Any Choy lay fut people here cross train in Chen tai chi? helped your choy lay fut at all?
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Any Choy lay fut people here cross train in Chen tai chi? helped your choy lay fut at all?
I took up Chenjia at the recommendation of my Bak Hok teacher who thought that it complemented his system nicely, although another teacher who taught CLF and Hop ga thought it was a bad influence for our type of training. One of my si-hing who also trained in Chen would sometimes practice it in our school, but only when sifu wasn't there. These very different attitudes toward Chen style are a little surprising, coming from two teachers of closely related systems, but I think I am beginning to understand.
I have been practicing Chen style for 18 years and it has given me a lot of pleasure. Technique-wise it's basic longfist--nothing special. I play mostly with the paau cheui and sometimes teach the abbreviated "linked steps" form to my CLF and Hop ga students. My White Crane teacher felt that it had helped him solidify his "waist power," although the structure of the two systems is quite different. Choy Lei Fut is actually very close in application to Chenjia taijiquan and I see no problem with cross training these. CLF has plenty of "fa jing" and "chan si jin" so nothing new there, but sometimes a different approach to training helps to integrate the concepts.
From my experience, CLF is actually better for overall fitness and for learning fluid, adaptive technique that works well in sparring. Both systems are excellent for expressing power.