What MMA did to Kung FU

[Eric Hunstad]

What did MMA do to KF?

In the long run, it will definitely change it for the better. I used to love 80's hair metal, then Nirvana came out and all of the sudden, Poison looked kinda silly.

But I still love the stuff!

Anyway, when my teacher was coming up in the wild 1970's era, his first KF teacher Dr. Pai would emphasize fighting, pure and simple. He told me Dr. Pai would line up all the students at attention and then say "ok, everybody fight.....HIM!" and point someone out. Then all Hell would break loose and Pai made it clear- if you didn't fight, he would fight you. After awhile, Pai would yell "Hup"! (stop). OK, now, everybody fight......HER!!!. Yes, male, female it didn't matter. No macho hand gear, no mouth piece. No lawsuits. He would also occasionally turn off the lights in the middle of the melee. Pai also took his students out drinking to celebrate belt promotions and would encourage his students to fight. What was the result of this chaos? Pai Lum had some really great fighters.

Can we do this today? Of course not, today is the era of the lawyer. So MMA is the next best thing. When I had my commercial school (2000-2005), I taught TCMA and had someone else come in and teach Olympic TKD (great for kiddies), defensive tactics and knife fighting as regular classes. Then I had my BJJ buddy come over and do seminars with the intent of building interest and having him teach regular classes. But here in the armpit of Florida, there wasn't enough interest for that.

But what I failed to do was integrate everything. When and if I do it again, I will use a gym format, with MMA as the main event. I will still teach TCMA, but will have other classes as well, use the place more effectively with personal training, yoga, etc. The business reality is give the people what they want and since the meter is running on the lease 24 hrs/day, have classes as often as possible.

Eric Hunstad
www.OldSchoolKungFuNow.com

[Dragonzbane76]

Anyway, when my teacher was coming up in the wild 1970's era, his first KF teacher Dr. Pai would emphasize fighting, pure and simple. He told me Dr. Pai would line up all the students at attention and then say "ok, everybody fight.....HIM!" and point someone out. Then all Hell would break loose and Pai made it clear- if you didn't fight, he would fight you. After awhile, Pai would yell "Hup"! (stop). OK, now, everybody fight......HER!!!. Yes, male, female it didn't matter. No macho hand gear, no mouth piece. No lawsuits. He would also occasionally turn off the lights in the middle of the melee. Pai also took his students out drinking to celebrate belt promotions and would encourage his students to fight. What was the result of this chaos? Pai Lum had some really great fighters.

a lot of things were embellished pertaining to Pai.

anyways i agree with the rest of you statement.

[Eric Hunstad]

Dragon

I agree regarding Dr. Pai, there are MANY "inconsistencies" regarding him and his system. But Tom Turcotte (my teacher) is not one for tall tales and was telling me his first hand personal experience. He doesn't say many positive things about Pai Lum, and has some not-so-great stories about Dr. Pai as well (which I will not go into) but he does say Dr. Pai was a great fighter and a great coach. Pai knew how to push people mentally in ways that are just not seen anymore. TT told me Pai would take him (and other students) out to nightclubs and after Pai had a few drinks, make TT do Taming the Tiger on the crowded disco floor. Did Pai do this for his own entertainment or to train his students or both? We'll never know.

Eric Hunstad
www.OldSchoolKungFuNow.com

[Dragonzbane76]

I agree regarding Dr. Pai, there are MANY "inconsistencies" regarding him and his system. But Tom Turcotte (my teacher) is not one for tall tales and was telling me his first hand personal experience. He doesn't say many positive things about Pai Lum, and has some not-so-great stories about Dr. Pai as well (which I will not go into) but he does say Dr. Pai was a great fighter and a great coach. Pai knew how to push people mentally in ways that are just not seen anymore. TT told me Pai would take him (and other students) out to nightclubs and after Pai had a few drinks, make TT do Taming the Tiger on the crowded disco floor. Did Pai do this for his own entertainment or to train his students or both? We'll never know.

met many people in pai lum over the years and all have stories pertaining to pai and the "embellishments." I remember my teacher telling me stories of Dennis decker and the crazy crap he did. But when it comes down to it we will never know. Half of it I think is just stories the other half is just stupid IMO. Don't know don't care anymore to be truthful... out grew the past and needing it.

[shaolin_allan]

What's your opinion on this type of video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVtGkkBnhYI

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I like the basic idea - their training format has a lot of potential for useful variation.

What are the characters for ZiYou Bodji?

[shaolin_allan]

自由搏击 = means free or synthesized combat i think

[gunbeatskroty]

plain and simple;

2 ) MMA woke up alot of TCMA about the need for a ground game,
If not only for the fact that since the surge in MMA, everybody and their Uncle will try to take you down and GNP,RNC, etc, so you'd better be comfortable in that range.
It don't get any simpler than that. I really don't understand how these threads get any longer than a few posts....

The best example, IMO, is Jason DeLucia. He's an accomplished Kung Fu guy (correct me if I'm wrong). But after losing to Royce Gracie once in closed mat challenge and then in UFC 2, he started cross training on his ground game and did quite well in Japan with Pancrase. His record is quite impressive. And this is like 16 years ago, which should have already answered all these arguments today.