ovine king

err... the hands don't go close together in the ginga. as a rule, the tend to alternate between covering the head and being in position to drop into negativa. no symbolism. just how the style works. granted there are symbolic gestures within the roda but that's the game, not the fighting. incidentally, where did you read that?

.....haven't we been through this before? in words, anything is possible. what if he, as you move, plants the kicking leg and changes up to elbow you in the face? what if he was intending a switch kick and you move straight into the second kick? typing what you would do, is worthless. anyone can always type a counterpoint to whatever anyone else says. on the internet, we're all invincible keyboard warriors.

it would be best not to. you could call kempo by the mandarin reading/pronounciation (chuan faa) but they won't know what it is, as the "kempo" we all know is largely an american thing. as i said, the characters, in chinese, just means "fist art" and isn't the name of a style (unlike the western version of "kempo"). as for tae kwon do. this one is a bit trickier. in cantonese, it is called, "toi kuen do" (best sounds i can type) and translates as "lifting-fist-way". i'm not entirely sure if it is just the closest sounding words or if it's a translation into chinese. either way, they should, if they know about it, understand what you mean when you say tae kwon do. i don't know the if it has an equivilant in mandarin. i would say not to bother trying to give those two names in chinese as since they are not chinese styles, it doesn't make a difference, as you may need to describe/explain them anyway. antother thing..... most of the chinese martial arts that are practiced tend to be southern styles that have an origin in canton(ese). as a result, the names that are romanised into english are based on those cantonese names and won't be the same in mandarin for all of them. for example, wing chun, in mandarin sounds more like "yong choon". what's more, they tend to use the full, grammatically correct name ("yong choon chuan")

if it was taught in china then it might have just been the standard form taht is part of their wushu curriculum. it wouldn't be the same (or to the same extent) of the proper styles' training. also, the characters for kempo are the same as they are in chinese. they are pronounced differently so if you say kempo to them, it won't sound like anything. in chinese (mandarin) it is "quan fa" and it equates/refers to all types of 'fist arts', not a specific style. i.e in chinese kempo/quan-fa ISN'T a style.

less bashing, more training. you do your thing, let them do theirs. i would bet a heck of a lot of money that the XMA guys train way harder than a lot of the guys here, me included.

i think, most people will have heard of kung fu (as in the general) but very few will actually know of any actual styles.

...if you watch jackie chan fight sequences, you'll 'see' him fight 4/5 people at the same time. this is where his skill/genius comes into play. the action is organised so that in reality, he only ever faces one person at a time and yet, it still gives the impression of fighting more than one.

my question is.... why? you take film footage and turn it into a 3D animation.... point is? this is where i hang my designer head low and cry tears for the mis-use technology. i have this strange thought in my head that in 50 or so years time, kids will think bruce lee was a computer game character.....

it's not 8 styles. it is a single form based on the characters from legend. the one i keep hearing is of a reluctant monk who hadn't quite managed to give up earthly pleasures and is partial to a bit of drink and eating of meat, especially the ever popular 'yellow' dog meat stew. he gets drunk on occasion.

you can learn to imitate the moves but that does not equate to having learnt it properly. think about that chimp that they trained to imitate 'moves/techniques'. it could perform the movments but you can't say that the chimp 'knew' karate....

i don't think the general non-practicing people need/have to know anything about martial arts. what bugs me is when people who do practice don't know anything about the thing they do. what's worse is when they consistantly believe and regurgitate false information.

seeing as how all trains+major roads get to london directly, that might be the easiest place..... unless of course none of the guys here are in london....

there are three ways of doing this. actually, there are more but they are more like variations of these three. the first doesn't involve throwing them. what you do is have a sai already stuck into its target. the first shot would be of the thrower, doing the throwing action. then you either cut to the target with sai in it, or do a quick pan to the target. this gives the impression of a straight flight sai throw and hitting target. sound effects help greatly. (variations include having a pop out sai on the targetso you can pan camera to target and in a clean shot have the sai 'appear' after the camera pan) the second involves having a guide wire on which the sai can track. for better results, you need quite a good pulling system behind it to ensure that you get a dead straight 'flight'. you'd also need custom made hollow sai. a bit dangerous as sometimes, the sai movement isn't 100% perfect. (variations include camera view down the sai as it travels. think robin hood: prince of thieves...) the third is the moder hi-tech spec way. you'll need a decent digital camera/video camera, a decent pc, a 3d modelling program, video editing program and a graphics/image manipulating program eg. 3DSMax/Maya, Premiere and Photoshop. with this set-up you can do whatever you want with the sai AND the camera. this sounds a bit complicated but in practice, it's easy if you spend sufficient time preparing the set, props camera (matching shots+continuity). (infinite possiblities with this set up) for low budget and quick productions, the first method works very well using bare minimum equipment.

when i say you start from the goat stance, i mean that it is sometimes used as a ready stance before you are in closing distance. it is like the very first thing you do as part of your reaction process and lasts a very brief moment asby the time you've 'readied' you would also have decided a direction in which you will move. incidentally, the places that i have seen who show this don't do it toes in.

i) the 'sparring' he won was a two man sparring form. it is still a performance. it wasn't true free sparring. ii) in china when you say 'wushu' (mandarin) you are talking about a very specific thing, that being the national sport wushu. as i keep saying, you WILL always refer to your style by name, NEVER by 'wushu'. a hung kuen student would never say he does wushu. a choy li fut student would never say he does wushu. a tai chi student would never sau he does wushu. now in cantonese, 'wushu' (actually, it'll be 'mo-shu') would mean any martial art. in that case, the chinese national sport wushu would be called 'jung kwok mo shu' (chinese wushu).

lots of wing chun lineages do not use the toe's in stance. one of the versions of the forms yip man taught does not use the toes-in stance.

if you are over the ages of 14/15 then you'll think it is utter rubbish. ages 16-18 will probably give it credit as being entertainment. ages 14 and under and you'll love them.

ahhhh.... the age old problem. super secret things like underground tournaments, ninja training, secret societies. if you can't find/prove them, then that goes to show how secret they are.

and again, the shaolin wheel of life is not shaolin kung fu. it is modern wushu performance.

if he's talking about what i think he is, then it's sweet tea with evaporated milk and large sago 'balls' in it. if you've ever been to chinese/hk diner you'll see drinks, sometimes of dubious colours with what looks like little translucent balls in them. sometimes, it's called 'pearl tea' (or, in the cantonese, 'jun ju lai cha' - pearl milk tea) it's better than it sounds.

i'd say a good 50% of people who say they've done a martial art are talking moo droppings. how many times have you seen a guy come into your place of training claiming this and that but they can't even stand properly? anyway. not sure in london. martial arts aren't that big as there aren't any real big tournaments and the ones that do go on are normally rather closed to non members. my old wing chun class consisted of thirty people, another class i went to had about 15 regulars. there's maybe 20 wing chun schools in london that i know of. the numbers dont work out to be anything substantial compared to the likes of karate, judo (because of the olympics...), tkd, tai chi (of one sort or another). as for the other chinese styles, their numbers are even smaller. for example i know of one school that only has one class in the whole of the M25 area. at a guess, i'd say the biggest numbers would be found in the kick-boxing (including thai-boxing) and the boxing gyms.

so the very short version (ignoring non-karate japanese styles) would be: okinawa had its own fighting system. china had its own fighting system. china gave some fighting systems/techniques/training to okinawa. okinawa mixed some chinese styles with their own to form ONE basis of what is to become karate. karate moves to japan. japanese karate develops independentally of okinawan karate.

nope. he learnt/trained in the chinese national art of wushu. the school he attended was/is a wshu school famous for producing guys who do well in forms performance competitions. not a lot of fighting involved and not really long fist as the real long fist guys would know it.

not really. wushu is a term used to refer to a specific type of martial arts performance (and it's training). normally, people will refer to their style by name. i.e hung kuen, wing chun, lee gar etc. in a way, wushu is almost a style by itself. if you look into the inception and the aims of modern wushu you'll know what i mean. the schools that use the 'recognised' version would do it as part of their training because it conforms to the competitions (which the standards apply). any meaning in it would be secondary and far removed from the meaning it would've had, especially in certain styles, 100-200 years ago.

it's a stance to begin from, not fight in. if the other guy is in range, you don't tend to use it. if he is not in range then you use it as a sort of 'ready stance' to give yourself free choice of movement to either side when you close the gap to engage. it is mainly a training stance but it is used at certain phases of contact/pre-contact. by the way, in that stance, you are balanced, you can move and you can kick. there's a reason why you start poon sau/luk sau in the stance and that is because it allows you to do all of them things and 'walk' as you roll. again, with all things wing chun, chances are we are all taught differently, after all, not all lines of wing chun has the toes-in version of the goat stance.