State of kung fu in the eyes of some TMCA Teachers

[Hardwork108]

i agree with you bawang, more people need to be more serious in their training, in that life and death mindset. thats part of the reason i dont like so many forms. its a waste of time. i forgot all my forms on purpose except for 2 which is the same style anyway (and weapons, i still do several of those but i think that weapon is a bit different because it is ONLY for killing). now i just do all my punches and kicks and pull techniques out of the form and drill them over and over. but that is also why i carry a knife where i go because i know sometimes you do need it. todays life for me though is very mellow, easy for me now, but it wasnt always like that so i keep that with me because i know the truth.

safety is really an illusion.

one that is shattered the first time someone tries to hurt you bad. i dont know if you ever read much about bushido but it is very similar in regard to honor/death/life/respect, wude/bushido. there is a bushido saying that goes something like:

the moment you walk out from under the eaves of your home, you are at deaths door.

meaning to always live with death in your heart because we never know when we will be chosen to die. this is to eating sleeping kungfu sex all of it. it is all better when you add the spice of death. because we all die and you just have to accept it, so when we do accept our death we can appreciate our life even more.

this is something that i think all realistic martial artists need to keep in their minds often. if you plan to train so you can defend yourself, you should try to think about how to kill people because that might be the only way you can win when someone comes after you.

That is a good post.

There are kung fu schools that teach the real art. You will learn the stances, roots, start internal practice (approach), learn some relevant techniques and principles before you go onto "fighting training" which may be a relatively long time after. The curriculum will in many cases include Iron Palm and lets face it, authentic IP abilities are for killing and maiming. More often than not these skills are not taught nowadays, not even by those who claim to teach them.

So real kung fu is alive and well but it is not easy to find. That is the problem. Of course, the other problem is that many will not have the time or even the attention span to practice in the traditional ways (as described by the Shaolin Monk), let alone search for an authentic school.

This means the problem is two sided, that is, the lack of authentic schools on one side and the lack of authentic students on the other, hence the opportunists that enter the scene and offer fantasy kung fu (with all the weird stuff thrown in) or the Glorified Kickboxers with their quick and "functional"self defense solutions, which may hold validity as practical methods but do not hold validity as AUTHENTIC KUNG FU TRAINING.

HW108

[bawang]

i practice none of AUTHENTIC KUNG FU TRAINING because i do crappy wing chun from a sifu that disowned me on the internet

HW108

wow nice

Of course he is....

and i also know who you are
kareem abdul muhamad jabar the fourth

[Lucas]

ya i agree.

i have a semi traditional kungfu foundation in that my training was pretty traditional on one hand but there was also contemporary material intermixed with the traditional wushu. the main reason i left that school, even though i know the sifu is legit, im just not into training everything he has to offer, im too old for that. and for him its all or none, he doesnt care. which is perfectly cool. i completely understand that. he wants to start with young people and find people willing to go all the way with everything he has to offer.

the only problem is that he lumps everyone into one group. which i dont agree with.

so i took what i had and i left because it was best for me personally as a martial artist with what my personal goals are. ive drifted in and out of several places since then, but i have not found what i wanted where i live, so instead ive decided to just take my mindset and my material and continue to work at what ive got.

im getting older now and i dont have as much patience as i did when i was younger in the sense that im not interested in starting all over somewhere. the next step in a teacher for me is to find someone who understands this, can take what i currently have and develop me further from there in the direction of my goals.

dont know if that will ever happen, and if it doesnt im fine with that. the years i put in have paid off well for me so far, and i feel that since ive been doing my own thing this past couple years, i have evolved alot within myself.

one of the things that has done for me is stabilize me with myself, now i lead myself to where i want to go rather than having someone else guide me.

for the time being i believe that its a good thing. something everyone in martial arts goes through, i assume. so if that next teacher comes into my life, i wont be looking for a destination so much as directions to the destination ive chosen.

[Lucas]

hey ill be taking off now from work, finallyl, you all have a good what ever you do day

[bawang]

im going to a christmas party hardwork will be all alone spamming the forums lol

[Hardwork108]

im going to a christmas party hardwork will be all alone spamming the forums lol

You mean New York "San duh" hold Christmas parties? Dave, I bet you charge your students a lot of money to attend those parties. LOL

[Hardwork108]

ya i agree.

i have a semi traditional kungfu foundation in that my training was pretty traditional on one hand but there was also contemporary material intermixed with the traditional wushu. the main reason i left that school, even though i know the sifu is legit, im just not into training everything he has to offer, im too old for that. and for him its all or none, he doesnt care. which is perfectly cool. i completely understand that. he wants to start with young people and find people willing to go all the way with everything he has to offer.

the only problem is that he lumps everyone into one group. which i dont agree with.

so i took what i had and i left because it was best for me personally as a martial artist with what my personal goals are. ive drifted in and out of several places since then, but i have not found what i wanted where i live, so instead ive decided to just take my mindset and my material and continue to work at what ive got.

im getting older now and i dont have as much patience as i did when i was younger in the sense that im not interested in starting all over somewhere. the next step in a teacher for me is to find someone who understands this, can take what i currently have and develop me further from there in the direction of my goals.

dont know if that will ever happen, and if it doesnt im fine with that. the years i put in have paid off well for me so far, and i feel that since ive been doing my own thing this past couple years, i have evolved alot within myself.

one of the things that has done for me is stabilize me with myself, now i lead myself to where i want to go rather than having someone else guide me.

for the time being i believe that its a good thing. something everyone in martial arts goes through, i assume. so if that next teacher comes into my life, i wont be looking for a destination so much as directions to the destination ive chosen.

I have been through a couple of periods like that when you just need to work yourself on your own, keeping discipline so as to maintain skills. However, I was lucky enough to manage to find authentic kung fu tuition eventually. I will be starting in a new kung fu school in January. Unfortunately, it will be a style that I am not familiar with and it is rather physical but the sifu said not all ages will train alike.

So I guess there are schools that fit the training to individual students more than others.

I hope you find a good sifu soon as from the little I know about you I would say that you will go far.

Merry Xmas to you.

[SavvySavage]

Some of the points in the article don't go well together. The autho says that back then Kung Fu was life and death and that's why it was real. Then he goes in to say that you gave to learn to do one move in many different ways for 10-20 years which is the real Kung Fu to him. Bow are you going to survive life and death if you are training one move or even several moves from a form for that long? The person in the article might have been some sort of warrior in the past. I don't know who he is. But he didn't get that way by training the way he outlined in his interview. The way he was describing Kung Fu was from the ART point of view devoid of the martial.

I mightve missed this part but did he discuss any type of resistance training where someone is trying to stop me from hitting him? Or was his training method imagining the use of forms for 30 years?

Merry Xmas

[Lokhopkuen]

I will be 50 very soon.

Ha ha! I'm 51 and I'm neither fat or slow

[Yum Cha]

Just remember, old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.