modern verses traditional

[jmd161]

Originally posted by GLW
That WOULD be traditional...but virtually no one does that anymore.

Training would be 6 days a week or 7. Traditional training meant 2 to 3 hours in the morning and another 2 to 3 hours in the evening...and life in between.

Anyone know anybody outside of China that actually does that much AND has a job.

Well that's true not many do train that way anymore.But there are schools that do still train very hard.My class is only once a wk saturday ,but it's 6-8 hrs long.My sifu teaches us the exact same way he learned Black Tiger from Grandmaster Wong Cheung.

jeff

[Brad]

Errr......that may be your experience but I think the "traditionalist" or one who is taught and trained in a traditional manner who did nothing but stance work and basic drills for their first year would not agree with you, me thinks.

I don't know, I think these guys(the ones that have been around awhile at least) would realize they're special cases... if you take into account everyone who claimed to be traditional. I'd say there's a difference between training a traditional style and training traditionaly.

[Lowlynobody]

I don't know, I think these guys(the ones that have been around awhile at least) would realize they're special cases... if you take into account everyone who claimed to be traditional. I'd say there's a difference between training a traditional style and training traditionaly.

I certainly agree to that.

[Jabb]

Originally posted by Dai Yoshida
Hung Gar, Choy Lay Fut and Wing Chun; styles considered rare and exotic in China is the most popular style in the US.

Excuse me? Those styles are among the most KNOWN styles in Southern-China and are widely respected throughout China. According to statics, 1/3 who practise CMA in Asia practise CLF/Hung ga (statics are inaccurate though).

Don't know where did you get this info, but I think it doesn't make sense.

[GLW]

In CHINA, Wing Chun is a little known style. It is known primarily because of Bruce Lee. It is considered nonmainstream and a bitoff the beaten path.

Choy Li Fut is not widely seen either. It is viewed more as a hybrid and a bit unusual.

Hung Gar is more widely known. However, there are many vairants of Hung Gar - Hong Jia Quan.... Most of those outside of China tie their Hung Gar to Wong Fei Hong and his vairant. That is only one of about 30 branches.

There is a lot of diversity there and the Wong Fei Hong branch is more widely seen outside of China than in.

In fact, the contemporary Nanquan routine attempted to bring together the common features of all of the Hong styles into a single routine. Then, the adde some quicker stepping to make it a bit more interesting. After all, watchina a person doing the breathing parts of a routine for 3 minutes is BORING...and some really do that....

there are even books published in Hong Kong claiming to be Choy Li fut that are NOT. Two I have seen are routines with Madame Wang Jurong doing routines from Wang Ziping (drawings of course) but claiming to be Choy Li Fut.

[firepalm]

Jabb, what statistics do you speak of? GLW is right, if you spend any amount of time in China (not just Guangzhou or Hong Kong), then you would find the southern styles of CLF & Wing Chun are relatively unheard of. Even in Taiwan such styles are a minority.

Most persons in western countries (North America in particular) have had their (limited) view of CMA shaped by the Cantonese brands of Kung Fu as those were styles introduced initially in the west either by way of Cantonese immigrants (via Hong Kong & Canton) or Hong Kong Kung Fu flics.

[Jabb]

Dam* Im stupid... never should say anything unless I REALLY know about it..

Anyway, it was some static in some kungfu site, not very reliable source

[NorthernMantis]

Originally posted by SaMantis
IMO, contemporary & traditional wushu spring from the same root: basics, basics, basics.

If a contemporary instructor doesn't stress basics enough, the forms, no matter how flowery or acrobatic, don't look good. It's the same for traditional. And because both "ways" build upon common basics, a traditional student can transition to contemporary and vice versa.

There's 1 positive thing I've seen from contemporary wushu: because it has been developed as a modern sport, coaches have been able to move past traditional trappings (i.e., "don't lift weights," etc.) and find better approaches to maximum performance.

Quite the contrary. Traditional martial arts also uses diefferent forms of weight lifting.

[WinterPalm]

My teacher is a traditional one and he focuses hard on stances and correct form. SOme students without any previous experience do basic stance training for a year or more before moving onto a form. However, Sifu still allows these students to participate in one on one training, drills, sparring, and self defense technique training.