If not wing chun..then what?

[S.Teebas]

What would you guys be doing if for some reason you had to stop your WC training? (eg your sifu leaving town, or you have to move and there's no WC .etc...or for whatever reason)

What styles would you be interested in doing?

I think i'd probably like to try another internal MA like Bagua or Xingyi, or maybe some yang mian (steel fist/body etc...)

Would you want to stick with chinese martial arts (kung fu) or would u want to try somthing else?

P.S ...no answers like: "I'd choose the best teacher in my area" (its a hypothetical where all the teachers are of equal skill)

[TjD]

if i had the choice, i'd do ba gua, xing yi or tai chi :)

if i couldnt do some cool internal style then probably san shou

[tnwingtsun]

"What would you guys be doing if for some reason you had to stop your WC training?"


You forgot,injurys,where your lawyer tells you if you mow the yard it could blow a lawsuit(A BIG ONE).

The main challenge is to find ways to train without hurting yourself(in my condition) and not fall into a slump.

If you WC goes out the door the trick is to keep your mind and body active,but never stop,thats how I ended up here.

Never forget,Pain is God's way of reminding you that your still alive and a mind/spirit without action is the play ground for evil.

Which reminds me of something I heard somwhat back.....


> YES, I'M A BAD AMERICAN
>
>
> by George Carlin (Embedded image moved to file: pic05758.jpg)
>
> I Am Your Worst Nightmare. I am a BAD
> American. I am George Carlin. I believe the money
> I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid
> level governmental functionary be it Democratic or
> Republican! I'm in touch with my feelings and I like
> it that way, **** it! I think owning a gun doesn't
> make you a killer, it makes you a smart American. I
> think being a minority does not make you noble or
> victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. I
> believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, try to
> do it in English. I think fireworks should be legal on
> the 4th of July. I think that being a student
> doesn't give you any more enlightenment than
> working at Blockbuster. In fact, if your parents are
> footing the bill to put your pansy ass through 4
> years plus, of college, you haven't begun to be
> enlightened. I believe everyone has a right to pray
> to his or her God when and where they want to. My
> heroes are John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers,
> and whoever canceled Jerry Springer. I don't hate
> the rich. I don't pity the poor. I know wrestling is
> fake and I don't waste my time arguing about it. I
> think global warming is a big lie. Where are all
> those experts now, when I'm freezing my ass off
> during these long winters and paying, paying,
> paying? I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I
> didn't wander forty years In the desert after
> getting chased out of Egypt. I haven't burned any
> witches or been persecuted by the Turks and
> neither have you! So, shut-the-Hell-up already. I
> want to know which church is it exactly where the
> Reverend Jesse Jackson practices, where he gets
> his money, and why he is always part of the
> problem and not the solution. Can I get an AMEN
> on that one? I think the cops have every right to
> shoot your sorry ass if you're running from them. I
> also think they have the right to pull your ass over
> if you're breaking the law, regardless of what color
> you are. I think if you are too stupid to know how a
> ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should
> be running the most powerful nation in the world
> for the next four years. I dislike those people
> standing in the intersections trying to sell me crap
> or trying to guilt me into making donations to
> their cause. These people should be targets. I
> believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a
> child, it takes two parents. I believe if she has her
> lips on your Willie, it's sex, and this applies even if
> you are President of the United States. And what
> the hell is going on with gas prices... again? If this
> makes me a BAD American, then yes, I'm a BAD
> American. If you are a BAD American too, speak up.
> We need our country back!

[anerlich]

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, definitely.

I'm not a stylistic purist or hung up about starting over at the bottom so I'd look for a good instructor in any style.

I spent 5 years on Xingyi/BaGua and that was long enough (for me).

S Teebas - why Yang Mian? Several people I believe would know have told me it ain't all it's cracked up to be. Why are they wrong? any direct experience?

I live in Australia, poens about bad Americans don't do a lot for me. Working at various multinationals, I've met plenty.

[kj]

Originally posted by S.Teebas
What would you guys be doing if for some reason you had to stop your WC training? (eg your sifu leaving town, or you have to move and there's no WC .etc...or for whatever reason)

What styles would you be interested in doing?

Some years ago, I found myself in precisely that situation. My two earliest Wing Chun teachers did in fact move out of town. Switching arts wasn't more than a moment's consideration. Wing Chun was what I had set out to learn, and there was no change in my motivation to do so.

As I had to find a new teacher anyway, I decided to seek one whose manner and method of teaching is most suited to me. The trend indicated that teachers were just going to move away whenever they liked anyhow, LOL, so I might as well select one based on criteria other than location. The teacher I found happens to live 3000 miles away. Convenience was indeed not the driving factor, LOL.

It was necessary to build my own training group and develop other hands to work with routinely. Training time with my teacher alternates between my own travel, and hosting him for intensive weekend training workshops with the other group members.

Folks that take for granted paying a monthly fee to show up at class a few times a week should test out my lifestyle. ;)

Picking another art would have been a lot easier, but not remotely as satisfying. Same for settling on convenience at the expense of quality, which for me would be an unpalatable trade-off.

At this point, it is almost unfathomable for me to consider changing arts. To continue my Wing Chun training I would travel ****her if I had to. How much worse could that get, LOL. Should my teacher become completely inaccessible (heaven forbid), I would continue working and learning with compatible others, or even just on my own till new opportunities arose and circumstances improved.

If for some reason Wing Chun were no longer an option, and if I were a tad younger, I might do a closer investigation of Aikido or Yi Chuan. If I could not travel, I might consider Taiji, but mainly for fun and health, not for fighting.

In all likelihood though, and at my stage in life and beyond, I would probably end up doing some yoga and investing time at a top notch shooting range. That and enjoy the opportunity for gardening more often.

Whatever the circumstances, what I would do is find a good teacher in whatever vocation or avocation I chose to pursue. What I would not do is settle for whatever is convenient regardless of quality. A martial art, in particular, is too much of a personal investment in time and effort to waste on something second rate, and the opportunity costs far too great.

Regards,
- Kathy Jo

P.S. I trust you do consider me one of the guys. ;)

[Marshdrifter]

hmm...

I'd have to go with some internal style, Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing I,
or heck, even Aikido.

Or maybe I'd just focus on Iaido. That'd be cool.

[yuanfen]

kj: of course

tnwingstun: I dont relate to the "bad American" I aint one of them. John Wayne aint one of my heroes. I would root for Osceola, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Chitto Harjo. Redcloud, Tecumseh and whoever is lined up against the cowboys, John Wayne, and Andrew Jackson.Carlin's humor missed me this time. Putting up with bad Americans is serious business.
(I am an American).

Teebas: i would travel far to find a top flight wing chun teacher.
No luck, I would regroup and see whether a first class southern mantis teacher or a chen stylist is reachable. Not so much for fighting...but just as an outlet. Already know some things about the former. I would not be too interested in learning yang taichi,
bei shaolin, choy li fut, muay thai, hwarang do, bjj, kali, escrima,
tkd, jkd, capoeira...in any particular oder.

BTW- any reports on the wing chun doings at the Dallas Kung Fu extravaganza last weekend.?

[MDK Tiger]

OK, let me turn the question around a litle. Did anyone decide on Wing Chun, even though it may not have been first on your list of MAs to study? Like for instance was anyone looking for SPM or Bak Mei or some other similar style and not finding a school in your area, found a Wing Chun class and went from there. If so, how do you feel about your decision now?
Please understand that I am not trolling here, just genuinely interested if anyone was ever in that situation. I am in the Dallas area, and SPM would be first on my list if there was a SPM school in my area. Since there is not, I am seriously now considering a Wing Chun school that I visited this past week. I tried out Hung Gar, but have decided its low stances and external techniques are not for my "old" knees. I am far from being very knowledgable on the subject, but it seems that Wing Chun techniques may be at least similar to those of SPM(?). And then who knows, after a few weeks or months of practice, I may even become a Wing Chun fanatic like all you guys.:D

[OdderMensch]

heaven forbid!
if my Sifu stoped teaching wing chun I'd ask him to teach me Yang Tai Chi, cause well it womps ass for fighting.
If my sifu vanished first i'd cry, then sink into a depression, then give up my worldly possesions and wander the earth in search of good kung fu.

TJL was awesome! Agustine Fong was there and ran the WC competion, also judgeing were Sifus Buddy Wu, Stanly Ju & Benny Meng. I missed the master demo, but the WC presence was inspiring.

By next year I hope to know some of the dummy so that I can compete for Grand Champion. my lack of dummy and lack of funds meant i only did Chi sau this year.

on a humoruos note the paramedics had to be clled to another ring during our matchs. turns out it was the 24 step tai chi forms! our guess is someone blissed out in thier shiny silk hifu!

[sunkuen]

Hung Gar with that gwai lo guy in Vancouver.

[MDK Tiger]

OdderMensch,

The class in Dallas, actually in Richardson, that I visited was Son Dinh's. I believe he is a senior student of your Sifu. I have all but decided that I will sign up for his class. If so, maybe I will have the good fortune of meeting you someday.

[{i^(]

really just checking the posting style.

probably nothing. I'd sit at home, watching tv and eating chips. no dip. really, who needs the aggravation?

ok, ok, i'll stop. i'd look for something NOT commercial, so no karate/TKD/kickboxing.

i'd try to stick with the chinese end of things, but filipino MAs are cool too.

thats about it. IMO, the question is not so much about type of art, but goals of said art.

[old jong]

Hum!...{i^( ...Are you from planet Vulcan?...With a name like; {i^( ,I guess that you are from elsewhere!...
BTW, how do you pronounce {i^( ?... And are you related to the artist who...You know the guy?...;)

As you are new on this forum I will wish you: Live long and prosper! ;)

[S.Teebas]

S Teebas - why Yang Mian? Several people I believe would know have told me it ain't all it's cracked up to be. Why are they wrong? any direct experience?

A student of the system (approaching instructor level) trained at my WC school for a while. He demonstrated and explained a few things to me which i found quite interesting.
Firstly, his fingers were like steel rods an fists as hard as steel. He personally emphasised a lot of conditioning. (daily smashing concrete blocks, and spearing his hands in sand and other things im not able to recall).

He also explained the basic concept of steel body/fist to me, which i understood as basically flooding the body with large amounts of oxygen. Compression of this air once inside the body was big part of this (Mental note: strike ribs to disable any special breathing in opponents attack :P )

The qi-gong exercises performed were said to do a number of things. a) increace red cell count to encourace/ increase the rate of recovery if injured. b) provide the cell membranes in the body with a compresed air pocket around each one. This when struck keeps the damage on the outside, thus proteching internal organs. Once again allowing the yang mian stylist to keep on fighting even after sustaining powerful strikes. c) strengthen bone maraow. ( i noticed when he invited me to try tapping his fist, that it was MUCH denser than the bones in my hand)

Demonstrations he gave were allowing me to spear my hand into him above the hips and below the ribs. (that soft part thats not easy to build muscle around) And through air compression expelled my hand at great power. My hand was thrown out. I believe this was more to demonstrate a concept rather than show an actual fighing application.

Also he allowed me to strike him on his iron shirt (which i obliged hehe) but to my surprise my strike seemed to bounce off him like hitting a rubber tyre. They also emphasised high speed strikes through internal air compression. It was not uncommon for a yang mian system fighter to achieve 11 full power strikes per second.

I guess what impressed me the most about this system, are the same concepts that i found in WC. ie rapid fire attack at high power. ( i wouldn't like to take this guys fist strike to my head!)

What experiences/stories have led you to believe that its not all its cracked up to be?

[{i^(]

Maybe call me 'face' or symbol. I'm a character!

Looove your posts, BTW. Big fan- kinda the same field we're in. I'm a Lacanian with existentialist and cognitive leanings. Not 'poubelished', though.

So yeah, Vulcan indeed! HA!

[TjD]

so your kinda like the "artist formerly known as prince"?

well, except that you werent formerly known

:) :) :)

[stuff]

hmm, if no wing chun then I'd probably go do TKD(not sport) and Hapkido:D

[anerlich]

What experiences/stories have led you to believe that its not all its cracked up to be?
A story I heard about a dinner meeting between William Cheung, one of the Yang Mian principals, and some other people I know. Don't ask me for details, I figure I did the wrong thing even bringing this up and apologise for doing so to anyone offended.

I personally subscribe to RMA-style conditioning to take blows, having experienced similar demonstrations like the head trainer comfortably taking UFC competitor Elvis Sinosic's best punch. The idea of using compressed air as some sort of buffer would be contraindicated, as the idea is to disperse impact shock through relaxation and allowing everything to move with the punch. Holding the breath serves to restrict the ability to move, resulting in increased risk of trauma.

I'm not sure I'd want my body flooded with gases - aneurisms, hyperventilation, etc. Is it a healthy thing to do in the longer term?

11 strikes a second sounds great, but such claims are made by practitioners of many systems, Wing Chun/Tsun included. the "Speed Man", a Kempo Karate guy, claims up to 16.

Still, sounds like the demonstration you witnessed was effective. Better than my hearsay.

[S.Teebas]

using compressed air as some sort of buffer would be contraindicated, as the idea is to disperse impact shock through relaxation and allowing everything to move with the punch

Agreed. I noticed that while this guy was not someone you'd want to run into in a dark ally (he was a good fighter) i did notice he had a lot of trouble relaxing.


I'm not sure I'd want my body flooded with gases - aneurisms, hyperventilation, etc. Is it a healthy thing to do in the longer term?

Apparantly the grand master is still alive in china, he's apparantly over 100. Iv'e also heard stories (from another source) of peoples bodys steaming after death (who practice this internal air compression)


I personally subscribe to RMA-style conditioning to take blows

What is RMA?

[anerlich]

What is RMA?

Russian Martial Arts. per www.rmax.tv or www.russianmartialart.com.


Iv'e also heard stories (from another source) of peoples bodys steaming after death (who practice this internal air compression)

Spooky. Why would they do that? Elevated body temperature (not real healthy)? And how did death occur? No offense to you, as you said they're not your stories, but I am sceptical.

[Miles Teg]

Thats happening to me! I'm going to a place in Japan where therre is no W.C!!:( :mad:

I would choose Bagua, Tai chi, Jui jitsu.

In Japan I don't have those choices so therefore I might consider Aikido, MMA, Judo. Mostly for improving my Japanese of course;)

[AndrewP]

Let me add my two cents. I took Wing Chun for less than a year back in 1986 with several private lessons. I wasn't ready for it - not mature enough. And life took over: college, work, more work, marriage, then day and night jobs. I started again in April 2000. But this time I had time, money, maturity. During all that time I never considered anything else. Always wanted to learn WC because it could be learned quickly with quick results. I have no other training in anything - not even sports. So my out-of-shape body could handle it too. Thank goodness no kneeling, splits, or head kicks! I'm still out of shape but I'm WC conditioned. I can chi sao hard or soft for 1-2 hours straight if I wanted too. Spar for quite a while - lightly. The only things I can't do in WC given my little training is sparring lightly with multiples. To me that's exhausting!

During my 14 year hiatus I never considered anything else. Now, if Wing Chun were not an option I would train with my fellow students. If that were not an option I would teach someone and learn and train with them. I have lots of knowledge and just need time and practice to improve it.

But being that I'm in the Chicago area I have many choices.

However, I think that between my former school and my present school I'm doing much better in my present school. My Sifu is a little bit crazy and extreme but he will show you raw fighting reality - which is not fun and very painful.

Enough of my rambling.

[wingchunalex]

first i would choose bagua, second i would choose praying mantis, but those aren't in my area. it i had to choose something that was here i would choose one of the good karate schools.

[Martial Joe]

I would train on my own.

...

[FistOfTheNorthSide]

I guess I'm lucky enough to have a teacher who teaches a whole bunch of styles. My problem was picking which one to specialize in. I settles for mostly nan chaun, southern shaolin 5 animals for now. He teaches xing yi, pa kau, eagle claw, tai chi, ba chi, long fist, northern shaolin, drunken, dog boxing, chin na, flash boxing, di tong, 5 animal, shaoi jow, and more! It seems the one style he doesn't do is Wing Chun. He teaches a whole bunch of weapons too. I don't know what I'd do if couldn't study with him.

[yuanfen]

FONS:

Are you with Jim Egger? Say hello to him for me if you are.
joy chaudhuri

[black and blue]

FONS

What's dog boxing and flash boxing?