let's talk about fight club.. oops broke the first rule.

[rael]

hey all, just moved to southern california. Any info on places to fight full contact. I see in the paper that they have Muy Thai fights in L A a lot.

I live in thousand oaks so hopefully won't have to travel very far. Where do so cal wing chun fighters fight? Is there a web site that has tourney's that I can check out? thanks in advance
for any help.

Rael

[TenTigers]

can't say much about cal, but in new york, we used to refer to Alan Lee's wing chun class as the fight club. When it started, it was just a handful of guys, in a back room in a gym in a neighborhood that criminals avoided. and the first class, they fed you to the lions. iF YOU CAME BACK, YOU COULD STAY.

[Sharky]

Sounds pretty dumb to me

[IronFist]

lol sharky.

IronFist

[anerlich]

Read the article in the

5,774,244 reasons why safety is important

thread.

If the Sifu in New York really allows classes to go as you say, then he is a fool, and he and his money may soon be parted. Hopefully this is just tough talk rather than reality.

Not in SoCal, so I can't help. Here in Sydney, most of the decent full contact tournaments are run by MT promoters and you will generally end up fighting MT guys. Some of my training buds won their fights recently

[yuanfen]

a kwoon as a fight club? Watching too many movies !

[rjlohan]

Originally posted by anerlich
Read the article in the

5,774,244 reasons why safety is important

thread.

If the Sifu in New York really allows classes to go as you say, then he is a fool, and he and his money may soon be parted. Hopefully this is just tough talk rather than reality.

Not in SoCal, so I can't help. Here in Sydney, most of the decent full contact tournaments are run by MT promoters and you will generally end up fighting MT guys. Some of my training buds won their fights recently

I was asking my Sifu about Wing Chun fights, and he said they pretty much don't happen in competition, 'cause Wing Chun uses alot of technique (such as snap kicks) which wouldn't be allowed in competition... something to that effect anyway...

[TenTigers]

Let me clarify a few things before y'll get yer pantyhose in a bunch. We nicknamed it fightclub,the Sifu didn't call it that.
As far as being thrown to the lions, what I was referring to was that you immediately went into some decent contact-oriented drills-not freefighting. And circle training, which is fast-paced and intense. Since everyone had previous training, it was okay. There was no lack of parental supervision, it wasn't macho, just good ol' fashioned serious training which included contact. period. How do you practice pak-sao, tan-sao, gong-sao without doing a little bit of slammin? My backround is Hung-Ga, some Wing Chun, Bak Mei, did some Kyukushin-kai Karate in the 70's among other styles. Everyone has their own ideas of what "hard contact" , "hard-core", "old school" and other phrases mean. I never thought I trained hardcore. I'm quite frail and tend to bruise easily. And I have sinus headaches when my allergies act up,and dust and pollen, mold and mildew wreak havoc on my tender immune system...oops, sorry, got distracted.
But frankly, I like to train, I like contact, I think anyone who is studying martial arts for self-defense is absolutely kidding themselves if they think that for one moment that they are not going to get hit, and don't experience some solid tags occasionally. I expect to be sore, bruised, (no jow, no gung-fu) and if I'm not at least a little, then it wasn't a good day. -BTW I HATE hit-happy, ego-driven chi-sao-sounds like a contradiction? So let me ask you (and this might just open up a whole new thread) How do YOU train? What contact drills do you use? How do you condition your forearms, and your body to withstand contact? Which drills do you not have contact on?
If what I described upset you so much, what is it that you find so distasteful? Like I said, I'm certainly no tough-guy-far from it. And I'm certainly not bragging. It just seems to me that I am a minority here, and would appreciate your views.

[mun hung]

Looking at this thread for the first time. The "fight club" phrase was just a little joke among some of the students, because we trained very hard, with lots of hard contact, and for many hours at a time. Initially, many of of tried to do so without any sort of protection such as pads, cups, etc., but found out soon enough that this would not promote longevity. The class was private and started out pretty small. There were no crybabies or whiners, so we really did'nt worry too much about lawsuits.

Just wanted to reply to this thread since my school was mentioned. It seems that not many people are into hard contact these days, and I guess they have their reasons.

Do what ever you like - this is what I prefer.

[anerlich]

Mate, the original poster talked about full contact fighting. Then you chimed in with this stuff about "first night, they fed you to the lions" in a gym in a neighbourhood where criminals fear to tread.

Then people (not just me) call you on spouting macho hyperbole. Surprise, surprise. What did you expect?

I'm pleased to hear that things are not done quite the way you made them sound originally.

I have a photo of myself from my last grading with two black eyes, and my torso covered with bruises, including a palm shaped one so precisely defined that three out of four fingers can be seen, plus one that looks like the sole of an ASICS wrestling boot. I've been concussed quite a few times and knocked out once in training. I believe my school's training can match that available anywhere in intensity. A skilled practitioner should be able to handle him/herself and deal with pain, bruises and hard blows.

But IMO anyone who suggests you should treat new students like this is an idiot.

"It just seems to me that I am a minority here"

Each of us is special, you too.

"before y'll get yer pantyhose in a bunch"

Just who exactly got upset?

rjlohan, WC can be adapted very well for most competition rules. For some rules you may have to learn to kick above the waist and adapt to wearing gloves. My Sifu had 37 pro kickboxing matches and over 100 amateur ring fights. Plenty of street encounters as well. Sifu Anthony Arnett in Florida literally has a roomful of trophies from ring fights. Our school does not train specifically for competition, but we've won more than we've lost when we do enter. One of my sihings was State supermiddleweight kickboxing champ for a while.

Any perceived limitations with WC as a basis for ring fighting are with the practitioner, not the system.

[TenTigers]

"one that looks like the sole of an ASICS wrestling boot."
I LOVE that.ROFL I remember actually being able to make out the letters Asics on my friend's torso. There was a comic called 'The Phantom"-he wore a skull ring, and whenever he punched the bad guys, he would leave this skull imprint on his head. -kinda his calling card. I guess this is the "modern" version. Maybe we can cut a deal with Asics and develop a Phantom Martial Arts shoe.

[anerlich]

TT,

It was almost like that. You could see the waffle pattern of the sole, and there was a circle where the logo was , though you couldn't make out the logo itself.

How about that boxer who painted his torso with the name of his sponsor during a televised bout?

Weird times or not?

Anyway, lets forget the itchy and scratchy stuff. I was a bit steamed up about this issue because the wrestler story coincided with a time where all the MA instructors I know are suffering HUGE increases in their public liability and professional indemnity insurance premiums here in Oz. The way things are going in Oz, a lot of small suburban schools will have to close. Our doctors are facing an insurance crisis as well with their main professional insurance co about to go out of business because of a mushrooming in big claims and suits.

I have no doubt Sifu Lee is the real deal.

Peace

AN

[TenTigers]

My school is in an area where, if a kid stubs his toe, he calls his lawyer, then his mom, then the doctor-in that order. We have to write up our rules, our safety gear, and how we teach sparring, and we get surprise spot-checks from the gestapo, oops, I mean the insurance company. But we have an inner core of students who go at it bare knuckle-"without my permission" ;-)
When we started the AAU in Chinatown, all the Sifus met with the AAU (amature athletic union) reps, and they explained that the AAU paid for your liability insurance. The old Sifus looked at each other bewildered, and asked, "What is liability insurance?"
The AAU rep was shocked, and explained that if a student got hurt, they are protected against a lawsuit.
The Sifus al looked at each other bewildered, and then asked,"What student would sue their Sifu?"
Needless to say, the AAU never really developed a large following in Chinatown.

[rjlohan]

You should just have to sign a waiver against your right to sue when you start martial arts, I reckon... :p

[anerlich]

A waiver is no guarantee. If the victim's lawyer can "prove" that the instructor was "criminally negligent" and the judge agrees, you're going down, waiver or not.

Look at the euthanasia laws. Even though they may have the deceased's written or videotaped permission, anyone who assists in a mercy killing will be prosecuted.