(intense drum music)
- My back hurt!
- No, no.
What's up, y'all?
My name's Sean and today we'll be training
like Avatar the Last Airbender.
Yip yip!
- My history with the Avatar series is just,
I loved watching it as a kid,
and I love rewatching it now.
- I really like the big fluffy guy, Appa.
I don't know what he does,
but I would like a plush toy of Appa.
- I know I look like a delicate flower.
(contrived laugh)
but I actually trained in martial arts
for, like, about five years.
- I have no experience with martial arts,
other than watching UFC on the weekends,
so I just hope to be more flexible, honestly.
- I was in Brazilian jujitsu from when I was three
'til I was 14.
I'm excited to explore some different martial arts
that I would be unfamiliar with.
- But for martial arts, it's all about perseverance
and training to that level of perfection.
Even though I may not be perfect,
I wanna show the world that anything is possible
if you put your mind to it.
So this is how the training's gonna happen.
- Each week, we're gonna be learning a different martial art
based off an element.
- After all four weeks, we're gonna put it all together
into one martial arts sequence
and show y'all the final results.
- Let's talk to the master himself.
Master Kisu.
- I'm Sifu Kisu.
I'm a member of the Harmonious Fist,
Chinese Athletic Association,
and a member of the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Association.
And I had the idea to match different bending styles
with those of traditional martial arts.
The action sequences started in the backyard of my house.
I'm going to give a lesson in movement segment
that you can translate to bending
for your own martial art practice purposes.
(upbeat music)
Waterbending just called for
the beautiful movements from Tai Chi.
Soft and supple movements of the Yang style of Tai Chi,
or we use a style that was made famous by Gu Yi Chung,
a famous iron palm master in China.
So you could see that probably throughout the entire series.
- There we go.
Done!
Things are sore.
(laughs)
I feel like it's really helping, like,
just making me find balance.
You need balance in life.
You need, like, peace and tranquility.
Being able to just, like, hold yourself,
find your center,
kinda like find who you are.
Do all of this through Tai Chi I think is great.
(upbeat music)
- I hope I have this memorized by tomorrow.
- Last day, let's go!
I try to do the watching low key failed completely.
- Waterbending might be my thing.
I like surfing, I like body surfing.
Feels like I'm moving, like, in waves in the ocean.
- Week one was really easy.
I'm not gonna lie, it was very calming.
It was waterbending, what do you expect from that?
I'm not gonna sit here and say
that it was hard by any means,
but I expect earthbending to do that.
- Earthbending was built on Hung Ga.
Hung Ga uses low stances and strong upper body movements
to create a close in fighting.
We thought that would be great
to have those grand movements.
You lift earth up and shoot it across the world.
What you're going to need to start this
is a series of stances.
The upright ready stance.
Stepping out
into a horse riding stance.
So we'll move from a horse,
go forward,
come join this down to my arm.
I'll grab and I'll pull for a reverse punch.
- That's kinda fire.
I like that one.
- I'm more of a easing movement type person.
I need this, I don't need a oomph.
Ah!
- It feels like I'm doing a lot of squats
and a lot of push ups at the same time.
I feel like I'm giving myself an actual work out,
like HIIT cardio sesh.
- This is my last one,
I'ma give it so much power.
- Let's see if I can remember Tai Chi into the Hung Ga.
Aha! Ah!
- Firebending was a beautiful long movements
of the Northern Shaolin.
I like to consider myself a little bit of a bad boy
in terms of making trouble in the world of martial art
and having a little fun with that.
- This is probably the one I'm most excited about.
- I'm more nervous for it, let's just leave it at that.
- The core stance, the back down.
Forward stance and then pop up.
Scale.
Right?
Scale, scale.
(grunting)
- Did I get it?
Jeff and Irish I think are both super athletes
and they do such amazing stuff.
- My back hurt.
(Sean whooping)
- That was a little bit better.
(focused music)
- Wasn't my best, it wasn't my best.
- I have a feeling the are the bad guys,
'cause I'm seeing a lot of memes about it on Facebook.
- Just kinda finalize,
and perfect as much as possible my butterfly kick,
and then starting next week, for airbending,
I'm on like adding everything together
and like be like, "Ah ha-ha, wha-ta!"
(upbeat music)
- Airbending came from the wrapping
and turning movements of the Bagua style.
I'm gonna take my weight and put it on my left foot
with my heel up,
and then I'm going to turn my foot and my body 180 degrees.
And I'm gonna sit down and tuck my knee behind my ankle.
- [Irish] Oh wow.
- Throw it back and over.
- Ha!
- I gotta be honest,
I've never moved my body like this before,
and I couldn't move my legs the next day.
(Sean laughs)
- I almost fell.
I wanna start condensing and putting everything together
because the whole thing was to kinda, like,
put all of the styles together.
- We've reached our final day.
- [Sean] Let's do it!
(claps arms)
(tense music)
- I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.
I have a really, really big respect for Tai Chi now.
And it's something I wanna incorporate
more in my life after this.
- I feel great after this whole month.
When I came into this,
I really just wanted to be more flexible.
I can't touch my toes yet, but I'm getting closer.
- After doing this for four weeks,
I am so happy that I did not give up!
It made me kind of really realize
that when you put your mind to something
and you really, really, really try,
anything's possible.
So maybe I might learn how to ride a bike now.
Oh yeah, I don't know how to ride a bike, by the way.
Real talk.
(cheerful music)
- Help, help, we're trapped in this glass box!
The only way you can get us out is by subscribing!
(groaning)
- And watch other videos!
- You're our only hope!