How Do You Rate Hung Gar As a Fighting Art?

In terms of self defense, street fighting system? I have been training in Hung Gar in hen Zhen china for a while now,and haven't done much fighting with it other then some application training. But i feel this system is the real deal in terms of power and nastiness. In over 20 years of training different martial ARTS,THE SOLO TRAINING IS BY FAR THE MOST REALISTIC. Meaning it feels like i am training for a real fight even when i have no partner to train with.



Any one want to add their experiences. Real fights sparring tournaments

solo training is only one piece in the puzzle. if you have fighing ambition, you HAVE to spent a lot fo time on

a) strengthening and conditioning

b) 2-men training - aplication drills, situational RBSD drills and various forms of sparring, including full-contact

my guys have regular experience having sparring matches with our friends of variosu martial arts/sports background. open mind and cross training is a must.

check out sample of our Hung Ga Kyun training eg. at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvW790KJ9I

(that is a year ago; we are now much better ;-) )

traditional art for today's world!

Weightlifting is also pretty realistic solo training...

Solo training can only get you so far.

In terms of combat there are few arts as vicious as Hung Fist because they are all about just punching, ripping, and really just bullying the crap out of you.

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Originally Posted by wiz cool c

In terms of self defense, street fighting system?
Any one want to add their experiences. Real fights sparring tournaments

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I have been lucky enough to learn hung gar from one of the best in terms of fighting,my first hung gar i learned already 1990 and ever since then i didnt look for any other martial arts,but as with any cma style if you dont train proper you are getting not too far with it...and it was like that,it almost took me 10 years and another sifu before it really came out...As for my experience in fighting,sparring etc
my students fight at sanda tournamets,but since my school is pretty new (since late 2009) we havent had joined too many tourneys...but they are on a good way..
myself I also work as a doorman so i collect experience on a weekly basis :D
a good bridge and conditioned hands are very helpful ,specially when holding/controlling (drunk) people

all my sparring these days comes by shuai jiao
and judo, and have been working some of the hung gar moves from the form and arm bagging with a partner.

Honestly, and I did hung gar off and on for about 5 years, I don’t rate it that much for a couple of reasons

Firstly whilst all those close range fighting techniques feel really powerful and useful when you train them solo and with a partner when you actually spar or watch hung gar guys spar its usually the long arm stuff you see in operation not the close range work that is meant to characterise pre WFH hung gar

Secondly you don’t exactly see hung gar peeps tearing it up on the full contact stage, funny because of the two main southern arts, hung gar and wing chun, neither produces many fighters when you think about the number of people in the styles, where as CLF seems to produce a lot for a relatively small style

Having said all that the man makes the style and hung gar probably could be a good fighting style in the right hands if it is trained properly, ie plenty of sparring and contact work, and judging by the replies on this thread a few schools are doing this so good on them

Hung Gar suits me, so I like it.
It meshes well with how I like to fight.
That said there is a problem with solo training and that problem is that it is done, typically, in "reverse" from what I typically see.

Solo training has its place and its place is AFTER the development of a solid core base WITH TONS of sparring and competitive fighting.
You take THAT and then when you solo train: bag work, dummy work, whatever, you take what you have learned from sparring and fighting and solo train THAT.

Doing solo training before that ( besides strength development and conditioning of course) creates bad habits and unrealistic pathways and sets you up for rude awakenings.

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Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin

Solo training has its place and its place is AFTER the development of a solid core base WITH TONS of sparring and competitive fighting.
You take THAT and then when you solo train: bag work, dummy work, whatever, you take what you have learned from sparring and fighting and solo train THAT.

Doing solo training before that ( besides strength development and conditioning of course) creates bad habits and unrealistic pathways and sets you up for rude awakenings.

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That applies to all TCMA right?

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Originally Posted by CFT

That applies to all TCMA right?

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To ALL MA.

anybody got anything other to say then spar spar spar,everyone knows this already. i have been doing martial arts almost 30 years,have been sparring my whole life. anybody use their techniques in any real fights? or have some deeper thought on the subject, man like a broken record already.

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Originally Posted by wiz cool c

anybody got anything other to say then spar spar spar,everyone knows this already. i have been doing martial arts almost 30 years,have been sparring my whole life. anybody use their techniques in any real fights? or have some deeper thought on the subject, man like a broken record already.

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Dude, its a thread on how one rates HG as a FIGHTING art, what kind of deep thoughts do you need?
LOL !

And for what its worth, some of us had jobs that required using their MA in a "real fight".

Hung Ga is a great training method and is a complex advanced art, but few have the ability to teach it as a fighting art, so it remains largely, a performance art for health or cultural relic.

The torso methods, methods of issuing force, dissolving of force through the stance, closing in, sticking, controlling all require long term teaching and practice to develop a person.

If a person pays attention to Lien Gung and mainly strengthens himself, concentrates on the Kiu Sao and how to enter and control, they will be better than average people in terms of power, and probably stronger than most martial artists.

The danger in Hung Ga is locking into looks, performance, showmanship.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wiz cool c

In terms of self defense, street fighting system? I have been training in Hung Gar in hen Zhen china for a while now,and haven't done much fighting with it other then some application training. But i feel this system is the real deal in terms of power and nastiness. In over 20 years of training different martial ARTS,THE SOLO TRAINING IS BY FAR THE MOST REALISTIC. Meaning it feels like i am training for a real fight even when i have no partner to train with.



Any one want to add their experiences. Real fights sparring tournaments

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Hung works great for me, have never had an issue with the short bridging or striking either, in fact most of my sparring partners have jokingly referred to that area between the shoulders and from head to hips as the "box of death". Most of the statements on the thread ring true to my experience as well, its an advanced art and one needs to work a lot of partner work as well as to be guided properly to really tear into what makes Hung potentially hard to deal with.

Frost, I won 32-35 san shou fights using hung gar (sometimes poorly I admit lol), I don't see the issue with using it. Using the bridgework moving into and out of clinches was extremely effective for making enough space to strike and counter takedowns simultaneously. Reverse punching from the horse into bow stance works great while in close and the style can help one develop a lot of force, many of the hits translate well into wearing boxing gloves if need be.

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Originally Posted by chusauli

Hung Ga is a great training method and is a complex advanced art, but few have the ability to teach it as a fighting art, so it remains largely, a performance art for health or cultural relic.

The torso methods, methods of issuing force, dissolving of force through the stance, closing in, sticking, controlling all require long term teaching and practice to develop a person.

If a person pays attention to Lien Gung and mainly strengthens himself, concentrates on the Kiu Sao and how to enter and control, they will be better than average people in terms of power, and probably stronger than most martial artists.

The danger in Hung Ga is locking into looks, performance, showmanship.

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One of my fellow students asked our Sifu why my Hk is so different than theirs and Sifu said that it was because of all the "baggage" I have from my prior MA, but he also said that is why when we spar I "wipe the floor" with them ( I don't but he was making a point).
He said that my HK will never be pure but because I put function over form it will always work.
As is a teachers right he was critical but he was also correct.

not WHAT you do

it is HOW you do it

Tons of Hung Ga movement and strategy is used all the time in real fighting, but if all you ever do is form or drills in the air, you can't apply it