paolung

are you referring to the scene in "the one"? he was just bouncing around and doing some stuff, no particular form that i am aware of... if you notice he loves doing certain moves so they show those over and over

Treebranch, you're talking elemental theory now... related but not the same, no.

the animals are in gungfu to teach you concepts and strategies, techniques and skills, not necessarily actually emulate the animal persay but perhaps specific attributes and characteristics of the animal. if i'm doing tiger, i'm not going to get down on all fours and literally fight like a tiger, biting etc... but i WILL emulate some of the tiger's attributes (ferocity, aggressiveness, strength etc) and characteristics.

what are your goals? if "easy to learn" but effective in selfdefense is your primary concern, something like krav maga may be good for you. notice, i said "easy to learn", not necessarily "easy to get good at". you can learn the basics, but you will need to practice alot to get good at ANYTHING. if you have larger goals (want to pass on a system, lifelong journey, etc) then perhaps other arts may suit you as well. as tommarker said, what about Hapkido? or did you want to do something different than your b/f?

have YOU ever broken a rock over their head? many so-called "amazing feats" are hoaxes and/or shams. this definately applies to martial arts and qigong feats even more so. beware of what you see, the eyes can deceive.

good luck and train hard, GM Chang was highly respected by many of his peers.

my sifu always said "if you want to see a shadowless kick, turn out the lights and kick!" seriously though... the no-shadow kick is NOT based on misdirection (throw a hand out to distract your opponent) but is based on speed. mok gwai lan (wfh's last wife) learned the mo ying gerk and said she would never use it because it was "too murderous".

it is good to see you are considering learning from a real live sifu. books and videos can only take you so far, and are best used as supplements. good luck in your search

pretty darn far. i can't think of a single (gungfu) movie i've seen where i can say "yeah those fight scenes were totally realistic". some are more realistic than others of course, but let's face it- real gungfu isn't usually very pretty, and it doesn't translate to film real well.

no offense here, but you're asking a question that cant' really be answered. "a martial art like kung fu" isn't really even a legitmate phrase. let me explain: the term "kung fu" usually refers to untold hundreds (for the sake of brevity) of chinese martial art styles and systems, many of which are completely unlike each other in several ways. so the real question here is, which system are you referring to? and what are you wishing to "be good" at? your question is akin to asking "how long does it take to cook meat?" as you can see, there are a multitude of variables to the question...

uhh... in a word, wrong. i completely disagree. any good system worth it's time will give you the tools to fight with. it's up to you how long it takes to use it. generally speaking some arts and/or systems have a longer learning curve, but this depends on the student. 10 or 20 years, maybe if you're a 'weekend warrior' who sits around and never trains with serious intensity! but on topic, the legendary Wong Fei Hung was a southern gungfu stylist. his system was Hung Gar Kuen.

wushu means 'war art' in chinese, and was originally used to describe the vast expanse of martial arts in china. these days, wushu has turned into a sort of national sport of sorts... the emphasis is on speed, fluidity, and for lack of a better word, "flair" (this conjures up images of the movie "office space" but i think it fits). i.e., how good you look doing it. generally, "wushu" is not practiced or trained today with actual combat in mind, but rather the above elements with perhaps some competition. hope this answers your questions.

http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/sparringgear.html don't know if they have your brand or not, but i've bought from them before.

better for what?

i know how to do Ryu and Ken's flaming uppercut...

IMO = In My Opinion UFC = Ultimate Fighting Championship

If ring-fighting ability is really important to you in martial arts and you want something with heavy physical condiitioning with a strong focus on only fighting and nothing other than what works in the ring,I'd chose the Muay Thai/BJJ/Kali. If those things are not the only factors for you, but you would also like many of the aforementioned benefits of MT/BJJ/Kali training IN ADDITION to other benefits, check out the hung fut guys. it can't hurt to see what they have to offer.

correction: not to flame here, but nothing i read on the website could be construed as gungfu, if by gungfu you mean Traditional Chinese Martial Arts. tukong moosul is a korean martial art.

G95 is correct... while pure weight training does nothing for flexibility, it does not hurt it either. stretching, however, can work wonders.

Bruce Lee was also not the first Chinese to teach non-Chinese... but he was probably one of the most notorious.

I have personally never heard of (nor has my sifu) of the "ming princess" angle of Ng Mui, pvwingchun, could you please elaborate on this? thanks

nah, i think you're right to a certain extent. wfh basically organized and consolidated much of hung gar as we know it now, but as you said he had the benefit of great masters to learn from. his father was one of the original "10 tigers" who were known throughout the land as south china's greatest fighters. if you put this in perspective, it means wfh got to train with some of the greatest fighters of his time. combined with (as you said) training from childhood, we can begin to see why wfh was considered such a great martial artist... and to think, he was probably nowhere NEAR his father's level.

let me turn it around on you. was wfh really that good? who can know? my own personal opinion is that the legend of wfh is greatly exaggerated. his father was of considerably higher skill than he was, but wfh is sort of the 'poster boy' for hung kuen. so, was he the best then? not likely. most famous? definately. bruce lee is probably simliar... not necessarily the best, but certainly the most famous.

please elaborate, what do you mean by this statement?

jet li was a wushu champion. while this is admirable, he admits himself that he can't really fight.