Võ thuật Bình Định

An Vinh Village is located in the county of Tây Sơn and is considered Võ Cổ Truyền Vietnam and also Võ Ta which translates to Our Martial Arts. The founder of the An Vinh Village Style of võ Bình Định is Nguyễn Ngạc.[1] According to the villagers of An Vinh, Nguyễn Ngạc is a descendant of Bùi Thị Xuân a talented martial artist and famous general during the Tây Sơn rebellion. Vietnamese people are typically smaller in stature and the An Vinh style assumes that the opponent is not Vietnamese, making them possibly taller and stronger. With a height and strength advantage, An Vinh Style utilizes speed to overwhelm their opponents with by combining multiple strikes and combinations in a single attack which can be seen in their empty hand forms.

An Thái is a neighboring Village to An Vinh located in An Nhơn County across a river known as the Côn River and is the birthplace of Tây Sơn Martial Arts as the Tây Sơn Brothers first Master Trương Văn Hiến opened his martial arts school in this village around 1765 in order to escape persecution.

Over time the village of An Thái became home to many ethnic Hoa, some from Fujian, Teochew, Hainan, and Guangdong and those practicing Tây Sơn Martial Arts over time moved out of the village. The founder of the An Thái Village Style of võ Bình Định is Diệp Trường Phát. Born in 1896 in An Thái village Bình Định province with his ethnic origins being Chinese as his parents are from Ming Xiang, China.[2] At the age of thirteen Diệp Trường Phát was sent to China to study martial arts which he later brought back to the An Thái Village after many years of intensive training. After returning home to An Thái Village from his training Grand Master Diệp Trường Phát continued to practice and develop his own style of martial arts. Grand Master Diệp Trường Phát's goal was to develop a style from scratch in order to teach those in the An Thái Village as that village did not have their own martial arts. There are many in Bình Định Province who consider An Thái as Võ Tàu or Chinese martial arts however Nguyễn An Pha a board member of the Federation of Vietnamese martial arts explained that since this style was developed in Bình Định Province it is considered as Võ Bình Định Martial Arts and is also Vietnamese Martial Arts and is no longer Chinese Martial Arts. An Thái fighting system focuses on power and strength as every strike utilizes one hit as one kill.