Wait but you just said in your previous post that if someone had a knife, Boxing would be useless....therefore, you are being biased against Boxing.
Your problem is, you train in theory only. You've never hit your training partners at full power and vice versa (Boxers do this regularly, every week). You have no idea what it's like to get hit in the face repeatedly with combos at full power and what it does to you.many systems, like boxing and many others, teach bad habits, which as time goes on and the practitioner becomes used to them, those become misunderstandings that make the guy more susceptible to dangerous cases than even an untrained guy. a good system prepares the fighters for any situation.
I train and fight MMA and mostly, a standup fighter....which clearly shows that my training is way more encompassing than just Boxing. But I'm not crazy enough to think that I can beat most Boxers in a street fight, in prison, or whatever just b/c I train a bunch of more styles than Boxers do.
And you're just lucky that bad situations in the streets doesn't happen often (usually NEVER) for you to be able to test out your theoretical-only, training.
Then why even practice those forms....which explains why most Sanda/Sanshou clubs, scraps most or all of such flowery forms training.
Boxers, Muay Thai, MMA, etc. shadowboxes how they would fight for real. Why not just do this rather than ending up throwing wild, out of control, flailing arm punches that looks horrible when put to the real test of fighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIzEu4LmNxk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f25XXvv-zow
Last edited by bawang; 10-30-2013 at 12:30 PM.
Honorary African American
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I knew Wai Khru was going to come up, your argument is legit. Yes it's still a flowery dance, but different from ie. Kung-Fu forms in a sense that it doesn't mimic how a fighter would fight. It's mostly paying respect to the teachers, their god, the King, etc. Kind of like CMA Lion Dancing. I'm not against Lion Dancing, as it's not about fighting forms, while the flowery forms and kata are.
I'm glad most MT gyms in the US don't even bother with Wai Khru. I would never do it as it conflicts with my personal, spiritual beliefs.
Kung Fu forms also don't mimic how a fighter would fight; unfortunately many people don't understand this.
I actually think it is unfortunate many westerners can't be bothered with Wai Kru. Wai Kru honors your teacher and his teacher, ect. the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation...
that has an obvious reason: because kong fu has various kinds of training systematically classified, other systems always see it as a highly theoretic system, that's right.
as kong fu practitioners, if we want to be full-fledged practitioners, we must practice endurance, stretching, balance, body, power and speed conditioning, and finally the styles and sparring. while most other systems are much smaller and just have a few dozens of things to be learned, which can be learned in a few weeks or months.
this is exactly where the difference rises. since we practice body conditioning (what you showed in your previous comments to be even unbelievable(!) to you, to break bricks and stones, and other such conditioning results), and since a big portion of kong fu applications are to tear the muscles, break the joints, attack the vital points like the groins, eyes, etc, sparring with semi or full power can only be done with highly experienced practitioners, and one must be extremely careful at that. it's not like a simple punching and kicking you can make it safe by gloves and safety shields.
besides, i myself have to hit my face, as well as whole my body, with a thick, harsh, heavy, piece of wood hundreds of times everyday. i don't think the faces of those western so-called "fighters" can be tougher than mine by any means.
Last edited by SHemmati; 10-31-2013 at 09:44 AM.