Opinions please-or Facts?

Has anyone here trained at the O-mei Kung Fu Acadamy under Chen Jian, or Tony Chen. Has anyone heard of their teachings.
I am curious if their style is pure wushu or does the fact that it is from the emei mountainsand not from Shaolin make it different.(more combat oriented) ? How is their curriculum taught to them? I have read the website and understand that they are very credible masters, I am curious to hear what other people think about their school, training programs and quality of teaching? Do 1 of the 5 masters of the school do the teaching or do the senior students! Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Shaolin36

[Brad]

What do you mean by pure wushu? I think Omei=Emei, which is one of the famous "martial mountains". The two other popular ones are Song(Shaolin) and Wudan. I don't know a whole lot about Tony Chen except that he teaches Baji Quan. I just ordered his Baji video.

Sorry, sometimes it is hard for me to write what I am thinking. What I am asking is do they teach the flowery flips and acrobatic wushu, or is it the more traditional combat oriented wushu. Not that I am discrediting those atheletes, but I am more concerned with combat application.

[Brad]

Odd's are, he knows both. I've learned a little bit of Baji from my teacher. Very different from my modern wushu. Baji is defenitely a very no frills, no nonsense type of art though. His bio from where I ordered the vid. seems to indicate a more trad. combat oriented person.

"'Eight Diagrams Boxing' is known for its forceful yet simple combat techniques. It is said to have originated 500 years ago in the southeast village of Chong Chow. Baji movements are short, powerful and abrupt. Because of its effectiveness in close quarters combat, Baji Quan was incorporated into the Qing's Royal protective system and has descended into the late Mao Zedong's leadership. It is currently implemented in the Taiwan's military police training (40 min.)

Sifu Tony Chen was 4 times National Champion of China in traditional forms from the years of 1988 to 1992 and also earned the title of the US Kickboxing Championship. He studied kungfu since age six from his father, Grandmaster Chen Jian, who is the headmaster of the O-Mei sword system. Grandmaster Chen was the professor of Kungfu at Cheng Du Physical Eduction Academy. He was also the chief instructor of the Police Officer Academy in China. He is one of the living treasures of Chinese Kungfu."

[Brad]

I think that should be "Eight Extremes Boxing" not "Eight Diagrams Boxing"

Thanks Brad, good info.
Anyone or anything else someone can think of. Here's a question for ya and Im not trying to start whole sleu of replies telling me wushu is martial arts.
In your opinion, does wushu have applicable martial value. Meaning that the moves contained in the styles of wushu, are they usable within a reasonable amount of time. I know that Bagua and Xingyi are complex systems compared to a CLF or something along those lines?Are the techniques lethal?Whats your opinion?

TIA,

Shaolin36

[Brad]

Modern wushu is a good starting point for martial arts training. It gets you into excellent physical condition, and there are still many techniques which could be used in a fight. It doesn't have as many techniques as traditional arts tend to or the amount of depth by itself. A lot of the top wushu athletes are also very good at traditional. I think the best modern wushu teachers are also those who understand traditional arts well. Well, that's my current opinion.

[Brad]

Oh, I almost forgot, San Shou is modern wushu too.

[GeneChing]

I train at his San Leandro school, where Tony is all the time. I really enjoy his teachings. His various coaches have their expertise in cont. wushu or sanda and lead students through the typical modern routines. His senior students (not the Chinese trained coaches) will run basic warmups. But Tony is on the floor every night - he even teaches the kids.
The Emei (or O-Mei as they spell it) style is different than my shaolin training, but I'm still trying to characterize it. So far, I 'd have to say that it's surprizing - it goes ways I don't expect. Perhaps it's because I have been patterned with Shaolin. Tony has a great eye for applications and draws stuff out of the traditional Emei forms that I never would have seen. And he makes it work - even the cont. wushu.
BTW, We now have more videos by Tony Chen - check it out:
http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsma...ikungfuvi.html

[xiong]

Just my two cents. I think that it is an effective martial, contemporary wushu that is. I think one has to look at the training overall to really get the right perspsctive. If you focus solely on the new compulsory forms you will come away with the impression that it is solely gymnastics. These have been constructed and refined over the years specifically for performance, so guess what, they will look like performance pieces.

For those who practice these forms to be able to compete on an international level, perhaps they are missing out on the martial aspects. For shmoes like me who can't even do a full split, we get to spend a little more time on applications and I haven't even learned the new cumpulsory longfist yet.

Again just my opinion based on my limited experience and poor fighting ability to date.

Brad and Xiong,
Thanks for your reply. I am looking at a new school due to location and was curious what the effectiveness of wushu is. I have seen the compulsory forms and am not interested in them. I like the Traditional forms in wushu, due to the obvious concentration on martial value as opposed to gymnastic concentration. I also am curious if these techniques would take forever to pick up(lets face it, some of us start older and dont have the time left or invested to become Je Li) I will check it out.
Thanks and Im still open to any input

Shaolin36