Lau-Gar Kung Fu

[DelicateSound]

Anyone here practise Lau-Gar. It's a Southern Style brought to the UK by Master Jeremy Yau. Just wondered if anyone else trains in it. Or if anyone has any opinions/info on it.

Please, no trolling, I'll just have to put you on my "Reject" list or whatever it is.

[tomcat]

Hello,Delicate sound,
We do a Lau-Gar fist ,and a Lau-gar staff set, but they are the versions adapted by many Hung-Gar schools,I don't know how similar they they would be to yours. I believe that these sets were adapted by Lam sai Wing , from student Lau Ngan . They are very similar to Hung-gar,but shorter in length , so they are generally used as beginning Hung-gar sets.
Take care,
Tomcat

[scotty1]

I've done Lau Gar. I can tell you more but we have had this conversation before on a few threads. Do a search, if that doesn't work, I'll tell you more, but the info is there already.

[laugarboxer]

i do laugar i train with pete bacon a student of master jeremy yau and a black sash a most excellent teacher with a good sense of humour with very down to earth ideals of what works in the street and how to use it but never losing the feeling of tradition i also occasionally train with charlie who teaches in romford and master stan brown who teaches at tottenham martial arts academy all of these ppl teach laugar and all have their own unique perspective to offer on it reply yo yhis post if u want more info on lau gar cheers ................. from a laugar boxer

[DelicateSound]

At the moment I train in S-O-T under Sifu Tony Lander. Decent bloke, knows his stuff (when I can actually get my a$$ down to class). Problem is, I'm just getting serious about my training, but I'm off to Uni next year. I'm after any recommendations from people about schools in Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. I know there are schools there, but as is sods law, some are better than others.

Thanks for the replies LauGarboxer and Scotty. BTW Do you/did you train in the KungFu side or the Kickboxing side? I try and dip into both.

[DelicateSound]

Thanks for the info, I never knew Hung Gar used some of our moves!

Do you know what the basic staff work is by any chance?

[Colin]

Yep I practice Lau Gar too.
I've been training for over 12 years now.
First with Neville Wray then Stan Brown & Keith Baptiste in London.
I still train with Keith every week but since Black sash I also go to Birmingham to see Master Yau & Sifu John Russell.

I think I know Tony Lander, does he go on the summer course every July with Master Yau?

As for the kick boxing thing, all i'll say is Lau Gar Kung Fu is a traditional southern chinese kung fu style.
Lau Kickboxing is just that................kick boxing!
Two separate babies!

There are a few threads about Lau Gar on here but since the changes a few weeks ago it seems harder to search for them.

I used to be called "Crawling Tiger" on this forum, but now i'm just Colin Again since the changes! If anybody can help please let me know how to get my name back!
You can't do a search for "Lau Gar" as it needs words of 4 letters long! so I used to search for my own name, but can't do that either now!!


Oh yea! LauGarBoxer,
Email me and let me know where Sifu Stan trains, if you don't mind, coz I haven't seen him since he left Acton.

Cheers
Colin..............

[Colin]

The staff work before 1st degree is a two person attack and defence routine.
It contains about 10 attack moves each side, and is trained fast!
I remember a few years ago getting hit really hard on the ankle, because my defence wasn't strong enough. ( You only let it happen once! )

Delicate sound,
Hung Gar does have forms called Lau Gar fist, Lau Gar Palm & Lau Gar Pole.
I've never seen their staff form so can't comment, but I know their Lau Gar fist form, and it's practiced using deeper stances and at a slower speed then proper Lau Gar.

Colin............

[jon]

The Lau Ga in Hung Ga is from a totaly different system to the Lau Ga of master Jeremy Yau. They share the same name but are unrelated as arts. The Hung Ga version is even changed from the orginal Lau Ga its taken from, to include deeper stances and adapted a few different techniques. Im a Hung Ga student and ive learnt the Lau Ga fist, its a very nice form and the orginal Lau Ga is still practiced in some parts of china. There is a lot of excerlent staff work in the full Lau Ga system, thats one of the things its best known for.
Just stating this so people dont confuse the two.

[PlasticSquirrel]

i'm curious - what types of moves from hung gar were added into hung gar's lau gar form?

also, what types of applications does hung gar's lau gar have (assume that i'm not familiar with either style of lau gar)? what are it's strategies and characteristics? how long approximately is the form (number of movements)? why is it taught to beginners often in hung gar?

[jon]

I have a pretty good idea of the answers, Ive learnt Lau Ga Kuen but im no authority.

"what types of moves from hung gar were added into hung gar's lau gar form"

Im not sure exactly and i dont think many would know for sure outside of Lau Gar proper, which is very rare now especialy outside of china. What i do know is that the stances were adapted, the salute was changed a little and im pretty sure a couple of moves may have been actualy added to the form though exactly what i couldnt say with certainty.

"what types of applications does hung gar's lau gar have (assume that i'm not familiar with either style of lau gar)?"

Lau Ga that i have learnt is external\internal and uses a combination of plain fists, phenix eye fists and tiger claws. Its application is similar to Hung though it is a little closer to the body in some movements.

"what are it's strategies and characteristics"

Lau to my knowledge was another Shoalin rebel and so the style is similar in Hung in many ways, though due to Lau [dont know his full name] having different skills to Hung Hei Kwun, it relies on different things.
I have heard that Lau was a master of iron fist and phenix fists but was actualy best known for his pole work. The full system of Lau Ga contained more pole forms than fist forms. Hence it likes to crash though and likes to strike nerves. hehe im guessing Lau had a hatred of kickers to, theres more than enough ways to deal with kicks in that form and there all really brutal. There are also quite a few backfist techniques in the form.

"how long approximately is the form (number of movements)? "

The length is about 150 movements give or take a few depending on linage and whats done with the form. That was a bit of a guess as im to lazy to go out and check right now. My school has doubled many of the techniques in the form to be done of both sides hence for us its a bit longer than that.

"why is it taught to beginners often in hung gar?"

This is a tricky question, its a bit easyer to learn than the regular first Hung form which is Gung Gee Fuk Fu. Its also a bit shorter but the application still requires a good foundation and a lot of bravery. It is very fighting driven.

Hope that helped a bit, ive been studying Hung for a while now and most of that information is from my sifu and some is stuff ive read around other Hung sites and in books.
Ive also heard several different varients on how it got intergrated into Hung Ga. I wont go to far into that, other to say most schools including mine say it was to keep the Lau system from dying out.

[PlasticSquirrel]

thanks, jon!

[DelicateSound]

What's it like training with Master Yau?

If I go to Birmingham University I might e-mail you for some info on your class, would that be OK?

[Colin]

Delicatesound!
The Birmingham classes are well worth attending.
You're not that far from there really are you?

Every Tuesday is beginners - brown sash, amd every thursday is black sash & up. These are a believe the only public lessons Master Yau now teaches.

We normally travel up from London every 2-3 weeks on a thursday. It's excellent! Even after 12 years I still feel like a beginner in there sometimes!

Do you know when you just see someone thats "got it". Coz Master Yau has! Even when you just see a basic stance ie. Ma bo, it looks so right. His ankles are so flexible it makes his stances awsome.

Feel free to contact me anytime, it's good to hear from fellow Lau students.

Good luck on getting into Brmingham Uni. If you decide to study in London you could always come train with us!

Jon,
You said: "The Lau Ga in Hung Ga is from a totaly different system to the Lau Ga of master Jeremy Yau.They share the same name but are unrelated as arts."
To say they are unrelated is not strictly true. Master Yau recognises the similarities between the two styles, but as Master Yau's Lau Gar is hakka in origin there are also simularities to styles such as BakMei & SPM.

As he once said, gung fu in southern China a hundred or so years ago were very wide spread, with many people teaching and learning several forms, and to say that styles such as SPM, Lau Gar Kuen, BakMei, Hung Kuen, Wing Chun etc did not borrow/crosstrain techniques from each other is a very shortsighted opinion

Merry Christmas & a peaceful New year!
Colin..........

[jon]

Perhaps you misunderstood my comment.
Im aware of the similaritys between many southern styles but my point was that the Lau Ga in Hung is NOT the Lau Ga of Jeremy Yau. Its simply not the same orginal system.
As you say his art is Hakka in orgin, ours is Shaolin.
I just dug up the name of the Shaolin monk who apparently founded the Lau Ga found in Hung: Lau Soam Ngan
Not trying to argue with you just this comment seemed a little out of place.
"to say that styles such as SPM, Lau Gar Kuen, BakMei, Hung Kuen, Wing Chun etc did not borrow/crosstrain techniques from each other is a very shortsighted opinion"
I never said that, yet you address it to me? I did say that Hung's Lau Ga and Jeremy Yau's Lau ga were not related. That doesnt mean they cant share similaritys. I also made no mention of Bak Mei, Wing Chun or Southern Mantis so im not sure why you have brought up those styles. I never tried to say they had nothing in common just there not of the same sourse material.