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Vovinam

© Mark W. Swarthout

A steel hand over a gentle heart

Grand Master Loc Nguyen founded Vovinam in 1938 in northern Vietnam during the French colonial days. Vietnamese martial art developed in the early 1900s based on the martial arts of Southeast Asia.

While the progress of Vovinam discipline was in its early stages and there where many tasks to be completed, Master Loc unexpectedly passed away on April 29, 1960 (Lunar Calendar records this as April 4, 1960, Year of the Rat). Before passing away, Founder Nguyen Loc appointed his most senior disciple, Le Sang, to continue the mission and further define the art. Founder Nguyen Loc is buried in the Mac Dinh Chi cemetery, Saigon. On April 4 of the lunar calendar each year, his disciples gather in front of his tomb to pay their respects to this visionary.

Politics interferred with the development of the art when in November of 1960, Judo Master Pham Loi participated in a coupe led by General Nguyen Chanh Thi. The administration prohibited many martial art disciplines, including Vovinam, from continuing to practice. All the training centers were closed. Practitioners were dispersed or drafted into the army. Because of this, Vovinam almost completely disappeared. However Master Tran Huy Phong still continued to push the agenda set forth by the Founder. He secretly trained many disciples in schools where he taught classes. He created a base of young, courageous instructors who become the foundation of Vovinam.

The basic premise of the art is a soft or avoiding moved followed by a hard or attacking move.

The uniforms of practitioners is different then many would expect. The dogi is a deep blue to represent the peaceful blue of the ocean so important to the country. A beginner wears a light blue belt, which indicates a student. As one improves the obi becomes a deep blue belt, then yellow, then red. There is also a single white belt with a rainbow, which is worn by the Vovinam president, Grand Master Sang Le in Vietnam, now approaching his 90s.

The yellow belt is comparable to a black belt in the Japanese ranked martial arts and is used for the first three levels, the red belt is used for the next four.

Today, in addition to school in Viet Nam, the art flourishes in many coastal communities in North America where there is a population of Vietnamese practitioners.

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