Registered User
Ok, so last few days I have been reading alot about hong kong inter school challenge matches in the 50s and 60s. Many comments on Choy li fut, Wing Chun, Southern Mantis but none about northern mantis schools. Given that 7 star and taiji mantis are well established in hong kong i would have thought they would have had their fair share of stories.
Does anyone know of any, good or bad?
Paul
(. Y .)
I'll have to apologize for being vague - so here's one that I heard a long, long, looonnng time ago when I was just a neophyte mantid.Originally Posted by Paul T England
My Sigung related a story about his younger days as a martial arts student in HK. Apparently there was a group of Wing Chunners that were causing trouble with other martial artists and schools. They were known to practice in a particular park - so one day one of my Sigung's contemporaries went to the park where they were practicing. The guy apparently started to do finger tip push ups near the students on hard packed ground - as he did these - he'd push off hard enough that he'd lift slightly off the ground on the up motion and sink a little bit on the landing - when his knuckles reached the dirt and his fingers were completely submerged - he got up, dusted himself off - and asked the Chunners to give it a try. They left and never bothered the mantis school.
Registered User
I've heard other stories about Wing Chun and Mantis but my teacher was not one to glorify those events.
Registered User
win or lose does not matter, lessons can be learned.
This stuff happened 50 years ago but its still a great resource to here the stories.
Paul
www.moifa.co.uk
www.nemartialartsupply.com
GM of Hadaka Korosu
While it is always interesting to know what was done in the PAST, we must live in the times we live, the here and now.
Mantis, like any other MA, if it is to be known as a fighting system NOW, must be demonstrated to be a fighting system NOW.
It is irrelevant what it was in the past.
What masters and fighters of the past did with THEIR abilities in Mantis is irrelevant to what people do NOW with THEIR abilities in Mantis.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
Registered User
+1
Our teacher's focus was on our training.
(. Y .)
I think Paul's intention was to pass on stories to inspire hard training beyotchis
Quit being freak'n holier than thou DBs
GM of Hadaka Korosu
LMAO !I think Paul's intention was to pass on stories to inspire hard training beyotchis
Quit being freak'n holier than thou DBs
Indeed, and all MA are filled with them.
In Boxing we have the stories of Marciano that hit like a mule, in Kyokushin we have stories of Oyama killing a gangster with one punch, The stories if Ueshiba and Mifune and kimura, of Miyagi and of Wong Fei Hong and etc, etc, etc
All great stories and very inspiration.
And all mean very little to the average practioner and can even be harmful when those "extreme examples" are taken as "typical" and viewed as "attainable" goals.
Dig where I am coming from my brother?
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
(. Y .)
So what - they're fun.
I have some suspicions as to who the other critic's Sifu was - if my suspicions are true, then his Sifu had a b'itch'n real life story that involves being so fast with the ou lou choi that he smacked a c'ocky euro-kick boxer in the mouth before he could blink. That should get us all inspired to work on 7* PM's bread-and-butter move, the ou lou choi. We do it like no other and it's something to aspire to perfection.
or the stories of a famous non 7* but still mantis practitioner who, when his student opened his own school - visited a prominent TKD instructor in his student's area that was talking smack about the new school. Anyway, during a friendly meeting, he leaped on top of the TKDer's desk and performed an ultra fast and ultra powerful form in it's entirety. He did this without disturbing the objects on the TKDer's desk. He then jumped off the desk, smiled, and left. Apparently the TKDer stopped his smack talk after that encounter.
GM of Hadaka Korosu
They MAY be fun, but they also lead to bad habits ( taking anecdotes as facts) and bad expectations ( just because Brendan Lai could knock your ass out before you even saw him move doesn't mean that is typical of a Mantis fighter).
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
Registered User
Nice, MightyB. I have heard both of those stories at the school
A few other stories about some hoodlum or another walking into the school and mocking Sigung and another challenge type match that was avoided by jumping out of a high window or something? Those ring a bell? The window story wasn't from our lineage or school though...
(. Y .)
Then quit 7* and do Baji or something because knocking a person's @ss out before they even see you move IS the point of 7*.
That's the point in the legit schools anyway. People forget that, but if you're HK trained - then it is something that you become intimately familiar with because it's preached. "Learn it slow at first, then go faster, and if you think you're going fast - go faster!"
(. Y .)
The window story involved a thief, a 2nd or 3rd story window, and true "lightness" skills by a man who is a living legend... "Here, try this tea, no wait - this tea's not for you, too powerful for you, you weak kung fu".Nice, MightyB. I have heard both of those stories at the school
A few other stories about some hoodlum or another walking into the school and mocking Sigung and another challenge type match that was avoided by jumping out of a high window or something? Those ring a bell? The window story wasn't from our lineage or school though...
GM of Hadaka Korosu
Indeed, but how many Matis guys that you know that are as fast or faster than Brendan?Then quit 7* and do Baji or something because knocking a person's @ss out before they even see you move IS the point of 7*.
That's the point in the legit schools anyway. People forget that, but if you're HK trained - then it is something that you become intimately familiar with because it's preached. "Learn it slow at first, then go faster, and if you think you're going fast - go faster!"
Probably as many 180lbs boxers that hit as hard as Marciano.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
(. Y .)
Only one - but not many train to be that fast. They forget that that was the point. Take forms training for instance. They learn it at a learner's pace - they then learn to perform it at their own pace... but they never push it, my Si Gung - the last of the truly great HK masters, always said that you had to aspire to move as fast as you possibly can move to get the most out of forms training (while still having correct hip movement and power). NOBODY trains that consistently - they learn to be pretty, to perform the form - my Sifu did the entire sup a sou form in less than 7 seconds. He was a blur of motion - but he still did it with the correct power. He's the last that moves that way... no one else - no other "Sifu" that's alive can do it that way. Just him. But - we could, if we aspired to it, and trained to do it, move that fast. But we don't because it's hard... and we don't look so pretty when we move that fast, we can't do it with the correct posture and hip movement... whine whine whine.
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