Does Kung Fu really work on the street?

[Vince D.]

From the experiences I have had out on the street,which has been a lot, I have noticed that when faced with a situation the martial artist or "Kung fu man" usually tends to freeze not knowing what to do because he/she has never been faced with a real combat situation like that before. The first couple of times, when learning Kung fu, that I have faced a situation like this I found myself feeling very helpless. After studying for a while with my Sigung he started getting into it more and more. See, you have to learn not to think about who wins or loses, and you cant be afraid of getting hurt, cause yea, it happens. Instead you must realize that the fear and all that adrenaline that you are feeling is a good thing, and you must use that to your advantage. The next time I found myself getting in a fight on the street, since I have had some experience before, I was more relaxed I mean yea I was still afraid but I knew deep down inside that I could take this guy out. All of a sudden he attacked but since I was more relaxed,not caring what the outcome was, I found myself just flowing right in there putting a quick end to my opponent. It seemed that it was all of my basic instinct along with control because I hardly remember what I did but I was still standing. So I think that as long as you gain experience and learn to use fear and adrenaline to your advantage,and also have a very calm attitude towards this, your Kung fu training or any for that matter will come in handy. WHAT DO YOU THINK? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img] dewald_vincent@hotmail.com

Vincent Paul DeWald

[MonkeySlap Too]

I've never known a properly trained Kung Fu man to 'freeze'.

I am a big beleiver in luck. The more I work, the more luck I have.

[Water Dragon]

Key phrase being "properly trained" [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Although there are many styles, they all depend on the strong beating the weak and the slow falling to the quick. These are not related to the power that must be learned -- Taiji Classics

[jojitsu27]

The first fight I got into after about a year of Wing Chun.....I got creamed. I fought this big 18 year old kid who outweighed me by 70lbs.
I basically tried to stand there and mount a simultaneious attack/defense without knowing any advanced footwork and he creamed me with mere boxing hooks.
Eventually, I learned over the years to make my Wing Chun alive and combat effective, and learning the advanced footwork helped.
A kung fu style is going to give you what you are willing to put into it. If you want to research what really works and see if your style can offer it to you, then you will have a combat effective Kung Fu style.
-jojitsu27

[Vince D.]

That is so true! That is what I learned after getting torn up in a fight on the street. My art of Kajukenbo is very good for the street though. That is why it is called the perfected art of dirty streetfighting. Because in a streetfight you do whatever you can to get out of there alive!

Vincent Paul DeWald

[Rolling Elbow]

My only contribution here is to think MOVEMENT ALL THE TIME...hit while you move and in transit to another hit...a moving target is hard to hit...people get creamed in part when they freeze up and stop moving or move away from everything...be strong in your movement and have your balance where you want it..if you get ko'd along the way- it isn't like it wasn;t going to happen anyway when you stood there and froze lol.

Michael Panzerotti
Taijutsu Nobody from the Great White North..

[Tekarius]

Speaking of street fighting, do you guys train muscle memory training? For example: for about half an hour, you and your partner punch and block.

[reemul]

What I want to know is, what kind of kung fu have you experienced "on the street" Shaolin(most likely not) or one of the many hundreds of styles of kung fu, or someone who just says they know kung fu. when I spar with other styles like JKD or other so called reality hybrids I tend to have an advantage, based on their lack of understanding
of what Shaolin Kung fu systems consist of. Most of the time I am likened to contemporary Wushu and greatly underated, thus the advantage. Even after their initial shock and they step it up a notch, I find myself more than adequently trained to deal with it.

So in the end, as it has been said so many times,
it is not the system that is at fault, it is the practioners inability to apply it.[img]BigGrin[/img]

[JerryLove]

"After studying for a while with my Sigung he started getting into it more and more."

So you stopped studying under your teacher to study under *his* teacher?

[Vince D.]

IN MY ART WHICH IS KAJUKENBO, ONCE YOU HAVE REACHED 9TH DEGREE, YOU ARE QUALIFIED AS A SIGUNG.

Vincent Paul DeWald

[T]

Bottom line guys, if you want to be a good fighter - it's simple - FIGHT. Do not spend endless time on techniques, speed drills etc. - "FIGHT". However, being a long term martial artist with boxing skills and real street experience, fighting should not be the sole reason as to why we all study the arts - but we all know this.

[nickle]

i want to know what you people think about "fighting" firstly do you mean sparring? (ie a controlled enviroment) or actual street fighting?

secondly im going to assume you mean sparring, since getting into as many fights as possible will just give you a disfigured face. do you think that there should be a progressive approach to sparring (one hand... no feet... only feet... various ranges... etc) or should you start out on a chaos theory basis? also what do you think of using gear to spar... like gloves and pads and stuff...
ciao

-specialization is for ants-

[T]

First of all my post was intended to be somewhat facetious. Secondly, my point was, if you want to obtain better skills in a particular area whether that being sparring, forms or the real thing you should do just that. They all require very different experience and training, therefore we should never compare our sparring skills to the real thing or vise versa. Speaking from paest experience not handed down knowledge

[realkungfubrasil]

Hi fellows,
Yeah I believe so. At leaste, real traditional kung-fu, teached as a martial art not as one more silly combat-sport. What we practice here in our kwoon (Choy Li Fut + Xing-Yi) is very effective and all the movements have been teste in the reality of Rio in the last 20 years (I'm not joking). Unhappylessly the majority of the kung-fu schools in Brasil (90% of them have false si-fus, mother-****ers that bought their title in Hong Kong paying 5000 US$) don't know real kung-fu, so they peach katÃ*s (forms) and "fight"like ina kick-boxing ring tournament. This is ridiculous. Our styles means effectiveness + stances + hands-free (no gloves, urgh!!!) + traditions + a code of honour and sense of justice. I've been in several real situations and I'm still talking with you. I hope all the kung-fu students becomes again kung-fu fighters and keeps rise and up the traditional kwoons and styles.
Tahnks for the attention,
Long Live for our brave History!
Bruno

[HuangKaiVun]

I've never had to get into a streetfight, and kung fu is a big reason why.

Knowing how to avoid trouble altogether is the most important lesson of kung fu - and the ultimate means of "self defense".