly things done today in the name of the art.

Fourth story

After Bruce Lee died , Wing Chun became planetary popular . Poor Bruce didn’t even cooled down in his grave when a whole bunch of teachers packed their  bags and went all over the world to teach people “bruce lee’s” art.

All these “teachers” , coming in touch with different cultures and way of thinking found themslef in a problem because they didn’t have adequate way to transmit the knowledge . Cultural gap was enormous and old rules of student selection simply were forgotten , everyone could learn , the only important thing was and still is , money. Having in mind that Wing Chn is a sophisticated art and requires certain level of education and intelligence to be properly understood , not everyone was able to learn the complete art. What Yip Man started his students continued , the art was further simplified. To overcome the cultural and language gap “teachers” started to focus only on technical part of the art , on things they can show , that are obvious and they don’t have to explain in depth . Wing Chun became strictly formalized with great numbers of drills, “sections” and “techniques” which looked like a techniques from old Kung fu movies.  In order to spread the art quickly and cover as much territory as possible , “grandmasters” produced a large numbers of local “masters “. Wing Chun , from conceptual art based on reflexes and free fight turned in highly formalized system with enormous number of obligatory exercises which require enormous amount of time to master , yet have no value in real combat . All these things were taught in the most simple way  there is nothing behind these movements , it is what is was shown , wing chun became a collection of “if He attack like this you do this and this and this”. Even the people who claim they do things differently , they actually do not , maybe they have some “deeper “  explanations , but in essence their training is no different from others .

Again , what Yip Man started in Hong Kong reached a pandemic level on the west . Lineage and styles wars started almost immediately and they are lasting for decades. Many people who do not deserve to practice the art became “masters” bringing their own values , ethics and morality or to be precise complete lack of them . Everything is allowed in order to earn more money and gain more followers.

Story five

New generation of students emerged on the west . In the time of internet and fast exchanging of information they are exposed to many things from other arts , especially form so called “internal” ones . They felt something is missing in their arts and they rushed back on the East to learn the missing pieces , but they couldn’t find it because these pieces simply didn’t exist , either Yip Man didn’t teach them or his students didn’t understand them. Having a desire to make their arts “complete’ thy turned to other arts like Tai Chi , Ba Gua , White Crane and started mixing stuff , reinventing the system and claiming they found something long lost and now exclusively found by them. To support their claims they also rewrited history pusing the origin of the art further back in the past falsely beliving (under the influence of Wu Xisa that older is better , more original).This pushed the art further down because not only it is not Wing Chun any more but with complete misunderstanding of the term “internal” they made the art even more unsuitable for fight . Furthermore they mix qigong and claim it is a neigong which are two completely separate things.  This mish-mash of different arts, approaches , traditions , way of training made a Frankenstein monster , but not a large and strong one (like MMA)  small ,weak and funny one .  

Kung fu challenge matches

Two fighters are standing on the high platform looking each other in the eyes firmly holding their weapons, crowd in trans is standing around the platform waiting for a beginning of a match. The fight is ruthless, fighters can be barely seen under a silver screen from the weapons which is moving so fast . At the end one fighter is falling from the platform, with a sword in his chest, he lost a fight and his life.

This is usual scene in many martial movies and it is wildly believed it is true. There are many stories about death matches from the past and as a rule, ancestors who founded particular art won numerous death duels. But is there any truth to this stories or it is just another fictional thing taken from grated from the movies and became a part of “history”?

We know very little about martial arts history before Ching dynasty period .Martial arts were unavailable for common people and were reserved only for military forces. Also martial arts looked quite different from today , focus was on weapon training and fighting in organized groups , empty hands techniques , even if they exist ( mostly no one practiced that ) were rudimentary and used only as an quick introduction and preparation for weapon training. There is a good reason for that situation. Most of people were simple peasants who worked all day in the fields. Agricultural technology was on such a level that relied on manual labor and domestic animals as power source. Also food production was barely sufficient to support basic needs of the population. Famine was regular and a lot of people died from hunger during long Chinese history. It is obvious that majority of population simply had no time nor energy to practice martial arts. Of course, ruling class didn’t want to have their subjects ready and prepared for fighting. Martial art training was reserved for army not only because political reasons but also economical, weapons and equipment were expensive as well as food, living quarters ect. We also have to have in mind that average life span in China was quite short until recent time . It didn’t pass 40 years of age in 1950’s and it was significantly shorter in earlier periods. Spending time on mastering useless skills of empty hands fighting which has no value on battle field was something no one did. People learned what was useful on the field of battle, weapons skills, fighting in organized groups, use of shields and armor ect. In these condition death duels were impossible , there is no army in the world in any given which would allow any kind of duels or challenges  , especially not death duels among soldiers ,that would lead to total anarchy and chaos .

Situation in martial arts changed in 19^th century significantly. First , fire arms replaced old weapons in Chinese army. Training shifted to new direction and many of the old skills were simply abandoned and forgotten. On social level, although still feudal country China was under great influence of the western culture and old social norms and way life changed gradually in new direction. Martial arts were no longer reserved only for military. Civilians started to practice martial arts and with very specific reason, several groups of people practiced martial arts, bodyguards ,caravan escort ,bounty hunters and police. Of course they also practice mostly with weapons and martial styles were still not defined and formed in the way we know them today. From the middle of the 19^th century, old martial styles changed focus and started to develop empty hands techniques. Also martial arts were something like sports cars are today, a sign of social status. Still, martial arts were marginal activity reserved for people who needed them for work and rich people who could afford them. Of course, civilians were not allowed to carry weapons and only people with government permission could carry and use weapons (body guards , bounty hunters …) . So were there any challenge matches or death duels? No, we have no records of such a thing for several reasons. First, these kind of things were forbidden by law and punishments for breaking the law were extremely cruel at the time. Second, people who put their lives on the line in every day work had no need to prove anything , they had a lot of opportunity to test their skills in life threatening situations on daily bases, if someone was stupid enough to challenge these people would probably shot at the spot or simply disappear . No one worked alone and people protected their own, their lives depended on that, challenging one member of the group ( caravan guard companies , bounty hunters or bodyguards groups ) was finger into the  eye of the whole group . These kind of jobs were more than often family business and even when they weren’t, these groups operated in way similar to modern organized crime groups, challenging one of the members was something that would not happen lightly. People who practiced martial arts as a sign of social status had no desire to fight especially not to the death, first , they were not professional fighters , they had other occupations and martial arts were just a hobby , and also an opportunity to socialize with the members of the same class, even today , traditional martial clubs on Taiwan are more social clubs than martial training places , so they had no skill nor experience to participate in such a competitions . Second , just like today , people who have enough wealth do not go to fight in the cage , rich people from the past didn’t fight in any challenge matches , they had nothing to gain but they could lose a lot . They could lose their lives, health and if caught they could lose their wealth.

Before Taiping rebellion we have no records of any challenges or death duels. After Taiping rebellion when things settle down, social and political climate changed, martial arts changed and competition started. Competition started because new social establishment came to existence, for the first time in history martial arts schools, in a form we know them today started to operate and some of them gathered a lot of students. Although majority of the people still lived in a very poor condition, more people could earn enough to join martial schools and more people worked better payed and not so physically exhausting jobs. Those famous wooden platforms from Hong Kong action movies were actually competition grounds, something like octagon today. People fought for fame and money. Like every competition, these also had rules and although there were pretty brutal, they were not much different from today’s MMA competitions, even the rules were pretty much the same. Many people got seriously injured but there is no record someone was killed in any of these events.  

After fall of the Ching dynasty and establishing the republic martial arts became an important part of social and more important cultural identity of new China. Martial arts were promoted and supported by the government. At this period , martial arts became serious business and like any other business people didn’t choose means to reach their goals. There was a lot of fighting between schools in this period but these fights were not challenge matches by any means but rather street fights where usually several members of one school  would beat up a member of the other school , or there were mass street fights between members of different schools. Challenge fights form action moves, where anyone could just walk into the school and challenge a master to the fight never happened, such an action would most likely result in serious beating by the members of the school. 

Challenge fights are excellent example how strong is the influence from popular media, Something invented for the entertaining purposes became so popular that people started to believe it is a part of the real history and today very few people would know the actual truth about challenge fights .