Wah Lum Practitioners?

[TeotlOnion]

Hello everyone,

Are there any Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu practitioners, sifus, si hings or si jyes lurking about?
I wanted to talk about application.
Thanks!

[Radplaiddude]

I'm not a Sifu but a practitioner, fire away I may be able to add something of value.

[TeotlOnion]

I'm not a Sifu but a practitioner, fire away I may be able to add something of value.

Excellent! Well, does your school spar once a week, or more often? Does it seem more focused on flashy forms or actual practical martial applications of said forms? Wah Lum is great, and I love my school, but I get very little theory (mainly because I always ask) and what little application I get is in the form of bag-work. There's sparring once a week, but I've only had one basic self-defense lesson in the last three months.
What's your experience been? As I said, I love Wah Lum, but I want to be able to apply the skills I'm learning and test them under pressure. Otherwise, I sort of feel like I'm wasting a lot of money.

Thanks for reaching out!

[SoCo KungFu]

Excellent! Well, does your school spar once a week, or more often? Does it seem more focused on flashy forms or actual practical martial applications of said forms? Wah Lum is great, and I love my school, but I get very little theory (mainly because I always ask) and what little application I get is in the form of bag-work. There's sparring once a week, but I've only had one basic self-defense lesson in the last three months.
What's your experience been? As I said, I love Wah Lum, but I want to be able to apply the skills I'm learning and test them under pressure. Otherwise, I sort of feel like I'm wasting a lot of money.

Thanks for reaching out!

I would say for you to go through the forum history and see for yourself the inevitable outcome to your questioning. The things you ask are the things pretty much all of us that have studied WL material have asked. Its a systemic issue with WL. Which is sad, because there are some things in WL that I think are quite useful if they were approached correctly. Most of us have our epiphanies in our own way. Mine was through MMA (and by that I mean, that is where I began to truly have the opportunities to regularly test applying my stuff). But we all had these questions in our training, most of us here seemed to have figured it out, one way or another. You can keep pushing for application and theory, but unless your sifu has ventured out of the WL world, their ability to give you that will likely be limited. Sorry, broad strokes and all that, but its yet to be proven false. At least you are sparring once a week though. That's more than most WLers in the past.

Study the base systems that its built from. Start with Tan Tui. People here might disagree with me, but mantis isn't the core of WL, its tan tui. And it changes everything about how the mantis plays out. Use the stickied threads to look into mantis theory. It should give you a starting point, and youtube is a decent enough source these days if you know what to look for (that what to look for, is the point of the stickies). You'll still have to do the work of pressure testing it all. And its not going to be as easily transferred because WL is a hybrid. I'm not really sure its fair to call it a branch of northern mantis anymore, really. With that, understand that its also all filtered through with various additions from major southern systems as well.

Honestly though, you'll see its a ton of work. And you'll probably get a few years in and realize from your cross sourcing of information that its just more efficient to study a different system anyways. Especially when you see how much more forthcoming other masters are with the info you are asking about than Master Chan. As evidence, again, the stickies. Mooyingmantis practically translates his books on here for free. TainanMantis (Kevin Brazier) has an entire website giving both history and usage. And they (and others like them) are open about it because their own masters are open about it. Wah Lum still lives in this paranoid world where everyone is trying to steal your kung fu, not realizing the rest of the mantis kung fu world has been operating relatively open source for at least 2 generations of martial artists.

Probably not what you want to see, but this is the reality of it.

[TeotlOnion]

Probably not what you want to see, but this is the reality of it.

Actually, this is exactly the sort of helpful and candid response that I'd hoped for. I appreciate it and I thank you for it.
Your response echoes my fears. The problem, for me, is that I still somehow love the system, and I feel a certain keen sense of loyalty for my specific school. I've been told that as I mature within the system they will definitely keep working with me insofar as what I'm specially there to learn. I hope I'm not being strung along.
I just can't justify the expense if what I'm gleaning isn't a practical skill. It's a lot of money, and if I was after fitness/choreography I would join some sort of $15-$20 per month exercise class. I'm after traditional Chinese martial arts instruction, and if that isn't what I'm getting...
Anyhow, I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to be patient, and try to have faith that my instructors will start shaping my particular education in the direction I want it to go. I've heard that my school has produced a few serious competitors in MMA and sanda open tournaments, and if that's the case I may request to be trained for such contests.

Thanks for your information concerning the stickies, YouTube, and looking into Tam Tui. I'll definitely try to absorb as much as I can, and I'll continue to hope for the best here. If, after enough time has passed, it seems like I'm doomed to dance moves in Wah Lum, well- I may have to consider moving on. Hard to fathom now- as I said, I love my school and have grown to cherish the people it hosts.
For now, I'll have faith. Thanks again for your honest, open, and helpful response.