Nguyen Loc

Nguyen Loc (1912–1960) is the founder of Vovinam—the modernized, systematized form of Vietnamese martial arts that became the international face of Viet Vo Dao. Born in Hanoi, Nguyen Loc spent years studying traditional Vietnamese martial arts before synthesizing them with judo and other modern influences to create Vovinam in 1938. He taught at the Hanoi Normal School and established the first public Vovinam class in 1939. His vision was a Vietnamese national martial art that could serve as physical education for the country’s youth—practical, comprehensive, and distinctly Vietnamese in character. He died young in 1960, but his students carried Vovinam internationally through the Vietnamese diaspora following the Vietnam War.