lau gar semi contact woth doing????

[THREE EYED LAU]

lau gar being about the most popular style in britain theres a lot of comps and as a beginner is it worth entering a semi contact comp and useing techniques that may not be usefull in a street situation??????

[lau gar]

I am in the same position apart from already doing it for 3 years.
I am thinking of quitting and practicing self defense moves at home with heavy bag + focus mitts.
Point sparring is quite fun and will help with speed and going for the target but u may develop bad habits.
Under jeremy yau's system (i suppose thats what u mean) you will learn a few self defense techs in the curriculum. But they are pretty unrealistic.

[THREE EYED LAU]

im trying to find the time to study lau gar between working and other stuff but sometimes i wonder if i would be better studying another style. as for the death squad a few of my teachers have met them in competition and had a lot of good things to say. what do u think of scotland lau gar ive heard a few things that are not 2 good

[AndyM]

Originally posted by THREE EYED LAU
im trying to find the time to study lau gar between working and other stuff but sometimes i wonder if i would be better studying another style. as for the death squad a few of my teachers have met them in competition and had a lot of good things to say. what do u think of scotland lau gar ive heard a few things that are not 2 good

Hi Gordon,

I'm no longer a member, but I'm quite willing to answer any questions you may have about Scotland Lau Gar. There are reasons why you may have heard bad things about them, but you'd do better to check them out for yourself seeing as they are on your doorstep so to speak.

As for point fighting. It is just a game or a sport. It requires skill, but it was never meant to develop skill for Self Defence.

[Ben Gash]

Also, semi contact will give you certain tools for self defence, such as timing, fitness, aggression etc. The trick is not to fall into the trap of believing that it's the be all and end all.

[Sasha]

Personally I only spar semi or light contact, but I try and do some conditioning and bag/pad work in the hope of finding a happy medium between learning to defend myself reasonably well, but not ending up with Parkinson's before I hit 40.

[Colin]

If you are relatively new to Lau Gar then you can learn alot from entering semi-contact competitions.

It is an opportunity to hit & be hit!
Something many styles seem to do little of.

Only DO NOT think that competition is all there is to Lau Gar. It is only one small aspect of it, and is only participated in by a relatively small % of Lau Gar students.

LG. The self defence techniques in Lau Gar are in every technique.
If you are referring to the arm/kick blocks then yes they are basic techniques. Taken from the forms to enable beginners to learn some simple skills.
They are not the definitive "be all-&-end all" of self defence but only a beginning.

All the movements of each form should be explored for application and variation.
To learn only form then say it cannot be applied shows only a lack of experience & knowledge.

LG if you have 3 years in the system, you should be getting an understanding that the forms are a dictionary of movements.

You do not fight using specific sections of the forms, but use the knowledge gained from practice, and the way techniques interact with each other to react to what ever situation is thrown at you.

It would be a shame to give up after 3 years, instead why not ask your instructor for what you want from training..

cheers
Colin...........

[phoenix-eye]

I'm with Scotland Lau Gar - Dundee.

I've been around the block with various instructors and can safely say that the chief instructor Graham McKenzie is right up there with the best as far as I am concerned. The other good thing is that the organisation doesn't try to bleed you dry of cash as some are known to....

You should be aware that although the curriculum is still largely based on Jeremy Yau's - Graham is a student of Kwong Wing Lam in USA. (not from his videos......he trains in person in USA) and Sifu Lam came over to teach us last year.

Graham has been certified by Sifu Lam to teach us the basic Hung Gar syllabus. It is therefore true to say that you could have access to both Lau Gar and Hung Gar if you join a Scotland Lau Gar club.

It is not for me to promote or denigrate any club or association. All I can say is that I am more than happy with my choice.

As AndyM says - try it for yourself. There is an open championship in Greenock on March 16 - if you want to see our standards and how things are run then come along. I can get you entry form if you want.

As for points sparring - I don't like it and think its more like a game of tig. However, we also do light continuous. Each of these is taught in a seprate class in Dundee so you only do what you want to do....

[AndyM]

Hi PE,

Is there a forms section at that Tourney?

I might fancy showing some of you guys up

(Too old n creaky to do points you see)

While you mention Graham McKenzie though, Graham was always the most respected and senior student within SLG. He also had the most instruction from John Gwilt.
John graded to BB before he ever stepped onto a competition mat, but within months was kicking the stuffing out of people in the -65k category who had been there for years. John also fought San Shou in China as well.
He was ranked to third degree BB by J.Yau before things went horribly wrong.

All the best

Andy

[phoenix-eye]

Hi Andy

Yup - there's a forms section. Hand (split into grade categories) and Weapons (open grade).

I'll be doing Hung Gar forms - Gung Gee Fook Fu in hand forms and Monkey King Staff in weapons. It would be good to see you there......(and to see who shows who up........)

I've been working on GGFF with Graham - its an absolute marathon but cool as...

Would you be doing some Wing Chun stuff? It would be nice to see some other KF styles other than the usual tae kwon do, freestyle

I'll also be going in for the light continuous sparring if I can get away from my work enough to get fit.

I've heard about John Gwilt and know he was one of the top fighters some years ago. I know John was previously involved in some of the admin and gradings side of things for SLG but I have not met him.