Traditional Chinese Gung Fu

[Lokhopkuen]

How many of you here are long term practitioners of Traditional Chinese Martial Art?Those of you that lurk here reading with little to say because who in there right mind wants to argue with strangers on a Kung Fu Forum?

But seriously I am interested to hear from the older serious practitioners about their triumphs and pitfalls relating to long term practice of TCMA. Your various stages of development, your plateaus, mistakes in training that cost you in the long run as well as your insight on some good fixes. What benefits have your practice provided?
In an age of modern warfare why practice old style?

Flex a neuron and holla back:D

[jimbob]

Ok, I'll bite.

I began training in 1978 as an 8 year old. I wanted to learn karate (I didn't actually have any idea at all - it was just a name). My dad found me a kung fu school instead because he was Chinese and didn't like the Japanese. (strangely enough, we discovered he was half Japanese after he died).

So - started training and hated it. Didn't get to break any boards. Had to stand in painful and boring horse stances for a long time. Strict teacher would hit us if we didn't do it correctly.

After about 4 months of me crying at home and my dad telling me I wanted it so I had to keep going, I arrived in class to find we were going to be doing some punching. Cool! But not really, because it didn't look like any punching I was familiar with - just swinging your arms around in circles. I still couldn't see how I was going to break boards with this stuff.

Anyway - I was made to persevere and one day I realised I had been going along to class 3 times a week without needing to be told to. I just kind of switched off at that point and kept going.

I liked learning forms and thought they looked pretty funky. I couldn't make more than 20% of the techniques work during a sparring session though, but I figured it was just my ignorant ass not understanding something.

Kept training. By this stage I was 18 - had been training for 10 years and was a senior student. I had friends who were studying karate, taekwondo and kickboxing - and we all thought we had "the best" style. I did well against them when we sparred but I had a lot more experience and I was always a little bummed that we really didn't look that unique when we got down to it. Apart from my sau and bin, were looked pretty much the same. TKD dude could do funky things with his legs that i couldn't, but that was about it. He had as much success with his jumping spinning kicks as I had with chop choi.

That year I returned to my native Singapore for national service duty and studied at the Hong Seng (CLF) Koon afterward so I could keep training. Lots of lion dancing there! Also cool, but not so much sparring training. I mentioned this to my teacher and 3 weeks later he told me we were going to Penang in Malaysia to fight in a competition.

Cool!

Long story short, I fought Silat guys, karate guys, tkd guys and got kneed in the face and knocked out by a Thai boxer in the last 4. I realised then I knew very little about contact fighting - but I wanted to. My teachers response was to send me to more tournaments. Similar results - I never won one of the ****ed things but got close! Always got thumped by a thai boxer.

I asked lots of questions in Singapore but didn't get many answers. I was told it was all in the forms, but obviously I needed a little help in seeing it. I went back to Australia and spent three years with the Chow Gar people learning a little more about inside fighting. Liked the style. Wasn't for me, personally, but I enjoyed learning it.

So I was left with many years of CLF and a few of southern mantis. I could fight a little and knew what it felt like now to get hit hard and to hit someone as hard as I could. I knew lots of pretty forms. I could lion dance and drum quite well (which has since turned into a full on passion for taiko drumming). I wasn't sure what I was. I knew I wasn't what i thought a "master" should be, and I had no real desire to open a school of my own. I still practised hard and began learning tai chi which i feel helped me enormously. I didn't fight much anymore.

From 92-3 through to about 96 I had kind of lost a bit of passion for what I was doing (except the tai chi - I always loved that). Then I met my Patrick McCarthy in 96 when he first came to Australia. Although I never formally studied with him as his student he was kind enough to invite me to work out with him and we have since become very good friends. His theories of habitual acts of violence and reverse engineering forms really re-opened my eyes and I've been enjoying applying these concepts to what I have been picking up over the years very much.

So - I know it's a long post and I have rambled and not connected a lot of the dots. My triumphs? Learning a system rich in history and maintaining some cultural contact with my Chinese heritage. Learning I have (or had once upon a time!)the ability to throw a technique in a full contact pressure situation and knock someone out with it. Learning I can get knocked out hard and not die.

Disappointments? Spending years wondering how it all connected. The forms, the fighting concepts, the techniques - it was all for so long a total mystery. It's not clear to me yet, but I think I'm getting there. Having the realisation that my teachers may not have known everything - also a shock when it came.

Long term benefits? I'm open minded about everything. I love watching MMA and grappling. I'm very fit and healthy compared to many other near 40 somethings. I have a fantastic career in Europe as a taiko drumming teacher which i would never have explored without all the lion dancing in my past. I think my background has made me a good teacher.

As far as "good fixes", all I can say from my own experience is to keep asking the questions, even if you feel dumb for having them in the first place. And stick with it. You never know what doors may open.

jimbob - not so vocal member here since 1998.

[jimbob]

Oh - 31 years from when i first started - I still haven't broken any boards!

[cerebus]

Nice post jimbob! Thanks. :)

[David Jamieson]

I still practice, but I have moved away from the more esoteric stuff when it comes to fighting arts. I don't find forms methods to be very useful for training that.

After extrapolating a huge chuck of the material I have from forms, much of it required heavy adaptation to make it functional for actual h2h when used in even moderate resisting scenarios.

The aerobatic stuff was pretty much completely useless.
The weapons work, while fun, is antiquated and not really worth the time investment required with it.

I practice the qigong stand alone pretty much and still train iron skills.
I've brought into my training, Hatha Yoga and MMA training methodologies and by doin those things, I've gotten quite a lot better in the last 5 years or so since making the change over.

So, taking all the forms and individual techniques and using them in a more contextual way than solo performance vis a vis extrapolation has been a huge leap forward and has helped me to put aside a lot of the dross and move forward with the meat of it.

[GeneChing]

..but the break boards thing caught my eye. I hadn't broken a real board until a few years ago (broke plenty of rebreakables (http://www.martialartsmart.net/20-31u.html), mostly after I started working here). Believe it or not, we sell real boards to break (http://www.martialartsmart.net/203509.html). And they sell frighteningly well, mostly to schools. These boards are pretty easy to break, but they get harder if you stack them, or try to break the smaller pieces.

So this qigong master comes in and says that he can train me in iron palm in a matter of minutes. I'm like 'show me'. So he keeps stacking them until there's enough to challenge me. I can't remember how many there were. We didn't use spacers so it wasn't many. But then, I eventually reached a stopping point. Then he waives his hands around my hand to project qi. "There! Now try it." So I do. BAM! It was no better.

It only hurts when the boards don't break. :o

[KTS]

what classifies as long term?

i started in karate about 20 years ago, and done other stuff since, but have only trained in TMA(IMA) for 5 years.

we are talking like 7-10 years or more, yah?

i have a helluva long way to go!

[Chief_Suicide]

We might all disagree what is real TMA or CMA, but our own stories are what makes it real martial arts to us.

I've not trained long enough for this thread, but I'm enjoying everyone's posts. Sometimes our experiences can help and inspire others.

[uki]

In an age of modern warfare why practice old style?wisdom would have it that modern warfare can blast us back to the stone age at any time now. :)

[Lokhopkuen]

what classifies as long term?
!

With the attention span of most people let's say 6 months?:D

[Lokhopkuen]

wisdom would have it that modern warfare can blast us back to the stone age at any time now. :)

Thass what I'm waiting for:cool:

[David Jamieson]

Keep wishing. lol

Guns aren't going anywhere. :p

seriously, lets all update this stuff, there's still tons of good things in it and it has just been a big lolly gag keeping it in the state it is in.

[Lucas]

well even where we to be blasted in something say like a nuclear war, or some sort of other catasrophic event. if anyone survives, we'll still have guns.

hell, you can make a gun out of regular every day things. it aint pretty, but its possible.

[David Jamieson]

well even where we to be blasted in something say like a nuclear war, or some sort of other catasrophic event. if anyone survives, we'll still have guns.

hell, you can make a gun out of regular every day things. it aint pretty, but its possible.

a pipe, an elastic band, a beer cap and a nail. add bullet, zip, bang!

Yes, it ain't pretty. the bullet is the most expensive part. lol

[Lucas]

lol.

ever read the poor mans james bond, or the anarchists cook book? originals

some pretty handy recipies in there...

;)

[David Jamieson]

lol.

ever read the poor mans james bond, or the anarchists cook book? originals

some pretty handy recipies in there...

;)

dude, I'm 45 and I'm Canadian. BTDTGTTS :D

[Lucas]

what does that stand for?

big tits do tremedously good things to shlongjohnsilver?

[David Jamieson]

what does that stand for?

big tits do tremedously good things to shlongjohnsilver?

yes...yes it could, but mostly it stands for: " Been there, Done that, Got the Tee Shirt" :p

[Lucas]

yes...yes it could, but mostly it stands for: " Been there, Done that, Got the Tee Shirt" :p

ahhhhh, gotcha lol.

[cerebus]

yes...yes it could, but mostly it stands for: " Been there, Done that, Got the Tee Shirt" :p

I like Lucas' version better... :D:D

[David Jamieson]

I like Lucas' version better... :D:D

yeah..well to be fair it does have tits in it.

[sanjuro_ronin]

speaking of which:

[Lucas]

speaking of which:

btdtgtts!!!!!!!!!!

;)

[uki]

speaking of which:ugh... how hideous.

[Lucas]

im not disgusted personally. but i do prefer b's or smaller. dunno, i just dont really like em big for some reason.

[KTS]

With the attention span of most people let's say 6 months?:D


haha. d@mn, i guess i need a cane then. i should have no prob growing out my beard, but might have trouble with those classic mustache-sized eyebrows. :D

[Lokhopkuen]

The attention span of a gnat...
:p