MenteReligieuse

Elbow strikes require short distance , I wouldn't risk that my opponent gets too close in a street situation , but if he does , an elbow striek is a good solution Like it or not, a fight will almost always come up close and personal. Better prepare for the short distances than the long ones.

Not sure what you mean by "winding up", you don't want to telegraph your strikes. But yeah, the body must move, the limb's own movement just supplementing to the strike, not the other way around.

Not sure I understand how this happens. Are you sure you have a correct WC stance? Yes your shoulders should be slightly forward, but relaxed, no strains on the back. Both your thighs and quads (not sure of the names here, you know, the front and back muscles of your upper leg) should both be getting stronger, preventing any muscular imbalance which could affect posture. If I look at my sifu and the most advanced students, I don't see any abnormal postures. Their pretty much straight as boards.

Listen to White Warlock...he knows stuff Aye the most important aspect of chi is breath. The first thing you are taught when meditating doing any exercises is to concentrate on your breath. You also often hear to exhale when you strike or do any sort of intense (forcefull) movenent (like striking). Often when doing hard exercises (or actually fighting), one forgets to continue breathing deeply and regularly, resulting in loss of energy. Now my chemisty class is a bit far, but if I remember correctly breathing leads to combustion of the oxygen at a cellular level, and combustion produces, or liberates, energy. Your muscles require intensive ammounts of oxygen (energy) when doing anything physicaly challenging. Chi is energy. But of course it is also way more than that. The rest I cannot explain. ¨Shaolin masters often say your kung-fu will only go as far as your spirit. It's an arguable statement, but enlightning none the less.

Don't think the ring has anything to do with the streets.

Mine has taek won do and jujitsu. Never tried them so I can't speak of the quality of the classes. But yeah, it's real cheap, close to where students spend most of their time and impresses the ladies . Why wouldn't they be popular?

Sparring...fighting in a controled (see: safer) environement? I personally don't view chi sao as sparring though.

I've been practicing Wing Chun for a couple weeks now and I keep forgetting piece of the Siu Lim Tao form. If anyone knows if there is an online guide or video of the form it will be greatly appreciated.

I'm thin and muscular...does that mean I'm attracted to other males?...

Because it was created to get someone as efficient as possible witin a very short period of training. If the legend is true it was created by a nun as an alternate way of self-defense, not necessarily a better one.

untrue

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4704691.stm scary. college graduate ninjas!

Can't say which one is best, but I studied shaolin for a few months, and I got a friend of mine who has been doing it for a few years. Now I started wing chun, and the first thing I noticed (well, maybe not the FIRST thing but you know...) is in wing chun you got a few techniques that works against a wide array of techniques, while in shaolin you got alot of techniques that work in more restricted situations (for each technique). Now does this make wing chun better? Can't say. Wing Chun will make you improve alot faster at the beginning than Shaolin, but shaolin when trained well and for a long time can probably be as good if not better. But like in any Style vs Style threads, it all comes down to the exponents, not the style.

Butterfly swords...if someone pulls two of those baybies in a dark alley, i'd piss my pants

wing chun vs karate? I put my money on the baseball bat. 'nuff said. *yes this post is to show you the uselessness of a Style vs Style comparaion when it would really only depend on the exponents.

Only the advandced students spar in my school. Alot of multiple enemies situation, even though we do wing chun we see some ground grappling and stuff.

I...hate...touching...eyeballs...

Both styles concentrate on punches rather than kicks. The hung gar "shadow kick" looks alot like the way kicks are done (with a punch) in wing chun. Hung Gar use more low and deep stances than wing chun, which is more upright. Hung gar also has a few more weapons than wing chun. Thats all I can say for I don't know too much about hung gar so I can't say which is best for self-defense, but this really depends on the training you get anyway. If you can take a free test class in each school you will be able to get a better feel on them both.

"Shaolin Kempo" ? What the ef is that? I've heard of Chinese Kempo but didn't know they did kempo in shaolin.

that would make it a sport, not a ma.

Bagua, Tai chi..very long and flowing/circular movements, will take you many many years to be able to grasp and use the basics functionally. For something quicker, maybe White Crane kung fu. But don't spit on the arts you say to have "hard ridgid motions" ..."hard" MAs usually have a "soft" core. Like White Warlock said, look whats around your area and shop around. edit : Oh, and are you sure you got time to study two MAs at the same time? I know many people do on this board...but I find myself lucky if I can get to class 4 times per week, which is not much really considering you can spend a lifetime studying 1 art without having touched everything it has to offer.

Circular footwork in wing chun? Interesting. In my class we train a bit in shaolin deep stances to strenghten the legs, and also do some grappling and ground control. Still pretty linear, other than sidestepping diagonaly to get out of the way of the opponents forward momentum.

Oh I can see it, dude doing his little routine on the dummy, hits a little too hard on the old thing and it comes crashing down on him...PWNED!

Well there are a series of exercices you can do on it, I missed an "s", meant techniqueS. Of course you can also improvise on it I guess but it wont necessarily help you out.

something that no longer exists