thebarkingdog

It depends on the school and what is being taught to the child and it depends on the child. Our children's Kung Fu class and Adult Yue-Chuan Kung Fu class are nothing alike. The children's class focuses alot on confidence and attitude "can't" is a bad word in class. As far as what we teach the kids physically there are alot of fun cardiovascular activities and games, they develop speed, agility and strength, rolling, sidestepping... all things that are needed for a good foundation before you learn actual fighting techniques. They also learn some katas and forms, we start with pinans (I think they are the easiest to learn) Where as in the adult class actual street fighting techniques are taught and chinese forms are taught. Our youngest student was 6 when he started and did better than the 9 and 10 year olds. We have a 4 year old daughter that we may let her join the classes when she's 5. We have alot of people call us for 4 year olds and we just haven't seen any 4 year olds that were ready for it. There are other schools that have special programs for just 3-6 yr olds, we just don't do it that young.

I remember backs years ago when my husband got his first degree black belt... eons... the fighting was the easy part! There were 6 fights plus a multiple opponent fight. But then beside all the katas and forms (we trained in both Shaolin Kung Fu and Koeikan) There were essays, "The Social Influence on the Individual in Our Culture" "The Difference between Koeikan Ken Do Gaku and other styles" Plus there were 5 books that had to be read with reports and tests. And I think it was for the 2nd degree you have to also learn Yang Tai-Chi Chuan long form, 2 weapons fights, and a huge paper on human anatomy including all the different structures and systems, bone, muscle, lymphatic, nervous, circulatory, and demonstrate techniques for attacking different systems. Then i don't remember at which level he had to design his own system as Master Jules mentioned. This was where the master was preparing the student to become a master of his own school. Many years later after we had moved across the state, he did start his own school. The reason I had found this message board, I googled my husbands name and someone on the board was asking about him. There were also age requirements and time requirements between each belt, although I think the rules were bent a bit on that seeings how my husband practically grew up there, helped build the dojo itself and his master even married us. 5th degree the age requirement was 30, but we moved away at 27, so I know that rule was bent! I know in our school you can't even get a black belt until age 18, the kids all have white belt with colored stripes when white with a black stripe is reached and they are at least 12 they can test for a yellow and join the adult class at 13.

There are quite a few different styles of Tai-Chi, usually the name of the style has to do with the family that it is from. There's Yang, Chen, Sun just to name a few. But even if you are studying a specific style it all depends on the instructor. I study the Yang style and we had students come in who had studied the Yang and it was nothing like what they had previously learned. We learn the long form 108 movements broken up into 3 loops, a five elements form, a sword form, and maybe when we all get good enough we'll do push hands and a 2 man form.

I don't know alot about it, but we do some in the Tai-Chi and Yue-Chuan Kung Fu classes. We did some iron shirt yesterday, there are so many different aspects and styles of Qigung that we only have a little incorporated in the classes. In the future we will have just a class dedicated to Qigung, it was supossed to start in Jan. but i think the date has been pushed back to March. (in MI)

I find this quite strange... what's the source of this information? I have also heard the same thing about records in India showing Jesus was there. I think there was a book or documentary about it called "The Lost Years of Jesus". This was about 10 years ago, I remember talking about it, so my memory is a little foggy.

I find this quite strange... what's the source of this information? I have also heard the same thing about records in India showing Jesus was there. I think there was a book or documentary about it called "The Lost Years of Jesus". This was about 10 years ago, I remember talking about it, so my memory is a little foggy.

The goal is to be able to throw any technique from any stance. If I ever get that good! In a class room situation the fighting stance we use is feet comfortably apart and one slightly forward like a casual walk and hands held similar to a boxing postion, although I disagree with holding them right in front of your face. Holding them just a little lower invites the other person to strike and you should be able to get out of the way from that strike while at the same time mounting your own attack.

Being a girl (yeh, still call myself a girl at 32), I found Kung Fu to be more suitable for me than Karate. I'm pretty small and find the body rotations and side stepping/cross stepping really help me get out of the way of a strike or kick and get me in close enough to inflict some damage. Even the Northern styles which usually work good with longer arms, can be adapted for a small person. The less I get hit the better!

I was lucky to study (in MI) with a master who studied in Japan and his master studied in China at a Shaolin temple, so we learned both. For me (being a small female) I found Karate to use more brute strength and force, being as the moves, as mentioned before, were more linear and straight foward. Where as with Kung Fu the circular moves emphasized more on getting out of the way of a strike or kick rather than hard blocks, saving my energy for strikes. I learned not to have to block much with side stepping and body rotation. Using that same body rotation to deliver stronger strikes and kicks. Kung Fu was much more effective for me.