Need help for what martial art to do next.

[MonkeySlap Too]

4. You can test your WC in live fire practice right away in a sincere enviornment - at least if it is like MMA schools I've visited. Build off your base.

[SimonM]

Go with 1 or 4. Stay away from the "shaolin" school. It don't look too good.

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

how about refining your skills by taking up open hand vs. various weapon forms? it'll at least teach you how not to use a weapon improperly...

[SimonM]

Uh... YZDZ... I generally avoid being a grammar cop but why not just say "how to use a weapon properly". Double negatives make my marking fingers itch. Also which school are you advocating exactly?

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

4. You can test your WC in live fire practice right away in a sincere enviornment - at least if it is like MMA schools I've visited. Build off your base.

(ooh, where'd that kid go?) and combine that with iron shirt /iron palm training and some hot lead...

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

Uh... YZDZ... I generally avoid being a grammar cop but why not just say "how to use a weapon properly". Double negatives make my marking fingers itch. Also which school are you advocating exactly?

ooooh! nicely done, sir. i did seem to brain **** didn't i? use or ommision of double negatives is merely a stylistic indication. it would definately be an indication of regular poor grammar skills if i used them frequently.

well, imo, the hokche tang lang could be a wah lum type school. it will give you a good foundation in cma. if it isn't then you probably could do about as well at the Shaolin 5 animals school. the buk sing school would be a nice compliment to either the shaolin or mantis schools. so i guess it depends on how much class you want to take and from how many schools? good ettiquite should require you to inform the prospects that you are considering them as complimentary instructions and ask if they have preferences for or against dual kwooning or specific stylistic rivalries to be avoided. imo, mantis and wing chun are everywhere. you can find one within reasonable driving distance anywhere in the world. some shaolin and hung gar are rare. i'd check there first. note: in kung fu, a wide midsection on sifu means he twists a lot in his private practice which means he trains for fights against multiple attackers. this is a clf trait. so start with the shaolin guy.

[PangQuan]

I most deffinately would not waste time with that Shaolin school. Its pretty obvious they are not avid practitioners of actual Shaolin Kung Fu. The cyber train at your home is a pretty good indication. You MUST have constant hands on correction to learn a highly developed system of martial art.

As well I would not completely pass by the Austrailian Tai Chi Academy, visit all three. It wouldnt hurt. It may just happen they have an excellent method of thier own, with a healthy environment.

[Mr Punch]

4. You can test your WC in live fire practice right away in a sincere enviornment - at least if it is like MMA schools I've visited. Build off your base.

Yes and no.

It depends on whether they train with 14/16 ozers (which will bugger up half of wing chun's training) when learning stand-up and sparring stand-up, whether they are training elbows (inc from clinch), and whether they can spar with kicks to the knees.

I love my MMA classes but I don't get a chance to try out my wing chun in most of them.

So I'd go 1, if he wants an intro to another CMA with what's probably a good fighting base and 4, if he wants to push his cardio with some good fight-based sports skills.

[Mr Punch]

Pang Quan. Nice motto!

Or is that a quote from Mr Moto?

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

I most deffinately would not waste time with that Shaolin school. Its pretty obvious they are not avid practitioners of actual Shaolin Kung Fu.

there are four main families of shaolin and not all of them look alike, either. there are upwards of seven style of hung gar, all of which call themselves shaolin. there are a total of seven differnt styles of half-kin to Shaolin whai also call themselves shaolin. also remember that there were at one time 18 families of shaolin styles. shaolin encompases a lot of difference. most of the mantis guys will tell you to stay away from shaolin. like the church of scientology of religion many mantis stylists feel they should be the only martial art. another product of yip man's legacy durring the cultural revolution.

[greendragon]

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
MMA (BJJ) is good only for one on one fighting. But even though I dislike this style and it's representative skin heads, it would be the one I would choose. For one reason, if you are attacked on the 'street' it may be by this type of fighter and you will know better how to defend against it. Secondly, you need to learn ground fighting and grappling skills in your arsenal of techniques. I suspect the Wing Tsun was short on that.
Again to emphasize, go for the teacher not the style or the look of the school. I would say look for a Tai Chi school but that may be a waste of time as most are flakey, and it takes TWO years to use it in combat. Choy Li Fut is a quicker study.
Go with MMA.

[SimonM]

there are four main families of shaolin and not all of them look alike, either. there are upwards of seven style of hung gar, all of which call themselves shaolin. there are a total of seven differnt styles of half-kin to Shaolin whai also call themselves shaolin.:

YZDZ the thing is that we went to the website, we looked over their material and it wasn't that it looked different it just looked really sloppy and not at all good.

Hell! My gong fu is nearly all derived from Shaolin (albeit with influence from Mongolian sources) one way or another and I, after looking at that page, said DON'T go to that school. Just saying "shaolin" in the logo of a school does not make it legit.

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

YZDZ the thing is that we went to the website, we looked over their material and it wasn't that it looked different it just looked really sloppy and not at all good.

Hell! My gong fu is nearly all derived from Shaolin (albeit with influence from Mongolian sources) one way or another and I, after looking at that page, said DON'T go to that school. Just saying "shaolin" in the logo of a school does not make it legit.

i certainly agree with you.

i don't have a problem with dvd learning. i wish i had discovered it earlier. i think it is innovative for them to address the issue to people living in the outback. the only really sketchy thing i can see is the cheap graphics. as far as determining which to study based on the pictures on the sites i'd say you have to eliminate first the buk sing site because all there is is basically a history lesson and some data about extras on a set.

okay, i've gone back to that site three or four times now and i guess i'm just now seeing the kinds of things you guys are describing as dodgy. and yeah, i'd stay pretty far from that gang and the people they communicate with. please forgive for bringing up this nasty little bias of mine, again, but there is a couple of krishnamurti hybrids with scientology two of which are organised around martial arts. martial arts good, krishnamurti good, wacko forcing of students into wacko mindsets for professional adaptation (instead of merely noting potential aptitudes)...hey didn't this guy make a court case some years ago? he had to defend himself from charges of being a wacko cult leader preying financially upon his students by getting them to redirect themselves into social and professional spheres where he had influence? the sociologists involved for the gov't of australia concluded he was not wacko and not scientology but just overly concerned with the financial well being of his students. there's a paper on it in Australian Anthropology. a quarterly or annual report of master level theses and informative governmental research. not only did my sifu show it to me but my anthro professors, too. it apeared in a kung fu mag as well.

with that in mind, i'd do buk sing and the tai chi place. there's a lot MMA cannot stand up against in the clf and tcc and mantis avenues. tai chi chuan is stand up grappling. clf is medium to long distance skull crushing. mantis is as technical as shaolin hong and geared for the short to medium distance play.

[PangQuan]

80% of the kung fu i know is Shaolin derived. That school looks like crap and im sticking to it.



Mat: its from some old fu flick. Dont know which one, my elder kung fu brother busted it out one day, its been our moto since.

[SimonM]

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