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T
10-18-2000, 07:32 PM
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW, OF THE PRACTITIONERS OUT THERE - I MEAN THE ONES WHO HAVE TRAINED FOR SOME TIME - HOW LONG DID IT TAKE UNTIL YOU FELT COMFORTABLE SPARRING WITH THIS ART (WHILE USING IT'S TECHNIQUES)? NOW I UNDERSTAND THIS DEPENDS ON THE INTENSITY OF YOUR TRAINING, BUT IN GENERAL, HOW LONG?

Kung Lek
10-22-2000, 02:53 AM
Hi-

I have been training in the same school and art(s) for going on 7 years.
For me anyway, I think I was in my 3rd year before I really started to get a fair understanding of teh art I was practicing from a martial viewpoint and in practice.
I did have knowledge of other arts and found the techniques to be a little more basic and easy to grasp and unfortunately my sparring style was primarily those arts for a while. this may have been a hinderance to my understanding of CMA in application.

There is still quite a lot of "unusual" techniques in the art(s) I study now that I don't really know how to apply correctly yet. But hey, nobody told me I would learn this stuff in three easy payments. hahahaha.

peace

Kung Lek

T
10-22-2000, 07:54 PM
Kung lek,
I have been studying this art for about 13 yrs. I have a tendency to revert back to my San Shao and western boxing skills while sparring. However I find that once I lock up with an opponent my Hung Ga skills are of great benefit to me. Now, I don't mean the actual techniques, I mean the movements behind the techniques, the angles, body positioning and the footwork. These elements of this style make me a better fighter. But as far as the actual techniques in sparring - I still am not comfortable enough to stick with what you learn in 2 man sparring drills. Self defense tecniques I find are more than excellent, very powerfull and truly work.

Kung Lek
10-22-2000, 08:14 PM
Hi-
N/A. yes, my Si Fu has taught me that sets such as Fu/Hok(tiger/crane matching set) are more for instilling the use of techniques in the beginning to intermediate students but he has emphasized that it is the art itself and the self defense one on one techniques that will serve me much better in sparring.

i find that with my Si Fu, my sparring has improved vastly in comparison to all other non cma I have studied.
I believe it has to do with his teaching style also.
He will be utterly detailed in his descriptive accompanyment to what he is showing and teaching us.
I now stick to what I know in the ring and have a variety of style techniques to use. I can use a pretty good variety of techniques fairly proficiently and will use sparring to try to understand new techniques or more complicated techniques.

My favorite techniques are drawn from tiger and one on one self defense methods. Occaisonally I will attempt to use North Shaolin techniques and it is these that I find most difficult to execute with any success. But usually I only spar with someone who is at the same level of study or almost the same level of study as myself.

With non-adepts, I have success with even the unusual techniques that I am not so good at executing. This is mainly more because the less trained are unaware of defenses against these techniques than my true ability to use them.

Of course Si Fu is able to destroy me no matter what I use ! hahhahaha. I have a lot of trouble just being evasive with him when he asks me to defend against a given techniques with my own choice of defense.

I guess that's one reason why he is Si Fu!

peace

Kung Lek

nospam
10-30-2000, 03:11 AM
Good day.

How long to become comfortable in sparring with my style? I must say that it was the act of sparring itself that I had to become comfortable with, not so much the style.

I was a skinny 13 year old when I started my gung fu training. I had no martial ability of any sort prior to gung fu. So I brought nothing to the table, preconcieved or otherwise. In my case, it took well over a year of basic or foundation training before we started sparring. Because of this, all I could do was apply my 'style' as best I could. It wasn't that hard, in terms of throwing a punch, as I said earlier, it was the act of sparring that was 'uncomfortable' to me.

So, to answer your question, I was comfortable applying my style from the get-go. What I was most uncomfortable about had nothing to do with application.

Ok, switch to Today..I am a practitioner-teacher. My students will be able to become comfortable applying our style within 6 months- this includes at least 3 months of the most basic of foundation patterning. At its most base definition, my gung-fu is about fighting. If I can not impart actual skill of application in a 6-8 month period (given the student applies him(her)self), then my gung-fu has turned into something other than what it was meant to be. This is the history of my lineage. Our founder, Tam Sam, was a fighter first and foremost. Much was stripped from the greater style and much was expanded..but it was all done to be one thing..the last man standing.