Lama Pai, Hop Gar, Bak Hok

[lkfmdc]

I know your master was a fighter and you follow in that tradition but I also know he knew and practised a lot of styles and sets so I was wondering do you personally practise your styles sets still

In most senses NO, we no longer do sets/forms

The only thing we still do are the "chi kung" things (in Lama, in Cantonese, we have Lihn Gung, Heih Gung and Noi Gung). Basicly these are yoga like exercises designed to teach flexibility, strength, balance, etc

I am sure you know a LOT of MMA people do Yoga and variations.

In fact, I think that one of the problems with the "tradtiional" way of forms is that the forms have three elements

1) fighting technique
2) yogic like practice
3) performance

Yet today people don't know which is which and get them all confused

do you feel that practising the seed/core movements in isolation and in shadow boxing and pad work is more than enough to ingrain the styles essence and approach to fighting?

We do a lot of things to develop the skills
1. shadow boxing
2. partner drilling
3. equipment work
4. partial sparring
5. full sparring

I also developed a criteria, a protocol to see what "works" and what doesn't

I know you have spoken before about how your guys use lama tactics and techniques in the clinch.

Not just in the clinch. You know, the funny thing, really, is that people from my actual tradition clearly see us applying the Lion's Roar technique in our fights and teachings (for example David Chin, David Rogers, etc)

And people who know boxing and Muay Thai see we are not doing those things

Our hand strikes, our angles, our fighting strategy is completely different than boxing and frequently different from Muay Thai

but in regards to the striking when using longer range strikes does it look like traditional CLF and lama? ie both arms in use and whipping in from various angles both vertical and horizontal axis as well as diagonal, or is it more like you see MMA and sambo guys when they throw overhands and long upper cuts: with the other arm defending the chin and less variety in angles?

Partially, see above.

Our punches tend to be longer range than traditional boxing. We use a different energy ("ging"). We throw them at different angles, and with different footwork.

HOWEVER, I believe that the other hand MUST protect the face/jaw/chin so you will NOT see the "flailing"