delli04

Actually.... the true definiton of external styles vs. internal styles is simple, but it hasn't been stated here. The original definition, and correct, is internal arts are defined as any and all martial arts exclusively from China. Where as external arts are defined as martial arts that were brought into China from somewhere else. For example, Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi, are internal arts because it is said that they were developed by the Taoists and based on the philosophies of Lao Tsu (from China and in China). While the original external arts were started by Da Mo and the ShaoLin Temples (based on buddhist philosophies) which came from India. Internal from China. External from Outside of China. I practice Yang Taiji, Sun Xingyi, Sun Bagua, and Shorin- Ryu. All have aspects of "hard and soft". I mean I do Yang very slow without any fa jing (explosive energry) but i gurantee if I used brush knee at actual combat speed it would be hard on impact. Even Shorin-Ryu at a higher level has many "softer aspects" I applied the hard/ soft definition also for quite sometime until I started realizing, first hand, that everything is hard/soft (or at least it should be). Then I came across multiple credible internal sites that listed the above as the "orginal" definition. I hope this helps!!!!!

Yes drag'n... The type of sparring i was referring to was indeed semi contact sparring. I probably should have should have clarified that.

Wow... That is crazy.. There is nothing right about that at all.....

Excellent post skeptic. I always say that sparring is not fighting, it's a game of tag. Sparring stops when a fight begins. With that said, sparring is a good for training timing and distance....

What happened to the student after that? Did he comeback? What did he say afterwards?

It doesn't seem so.

mmmm.... very good to know. How long does it take for them to get back to full strength?

Yeah its definitely the 4 month sleep. I mean, anything that can sleep for 4 months then wake up and not lose any strength or endurance... Come on, how could you not be envious?

Shorin Ryu Shobayashi... We got it also..

I wish I could be a bear. Awesome animal...

cool

If it were to be scheduled over a weekend then I'm in. It would be impossible for me though if it were for an entire week.

I am not that young, but out of curiosity, which internals do you study?

I tend to agree with the majority in the way that i'm a counterfighter unless there are apparant openings, then I initiate the action.

In all the chinese forms I know that open with that kind of bow they use open left covering right fight.

I just recently started teaching at a local fitness center that I lease space at.. So the bad points are I have restrictions on what equipment I can have in the gym.. No heavy bags etc etc.

we use both vertical and our horizontal is a corkscrew...

Aside from small varitations in the kata everything we do has remained the same over the years.. Meaning no one has made up new katas or drastically changed any of the ones that we have. Same is true for the Tai ji, Xing yi, and Ba gua that I do.

No seriously though, as long as you know what your doing is just for show then I guess its cool... Have fun with it.

Maybe you could look to the movie "bring it on" for some ideas...

Sounds very much like the school I came up through, as far as the rank requirements.

ah yes the thumbs!!!

nice Bleeding Lion... very nice

1kickKo- what part of Ohio are you from?

Classic...