Las Vegas Schools

[Tigerstyle]

The Lohan School also has a pretty good lion dance team.

Don't quote me on this, but I may have heard that Sifu Jack Soderburg no longer teaches (at least not from a formal "school" type location). The last location I remember him at is on Sahara Ave. (somewhere around the Valley View area, I think).

If anyone else has any more acurate info, please post here to correct me.

[Yung Apprentice]

I found sifu Jack Soderburg's school in the phone book.
The school is called Create Develop & Flow
The address is 101 S. Rainbow Blvd.
The phone number ( in case yall want it ) is: (702) 251-1111



JaguarWong, at the Lohan school, does the praying mantis teacher teach "low mantis" and does the teachings go in depth? ( it's 7 star mantis, right?)

Also any word yet on the Hung Gar schools?

[Ray Pina]

Anyone feel like training, a friendly show you mine if you show me yours. I'll be landing at the airport at 2:45 on the 28th and have the whole day open. Unfortuantely I'll be working the rest of the week.

Peace
Ray

[Tigerstyle]

Had to be a Monday, huh?

I'll see what's cookin' on the 28th, but I can't make any guarantees. Angel is on that night

[Jaguar Wong]

I'm not sure what "low mantis" is, so I can't say whether or not he does teach it. I know the stuff he teaches is 7* influenced, but I'm not a "mantis guy", so I only did a little stuff here and there. I learned a few of the forms, and kept track of things like the principles (12 character principles), techniques, and other stuff I thought I might be able to use with my Northern Shaolin.

As far as the depth of the mantis taught there. It goes about as deep as it can for a "mixed style" school. I'm sure you could grill Sifu for more stuff other than what he shows, but the way he teaches is to give the students a good understanding of each of the styles, and let them decide what's right for them, so they can approach him for the "deeper" stuff. I'm a Northern S. guy, so I grilled him about that, so I can't say how deep the mantis would be. I've seen a couple of guys that really like the mantis stuff, and really try to get deep into it, but I've never really seen anyone excel at it. I think a lot of what's missing may be on the student's end, though. Sifu likes sparring, and he's not against it at all, but he doesn't have a regular scheduled sparring class, or session. But the students don't really take an initiative to set a group up outside of the regular cirriculum (sp?). The guys that spar now (Tigerstyle and myself included), were part of the "older group", since we were there when he first started teaching in Vegas, and we sparred all the time, but we don't see many of the younger generation guys willing to put the gloves on.

It's not like we hurt them, or they're cowards, it's just that some of them have the wrong idea about sparring (I'm figuring they got it somewhere in the school, but I haven't found the "source" yet), developing bad habits, and incorrect technique usage. They have too much faith in their forms. It wouldn't be so bad if I saw them doing more drills, and practice their kicking and punching more often (I've noticed a few cases of "flowery fists" and "embroidered feet" if you catch my meaning). Again, that's only a small "clique" of guys. There are still a few hard core guys that I still learn a lot from, just by talking to them.

I haven't been down to the school, so I couldn't ask around about the Hung Gar guys, but I'll let you know as soon as I can.

[Jaguar Wong]

Oops I forgot the other stuff...

EvolutionFist,
I'm not sure, but I may be able to pull something together for a Monday. Just email me and Tigerstyle and we'll see what's doin'

Tigerstyle,
You wouldn't happen to be talking about the very same lion dance team that appeared in the casino scenes of Rush Hour 2, would you? *shameless plug*

They're alright, but I think they "fell off" when we left the group.

[Yung Apprentice]

Low mantis ( from what I know ) is a mantis version of ground grappling. I heard it's very effective. ( if, as with all things, taught properly ) From what I've heard low mantis practioners hold their own against JJers and other ground grapplers. I know it's called something else, I just can't remember.

[Yung Apprentice]

OOOOOOO, and please don't forget about the info on the Hung Gar school, I'm interested in this style.

[Jaguar Wong]

LOL, I'll try to get down there this weekend to start pokin' around for the Hung Gar info.

No, he doesn't teach low mantis BTW. I've never heard of it, but the only grappling I've seen is what little Chin Na we did (most of the Chin Na stuff I do now is on my own with other Chin Na guys). Sifu was always open minded about other styles, especially since the UFC came out (around the beginning, we always went to his house to watch them). We had a couple of guys with wrestling experience, and Sifu was always open to them showing us some stuff (mostly defensive, and escape, unless we wanted to pursue more on our own, which was never a problem with him). We even used his school to practice BJJ (or at least we did when we were rolling). Some of the students always made little comments and jokes (they all backed down when Tigerstyle would always "invite them onto the mat"...in a friendly "show me" type of way of course), but Sifu always had much respect for the stuff we were doing. Although he did make some requests while we were rolling "Use the Figure Four (from pro wrestling)!", but that's because he was always a joker, not out of disrespect, since he made the same requests while we would do stand up sparring.

[Yung Apprentice]

Yeah Tigerstyle in a friendly "show me course"....... isn't that whats also known as a royal butt kicking!?

[Yung Apprentice]

I'ma hold you to what you said about getting the info this weekend. I'll be looking for it 4:00 monday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( just joking! )

[Yung Apprentice]

Is the Lohan school the only school that teaches a mantis style?

[Tigerstyle]

Yung,
There are probably other schools that teach Mantis here (there are lots of MA schools here), but I wouldn't know any others off hand.

[Jaguar Wong]

I only report your actions truthfully. You make yourself out to be the bully . I just thought it was funny that they made such comments (to their senior school brothers of all people), but when asked to show us what they're talking about (Well, I would just do technique x if you went for that), they made more jokes to sound like they weren't backing out. That's all. You just pushed them into backing out, cause you're a bully

Yung,
Like Tigerstyle said, there are plenty of MA schools around, but I don't know of any off hand that also teaches Mantis (The Shaolin-Do school has some mantis stuff, but you've already got some concerns with the school/style itself, so I'm just merely presenting info). Yes our Sifu is very cool/mellow about stuff like cross training, as long as you're not "style hopping" (3 months here, 6 months there...). He fully belives that you need a base or core style to build on, and he doesn't really care of it's Northern Shaolin, Praying Mantis, or even Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as long as you don't abandon that core to pursue other things. That core will always be your "fall back" style if things get crazy. And that's what's important.

[Ray Pina]

Cool, will do. Always open to see what's out there. What's the weather been like? Warm I hope.