Originally Posted by
Piercinghammer
Another note:
Many people have mentioned the Stone warrior exercise. Where did it come from etc. That was completely made up by John Allen. Circa 1978 was when it first started to be taught. It is take off of many master Ong type exercises and other things picked up and stuck together. To make mention that Allen had studied with Master Ark Wong is a fabrication. I personally know some of his students and they have no knowledge of this and Ark Wong's grandson does not recognize Allen in way. In 1980 Allen made the Claim that he possessed over 80% of the Hung gar system, why not just do Iron wire if you wanted a dynamic tension set.
Knowing these guys, it just goes with being mysterious and rare, the big selling point. They and they alone have the secret teachings of old, and for $69.95 you can also learn the cross section of these rare systems.
I have news for you, take that to Philadelphia or Chicago's Chinatown and start pushing it to the locals
and see how long it takes before you meet up with a couple young men fresh off the boat, that think your making fun of them. See what happens.
Funny story: I am friends with a guy who had studied At Green Dragon years ago. His thing was White eyebrow.
He finished his schooling and moved away from the area. Ended up in of all places Chattanooga Tenn.
For those of you who do not know, there was a for years a nice little Chinese restaurant in that town, the people who ran that restaurant where "for real" White eyebrow folks. My friend found out about it and made it a point to introduce himself. He was invited to visit the class and with excitement he did. He was asked to show the class one of his White eyebrow sets. He did, at least gave part of the opening gestures. He said all he remembers is the group of students that where there, making loud hoots and he was knocked unconscious. He said that he woke up in the trash dumpster outside the back door and the door was locked.
Moral to the story. Be careful what you learn and who is teaching you. when I hear the words "large cross section of rare sets", I do not what to learn anything from that person. Something as simple as the opening gestures of a form done incorrectly shown to a group of hard core people who have spent their lives doing it, can be taken as an insult.
How are you to know? Do I really want to trust learning a set correctly from somebody teaching over 300 sets from I don't know how many styles. That is ridiculous!