practicing forms from different styles

[taichi4eva]

My martial arts experience has been stormy. I have taken TKD, Praying Mantis, and now Wing Chun.

Everyday I go in my backyard, I go outside to practice- drills, conditioning. Forms are great to review because it is not as mind numbing as drills. However, recently, my teacher told me to keep only what was useful and to forget what was useless. In my mind, this means...

stop practicing Bengbu and Tantui
stop kicking high
only go through the san sik that I have been learning

But there is a part of me that doesn't want to let go. I hold on to the material that I had taken so much time to learn. And it's difficult.

I want to keep at least the Tantui and the TKD kicking style. I think that they are great for developing leg skills. So I've reached the conclusion to incorporate this into my Wing Chun. I have two sessions per day: in the morning, I kick and do Tantui. In the evening, I do 50 reps of each san sik I learned as well as Siu Lin Tao and the Five Animal Fists (I picked these two up from Vietnam, and because of this, I want to keep these).

I am sure many people here did not find the art that suits them instantly. I was wondering if people could give me some feedback.

Well, farewell to Hsing Yi and Shaolin...

I know a broadsword form (Meihuadao) and a staff form (Qimeigun). Should I forget these too? :(

[mantis108]

I am not sure why you would need to drop Bengbu and Tantui. I presume that you are talking about HK 7 Star version. They both can be drill oriented. But then you are gearing towards Wing Chun. so...

Warm regards

Mantis108

[taichi4eva]

I guess endurance-wise. I am always out of breath after performing Bengbu. What do you mean drill?

[Chief Fox]

I understand the statement, keep what is useful and forget what is useless. But I think you have to decide for youself what is useful. Someone else can't decide for you.

Personally, I think Bung Bo is extremely useful I use several different techniques in sparring that are straight out of Bung Bo.

I also believe that high kicks are useful too. I think they have their place just like any other technique.

If your instructor is telling you, all that you have learned in the past is useless, then I might start looking for a new instructor.

If you are convinced that you are going to let this stuff go then at least video tape yourself doing this stuff. Then you will have a reference if you want to pick it up in the future.

[taichi4eva]

Maybe my teacher wants me to be faithful to what I'm learning...it makes sense.

[Chief Fox]

Maybe my teacher wants me to be faithful to what I'm learning...it makes sense.

I also understand being faithful to an art or an insturctor but, being faithful does not always equal keeping what is useful.

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

If you are convinced that you are going to let this stuff go then at least video tape yourself doing this stuff. Then you will have a reference if you want to pick it up in the future.

don't ever waste your time and money letting something that was taught to you just 'go'. when you have more experience at looking at forms and the techniques they contain and your knowledge of the forms and how you practice them then you can discard a form as less meaningful. but if you discard one by not practicing it and try later to remember it you will not beable to put it to use. make a video of it.

second point which may have been alluded to by another: when you get to the point when you can say "all my martial experience can be well demonstrated by these seven forms" then you are at the point where you can have a number of forms you can practice several times daily and the practice not be a burden on your body or your mind. which is one reason i like really large forms: they encompass a lot so you don't end up wasting time repeating moves for the sake of doing 'busiwork'. just a different perspective to 'practice'.

last week i discovered there's some fairly blatant southern crane in Hong Hawk Step. which i realised after practicing some southern dragon version of sun bin. which made me realize why my teacher liked Hong so much. it really has a lot to be learned over time.

[Oso]

If you are convinced that you are going to let this stuff go then at least video tape yourself doing this stuff. Then you will have a reference if you want to pick it up in the future.

amen.

long live the video camera.


I videotaped my entire (17 hours over 2 days) sifu test. needless to say, i had to show EVERYTHING.

now that I have moved on to a different teacher, I definitely am most glad I have a record of the entire corpus from my old teacher...up to that point of course.

[fa_jing]

Don't forget what you learned. Just focus more on the new stuff for now and don't bring your old stuff with you to class, some teachers see that as disrespectful. You do need to "empty your cup" when learning new material.

Do you spar? You do need to learn to spar the "new" way for a while, at least in class. After you achieve proficiency in 1-2 years, then you want to really try to incorporate everything you've learned. It is all "usefull", it just isn't easy to learn a new style when you are thinking about other stuff or reverting to it under pressure.