May be I should call it "sparring club" and not "fighting club". In that club, we had,
- MT guy,
- Hapkido guy,
- TKD guy,
- Okinawa Karate guy,
- Kung Fu guy.
There were no MMA guys back then.
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I am on book four of san guo yan yi about 1800 pages into it so far. A Chinese novel from the early Ming. Praying Mantis references two characters that are in this book.
After having read this book I will probably come to the conclusion that Praying Mantis reference to these two characters, Zhang Liao and Zi Long, were not from San Guo Yan Yi but were from some-now obscure-play of the mid-Ming dynasty.
I have a collection of over 4,000 pages of plays from late Yuan to early-mid Ming with the scripts of all the remaining plays. All written in a combination of classical -songs and poems- and vernacular Chinese-dialogue.
I still will have to comb through this to find Zhang Liao and Zi Long.
Our lineage is as follows.
Wang Lang
Li Bing Xiao
Zhao Zhu
Liang Xue Xiang
Jiang Hua Long
Wang Zhen Gao
Wang Xi Shan
Wang Bai Li ( my sifu )
Me
hey welcome :)
now i will sound harsh but is lineage really that important? :p
It just depends on your goals.
If you want to be able to defend yourself. Nope!
If you want to win forms tournaments or cage matches. Nope!
If you want to represent your particular family's lineage as an instructor. Maybe!
Lineage is kind of a funny thing. It means very little outside of your own particular family. It may even mean little outside of your own school.
When someone walks into most schools, they will be judged more on ability than lineage. I know several people with impeccable lineage who can't fight worth a ****. I also know several people with questionable or no lineage who are awesome fighters and/or teachers.
So, lineage only means as much as the value you and your immediate peers place upon it.
Let me tell you a little "secret" which most people who have been around a while already know. Most Chinese instructors only pretend to respect others of their own family outside their own school. They bicker within their own family and believe that only they have the true teachings. In fact, I can't think of one famous Chinese shifu that I have not heard dirt about by another famous Chinese shifu.
Is it any wonder that non-Asians often act so contentious?
Actually, I think lineage is important. Bagchun mentioned in his lineage that he comes through Jiang Hua Long. That means technique wise I probably have more in common with him than I do a Seven Star person etc.
Also from looking at lineage you can see if somebodys teacher is good or not, or their teachers teacher.
The problem is when lineage becomes more important than skill.........
boom! i think you read my mind :D
that's the thing i don't like about it :o to me it only matters if i think my teacher is good, i don't care about his teacher or teachers teacher...
if his teacher was bad maybe he learned more from it :p
definitely agree with your last point though :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5RU-2eIbKU :eek::eek:
haha i guess this is southern mantis but oh well :p
what do you guys think? couldn't stop laughing :D MANTIS BEAK! FUH FUH FUH FUH!