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Martial Arts Classes for Adults and Children

serving Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, East Mountains, Sandia Park, Cedar Crest, Belen, Corrales, Tijeras, Placitas and Los Lunas

Martial Artistry

Shaolin Kung Fu & Chinese Wushu

Martial Artistry's 2012-2013 Instructor Team. Whether you're from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Tijeras, East Mountains, Sandia Park, Stanley, Belen, Corrales or Los Lunas, our convenient location just off the Big I makes our martial arts classes accessible to you!

For over a decade, Martial Artistry Shaolin Kung Fu & Chinese Wushu has provided the Albuquerque area with the finest Shaolin kung fu, Chinese wushu and martial arts weapons instruction available. Our school has classes for adults, classes for children, classes for ages 4-8, classes for the entire family. Martial Artistry also has a Movie Stunt Class, where students who are already in our regular kung fu program can learn movie stunt fighting and star in our annual movie. Our warm, welcoming environment, meticulously trained instructors, unparalleled curriculum, huge training area, up-front pricing and flexible schedule have made us a New Mexico favorite for those who seek exceptional martial arts instruction.

Whether you were introduced to us through a friend, through the world wide web, through our latest movie or via a performance by Steel Phoenix -- our extraordinary, award-winning exhibition team -- we hope this website will give you an even better idea of just how much we have to offer. Come see why we've been rated the #1 martial arts school in Albuquerque for six consecutive years!

$50 New Student Special

Mention this website and get a $50 New Student Special (1st time Martial Artistry students only). The new student special includes a month of lessons and a FREE uniform. Monthly tuition after the New Student Special is just $79 and we NEVER charge registration, membership or even testing fees (try asking any other school what their black belt testing fee is and you'll see why that's important). Payment is always on a month-by-month basis. We don’t lock people into contracts - we don’t have to! We know you’re going to enjoy training with us!

Free Trial Class

We're so confident you're going to enjoy training with us that we invite you to try a free class.  Bring along your family.  Bring along a friend.  Training is more fun together!

What is kung fu?  What is wushu?  Are they karate?

There are many different kinds of martial arts. Karate is the style of martial art developed in Okinawa and Japan.  The original kanji - or characters - for karate were composed of the symbols for "China" and "Hand", to acknowledge that martial arts were originally developed in China. It wasn't until fairly recently - within the last century - that Gichin Funakoshi, angry at the Chinese, changed the "China" character in karate to the one for "Open", which is pronounced the same.

In the background, behind Brian Baker, you can see the characters for Kung Fu.

Wushu is the correct term for the martial arts of China, "Wu" being the word for martial, and "Shu" being the word for art or skill -- therefore, wushu is literally "martial art". In China, you will always hear their martial art described as wushu.

In the background of this photo, you can see the characters for wushu.

Kung fu, which in the United States has also come to mean the Chinese martial arts, means to be good at something. One can be kung fu at plumbing, or kung fu at diapering babies, or, yes, kung fu at martial arts. One can pretty well imagine how this word became mistaken for the Chinese term for martial arts. Apparently, someone was very kung fu at wushu, and the descriptive term stuck.

On this website the terms kung fu and wushu will be used interchangeably - wushu, because it is the correct term, and kung fu, because it is more familiar to residents of the United States. The case can certainly be made, however, that in the U.S., kung fu is often used to denote the earlier styles of the Chinese martial arts, while wushu is used to denote the more demanding forms used by those on the competition circuit or in the entertainment industry, such as Martial Artistry's very own Team Steel Phoenix.

Direct link if you don't have flash: Martial Artistry's Team Steel Phoenix Charity Performance for NMAFC

If your phone won't play a more recent version of our show, we have an archived link that may work: Archived Team Steel Phoenix Performance Link (Old)

Albuquerque Martial Artistry Shaolin Kung Fu & Chinese Wushu Curriculum

At Martial Artistry you will learn the martial art of China: wushu, also known in the States as kung fu.
This encompasses many, many styles and systems -- after all, China has been developing and refining their martial art for thousands of years! To give you an example: in early 2000, the Chinese government commissioned a cataloging of kung fu weaponry, in order to preserve the knowledge of them as a national treasure. The last report - the study was abandoned before completion - identified over 430 different types of wushu weapons! And that's just kung fu weaponry. There are also hundreds of different styles and systems within the Chinese martial arts.  Animal styles such as tiger, snake, crane, leopard, dragon, monkey - even duck, toad, dog and scorpion! Imitative styles such as drunken and praying mantis. External styles like Long Fist or Nanquan. Internal styles like taiqi (tai chi) or bagua. Without a doubt, one could study 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for an entire lifetime and never learn all there is to know about kung fu.