Kung Fu effective?

[Samurai Jack]

Actually, when all else is done, I think it's the ability to eat pain that deferentiates the fighter from the hobbiest. Maybe the willingness to dish it out too. I'm surprised at the number of people who seem so reluctant to apply technique in a manner that actually causes pain, but who will take punches and whatnot and come back for more.

[jethro]

God I love to get hit




until the next day when I can't move

[CaptinPickAxe]

It is nice, right? You got to love how you feel like you were in a car accident then gradually it doesn't hurt as much any more....

you know...conditioning?

[dw3041]

Conditioning using heavy blows is a common technique, but you can also condition your body to be able to take hits without going through the process of killing your nerves. Although it takes a bit longer, this is done in some soft styles of kung fu where having lots of feeling in your limbs is important.

[CaptinPickAxe]

Conditioning using heavy blows is a common technique, but you can also condition your body to be able to take hits without going through the process of killing your nerves. Although it takes a bit longer, this is done in some soft styles of kung fu where having lots of feeling in your limbs is important.

Care to explain? The conditioning I'm aware of is Iron Fist/Shirt which still includes blows (albeit softer) to condition skin and bone.

Lot's of feeling in your limbs important only in certain forms of kung fu? Bah, you need sensitivity in everything so you can feel yourself being put in locks and the likes. The only thing that makes kung fu more l337 than everything else is Chi....

and we all know chi blasts are a bunch of crap.

[greendragon]

I vote yes, it helps. I grew up street fighting. More important than ability to take a punch is killer instinct (fighting spirit). You guys that dig pain are sickos, I think there is a different website for you.
CPA you are too over confident and under estimating your oponent could be a big mistake. Also, this may shock you, the ultimate martial art is Tai Chi Chuan. It just takes years to learn with a good teacher to be able to use it well for real.

[dw3041]

Care to explain? The conditioning I'm aware of is Iron Fist/Shirt which still includes blows (albeit softer) to condition skin and bone.

Lots of hard conditioning methods tend to deaden the nerve endings to reduce the feeling of pain. Softer methods of conditioning, such as Cotton Palm, use herbs that help bring the Qi to different areas of the body and help strengthen that area. Other methods are similar to hard conditioning only softer so it takes longer. The benefit of the longer process is that your body has time to actually build up it's strength insted of just losing feeling. By using hard methods you are cutting into the healing time of your nerves and you end up killing them and forming callouses.

One good way to build strength without loosing feeling is to roll your arms or legs across bamboo rods (or even just some wooden dowels). Just make sure not to bruise yourself while doing it. If you do, wait until it heals before doing it again.

[CaptinPickAxe]

I've been rolling PVC pipes full of BBs and Sand down my shins and across my forearms. I also do Iron Palm, but I have to tell you, chum. There is nerve damage. Just not as exstensive.

Callousing is detremental as well my friend.... In a beneficial sort of way

[dw3041]

I've been rolling PVC pipes full of BBs and Sand down my shins and across my forearms. I also do Iron Palm, but I have to tell you, chum. There is nerve damage. Just not as exstensive.

Callousing is detremental as well my friend.... In a beneficial sort of way

If you have nerv damage from rolling PVC on your shins and arms then you are doing it too hard. And iron palm does tend to damage your nerves, I never said it wouldn't.
I also never said that I was for callouses, I was saying the opposite actually.

[MyDrills]

Um...which one of these is not like the others?

Monk San Te, ur Hungar is better

[MyDrills]

CPA, i also do that to condition my shin. but i use chinese herbal medicine after.
makes my shin harder.

[CaptinPickAxe]

I use dit da jow as well, but medicine can only cure so much. There is detriment to anything that has impact. No matter how varied the levels of detriment are, if you do it long enough, you'll end up the same way.

I'll give you a saying I know you TCMAers can dig:
There are two roads, the long one and the short one. They both have different distances but the same destination.

[MyDrills]

CPA, i was referring to that as well.

[MyDrills]

God I love to get hit




until the next day when I can't move

same here, i like to feel the impact.

makes you tougher the next time

[spaced]

I'm 18 years old and was interested in learning kung fu, I had an interest in the mantis style. Anyways, I was just wondering if kung fu could really be applied to real life street fights? Do the techniques you learn really help you when the time comes? If so, how long would you say you have to be in Kung Fu before you learn how to defend yourself?

My friend was in karate his whole life and lost 5 teeth and got put in a hospital because the guy just tackled him and went for his face.

Just wondering if Kung Fu is really effective in real life situations and if i should invest my time in it.

Thanks, Nathan

You have the wrong mindset to study kung fu. Dont study kung fu, just because you hope that it will help you in a fight. Kung fu is not just about protecting yourself, its about making your mind better and changing the way you see things, improving your health - mind, body and spirit. If you want to do kung fu becuase you hope to beat people up, I suggest you give it a miss as you are not learning for the right reasons.