If you don't belong to a big school, don't live near/can't afford tourneys, how do you find sparring

[meltdawn]

Some of you train pretty independantly. How do you test your skills?

"I was Ghengis Khan... no, not my screen name... I WAS Ghengis Khan."

[fiercest tiger]

This may sound stupid to some but you can do breaking to test your skill and builds confidence.
maybe use a family member to breakdown moves. i use to use my mum and dad at times, my father was a high school boxer so kung fu was crap to him. he use to love to try my skills and sometimes gave me a wholloping.. :(

do you have friends that are intersted in helping you train and test yourself out?

play stance work with the dog, trip it and knock it off balance etc. if it bits pressure point it!! hehehe

:D

peace

bakmeimonk@hotmail.com

[meltdawn]

I have horses, they're not so easy to kick over.

As for "breaking stuff", usually if it doesn't attack, I leave it alone. Not much challenge in defeating a fence post. Plus, I just have to pay to replace it.

And I don't have too many friends willing to let me try out my kung fu. "Let me know if this hurts" is intimidating.

"I was Ghengis Khan... no, not my screen name... I WAS Ghengis Khan."

[fiercest tiger]

ok! so you dont like breaking or hitting your friends, so slap your horse on the ass with your iron palm and try and kill it.

i dont know what else to tell you!! :D

peace

bakmeimonk@hotmail.com

[BIU JI]

I have a friend at work who does choy li fut and enjoys ambushing me, at first I thought I'm just going to deck this idiot if he continues but started using the opportunity to learn so it continues. I learn so much as it shows how each situation is unique in itself . What about some aggressive type living locally or asking a friend to ambush also, other than that don't know what you can do except stop living in the middle of the forest.
Just a suggestion, good luck.ƒ ;) Ä

[meltdawn]

I thought about putting an ad in the local paper's Sunday personals under "Friends Seeking Friends".

How does this sound:

Athletic adult female seeking athletic adult male or female for enjoyable afternoon challenges in the park of bridging, trapping and striking. Previous martial arts experience or extreme stupidity a plus. Must be insured. Must have own neck collar and groin protection. All calls will be answered but if we agree to meet and you do not show up I will hunt you down like the despicable scum that you are and meanwhile defame your family and sifu on internet kung fu forums. Eagerly awaiting your response.

[Kung Lek]

sounds like you should get a lot of bites on that ad meltdawn. hahahahahahahaha.

goto your local mcdojo and ask if you can play.

no mcdojo around? I guess the ad will have to suffice.
Keep practicing hard and hopefully you will find someone in the near future.

peace

Kung Lek

[premier]

like kung lek said, walk into some gwoon and star challenge people ;)

if you don't want to do that.. is there any public gyms around? People here practise on their own in public gyms. it's a great opportunity to meet other martial artist and do some friendly sparring.

if there's no gyms around, leave that add to a bulleting board in a martial arts store nearby.

[Kung Lek]

well, i didn't say go out and challenge people, i said go out and ask if you can play.

there is a difference. asking to play is more courteous and friendly, challenging is kind of threatening in most cases and people just don't warm up to that sort of thing and more often than not a challenge is taken very seriously.

But asking to play is asking to share in what they have and giving of what you have. It also gives them the option to refuse and for you to move on whereas a challenge does not give this option.

A challenge is a challenge if it is not met then "face" is lost, also if you are the chalenger and you lose, then you lose face. are you prepared to lose face with the skills you have been given? Because whoever gave you those skills will lose face wiht you.

so be nice, ask to play, maybe even join for a while or pay a walk in fee to be able to participate in sparing with the members who you feel are at the same level as yourself.

once again, otherwise, the ad will have to do. I like the add, it's got humour and shows a lightheartedness behind it.

peace

Kung Lek

[premier]

kung lek

ok. I'm sorry. I twisted your words deliberately ;)

[Kung Lek]

hey premiere,

I understand, no big deal, I was just clarifying what I meant.
I didn't want to "instigate" anything, just post a possible solution to meltdawns dilema.

I can see how what I said originally would have been percieved as how you stated, so thank you for helping me see that.

peace

Kung Lek

[MarkS]

Hi Melt, Loong Ying I seem to recall :-) Does your Sifu not allow you to 'play' with him?
I wouldn't advise tournaments to test your skills, especially not Dragon, how to get disqualified quickly methinks! I'm lucky I suppose I have students to 'play' with plus my Sifu in t'other styles I train in. Do you have a two man fighting set in your Dragon? That helps a lot. Anyway, hows the training going?

Mark

[meltdawn]

How ARE you??? Glad you found your way over to the "real" forum. You'll find a few "more kills" around here, heh heh.

Time for a new thread, methinks...

"I was Ghengis Khan... no, not my screen name... I WAS Ghengis Khan."

[8stepsifu]

allot of people train them. Sure it takes a few year, but it's better than commuting 2 years.

8Step Sifu

[iamaloser]

You can practice with wooden dummies, sand bags, or the newer electronic boxing dumming advertised on TV. Though not realistic, these devices allow you to practice your techniques at full power without injury to a real sparring partner. Even if there was a realistic alternative, you still need an instructor to coach you and correct you no matter how good your are. The same holds true if you weight train. I still prefer someone to correct my mistakes and provide advice. No one is perfect and can slack off once in a while.