1 more fighting Clip

[Tainan Mantis]

GBL,
Thanks for going to the trouble of finding another clip.
I have thought about what I wrote and your response.

Some may disagree, but I think it was a good exchange, at least for me.
It has helped me crystalize my thoughts on how I feel about intensity.
I feel it is everything.

I went back to my Musashi's BOOK OF FIVE RINGS book to see what he wrote on the subject.

Here are a few excerpts.

"the reason true warriors are fierce is because their training is fierce"

"You must practice with the intensity of real life situations or it becomes a game and you can easily be beaten."

"Even in practice sessions you must have the attitude of going in for the kill"

This from a famous Japanese swordsman circa late Ming dynasty who was well known as a man never beaten in one on on matches with the sword.

As for the clip, I liked this one much better.
Especially the second takedown.

Like Winter said, there is some brawling, but hey, that is what happens when someone is trying to knock your block off.

[Oso]

wooohaaaaa.....and props for sparring (and falling) on the hard floor.

[Oso]

Tainan,

First off, I agree with what you say 100%.

What about the commercial US school? Right now I have a tues/thurs class as a newbie class and a wednesday night class as 'advanced'. On tues/thur I don't force the contact or intensity and make sure my wed night folks play nice. Still trying to build this thing.

My usual route is to make references to wed night and wait for someone to ask about it. Then I tell them that basically it's the same stuff but with a lot higher intensity...they can count on hurting by the end of the night.

Do you feel there is a difference between US schools and Asian schools as far as what the 'average' student will put up with?

I'll readily grant that most US people who even consider martial arts are driven by fantasy and that it is a very small percentage that will actually do what it takes (eat bitter) to become a good fighter.

Do we drive away the 99.9% who don't want to eat bitter?

As a teacher I have a long standing credo that I would rather take a bumbling oaf w/ two left feet and make even a mediocre fighter out of he/she than a student who walks in off the street ready to rumble and make a good fighter out of them. It takes far more effort to do the former.

Would we rather take a top percentage of people and make them only a small percentage better or do we want to try and make something accesible to everyone?

To borrow terminology from the restaurant industry I feel that you need 'front of the house' students and 'back of the house' students.

I think that there is a parallel for the 'inner door' students vs. the regular student here.

anyway, don't know why the long post, just kinda rolled off the fingers....

Musashi says "Go In"

[Tainan Mantis]

Oso,
A deep question likely deserving of its own thread.

I have to think a bit.
One point to ponder.

Sportsman in the US today are 100% full on intensity.
Their goal is easy to define; winning.

Think highschool football practice for a start.
Other team sports too.

[German Bai Lung]

Hi Kevin,

yeah, that´s why we are here: to have some good exchanges and think about our way of PM!

I also was thinking about what you said. And I see your position and why you want to say that in the way you did!

Intensity is probably the most important thing in training of the MAs. I always told the students to work on that, when performing forms, doing drills etc.

But the Beginner always starts with the lack of intensity and it makes no sense to let him train that, before he is not able to perform correct in low speed and to see through the techniques.

But I agree with you: at some point there MUST be only training with high intensity in fighting.

So, I am always willing to learn...

[cerebus]

I always like seeing GBL's clips. You can't just have full-contact sparring all the time. People get too injured to train that way. GBL's students seem to get plenty of quality sparring training, both light-contact and hard-contact. I wish more Kung Fu schools trained their students this well. Keep up the good work!

[MantisCool]

Hi! Bai Lung

Nice of you to share your clips. Like the others said it is short of intensity. Just a little intensity will do.

When you hit you should apply a bit to stop your student on his track. In your push kick, it should stop him or pause him so that he would have 2nd thought of simply coming in again. And even though you doesnt want to sweep him down you should got hold of his leg to show him that you can take him down! Then he would not dare to kick you so often. I also noticed that you have landed a lot of touching kicks to his body. These kicks should also applied some intensity to let him be on guard more often. With a bit of intensity, most of the techniques applied would be clearer for others to see.

The second clip has some intensity but a bit chaotic. We should show technique and tactic.

I agree with KUP in the other post that we should show more mantis techniques. Although, I can see some mantis technique from you but there isnt from your student. We should differentiate our fight from those of the others by applying more of our mantis san shou.

[German Bai Lung]

Hi Khoo,

yes you are right. Some things could have done better! But hey: I´m not 79 right now, I will do it next time!

Thanks for your detailed answer. When critics are that smart and thoughtful it´s to the benefit of all! Thats why I posted these clips.

[MantisCool]

Hi! Jochen

Keep up the good work! I believe most of us here always enjoy your clips and pick up a trick or 2 from each. There is always room for improvement for everybody be they young or old.