Need help for what martial art to do next.

[PangQuan]

Holy crap Pang Quan you and I have been like sharing a brain or something lately.

You will be assimilated, resistance is futile.

[SimonM]

lol

[Slade]

I can't believe it hasn't been said yet, choose the teacher not the style. With that comment out of the way, avoid the shaolin, Choy Li Fut is good, traditional, has weapon training and using it you can fight multiple attackers.. where as

Dont worry I always go for teacher first, but I try to aim in the style I want to learn the most while finding a good teacher, traveling distance doesnt bother me overly to get a good teacher.

Secondly, you need to learn ground fighting and grappling skills in your arsenal of techniques. I suspect the Wing Tsun was short on that.

Yeah my Wing Chun falls very short when it comes to grapling. the Chin Na wing chun has is all stand up stuff basicly so it really doesnt help me when I get the the ground that much unless I sorta try to adapt it to that.

Bascily after thinking about it, im seriously considering Choy Lay Fut, because in 5 or so years I was thinking about going to China to train at Shaolin for maybe 1 or 2 years so having more experience in learning forms and animal based forms will seriously help me when I get there I figure, not to mention give me the stance strengthening which I no doubt will need.

As well as doing the Choy Lay Fut, I think im gonna try find a BJJ school near my area with a good teacher, since choy lay fut is only 3 days a week I still have another 4 days to learn BJJ. I usually aim for 5 days a week of training anyway.

[bing bang pow]

Choy Li Fut and Wing Chun were popular in the same area of china and traditionally they were practiced by two rival gangs. They are traditional enemies. I think you should study Cho Li Fut and tell them, when you get there, that Wing Chun is a vastly Superior art. See what happens???? I guarentee you will learn somthing. lol

[bing bang pow]

By the way, I wouldn't be concerned about the weight of the teacher. Mohamad Ali and Sugar Ray leonard were trained by a huge guy named Angelo Dundee who was like 350 lbs and 5 foot 3". FAT! However, he trained some of the greatest fighters in the world. In fact, once you are finished with Choy Li Fut, you might want to walk into the fat guys school and call him a slob. See what happens? You may learn some more. lol

[Mega_Fist]

I would definately go with the shaolin (2) guy. His site is spiritual and he looks like he knows his stuff.

[Yum Cha]

CLF if you don't want to go back to WC, but you want to stay in TCMA. It will spoil your WC.

When I say spoil, I don't mean it negatively, but with what you learn from CLF, it just won't be the same, the principles are too different.

MMA if you want to go for something that compliments your WC, and adds another dimension to your skillset.

There is another Southern Praying Mantis school in Melbourne too...I believe...

[Mr Punch]

CLF if you don't want to go back to WC, but you want to stay in TCMA. It will spoil your WC.

When I say spoil, I don't mean it negatively, but with what you learn from CLF, it just won't be the same, the principles are too different.
...

I disagree.

While they have a lot of opposing principles, if you can 'get' both you can use them very effectively. A lot of people have and do. Look at Lo Man Kam as one example off the top of my head.

[Yum Cha]

Mat (and a very fine name that is too....)

Have you seen Low Man Kam fight? But if indeed you have seen him fight, and not just seen him doing forms from each,

Which stance does he use, tight upright WC, or lower wider CLF?
Does he swing his arms, or push them up the centre line?
Elbows in or out - knees in or out?

While it is probably possible to be able to do both, I'm not a big fan of mix-n-match. Plenty of people are, and I can accept that.

The point I want to make, for what little it may be worth to Slade, is to go for depth, not bredth in training. Learning WC and CLF is learning different ways to do the same thing (striking, bridging, kicking), whereas MMA has the whole grappling angle that WC doesn't include.

Of course, he could do worse than changing from WC to CLF...but from the kinds of workouts he's after, I'd say he'll probably opt for MMA.

Cheers

[Serpent]

I think that CLF school is closed now, so that might make the decision for you! Be sure to let us know here if it's up and running again though.

[Mr Punch]

Sure Yum (and what a fine name that is too!), I appreciate what you're saying about mixing and matching, but from what this guy says he may be able to handle it... some people suit it and some people don't.

As for Lo Man Kam, I've never seen him do forms, or even met him, but I have trained with a couple of his students, and they've shown me some CLF flavoured WC exercises and elements to their chi sao which has been very effective and I still use now (tho without such good effect!).

They use a loose wide somewhat upright wing chun stance (that's got you hasn't it!). Sometimes they swing their arms (but here's another hint, a lot of wingchunners with no CLF influence don't just limit themselves to 'pushing up the centre'!), and sometimes centreline. Sometimes their elbows are in and... (guessed it yet... in my wing chun I was taught not to stick to elbows in all the time!) and sometimes out. And their stances were fairly standard; in the usual stance their front knee was in and their back knee slightly out (though probably 'slightly in' to a CLFer!).

The only thing I can say to you is... look for a Lo Man Kam student, and play with them. It's wing chun, but you'd recognise some of the aspects. I'm not sure but I think Lo learned CLF from childhood before he learned wing chun, which he learned from his uncle Yip Man (so he didn't have a typical MA experience!). Might be wrong bout that tho.

[Slade]

Well for your information I do Tai chi as well as Wushu ATM as well(used to do muay thai), so im quite used to wide stances and dont limit myself to straight line punching at all. I kinda live by the Jeet Kune do Principles so I dont limit myself to a single art and merely use what I find useful, hense why I have a broad range of techniques from many different styles.

BTW I am going to learn BJJ one day, when I get around to it, maybe at the same time as doing this style.

BTW I found a trainer who operates out of Melboune as well i jeet kune dov http://www.jkdacademy.com.au/ Judging by the looks of the trainer they at least the instructor hasnt let himself go and trains hard (At least at gym if not anything else)
Mind you the styles he teaches at Jeet Kune do dont seem to be as broad as at Dan Inosantos Academy. Any thoughts?

Also the offical Jeet Kune Do Federation has one listed in melbourne.
--------------------------------
Michael Tagg
Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do
P.O. Box 81
Carlton South Melbourne,
Victoria Australia, 3053
Email: tstama@hotmail.com
Lineage: Bruce Lee -- Richard Bustillo -- Michael Tagg
--------------------------------

Any thoughts?