Is Cholayfut the best style for practical fighting??
Well, it has been my experience that is is. I am an assistant instructor at a Choylayfut kung fu school in ft. Lauderdale, Fl., and out of all my years there, and out of all the countless national and international tournaments I have been to with my school, our style has always dominated. And I'm not necessarily saying just our school, but all Choylayfut schools with reputable teachers. Wing Chung, Wah Lum, and especially Japanese styles have been unsuccesful. I'm not saying anything negative about them, they all have there good points, but when it comes to sparring they can't contend to the fast, powerful long range technique's of this style.
You Haven't Faced Us Yet!
You haven't faced any 8 Step Praying Mantis fighters yet! I know our statements both sound egomaniacal, but you're kinda broad because you assume that no other style will do well. Try and mix things up a little!
Best is a very hard thing to find....
In a recent tournament my Longfist Praying Mantis school competed in an inter-style tournament. Combatants represented our school, another praying mantis school (not longfist like ours), a few Kenpo groups, a few shotokan groups, and numerous TKD schools. Needless to say, the TKD schools did not fare very well....in fact i dont think a single one placed...especially when it came to sparring. The tournament (which was actually held by a TKD organization) was "dominated" by the kara-te, kenpo and kungfu schools.....and this wasnt even us at our best. This, like so many tournaments, put restrictions on excessive force and "illegal" actions suchas joint locks....of which we all know is a large part of kungfu styles. My biased opinion would be that eventually a kungfu man would win out against others, regardless of the style, given enough training. You may be dominating simply because youre students are better trained and more prepared for the contest than those of other schools....and not necesarily because of overwhelmingly better techniques. The martial art is just a group of movements. It is the artist who brings it to life...and it is they who are responsible for victory or defeat.
Just my two cents,
LongfistMantis [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]