Hanging out in Tampa Bay!
The Prodigal Monk...
Unlock IS-Dfr. Merge all S-D threads together so it clears 1000 posts!
Unlock IS-Dfr. Let all the S-D threads stand independently.
Keep IS-Dfr locked down. All IS-Dfr posters deserved to be punished.
Delete them all. Let Yama sort them out.
Hanging out in Tampa Bay!
The Prodigal Monk...
Last edited by ricardocameron; 02-26-2007 at 01:47 PM.
"Let's get the hell out of here" - J. T. Kirk. in City on the Edge of Forever
"you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, PUNK?" Harry Callahan
"Mens Sana In Corpore Sano"
Follow the advice of Teddy Roosevelt: "Speak softly, but carry a big stick".
"Regulate the breath, and thereby control the mind."
-- B.K.S. Iyengar
Number 5 double hit kick with roundhouse right hand left foot , then left hand right foot, the way I was taught KC
A Fool is Born every Day !
No mobility in the forms. I'm a footwork kind of guy, always on the move.....plus, seemed like a lot of wasted movement.
One of the thing I noticed while "shopping around" was the wasted motions people seemed intent on keeping intact as I punched them in the face. I didn't set out to be nasty......but people just weren't protecting themselves efficiently in many places........and they couldn't move..........
There were lots of really good guys at many of the schools, don't get me wrong. But they weren't staffed by experts.......not by any means.
Let's just say, that based on fighting instinct and soundness alone, I walked back through SD's doors with a sigh of relief.........
But that Longfist guy is excellent for structure, I'll tell you that........
Might not be crap, per say. When I called it crap, I meant.....it's not for me. I'd bet that many of the "false" styles have some martial value.....I'd even go out on a limb and say some of the Chung Moo Doe cultists could have defended themselves pretty well. Some Kempo guys are really quite badass, at least from what I've heard. But in the case of the one you mentioned......I think it would be crap for me, so I didn't bother (did some Okinawan when I was younger, don't remember a whit of it....and quickly quit, b/c it was not my cup of tea). Plus, I like the "softness" and the "fluidity" of CMA styles. They suit me so much better than something like karate. The Longfist guy I'm with, for however short or long that may be, teaches out of a karate school in their off hours. He only has 4-5 regular students, so it's kind of like a private lesson. But I saw some karate dudes practicing before class started, and thought to myself.....nope, not for me. I don't move like that. That's not to say that SD came naturally. I always considered myself a relaxed guy....until I realized just how tense I was as the Master of the school kept saying....."Man, you gotta relax..." or "Drop that shoulder....it's too tense...."
The softness and relaxation of the style fits my personality.....which is easy-going and light.
I gotta admit.....I do like some of the flash and sizzle in CMA, too...... ......
Last edited by Shaolin Wookie; 02-27-2007 at 06:26 AM.
Boy, is my face red.
Some people call those who dont gently tell them that their bull**** is really pudding rude and *******s. No sweat off my ass.
Wookie-
Youd be a fool not to spend at least a day checking out David Lin's shuai chiao school if you really want to learn how to fight.
"i would show them 8 hours of animal porn and beheadings in a single sitting then make them write a paper about italy." -GDA
"he said there were tons of mantids fornicating everywhere. While he was there, he was sending me photos of mantis porn regularly." - Gene Ching
[QUOTE=Shaolin Wookie;741860]One of the thing I noticed while "shopping around" was the wasted motions people seemed intent on keeping intact as I punched them in the face. I didn't set out to be nasty......but people just weren't protecting themselves efficiently in many places........and they couldn't move..........
[QUOTE]
I move very little when I spar. I only move when I have to.
I have a hard time getting at "settlers"........but in a sparring session, two people can't "settle"......one of 'em has to move. Otherwise, it's just Shaolin Chan as we sit there and meditate.....not Shaolin kung-fu.......
So I'm usually the guy that gets the action going by moving up and about.....in that kind of situation, I've got to move. Plus, if I notice someone has bad footwork, I use it to my advantage......(Ali/Leonard did the same thing)
Plus, many of those people didn't move when they had to......
I'm not great, but I'm pretty sure I don't suck......
Last edited by Shaolin Wookie; 02-27-2007 at 06:29 AM.
Does anyone know the name of Grandmaster Sin's TV program on KET? I'm on their website and have searched high and low in their archives but can't find it.
I have one recording on DVD of a mantis form.....have to wait 'till I get home to double check the name of the show. I think it was something generic, like "Karate" or something really simple like that. It would be cool to get a set......if they're not waaaay expensive.
Last edited by Shaolin Wookie; 02-27-2007 at 01:47 PM.
I've been lurking in the shadows for a bit... gotta say my piece.
SW... you must be a sparring monster. An absolute monster. To be able to walk into a Wing Chun school & "slap around" a student that you say has been studying at least as long as you. Did you suggest "sparring"? Was it brought up as part of the class?
Here's a suggestion the next time you find yourself in that position. Politely ask the sifu to forego the sparring since you'll just slap people around & just get right to the juicy stuff... use these words... gong sau. I'm sure you'll be more than adequately impressed after that. At that point, I'm sure the manners of sparring with somebody from not in their kwoon would come off & you'd get a feel of what they're really about.
BTW... what Wing Chun school was it that you slapped around this person? I can think of a couple that wouldn't have been as gracious.
Why harp on the PM people? So they think ALL MA originate in Africa. SD claims that they have the original Shaolin stuff! Where's the difference?
What did you expect from the SPM people? Hakka arts tend to put HUGE focus on footwork for the first good while you're lucky enough to find a Hakka teacher. They're not a McKwoon type of style.
You made a comment ...
... that strikes me as the pinnacle of ignorance. How can you say you "learned alot about..." when you never even scratched the surface of an intro class??? How do you know what they do when you (an outsider) isn't around? How do you know what the seniors do when you (an outsider) and their junior classmates aren't around? How can you be so blind as to presume that SD with its many different "arts" taught with no specific training, technqiues, etc... is better than a single threaded, training & oriented specific method?I'm just a beginner at my level but I've learned a lot about schools, teaching, etc. just by looking around. SD is better than many schools in my area, but for certain specifics, it can't hurt to look around. So, I'll stick with SD and cross-train in Longfist for now (it's helped improve my SD already)
By all means... go see David Lin. Be sure to use the attitude you've shown here & don't forget the term I gave you earlier ... gong sau (for a refresher) ... so you can skip the manners & get straight to the heart of the matter.
I'll be around... let us know how it goes.
Haha....Bubba.....
When you read a post on the internet, you might think I sound proud and arrogant. I write in active voice, and rarely in the passive, so it sounds affirmative (a writing trait engendered by exhaustive studies in UGA's English Dept. getting A's from teachers loath to give them. ) I'm not an arrogant guy.
At the WC school, we didn't do any chi sao, thank god. Or I'm sure I would've had my ass handed to me bigtime (like push-hands, I suck at that, too). We free sparred, and I don't think I could've beaten everyone there, but I beat on the people of my skill level like nobody's business. I was a sparring monster that day, at that time, against those people. I honestly don't think they'd ever sparred anyone other than WC people. I'd never sparred a WC person....but I came out on top. It's not style-vs-style. It's mano-a-mano, right? People who know me in SD can tell you I'm not a monster. Sometimes I get my ass kicked. But I'm usually pretty solid--against people my level anyways. Blackbelts beat me like I'm a little kid. Perhaps you missed the part where I said that? I didn't slap everyone around....but some people. I visited an MMA school in Norcross, and walked right back out. I would've had my ass handed to me in 5 seconds--and that definately wasn't the place for me....but I figured, why not check out everything? Note: I also got tossed around like a rag doll at a BJJ school. I'm not superman, and I never pretend to be. Well, that's a lie. When I used to work for food services at UGA, I'd always turn my apron around like a cape, and I stole the "Superman" sticker off of the ice cream machine and put it on my name tag..... .....funny as hell though, 'cuz 99% of the people who worked there didn't know my name. They all just called me Superman.
Anyways.....
As for the PM school........I'm not dissing them. Those dudes were good. Some of 'em were some scary dudes. But SD catches flack for wearing belts and gi's......and this school was wearing scarves, doing capoeira, and all kinds of stuff . I was looking for a more "focused" school. One that tackled "one thing." I found that in the Longfist guy. What's the difference between SD and the PM school? Besides the getup, it was the schedule and the styles, and the price. IF you're talking about the stories....well, part of the reason I was looking around was because of SD's sometimes-outrageous stories. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from looking around was----"Everyone's got their stories....some of them equally strange/outlandish"........
I did learn a lot about schools, teaching, etc. in CMA by looking around. I saw the different approaches people used to teach. I've heard SD criticized repeatedly for lack of drilling and just forms collecting. I found that a lot of the schools in my area do the exact same thing, but many of them (due to shorter schedules) don't get in half the practice we do. And many of them don't spar. Some of them do very little forms work, and almost all drilling. The big thing I learned was----hell, I'm pretty much doing the same thing everyone else is doing, but SD's schedule gives greater access to all kinds of work....because it has more open hours.
I still like that SPM school--from the little I saw. Funny, what they did reminded me of SD in a lot of ways. I figured, why shell out that kind of money to do something I'm already doing in a different form? Didn't make logistical sense.
Obviously you don't know me very well. Or, do you? Me, blind? Well, I do have bad eyesight..........really bad. But I can drive alright. Several people online here extended me open hands and said: hey, come check out our ATL school. One even put on a demo for me and let me get in on some drills in a higher-level class. A CLF guy on here offered to help me in my search, but I'd made up my mind before I visited him (No offence, Sean---cool guy ). Anyways...I don't have any friggin' clue what the senior guys at my school do when we junior classmates aren't around.How do you know what the seniors do when you (an outsider) and their junior classmates aren't around? How can you be so blind as to presume that SD with its many different "arts" taught with no specific training, technqiues, etc... is better than a single threaded, training & oriented specific method?
I have no intention of going to see David Lin. No offense. Don't know anything 'bout Shuai Chao. Don't really care. . My whole search was to find out if SD was preparing me "maritally" in a way that was economical, efficient, etc. If it wasn't...I was gone. I wasn't looking for a reason to stay. I was actually looking for a place to go. Surprise, surprise, I stayed where I was. (Might sound like I was looking for a reason to stay....but I was literally out the door and told my girlfriend and brother: I'm finished there.) My find: SD was preparing me pretty well. I've got great teachers. My Longfist teacher thinks my footwork is horrible, b/c I don't keep my root in my heels enough during stance transitions. He's calling me out on mechanics. I like that. So, on Saturday nights I'll go have him show me how to make stance transitions with better efficiency. You might think that's the fault of SD, but it's only something that comes with large classrooms. You just don't have time to pick everything out......but private lesson-type scenarios focus on more specific things, b/c you have the time to do so.
I'm not into collecting styles, per say. I wanna be able to use the stuff I've already invested time/$$ in. I found out I can, more or less. And if I'm having a good day and you're having a **** poor one, and you come into SD and wanna spar, and I get lucky and start slapping you around....yea for me....right? HAHAHAHA...just kiddin'.
IF all of this sounds arrogant, then I'm a friggin' arrogant son of a *****.
Last edited by Shaolin Wookie; 02-27-2007 at 01:55 PM.
Oh, and I didn't post the names of any of the schools I went to for one reason, and one reason only:
Who the **** cares anyways?