Hey, what do you reckon?

[scotty1]

I've been doing kickboxing, since I moved, cos its with a good instructor.
But I went to a Lau Gar kung fu class last night, did the class (practiced techniques, a bit of forms) and then at the end, I asked them if they spar.
"Yes," says the instructor, "we do a kickboxing class on Thursdays."
"Do you ever do traditional sparring?" I ask.
"At the higher grades, because if you get people to spar traditionally early on they do lots of swishy movements that are not very effective. People do not attack people traditionally anymore, which is why we teach kickboxing as the self defense part."

I was a bit taken aback by this. It seems they are teaching the arts for art's sake and kickboxing for self defense.

Is this common in the USA?

[straight blast]

That's kinda weird...

At least they teach it at the high grades. I suppose (& I know nothing about Lau Gar) that the Kickboxing stuff makes them feel more confident and is much quicker to learn. One thing that I have found is that traditional Kung Fu doesn't work too well in a Kickboxing ring under Kickboxing rules etc. It would be disheartening to train really hard in a system and then be unable to use it in a ring situation i.e. getting beaten by someone who has been at Lau Gar for two weeks but has Kickboxed for two years.
But personally I'd prefer to spar what I train...:confused:

[kungfu cowboy]

People do not attack people traditionally anymore, What in the he!! does that mean?!? That has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.


which is why we teach kickboxing as the self defense part." Ok. This school sounds like crap.

[scotty1]

This is it. They seem to be teaching the art as a seperate thing to fighting. The instructor is explaning the applications of the techs in the forms but the only fighting they do is kickboxing, so I figure I'll just keep going to my kickboxing class.

Because that way I get all my lesson time learning to fight, rather than learnining an art. Which, don't get me wrong, I'd love to learn an art, but not at the expense of learning to fight.

And the other thing is, with the Kung Fu club I got to pay 32 quid a month, which works out really good if I go to 2 lessons a week (one Kung Fu, one kickboxing). But why pay the extra money to learn something that isn't enhancing my fighting ability anymore than I can do myself with an hours technique practice on the patio?

Add in the fact that I don't want to get into a syllabus because I'm going away in 6 months and I think I'm going to be a kickboxer. Sniff, bye guys, its been nice.

Still doing my qigong though.

I KNOW Kung Fu is an effective fighting art, I just need to find a class that teaches it as such.

[Reima Kostaja]

At least they admit they cant use their kung fu for self defence.

[Budokan]

People don't stab people in the old traditional ways anymore. They don't gut them like a fish and hang their intestines around like party favors in the old traditional way anymore. They don't pull teeth with rusty pliers in the traditional way anymore or pull the tongue out by the roots and stuff the mouth with salt in the traditional way anymore.

What a world. Sounds like this school is just what the doctor ordered.