Law Clansman?!

Hey, Sifu Albright, do you still read this board?
I was hoping that I could get the URL to your homepage again, so that I may see the full list of 7 star forms. We've got a few listed in our testing schedule for our class, but no comprehensive list, including chinese and english, such as your's.
If you no longer post here, could you please drop me a line at yanki77@excite.com ? Thanks again for all your help. By the way, I finished Sup Say Lo; and I'm supposed to start another form soon, I just remembered the end of the name of the form had "toe fa"- was wondering if I could find out which one it is.

Thanks again
Eric

Sorry, forgot to mention, that Lost_Disciple = YaNKi77

Hello there LD
I think I can help you with SIFU ALBRIGHT'S website just type http://7starmantis.com that should get you to his web site. I do hope that he does come back to this forum.

If not I guess we can e-mail our questions.

PEACE
LESTAT 33

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LESTAT 33

[This message has been edited by LESTAT33 (edited 03-09-2000).]

Sifu Albright

i noticed that you're mantis has many forms. Wouldn't it be quite a rushed job trying to learn them all in one life-time?

Is it becasue that in your lineage each sifu adds like 1/2 a dozen forms to the system that's why you have all these forms to learn today?

Greetings Lost Disciple and Lestat,
I'm back after being locked out of the fourm for a while. Had to re-register again to get back in.

Fu Manchu,
A lot of the form info was covered in the post "greetings from a mantis sifu". So check that out first. I don't want to rehash the same info. The number of forms one choses to learn is a personal one. There forms will remain there weither we choose to learn them or not. I have not added any forms nor taken any away. In answer to the question about who added new forms to the style, the main creator/adopter/adapter/modifier of many forms was Law Gwong Yuk. As a result of his involvement in the Jing Mo association, many non mantis forms were added and then "mantisized" for the seven star style. Other forms are speciality forms that relate to kicks, chinna, drunken tech, advance uses of the principles and new combinations of techniques. Although it would take quite a long time to learn 100 plus sets, that is for "bearers of the style" to do. It is not expected of the average student. Additionally, only 30 hand forms are actually required to be a sifu in my association.

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Sifu Carl

Hi!!
Thanks again for all the help you've given me, I really appreciate it!
The increased veggies, and healthier eating is helping. I haven't lost too much weight yet, but breathing isn't as hard as it used to be, and my energy levels are up.

As far as practise, I've been practising when I can. Too much practise and I get sore, too little and my forms look bad & class becomes harder. I do some stance breathing, ie concentrating on "in through the nose, fill up the tan tien, out through the mouth" while in horse stance, forward stance, and crane stance. I have a copy of Lee Kam Wing's book; I looked at the 18 hands of Lohan, but I think I will wait until someone teaches me that form. Playing with Chi Gung is like playing with a loaded gun. Lately, when I practise, I try to do a little stance work, a little stretching, and a lot of forms work. I had a more physical practise routine going for a little while; but it often left me too sore to be effective in class. I would really like to be practising kicks outside of class, though- practising outside of class seems to make my kicks a lot better, but again I'm afraid of getting too sore.

In late August I have to go back up to Lubbock. I'm really dreading it. Lubbock is a flat cotton growing town, 5 hours drive from anything. One thing that is close to Lubbock is Amarillo. Amarillo is pretty famous for No Holds Barred and Toughman contests. Chances are, if I go back up to lubbock, I won't be practising for 8 months. Should I try to enroll in one of those Toughman or NHB contests as a goal to stay in shape? I know the risk for injury is pretty high, but I'm about 5'10, 235 and I do pretty well in class sparing. I can't see how the added intensity would be bad for learning how to apply the martial arts techniques that I'm learning, but I don't think I'm qualified to make that decision. I figure I will ask my sifu sometime soon, but I was curious for your input.

Thanks again, as always!

[This message has been edited by Lost_Disciple (edited 03-13-2000).]

LD,

Remember that muscle weighs more than fat. So if you are working out more, you may not lose any pounds for a while but you will start to look better as well as feel better.
I don't think it's such a good idea to go into the toughman. I did it in Kentucky in 1977 and a lot of people got hurt. Not only from the contest but from the training as well. What you need to do is start finding things that motivate you to practice. Some people watch a martiaal art movie that they really like and that gets them jump started. Or a video of your classmates may hep you to remember that when you see them again, you want to be on top of things. It's not easy when you are away from your regular training area.

Do try to set aside the same time each week to practice. That is better than practicing only when you feel like it. Then the regular practice sessions will become a habit and your body will crave the sessions.

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Sifu Carl

Thanks for the idea!!
I think I'm going to steal my dad's video camera the last month or so before I have to go up to school. I figure I can probably get a decent tape of the Tai Chi Legacy Tournament; some random class stuff, and if I'm lucky maybe sifu will put a little extra something on there. I got a ton of kung fu movies, at least 30. I'm not sure if I will have enough room to bring them to school with me, but I realize now what a valuable investment they are. You're right, everytime I watch a kung fu movie, within an hour or so, I'm stretching out, running through kicks, stances, and basics.
I got an offer to work out in Lubbock with a Jujitsu/vale tudo guy- who also digs those tournaments; and I think I might take him up on it. Training's easier with a partner, and I think learning a bit of his grappling style will help me defend against it. I will take your advice, and stay out of the ring. Some of my sihings brought up an idea and I think I might join them on it, according to them, sifu said he had no problem with it. They were going to go around to different schools in the area (namely Shaolin-Do) and look into some sparring sessions. I could conceivably keep that up when I go back to Lubbock, to keep me sharp. There's quite a few Japanese and Korean schools in Lubbock, but almost no Chinese.

Will you be going to Baltimore this summer?
One more thing, if you don't mind me asking, what's your favorite form?

You've been awesome help in dissuading my insecurities about kung fu and I'm really in debt to you.
Thank you very much

L.D.
I would like to go but it is hard for me to get away. My favorite form is the seven star double hammers. As far the hand forms go I have no real favorite but Bung Bo is the one I practice most.

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Sifu Carl

Sparred this weekend.
I kept leading with my elbows on blocks instead of letting my hands lead- throwing the elbow toward the strike first. This was a lot slower, it consistantly took protection away from my head, and it opened up huge holes around my ribs & gut. I need to go back over some of the basic blocks (pak sau, kwa, etc) to get them quicker, stronger, and more comfortable; I also need to build up my reaction time. My reflexes are pretty slow. I also realized that I often practise with my hands at shoulder level, instead of protecting my face, or striking at face level. This was especially evident when I tried dil sao. I think the preferred method would have been to come from a guard protecting my face, down & across with the block and the pluck. Instead I tried a low, sweeping dil sau, trying to come up, from under his punch. I took too long, and ended up getting punched so hard my mask slammed into my face, busted my lip and gave me a bloody nose. My pride was hurt much worse than my body- I'd nail him with some good shots, then I step back to give him a break, *boom*, he hits me once and I gotta stop; nail him again with good shots, step back, then *boom*, I gotta quit and clean up the blood off the floor.
I think I need to learn to stay on the attack. I wouldn't have had to rely so heavily on protecting myself if I'd just stayed on him when I was nailing him. His glasses started falling off though, which made me hesitate.

One thing I am glad about is that, even before I had to switch to "body-only" (because my head gear was so bad)- I wasn't doing your typical punch-kick kickboxing sparring match. I was using the crane punches (hammer fists, pau choi, heng choi, etc), trying to sneak in ng low choi (which usually ended up being dil sao-punch), beng choi, and trying to use different techniques from my forms. I guess I'm not that quick though, because my sifu was telling my opponents to use me to get used to fighting a heavy opponent, and pretty much telling me to push them out of the ring- kinda hurt my feelings. heheh

Do you have any recommendations? I've been using the techniques I practise a lot (you recommended 10, I don't know that i have that many). I guess I need some reaction/quickness building drills.

PS- my dai si hing did the double hammers at the last seminar for sifu fogg; it's an awesome looking form- it looks like it'd make you real strong.

L.D.

Take it easy, remember that you are ghetting back into shape. So don't beat yourself up about the results of sparring. It soon will get better for you but you can't expect to go from zero to sixty in so short of a time.
To help with your hand techniques, try some basic drills with a partner attacking you over and over so you can nail the timing down.

Yes the GOOD hammers get you in shape. The ones commonly available are somewhat lighter than the combat steel. Those are what you want (combat steel) if you want to practice this set. But they are getting harder to find.
Keep up the good work. Remember that getting some lumps is all part of the practice. More practice = less lumps.

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Sifu Carl

Thanks! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Private lessons on Tuesday this whole subject came up. Sifu's advice was "do your forms over and over again. Make sure you're doing them with some power. Make sure your hands and feet are always in the correct position. Make sure you're not dancing. By doing your forms you can increase your speed, wind, endurance, strength, reflexes, balance, timing, and improve your over all fighting. Your basics aren't good. If your basics are terrible, you can go all over the place, studying a lot of different stuff and it won't matter, because it won't have a good foundation."

My ego was a bit deflated at first, but he's really got a good point. I can come up with a bunch of reflex drills; but if I just do my forms, then it'd probably pay off higher dividends in the long run. My biggest problem with my forms is displaying solidness, displaying power. I'm a big guy, so it shouldn't be hard, but it is. When I was younger, I weighed a lot less, it was a lot easier to move around. Now if I throw everything into a punch, something's going to hyper extend or get injured somehow. I know this will come with time though; so I'm just going to keep trying. Thanks for all the help you've given me. Now I just need the patience to just keep sticking with it.

Take care
Eric