Re: Jow Gar and Hung Gar
Originally posted by Octavius
Could someone tell me what the differences between the two arts are? By this, I mean that I already understand the back story behind Jow Gar (combo of HG + N.Shaolin) so have an idea of the similarities, but I'm not quite getting my head around the actual differences between the two. Are there differences in the principles and theories between them (i.e. different ways of enerating power?), or just technique (i.e. southern kicking style vs. northern kicking style?) or something like that? Thanks for any input.
as said before, jow ga is a synthesis of hung ga, choy ga, and bak siu lum. hung ga is the mother system off of which everything else is built/added. different lineages may vary, but in my lineage, we considered a southern longhand system. we get our stances from hung ga(and some footwork), hands skills from hung ga, footwork from choy ga(we don't have choy hands) and some sporadic northern flavor forms or techniques from bak siu lum. as far as my sifu told me, we descend from wong fei hung lineage of hung ga. also, the choy ga is the same choy ga which choy li fut comes from.
as a little insight, a lot of people consider original hung kuen to basically be nam siu lum ji(south shaolin temple) gung fu. remiscent of a lot of southern systems are "short hand wide horse." it is said that WFH incorporated longhand techniques into hung ga from lama pai(a tibetan gung fu). therefore, hung ga could hence forth broaden their gung fu range of combat. this (IMO) helped popularize them as a very powerful, formidable fighting system.
in my trainin, i spent the first few years focusing on what i would consider "hung ga-like" training. my fourth year, my sifu suddenly emphasized that the footwork we'd learned before be much swifter and focused on it more(choy). i think the "hung tao choy mei" can also be taken as "hung early, choy later." this is from my own limited training and experience though.
finally, have u seen jow ga performed? i'm sure some people on here can point u to many different vids of jow ga being performed. for me, a lot of what i see looks like hung ga in the beginning(much dynamic tension, little or no footwork). then suddenly, much dynamic footwork patterns, short and long techniques, high and low. forms i've seen like this are sei ping kuen, moi fa kuen(northern and southern), maan ji kuen, siu hung kuen, chai jong(if i remember correctly), fu hak seurng ying kuen, fu pao seurng ying kuen, sup ying kuen, and sup ji kuen. i'm sure there are others, but i can't think of them right now.
my siu hung kuen(the last form i learned) actually fits this pattern perfectly. if u compare a HG form like gung ji fok fu kuen and siu hung kuen, u'll notice they start similarly with much dynamic tension(though my siu hung kuen is narrow horse in beginning). then, after the first part of the form, u'll notice siu hung kuen's footwork picks up considerably much more than GGFFK and speed is emphasized more. better?? by no means. do u prefer vanilla or chocolate?
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