MenteReligieuse

Nice post! Just started taking boxing classes at college (nothing serious like a club, but fun and good work out) and had a few questions about the basic punches your post answered. Btw, what's a rear-hook if not a cross?

A chain is more dangerous when they aren't whipping it around. Like for chokes or leverage for throwdowns and locks.

Not even a sash? How do you measure your skill? By being skilled

yes, but anystyle can hurt u aswell. Every style SHOULD hurt you a little .

I have, at my old shaolin school. Don't remember the name of the form though.

How...illegal Doshu Mertz MIGHT have issues

...but they are fighting....with strikes....and no punches to the face...I don't see the point or logic...

His hands are incredibly fast but I guess still in the realm of human possibilities. But check his steppings and shift of directions. Definitly editing.

Why flee from in close fighting range? Embrace it . And kicks are still feasible from that close, just keep them simple (and low).

In Wing chun we have a pretty upright position with the body weight being more or less 60/40 (60 on the back leg), that is for combat, in training we are more like 90/10 to be sure we get strong legs to have good rooting even on one leg. This allows the front leg to be very quick and unpredictable. We often use the leg to counter kicks so it has to come out very fast, no time to switch body weight. This also helps countering attacks to your lead leg. I don't think I would try a roundhouse with my lead though :s, but would gladly set it up with a nice little teep kick first from lead, then roundhouse from back. (we don't practice roundhouse in WC training anyway, I got that from previous "shaolin" training. But if you want strong roundhouses, check out Muay Thai's). Punches come out quicker than kicks, and less risky. I agree with WC philosophy to keep kicks below waistline, knees are much more practical targets than faces. [edit:] I wish I could take kickboxing, but WC punches are just so different than anything I've ever seen, it would totally mess me up .

CountrieS. The Scandinavian countries consist of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. They are all up in Northen Europe. Think vikings .

Kalariprayat (sp?) is one of the oldest MA in Inda. But from what I understand almost all of the martial aspect of it got dilluted to near nothing and it is practiced more for traditions and health/spiritual benefits. There is also Silat, but that I know very little of. There are probably others. A friend's roomate of mine (2 actually) went to india to train in some temple, hopefully I will know more once they come back.

About Kyokushin, please enlighten me. What I read and seen on videos about it left me on my appetite. Tournament rules seem to ban punches to the head area. Which leaves the competitioners with guards at chest level even when they are face to face, which I find totally unrealistic, it's removing a whole dimension to fighting. No wonder we get to see MT beating kyokushin, hand strikes to a conditioned body will have minimal effect while being unprepared for coming punches and elbows to the face. Now the kicks might be great, I don't know. (and yes I know kicks can be dealt to the head) Hopefully more "traditional" kyokushin has no such rule, and some competions allow punches to the face (seriously, wear a head protector if you have to).

What's up with all those falling on your backs and then humping the air like if you were being exorcised?! I've seen this so many times in Wushu demonstrations.

My WC sifu trained in Hung Gar as well. He has lot's of good things to say about it. He often gives examples of Hung Gar to show the contrast of most traditional chinese kung fu styles and Wing chun (circular mvts/deep stances/very hard training [not that WC training is not hard ], etc). And about training different arts at the same time. I tend to be on the side of "mastering" (or getting very competent in) an art before moving on to the other. Especially if the arts have different views on fighting. Not to quote Bruce Lee (who didn't invent anything by the way), but when you start learning a martial art you need to un-learn ways to punch and parry and etc, and learn new ones. Now if you have 2 styles, who don't punch the same way, don't kick the same way and don't block the same way (etc), you will probably harm yourself more in the beginning. But I guess it's different when you learn an art + weapons or + grappling, since they teach different aspects of fighting, complementary to hand to hand. (and no way am I gonna wait 10+ years before learning some spear forms!!) my 2 cents.