manuel

There is a whole range of monkey or ape styled martial arts practiced all over Asia. I myself have studied Tai Shing Pek Kwar from Northern China. It has a lot of basic Northern Shaolin moves, some of it is done on a low level or on the floor. This is combined with some unique animalistc movements. I can think of at least four or five other Chinese arts that draw off the monkey and the ape. I have also been able to study some Silat/ Kuntao styles from Indonesia that based othemselves on monkeys. If you want to learn some moves, you need to find a teacher, these styles have a unique rythmn that is difficult to convey in words.

As far as my abilities in gymnastics or Wu Shu, they are weak. One of the keys to Monkey Kung Fu is the flexibility training. A typical class would have us practice what Paulie called Taoist Yoga for three or four hours before we moved to the more martial movements. In my opinion , i found three streches most valubale to developing good Monkey techniques: The splits ( both ways) touching your chin to your toe with the legs straight, and putting the leg behind the head, No disrespect intended to Wu Shu or Capoiera( which I trained in for a few years), is that the more one flips around, the more one runs the risk of neglecting to work on powerful kicks and punches, slaps, etc. to take the opponents out and put him, them on the ground fast. I have seen, in capoiera rodas where some advanced practioners have been able to flip around to build up some tremndous momentum to strike a guy hard, but it is more the exception then the rule, in my opinion. In training Monkey Kung Fu, we worked the basic moves common to Northern styles of Kung Fu a lot, in order to develop speed, power and timing. after that we worked on the extreme moves, that many people associate with the art.

I have not trained Ho Quan, but Tai Shing Pek Kwar with Paulie Zink. I can attest to its fighting capabilities. If you ever have a chance to really look at it, you can see a lot of basic Kung Fu strikes in its repetoire. It might be done lower at times then other styles, and there might be some advanced fancy moves that may not be applicable in a street fight for the average practioner like me. However overall I felt I was learning an effective art. My training consisted of basic Kung fu moves to develop speed, power, and timing. Paulie did not stress the art as a street fighting method, or something to be used in competition. This would change the way that he learned and taught. He advised those who wanted to work on their street fighting, or those who wanted to participate in tournaments to get some extra training on the side with him, or train with kickboxers and wrestlers, and boxers. As far as other Monkey Kung Fu practioners that I know of. I was told that in the 1970's the man they call the Monkey King in Hong Kong trained a group of fighters who won for a few years in the bare knuckled matches they held in Hong Kong or Macau. My teachers, teacher Choi Chat Ling, I was told, bears the scars of many a fight he engaged in with the Triads in Hong Kong before he left for the USA. He refused to train Triad members in Kung Fu and so they would take it out in the alley. I was told these were armed fights and so the stakes were a lot higher. hope this helps with your questions.

Hello; I trained with Paulie Zink for a few years and I can tell you he is something else. I met his teacher a few times and he is impressive too. A regular class started around 8:00 or 8:30 at night and we would practice Taoist Yoga for three or four hours. Then we would do a hour or so of moving the energy around, and then two to three hours of the Kung fu, both empty handed and with weapons. we usually met only once a week. Paulie was big on doing your homework. Manuel