Darth Paul

You make a good point. And yes, it should be a really good show, especially for those of us old enough to remember watching these guys fight!

Hello all! It's been too long since I posted here! I saw a promo for an inDemand pay per view that starts tomorrow featuring The Greatest Heavyweight Strikers of All Time from the heyday of the PKA. How many of you would watch this and how do you feel they would do against today's MMA and K1 fighters? Here is the link: Mods: If this is in the wrong forum I apologize. Please move it and let me know. I've been out of the loop for a bit.

Well said!

I am used to one year memberships myself. I now work for a school that sells them as three year contracts and the main objection I find is the length of time the parents are expected to commit their kids to. The monthly payment isn't really the issue if the kids will stick with it. It's just a mateer of getting the kids to stick with it at such a young age.

I seem to be seeing a lot of 3 year "black belt" membership contracts these days in commercial schools. Someone told me today that 3 year deals are the industry standard. In your experience, what is the average length of time for a membership contract?

In Autodefence Wing Tchun we wear low top athletic shoes even in sparring. It doesn't affect the way we kick at all.

It does but it's not as flashy as the one you may be familiar with.

Preach it, my brother.

Good luck!

I am very lucky that every school I train with is within 5 miles.

Anyone ever use rebreakable boards for practice? They're not as much fun but they force you to be accurate. If you don't hit them dead center they're probably not going to break-which makes a huge difference if you are breaking with a punch or a ridgehand strike.

Just saw TKD legend Simon Rhee on MAD TV. I know-pigs are flyin'!

I saw a guy hold suspended boards for a jump spinning heel kick. The board fragments went everywhere and a piece flew up and whacked him in the head when the black belt did the kick. A minor cut was all he sustained.

Cool! Have you met Sifu Lam personally? What's he like?

I would like to have nicely blended my Tae Kwon Do feet and my Wing Tchun hands. I would like to run my own martial arts schol.

Yikes! Once was enough for me. The power generated by a 6th dan is an awesome thing.

I was nosing around on a Wing Chun site recently and decided to explore the lineages page. On this page Grandmaster Leung Ting was given the title 'Master of Almightiness'. What exactly is this all about? I wasn't sure if someone was trying to be funny or if that's his official title now.

Heh, heh. Yeah it was me and the other big doofus at testing that got drafted for that particular break. We've never used apparatus for breaking.

I'd like to give you an educated answer to that but I've only been doing Wing Tchun for a few months. The founder of Autodefence, Master Nick Smart, came up in the lineage of Master Leung Ting's Wing Tsun. So if you know how they do it, I would imagine we do things the same way. Sorry I don't have more info.

That's very true superfighter. The TKD master I trained under was every bit as adept with his hands as he was with his feet. I guess a lifetime of practice will do that for you.

Yep, that's the drill. Autodefence is very westernized so we don't use all the chinese terminology. My teacher, however, did spend 10 plus years in Sifu William Cheung's lineage before switching to Autodefence a few years ago while doing graduate work in Scotland. We call chi sau 'detection hands', pak sau 'slap block', bong sau 'inverse angle arm', siu lum tao 'new thought form' etc.

Autodefence Wing Tchun is broken down into a foundation course plus 12 programs that correspond with a patch worn on the sleeve of our shirts to show what material we know. We don't use belts or sashes.

No injuries while I was breaking but the day I took my 1st dan test I had to hold 6 boards for my master to break with a sidekick during a demo. The first time he kicked it the wood didn't break-the first time I'd ever seen that happen to him- but my hand almost did. He nailed it on the second attempt and drilled me and the other holder to boot. My hand was black by this point but fortunately I was able to use an elbow strike for my required hand break during the test. No serious injury-just a lot of swelling and bruising.

My orange belt test in Yoseikan Budo took about three hours. I had to demonstrate all kihon, ukemi, te hodoki, suwari waza, and te waza up to my belt level. Each lock or throw had to be followed by a pin and had to be delivered from grabs, punches, shuto strikes, etc. Then came shotokan kihon, shite randori and ju randori. Then just for fun I was beset by multiple attackers to deal with as I pleased. It was tiring but it gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I felt like the rank meant something. And like the earlier post, I was covered in bruises and gi burns. But no broken fingers. We are a bunch of disturbed individuals.

That's too cool. My girlfriend says the same thing about me. Apparently I'm quite cranky without regular training.