SevenStar

IMO, shaolin do/oom young doe/chung mu quan = fake. However, I know some people that train under mullins and love it. Qualty is in the eye of the beholder. Also, like anything else, the style is subject to fraud teachers. So, you may be able to find good shaolin do around somewhere, from what I'm told.

you'll be able to remember your childhood, but due to knee problems, you won't be able to walk!

depends on what you're training and how they define internal. Some teachers/systems consider internal as nothing more than proper body mechanics, ie the coiling mechanics of taiji. The approach is different between internal and external when it comes to training/fighting.

I'd also add that you should do that with a grappler, if at all possible. A TKD guy, for example, won't have a double leg the same caliber as that of a grappler.

If I'm on the ground and have a guy immobilized, an eye gouge may be fine. While standing, it's not on my list of tactics.

in judo and bjj, we do 5 min rounds. In MT, we do 3 min rounds.

tiger claw is all 5 digits, spread apart. the hand is vertical and it used for raking, tearing, etc. With the eagle claw, the digits are close together and the hand is horizontal. it's used for throat strikes, grabbing, etc.

That's the area I always find myself debating with TMA guys... When I was in TMA - years of karate, four years of longfist - we never practiced barrages of strikes to vital areas at full force. And, as we know, you fight how you train. I knee, elbow, thai kick, throw, etc. all the time at a high contact level. I KNOW I can do those things, and they are ingrained in me. Never once have I tried to phoenix eye anyone in the temple. Not only that, but I have no idea if I could actually pull it off, since it's not practiced at full speed against full resistance. Also, hitting such precise areas lends itself to taking much longer time to master, which was kind of the point of this thread - TMA takes longer to learn, in most cases. A guy with 3 months of training isn't going to be able to precisely hit all of these vital areas in a confrontation.

let them heal. Also, research proper methods of hand conditioning...

my experience in memphis that have involved trained individuals were cats who either boxed or wrestled in high school. In tht first 5 seconds, the wrestlers are clinching - it allows them to throw the opponent down and mount them while taking minimal shots, ideally. Like I said though, that's not typical, at least not here. It's usually two untrained, or one that may have had some training.

In the case of MT, that's not true. The bowing - wai - and the tradition is there. However, it doesn't overshadow the training. It's not as apparent in many schools as it is in say, karate, but it's definitely there.

quick lesson about MT.... there are more than four punches...you're thinking jab, cross, hook, uppercut. What about the straight right? the shovel punch? the body hook? Also, read what the saying I posted above about practicing 1 technique 1,000 times... as for kicks, MT actually does have side and hook kicks. the roundhouse and the teep are the most commonly seen kicks for efficiency reasons. But, MT classifies kicks in 2 categories - thrusting and arcing. roundhouse, hook kick, etc. are arcing kicks. teep, sidekick, etc. are thrusting.

Well, here's my story: while training for a black belt test a couple of years ago, I felt that my sparring needed to be taken up a notch. Not that I was bad, I could more than hold my own, but I wanted to expand my knowledge. So I met a guy who was a semi-professional kick boxer who wanted a sparring partner and we started training together. We used heavy gloves, so I was unable to use open handed techniques, which I prefer (ed). The first time we sparred, this guy almost killed me! Even though I was 6" taller and 30 lbs heavier and in better shape. I was not used to the power of the blows, or the speed and angles of the kicks. So we trained and trained, I stopped trying to fight karate style for a while and just focused on learning new stuff. Jab, cross, hook over and over. The next time I went to the dojo and sparred (2 months) I went up against the one guy that always gave me fits (lots younger, just as strong and had studied some wicked Chinese stuff) and boy was there a noticeable difference! Anyway it ended with him bent over double from an inside roundhouse I had learned...hehe. I'll stop rambling, but I guess I'm trying to say, yes they are quite different and overall I don't know which is "superior". If I had used all of my karate knowledge and open handed/pressure point/grappling stuff with the kick-boxer would I have done better? Sure, but the bottom line for me was taking the strengths of both and putting them together. Even know when I spar, I sure remember to keep my hands up and elbows in because I paid such a price against that guy! I notice almost uniformly that karate stylists relax their hands and arms way too much and are easy targets for anyone looking for that. Enough for now, hope that helps! good post.

I just went to the mall - coincidentally, a fight broke out. thinking about this thread, I timed it. It lasted a minute and forty five seconds. It would've gone longer but security came and broke it up. It was a one on one fight. I'nm surprised, as both guys had friends with them. In this city, when there are more, they usually all jump in. Guy A's girlfriend grabbed his arm and said "baby, you don't have to do this". He jerked his arm away and rushed the guy. I'm not sure what happened before that, as I was too far away to hear and people were running to see what was going on. After he lunged, blows were thrown. they clinched and yanked eachother around. one guy slipped and fell, dragging the other guy with him. After security broke it up, Guy A said "This isn't over - you WILL die tonight." Considering that crips, GD's, vice lords and various latin gangs run rampant here, I'm sure it was gang related.

I've seen the same apply with trained MA. they had no ground experience, and were both helpless there. the melee resulted in a clinch, and eventually, they went down. As for my experience, I've only fought untrained people outside of the ring, shiai, etc.

It's got nothing to do with MA movies. bottom line is that not all fights end that quickly. I've seen too many of them. the majority of the 1 on 1 fights I've witnessed that lasted a while involved two untrained people who ended up on the ground. neither knew grappling, and the struggle was them hitting eachother on the ground.

still doesn't matter. change the scenario to two trained individuals. Now, you have two people who SHOULD know what they're doing. Consequently, it will be harder for one to seize victory. Now, if one individual is trained and the other isn't, it shouldn't matter, but even then you have to consider that the untrained fighter may have a weapon, or may just have that killer mindset. In all actuality you can't say how long a fight should last, because you don't know. All you can say it optimally, you think it should last X number of seconds.

people know about them. It's just not easy finding schools that teach them.

So those Kung Fu guys represent the whole world and every Kung Fu system in the world? Silly. Nah, that's not what he's saying. He's saying that TMA guys entered...and got beat. Also, have you noticed that whenever a TMA guy gets beat, the first thing you hear is "well, he wasn't a good exponent anyway..."? Also, as stold mentioned, TMA guys tend to say they have nothing to prove. That's fine nd good. But, if they're not gonna put up, then they should shut up. I personally don't care that a person says "I would just use technique X" if they're not gonna step up and prove it. That goes for any style. usually though, it's the mma guys who are more than happy to back it up.

you are both correct, but 1ONE is slightly more correct.... The term MMA came about as a result of the UFC. If you notice, it was NEVER called MMA before that. My guess is mixed martial arts sounded less barbaric than ultimate fighting championships - hence, it was indeed a marketing ploy. Since then, however MMA has been the term used to describe people who cross train, which turned MMA into a format.

Do you feel this way about judo, bjj and muay thai also?

He talked about tradition, but listen at how he was talking about it... He said that flash is just flash without good basics... he was right about that. He also talked about the tradition of passing the art down to the next generation. He didn't say that the flashy forms he did were traditional, however he did state that he competed in bladed weapons, non bladed, traditional forms and open forms. As far as never being in a street fight, that doesn't mean anything. Since when was a martial artist judged by the number of street fights he's had? And, he didn't disrespect us MMA guys. It wasn't a documentary about MMA - it was about Mike and Mat. Did you see the documentary about mark kerr? They didn't mention point fighters in it. Why not? because kerr isn't a point fighter. Granted, I think it sucked - the technology they used was cool, but I don't need that mess to train, and point and forms competition aren't my bag...I'd rather be in a ring or in a shiai - but to say chat is gay even though you say "no disrespect" is WAY more disrepsectful than the show not covering MMA.

watch out when you take similar styles (i.e. striking styles) with different mechanics if you are going to take both at the same time. The power generation in xingyi is nothing like the power generation in tkd, for example. you may end up having to pick the method you like best. When I was in long fist, I always retained my MT training - stance, strikes, etc. even though I was in longfist and was able to kick butt with my MT, my MT was considered "wrong" because I wasn't doing it the way the longfist style did it. However, I had more power than anyone else there, so I stuck with my MT style strikes anyway. When I did the forms, I did them in the proper longfist manner, but always fought more thai style. Now, four years later, I'm back in MT, so it's all good. Before you stay, switch, etc. ask yourself a question - what are you looking for in a martial art?