Right Dominant or Both Left and Right

[ginosifu]

How does you guys train? Do you practice techniques only on your dominant side? Do you practice only the Right side? Do you practice techniques on both sides equally?

What are the ins and outs to training the different ways. I have seen many Northern Shaolin forms that are right hand dominant. Hung Gar forms are mostly ambidexterous. Which method do everyone preffer?

ginosifu

[hskwarrior]

I prefer to focus on both left and right to have a good balance. plus, when one side gets tired you can use the other side just as effectively.

[YouKnowWho]

I like to train different moves for different sides. This way, I can train twice as many moves than trying to train the same move on both sides. You may train "general" moves on both sides but you should only train your "door gurding" moves on one side only. If you look at the following picture, there is a mark on his right foot that you don't see that on his left foot. You can tell that there are certain skills that he only trains on his right leg but not on his left leg.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7986/changbite1.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7640/changbite.jpg

[-N-]

I like to train different moves for different sides. This way, I can train twice as many moves than trying to train the same move on both sides.

+1

Different moves, methods, strategies, and even systems. And be able to switch and integrate them.

[Subitai]

I believe a person should feel comfortable in either side dominant forward.

But you know it's funny when this happens right???

When your fighting a guy and give him a good round kick to the thigh (for example)

* then, as NonChalant as he can... He now turns his UNINJURED SIDE to the forward position. Ala his injured leg to the rear.

* It's at that point you usually say to yourself "Hah, I know your hurting!"

"O"

[RenDaHai]

Traditional Song Shan Shaolin favours striking from the front hand, so switches sides frequently in order to use both hands. Some shaolin styles of the traditional Sanshou footwork are closer to natural walking than to modern sanda and switches with every step.

In more modern schools the traditional technique is combined with Sanda footwork and tends to favour 1 side.

I favour left hand forward but have recently begun to adjust my training to use both sides more equally.

[Dragonzbane76]

I switch back and forth. I train both sides. You should be able to perform the same actions from either side.

[ginosifu]

I have always practiced everything both left and right. However, do you do everything left and right?

Drills - Left and Right?

Self Defense - Left and Right?

Throws - Left and Right?

Sparring - Left and Right?

Have you ever taken a Right Hand dominant form and turned around and practice it the complete opposite? Or even should you do this?

ginosifu

[RenDaHai]

I think if you are good at being ambidextrous then your sparring will naturally cover both sides.

In shaolin its a good show of skill to 'flip' a form and do it the other way round. Amazing show of co-ordination if you get it right the first time you try. I would still master it one side and play it on the other though. Often the important moves are done on both sides anyway. Most often the Drills are structured to contain both sides and methods of switching.

Its only really the more difficult kicks that I train one sided, but this is because I almost never actually use them in sparring. And if I do, I certainly choose my best side. These tend to only appear one sided in forms.

[Iron_Eagle_76]

I train both sides, however, prefer to keep an orthodox stance which sets up stronger boxing techniques due to me being right handed. This allows good hand set ups and power roundhouse kicks with the right leg, my more powerful leg, and also allows me to set up my side thrust and front thrust kicks from the front leg, making them quicker and harder to see coming.

In Pai Lum we would often fight with our strong leg in front, which would put me in Southpaw stance with the right leg forward, which is good for strong side kicks, quick roundhouses, hooks, crescent, and ax kick.

I always balance the two when sparring, the key is to know when to switch stance and not do it at close range where it will be easier for your opponent to catch you off guard with a strike or clinch. This is the one critisism I have of some combat sport styles who advocate never switching stance. If done correctly it can mix up your techniques and keep your opponent unknown of what you will throw next. The key is learning how to properly transition between the two.

[EarthDragon]

seeing that 86% of people in the world are right handed, we train for real life application so therefore mostly train from the right punch, but we do switch up sometimes, but we feel its better to train realistically.

[David Jamieson]

Most of the Kung fu I've been taught and have learned has both sides being worked in an even manner.

weak on one side? Train it more than the good side until you are at least on par.

BSL is however right dominant and that is expressed in sets and especially in the weapons sets.

[RWilson]

Which hand do you guys iron palm with the best? I will look to avoid that side in combat.

[Lucas]

Both, but depends on what I'm doing. For instance I like to train a new throw on my dominant side until I get it down, then start training my weaker half. This way I have a point of reference to use to teach my weak half to the same standard.

[GETHIN]

Both sides always... When I studied under Ruan Dong in Fuzhou I would also be made to learn forms backwards... that was hard LOL !.
A few years ago I decided to bite the bullet and start using my left hand for numcucks... that was much more difficult than I had thought it would be, but kinda opened the door for me to use two chain whips and daos etc. without killing myself.

[EarthDragon]

GETHIN
please be advised there called Nunchaku, not numcucks. If you are going to use this primitive farming tool for MA you should at least know how to pronunce and spell it. just an FYI

[Fa Xing]

I like to train different moves for different sides. This way, I can train twice as many moves than trying to train the same move on both sides. You may train "general" moves on both sides but you should only train your "door gurding" moves on one side only. If you look at the following picture, there is a mark on his right foot that you don't see that on his left foot. You can tell that there are certain skills that he only trains on his right leg but not on his left leg.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7986/changbite1.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7640/changbite.jpg

I agree with YKW here, this is definitely a training philosophy that I use for myself. I tend to prefer my right lead forward but can go left lead forward and have an entire different style.

[David Jamieson]

Which hand do you guys iron palm with the best? I will look to avoid that side in combat.

what you want to watch for is the jab that sets up the cross that KTFOs you. lol

Iron palm is old school hand conditioning.

You haven't been pimp slapped until you've been Iron Palm pimp slapped.

After that, you will never tuck another Benjamin in your bra to hide it from Your mac daddy! :p

[KJW]

How does you guys train? Do you practice techniques only on your dominant side? Do you practice only the Right side? Do you practice techniques on both sides equally?

What are the ins and outs to training the different ways. I have seen many Northern Shaolin forms that are right hand dominant. Hung Gar forms are mostly ambidexterous. Which method do everyone preffer?

ginosifu

Our stance is left foot forward, but we are encouraged to practice most things on both sides. One of our senior instructors took our Grandmasters instruction to always practice everything on both sides to the extreme by practicing all of our sets on both sides.

Our Grandmaster responded by saying "well that's very impressive but why have you done that?" He didn't mean the set work apparantly..

We are usually shown techniques in our normal stance and then expected to practice on both sides on our own.

What stance do you guys use, left or right foot forward?

Kev

[hskwarrior]

What stance do you guys use, left or right foot forward?

Choy Lee Fut usually favors the right side over the left. What side you use during a fight depends on the person. some people are unorthodox stance while others are orthodox. but when you start learning double weapons you begin to become more aware of your weak less favored side and work to strengthen it for a good balance.

I've done a minute about of fencing (i prefer escrima) but i'm a left handed person but i fight orthodox. when i picked up a foil i discovered my right hand was all about power, my left hand rarely ever used was clearly smoother, more precise, and less power focused. Since i've learned to work both sides, it lends an advantage IMHO

[YouKnowWho]

Traditional Song Shan Shaolin favours striking from the front hand, so switches sides frequently in order to use both hands.

The Chinese throwing art also use

- "front hand" to control your opponent's neck or waist, and
- "back hand" to control your opponent's arm.
- "front leg" as the door.
- "back leg" as the axis of the door.

If your body parts are used to do certain jobs, you don't want to switch.

If you train your hand gun, you can train one hand with 100% accuracy. You can also train both hands with 50% accuracy (because you have to divide your training time in 1/2). During a life a death situation, you may only have one chance to shot. Do you want to have 100% accuracy or 50% accuracy (even if you can shot with both hands)?

The same analogy, if you train "head lock" on one side, you can make it 100% strong. If you train it on both sides, you will make your both arms 50% equally strong. Since you may only have chance to use your head lock once in combat, it's better to have a 100% strong head lock than to have 50% strong head lock (even if you can apply it on both sides).

[GETHIN]

Ouote:
EarthDragon
GETHIN
please be advised there called Nunchaku, not numcucks. If you are going to use this primitive farming tool for MA you should at least know how to pronunce and spell it. just an FYI
Unquote.
.................................................. .................................................. ............................
Thanks Earth Dragon, ... I've called them 'Shaung jie gun' here for so long I didn't think many people would recognize that.
As for primitive farming - that's all I've ever seen in China... kinda goes well with my HD's then !:)

[Mike Patterson]

We train both sides initially for any and all drills with an emphasis on discovery of any weakness to which we then advocate trying to bring the weak side up to a level of competency.

Both the Hsing I (xingyi) and the Pa Kua (bagua) we practice does most things bilaterally to develop the ability to switch guard, footchange and/or "pyan" shift offline in relation to the attack in order to attain flank advantage, etc.

But as one progresses and discovers the inevitable, which is in agreement with YKW, we will tend to "specialize" this or that skillset to the more comfortable side of the body.

So after awhile, we all find our preferences and that begins to shape the remainder of our continued training. Essentially, once enough experience is gained, we yield to individuality dictated by both the body and mind of the practitioner.

Hsu Hong Chi (Xu Hong Ji) used to like to say; "Not everyone is a size nine shoe." :)

[diego]

I like to train different moves for different sides. This way, I can train twice as many moves than trying to train the same move on both sides. You may train "general" moves on both sides but you should only train your "door gurding" moves on one side only. If you look at the following picture, there is a mark on his right foot that you don't see that on his left foot. You can tell that there are certain skills that he only trains on his right leg but not on his left leg.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7986/changbite1.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7640/changbite.jpg

what is that from?

[Lee Chiang Po]

Training to fight from either side so to speak is a battle field inovation. If you are fighting a single opponent, you can afford to put your best foot forward, but when you are in a situation where you may be faced with many, and from different directions, you really need to be able to respond from either side equally. It is a simple matter of survival on the battle field. In todays world, and especially if you train a martial art simply for the novelty or fun of it, there is no immediate need to train both sides equally, but it would not be a bad thing.
Having said that, I personally trained harder from the left side because my right was dominent. I want equal use from both sides, but even after years of left on training I am still right dominent to the greater extent.

[YouKnowWho]

what is that from?

A SC master taught his student how to "bite" in ground game. The old man trained "head lock" and "leg twist" on his right side only.

[donjitsu2]

How does you guys train? Do you practice techniques only on your dominant side? Do you practice only the Right side? Do you practice techniques on both sides equally?

What are the ins and outs to training the different ways. I have seen many Northern Shaolin forms that are right hand dominant. Hung Gar forms are mostly ambidexterous. Which method do everyone preffer?

ginosifu

Train both sides for sure. There's a pretty decent tactical advantage to being able to easily switch between the two.

[Taixuquan99]

I find that I'm just a different fighter using one lead than the other, different moves are most natural, etc. It's been interesting to me how that developed.

On another note, I think that one should develop both leads. You never know when you go in to do a throw that's a step through, the other guy manages a good escape, and suddenly, your other lead is in there.