Kung Fu Vid Learning Suggestions

[JamesC]

Before I get flamed, let me explain.

I'm not new to martial arts, per se. I trained for roughly 3 years in Muay Thai, Kali, Jun Fan JKD, and Grappling. I've also done a few stints in other martial arts just to try them out, but most didn't keep me interested very long.

The only reason I tell you all of that is so I don't get the usual response of learning basics, understanding nuances, etc. Suffice it to say that I regularly box and grapple with some training partners and i'm aware of body mechanics, placement, breathing, etc.

I am interested in finding some high quality videos that teach good kung fu. The style doesn't matter too much to me. As long as the instructional sections(and preferably the applications) are of high quality, i'd probably buy it.

I'm burned out on years of weight lifting and hitting the heavy bag. I'd like to get back into some kung fu and hopefully learn some useful stuff for my sparring along the way.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

[dimethylsea]

James,

If you have a martial arts background I can make a few suggestions.

First off you might think about joining a MA video rental service like Goldstar. That way you can look over a variety of things in the kungfu world.

If you have a good background in JKD I would recommend Joseph Simonet's stuff (the slam set for the mook, and the 6 Seconds of controlled insanity).

Anything by Keating is good.. I especially recommend his Hellbows vid.

If you are interested in seeing a whole bunch of different stuff you could try out Ken Gullette's online school. He has lots of different video on there from the various internals.


If you want some progressive bagua videos that are not too difficult to understand you could get Dr. Painter's original Jiulong series.

You can PM me if you want specifics or have something in particular you are looking for.. chances are I've seen most of the internal CMA (non-taiji) and kali stuff around.

[JamesC]

Wow.

I really want to thank you for telling me about Goldstar.

But, I also want to inflict harm upon you, lol. I can see that website taking so much of my money. My wife is gonna kill me...

Seriously though, thanks. I never knew there was a site that allowed you to sample their stuff first. Although it IS at a higher price, i'll gladly pay a little more for the chance to review the content and quality first.

[dimethylsea]

Yeah.. Goldstar is pretty cool that way. You should enjoy it alot.

Since alot of Kali and JKD mix seamlessly you can really get alot of bang for a given buck if you have a solid grounding in Guru Dan's various interests. Just "bolt-on" and "mix in" different approaches to the same stuff.

You might also look at Steve Grody's Filipino Emptyhands, Rick Faye's panatukan and also Balicki's Filipino boxing.

All that stuff can get mixed into JKD-flavored wing chun pretty easily and then you just keep going deeper once you get to the real traditional gungfu stuff.

Historical accident but WC-JKD-Kali-Thai has become a suspension bridge from hard to soft for many people.

I wound up starting with soft style (bagua) , used it's kuntao variant's trapping to bridge to Kali and bits'o'JKD, then to Thai/MMA, and now I'm back in the traditional gungfu again, much the better for the journey.

Enjoy the ride bro!