ahgao

SanShou or SanDa (read it in Mandrain) is the sparring sports of Wushu. You can kick, punch, throw, grab.. anything you can think of in a MMA fights minus the elbow, knee and choking. SanShou have their own sets of rules and point awarding system.

Apply Cognac

Yes, Drunken Boxing shown in the movies are only good for the movies. Drunken Boxing done down at the dojo with proper training might have some effectiveness in self-defence.

WOW! This sounds like asking a BJJ guy does he have a video kata on Wushu. Your school might have its own syllabus, who knows what is 1st and 2nd form. And you didn't even metion what style of Wushu you are doing.

TAEKWONDO

You can even try PILATES to soften your hardness although not MA actually.

Dear DM, if taichi is done fast, practisioner can't get the movement correct?

Some buddhism teaching under the Bodolorrama (hope I get the spelling correct) don't shave at all. But from bold to long hair??? NV heard before.

100% agrees. Set Sparring counts? Trad or Modern?

CMA Katas, we call it Routines, are very different from other MA Katas. The basic requires, Hand/Eye/Posture/Stances/Spirit/Breathing/Power/Skill (手, 眼, 身法, 步, 精神, 气, 力, 功). Other style would require different aspect of the above 8, but usually the similar. Another point in routine will be "Loose" & Rythme. Wushu Routines are also catergories into Trad and Contemp/Northern and Southern. Different routine/style requires different aspect of acquiring power and distrubution. Karate is a Hard Form, there is no way your power can be translate into a Soft Form, say Tai'Chi. But you can in another, Nghor Chor (5 Master Art - popular in Sarawak http://www.visitsarawak.com/wushu/main.html) Not sure what routine you are refering to "springy legs". Low stance is a requirement in most routines, but not as a dead stance. Some wushu routines require low stance and fast leg movement, which is actually the correct technique in using your waist and weight distrubution between your legs. The above are only base on barehand routines. Weapons Routine will require another different sets of techniqes to transfer power from your body/waist/arms/wrist to the weapon and different parts of the weapon.

Being a Chinese, I'm always amazed by how the western appreciate our chinese cultural art. Like I always tell my trainees, give any 10 years down the road, you probably can only find good Hung Gar Master in Europe... I know I'm of topic, lol... In asia pugilistic community, when we say your Kung Fu is good, we are saying that your skill in your style of CMA is good, which I believe the term Kung Fu had been discuss many times in the forum. So back to the topic, what does Tai Chi got to do with Kung Fu? Nothing. But when you rephrase, your Tai Chi Kung Fu is good, is just saying that your skill in Tai Chi is good. The actual history of Tai Chi is not clear, but the documented traceble would be the founder of Chen Style Tai Chi - Chen Wan Ting. Do a search through the web, you will find more... In Singapore, majority of Tai Chi practisioner are old folks for the sake of better health and community. But traditional Tai Chi practisioner are still around (for how long...). So why Tai Chi is done slowly? I have actually posted a question in my forum and got a feedback. Take a look here

Probably southern style CMA had maintain and preserve their traitional values and teachings, hence it is more popular over the world. Whereas northern style CMA had evolve too much into comtemp style, where most "traitional" people don't like it.

I think: in europe, you would have more on Hung Gar and Jow Gar, Choy Gar (Southern Art). in US, probably would be Wing Chun (southern art). in South East Asia, there are many practisioner on Hung Gar, Choy Gar, Jow Gar, Wing Chun, Shaolin and other southern art. So maybe the more appreciated form of practise is Southern Style CMA.

How about trying Chen Style Tai'chi

To me, Chinese Martial Arts (CMA) is known for its WuDe (Mo Tat), regardless internal or external CMA. 仁 - compasion 智 - wisdom 礼 - respect 义 - helpfulness 信 - trust 严 - determination 勇 - courage Sport CMA, which is what the International Wushu Federation (IWF) is trying to promote into Qlympic 2008. But when ask, can CMA be use to fight? I say, Yes & No. It all depends on how you are train and in what aspect. CMA is greatly mis-interpretated out of Asia region is what I can say...

Hung Gar got Monkey Staff rouinte???

TomBei, a northern style wushu, uses long arm striking (whip force) and fast pace footwork. The art abstract moves from a monkey, in chinese we call it Yuan-Hou. TomBei, together with 2 other family, PiKua & FanZhi, form the common 3 long range striking art family. TomBei is not actually an art from Shaolin. Shaolin had only 72 Skills and 108 Routines.

Jow Gar is a combination of Hung Gar and Choy Gar with about less dan 100 yrs history, founded by Zhou Long and his 4 brothers. The system is Chinese...

Jow Gar, a combination of Hung Gar and Choy Gar, that's why there is a saying "Hung Tao Choy Mei", start with Hung ends with Choy. The system is less than 100 yrs old, founded by Zhou Long and his 4 brothers. Also another southern wushu style kungfu includes fist routines, weapon routines, combat techniques and lastly, the Jow Gar Lion Dance art.

The 5 animal is not a style by its name but is adpoted by many southern art. Take the art of Hung Gar Kuen, "5 animal fist" is one of the basic routine. Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Leopard and Crane are the main 5. Than follow with 10 animal - the other 5 => Lion, Elephant, Horse, Monkey and Panter. Some other family uses different animal forms too...

Wushu is the general terms for all form of Chinese Martial Arts. Contemp wushu is a sport wushu that focus on performance. Although a performing martial art, every move excersie a form of attach or defense, but whether it is practical is another issue. Traditional wushu various from thousands of family, style and teaching. Hsing-I, Pak Kua, Taichi is the 3 main well known internal art of wushu. All 3 arts are useful in combat situation. Other internal arts include, Shaoling "Xin Yi Ba", Muslim "Xin Yi Liu He Quan", "Liu He Ba Fa", "Yi Quan"... etc. Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Choy Gar, Jow Gar, Law Gar, Har Gar and many more are southern wushu. Focus on soild lower stance and power bridge hand. Good for close combat. Tong Bei, Fang Zi, Hua Quan, Cha Quan, Song Jiang Quan, Shaolin Quan and many more are northern wushu. Focus on fast pace footwork and long fist attack. Good for long range fighting. Whether a wushu is practical or not can't be tell unless the instructor or sifu teach you the practical aspect of the art you are learning. Take TKD (not flaming), if the coach only teach you how to block, kick, chop and punch without emphysing the ways to excecute the moves, there are simply no practical value of the art. A street fighter without knowledge of martial arts but is eager to hurt you, will excersie his mental ability to hurt you. Bite ears, kick groin, thrown sands into eyes, grab your "balls"... this is practicality.

This is what i was told... It did started from the temple but was not fully created. It was after the burndown of the temple than this NUN draft out the art and pass to Yip Weng Chun, which later complete the actual art together with her husband

Where the yangtze river cuts, the upper is northern art, and the lower is southern. The landscape of southern is full of mountains and rivers and large open fields rules the north. Due to the constrain in the landscape, southern art have no choice but to be short bridge and dun run about or any high jumps moves.

Sphere Force

As the Chinese saying: "All Forms Of (Chinese) Martial Arts Evolve From Shaolin".