ovine king

and that proves what? what other dead martial art film maker can you name? the only thing that you can garner from the amount of bruce lee merchandise is that there are clever marking men behind the bruce lee foundation and lots of people who worship bruce lee, neither thing having any relation to how good he was or not.

wushu, as in the perfermance art, is not a fighting art. granted it might provide you with a better base with which you can base a fighting system on, it isn't fighting by itself. something like wing chun on the other hand, is a fighting art. if what you want to learn is a fighting art, you wouldn't go to a wushu class so that a few years down the line, you might pick up a fighting art easier. you'd go to a fighting art class and spend more years getting hands on experience. fighting ability isn't purely based on what you can do physically; a large part of it is mental. Actually hitting someone, without padding or gloves, full on, in the face is not an easy thing to do and most people will hesitate. No amount of wushu practice is going to help you get to that stage of mentality. A fighting art class will (or at least should) prepare you for the act of hitting someone. going to a wushu class does mean that you'll be better prepared for any other martial arts class but it doesn't mean you'll automatically be better at it than someone else, especially in something like wing chun. as a counterpoint, if you spent your years doing wing chun, sure you will find wushu hard to get into but why would you want to go into wushu is fighting is your goal? wushu, as it stands today should not in any way be compared to a form from a traditional art. Traditional forms are not about fighting an imaginary opponent. traditional forms are collections of movements that try to record in them, every possible combination of movements in all directions. Best example of this would be the southern shaolin five animals form which, in one section has you repeating the same set of guard/break guard/ strike movements in four directions with both left and right hands. that is ignoring the wing chun forms in which YOU are the only reference point in them. you saying that "hand sets are for performance" shows a grave misunderstanding of them. people say imagine an opponent there to get you to picture how the movements might work NOT that during a form there is an imaginary person attacking you. slightly different intent but an important thing to differentiate. just because most people seem to have missed it, i'll repeat what was typed earlier by WW. "Wushu was 'choreographed' in engineering under the eye of the Chinese government. It was devised as a means to present the martial arts, with all the flair and little to none of the functionality. Part and parcel to the process of changing the views of the Chinese people that Mao Tse Tung had initiated"

this is also most probably down to the (japanese) spread of the (japanese)idea that the chinese was a weak race (i.e the "sick of the east" that i mentioned earlier). if you then put into context that after quick a few years of publicly calling the chinese "weak" and then to have them effectively kick the japanese out of the country, probably leads to greater animosity towards the chinese.

this depends on how you fight. look at the older generation of thai boxers, half of them do it, half of them don't. all depends on how they fight. from this, it seems to me that you really have limited knowledge of how wing chun works. i use the weord intercepting becauser taht is the closest to the original chinese term. the original word means something like, to catch/receive/meet/get in the way of. it isn't "block". in reality, the motion really is very small unless something major is happening. in the case of lets say a standard front guard hands position to cover a slight swing, all you do is lift arm about 5-10 degrees and turn the elbow slightly to make the correct angle. again, it is just a minor extension of the arm. it doesn't move from it's covering position at all, instead all it does is move into a better position. this is the type of blocking that i would hardly ever encourage because it is a fixed thing that puts you on defensive and only on the defensive. it leaves your hand/arm doing to covering/blocking vulnerable to a pinning movement (which a good martial artist can easily turn into taking your balance). the only situation which this really works, is when you are in a controlled fighting match with gloves. again, you do not need to rotate your hips to produce an effective punch. a fast punch? so what's the difference between a jab (fast punch), a snap punch and a wing chun style straight punch? and for the record, i am not saying that you are. all i can see, is a lot of what people who have a limited knowledge/experience of what wing chun is, says. i also think you are looking at it not in the correct context. a lot of the usual "useless" ideas are often things that deal with questions that aren't normally asked i.e what if they know what a small circle arm wrap to elbow break is? problem here is these questions, in basic situations, which is what you are talking about, don't come up, hence they are "useless".

the boxer rebellion is a very mixed up period. during this period, the more mystical styles started to come up, most notably shun gung styles (spirit calling) which was and still is, mostly fraudulant arts. however, it was also during the boxer rebellion that people such as wong fei hung (and especially his dad's generation of fighters) were most active in their development and training/teaching. also, around the turn of the century was when fok yuen kap was opening the chin woo school in response to being labelled "the sick of the east" and the fighting arts were studied/taught more scientifically. of course, the thing here is that during this period, the things being taught were still pretty much the same that which was being taught a generation before and thus, not much development was taking place within the arts themselves, unlike the case of okinawan karate for which this was a period of development.

what we call "direct debit" in the uk is a fixed payment system that protects both parties; it isn't a direct line into your account. the other party has no way of increasing the amount taken, nor can they change the interval of payments, hence, what you describe earlier regarding them being able to simply empty your account, doesn't happen here.

in general, McDojos are not always a bad thing. the thing we should try to stamp out, is bad teaching, irresponsible teaching and frauds. whether or not they make money (a often cited McDojo sign) is not always relevent.

you can't generalise and say all places that insist you sign up for a monthly direct debit is bad and evil. in a lot of cases, it really is simply to make things easier in the actual class by not having to deal with any paper work when you should be training. also, some clubs barely cover costs of insurance, overheads, equipment (especially if they are new and are still recovering from start-up costs). a direct debit system makes it easier for them to have an idea of income/expenditure. on the other hand, when a club is big and has hundreds of students spread over different classes at different locations, it again, makes life easier. i have never had any trouble with direct debit, especially considering the fact that i am the one who can tell the bank to cancel a direct debit at any time.

i really don't understand these questions. at the heart of all martial arts, you learn to hit someone and learn to not get hit. ignore the fussy things and that is all you do. whether or not you are any good at it really does depend on how hard you train and test yourself.

we have two hands. wing chun does not need both to put up sufficient guard. if you always needed two hands to sufficiently guard, then when do you ever strike? as i said before, the wing chun way of interception, is merely extending one of the guarding hands. the movement is at its most basic form, is exactly the same as a punch; you move your arm forward to get in the way. your position in relation to the other guy should mean that your head is out of the line of attack. it's not like wing guys drop both hands and stick their neck out when they move. i never said it did. you seem to have missed the part about wing chun covering the centre and "forcing" the other guy to attack our guard or try to go around. this very basic thing which again, boxers do, is to add an element of control over what they do to us and gives us, and any guy doing any other style who uses an active guard, to predict what might happen. again, the point is how things happen. you seem to suggest that the "block" is an active thing. the reality is that the "block" is the result of moving to make the hit. so, if the other guy has an experience of fighting, then how can your amazing "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT" work? why is it that if the wing chun guy extends and arm to do something other than directly hitting him, he will get hit in return (i.e he will not be sufficiently covered) where-as the other guy, who is throwing a punch at you will not be covered enough for you to "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT"? at the end of the day, training involves you practicing against someone who is trying to hit you and you train to hit back. whether he is good or not, he will still be throwing punches at you. now here's the big difference. a trained guy will probably know what to do if he is blocked or cut off or sidestepped, where-as the untrained guy will not. against a trained guy, you are most likely not likely to get that "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT" move right away anyway, so your best tactic is going to be to stall and cover and wait for an opening. so what are you going to do? will you try that "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT" against someone who might be highly trained who will knock you down after you fail, or cover/block the guy who might not be trained just in case he does know what to do afterwards? and what then if you are so close that if you acan't do a full swing? how many brawls, stay at swinging range? what kind of fights stay at swinging range? answer=either totally untrained fights where both parties have no idea of how to "in-fight" or a professional fight where the rules don't allow close range and the fighters are separated when-ever they get too close. in both situations, what you do end up is two people who either only know how to make full swings, or two people, who by the nature of the rules, have the room to make full body swings. if snap punshes do not work, why do boxers use the jab so much? yes but you do not have to do a full swing punch to get an effective punch. again, what if you don't have to room or the time to complete a draw back to swing forward again? also, how you throw your elbow depends on what you are doing with it. in a lot of cases, the real power in a close up elbow move is in your hips/body as you bend into it. if you are only swinging your elbow to make the hit, then that is not much better than not using your stance/body to punch.

about the name of nunchaku in chinese; it si simply "two section stick/staff" ("stick" and "staff" are almost interchangeable). i don't recall it having another name.

old training methods? how about getting hold of a heavy set of dumbells (about 2kgs heavier than what you normally use) and do curls, lifts and butterflys? how about getting hold of a heavy bar (bell) and doing curls, lifts and single arm lifts? how about getting some wrist/ankle weights and run, punch and kick with them? weights/resistance work have always been part of Traditional Martial Art training.

this shows a clear misunderstanding of how things are done. wing chun doesn't teach to actively catch/seek out the arms; instead we force the other guy to attack us in our guard or in the otehr case, try to get around. this very simple act of putting up a high-ish guard is to make him/her attack us in a way that we are prepared for hence, the "catching" of an arm is nothing more than extending one of our guard hands to get in the way. Boxers do the same thing. you don't strike a bicep on the way to his face. the initial stop hit is meant to completely disrupt whatever it is he is doing.it isn't an active attack on the limb, just something you CAN do, not something that you have to do. in the case of striking the bicep (which i've never seen by the way) i would say is to push the elbow back and hence ruin the flow/balance of the other guy. you can't punch if you're not stable. this shows a misunderstanding of how wing chun punches work, not to mention an indication that you believe that you can finish any fight with a single soilitary hit. just because you can't get any power without completing a full swing, doesn't mean no one else can. no, that kind of punch is powered by a properly grounded structure and muscles that you, the average joe don't train as much. have you heard of the double-co cked hip? in case you missed it, this is one of the key principles in wing chun. and do you know what wing chun (which isn't aikido or tjj and actually has a different way of "gripping") guys do if the guy jerks his hand back? shoot out a hit to the face. this is basic training by the way. simply saying "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT" is pointless. why do boxers spedn five or six rounds dancing around jabbing each other when they could "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT"? why do muay thai (european and world, not that pansy US rules that doesn't allow elbows) guys dance around testing each other with little teeps and kicks to the thigh when they could "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT"? why do bjj guys spend so long rolling around trying to get a good hold/position when they could "JUST KNOCK HIM OUT"? not quite true. trapping is a key concept in all wing chun styles but it isn't the focus as you seem to be implying. what you are missing in your observaton is that whatever it is tht we are dealing with, we receive it from a hands-high guard/ready position and as such, the trapping movment usually is a very slight sliding/deflection AS the our attack is made. In terms of timing, the receiving/trapping is a half-beat (or even a quarter beat) ahaed of out strike. often, when someone is simply demonstrating to you something, they will do something over elaborate. The same is true of the things you see in books/media. The simple truth is that wing chun is a very simple way of doing things; something is in your way, get rid of it. if nothing is in your way, hit the guy.

who says that you attack the limbs in wing chun?

that would be the "demonstration" punch.

not really.

read the first two pages again.

just so you know, i have never heard of it before you mentioned it.

...but that's still not how a boxer uses his jab.

pre 1940 was when the last true generation of martial arts developers were training and learning and refining. during this time, the greatest influence on martial arts came from the old chinese styles that spread around it's neighbour areas. since then, and post 1940, the arts have pretty much remained the same with the exception of a move towards it being a mass market product and more and more, towards xma and things that look good; both are which are a result of (mainly) the american media and it's perception and portrayal of martial arts. i mean no offence to the american folks here but a lot of the devolution of martial arts is down to the american martial arts market. of course a lot of this is also down to modern mentality of the instant gratification but again, a lot of that can be attributed to american culture.

before 1940, china. after 1940, america.

I'm not a professional photographer but I take a lot of photos (of models of the non breathing kind...) as part of my work and study. if you're using a standard slr lens with a digital, you're always going to have problems with the metering and the hypoerfocal and there's not a lot you can do about it. Rough guide is that it is about 40-60% of what it would be for a 35mm slr. If this means nothing to you then don't worry about it....... hmm... tips.... you're in hawaii, right? have you gotten yourself a polarising filter yet?

you shouldn't be throwing punches to full extension.

It's not actually an improper movement as having your hand on the wrong side happens a lot, especially when you start to get really close. The more common reason for having your hand on the wrong side is if you've had your bong sau collapse and you couldn't turn it in time. If you can't feed tan sau or biu sau under the bridge then your only means of "escape" would be to relax/drop the bong sau elbow and "leak" through using a faat sau/back hand/lap sau/whatever. Also, there is actually a concept of "feeling" and that is contained in the idea of the asking/receiving hand; mun/jeet sau... (yes, the same jeet as found in "jeet kune do") and the basic version of each is taught as a different thing at each stage. In sil lim tau, the basic jeet sau would be the pak sau which is taught initially as a stop/check. as you progress, this becomes a guiding check. Go further and the pak sau checks then becomes the hit in one movement (very general so please forgive me). in the subsequent forms, you are essentially taught a new concept of mun sau/jeet sau using a different "base" move as the "seed". however, while this is a testing movement, it's primary use is in receiving that initial attack and is never actively used a a feeling/probing move like a boxing jab often is. I've sparred boxers and i am a big fan of their jab; at least I am a fan of the jab that my boxing friend used which was slightly different in that the hand doesn't also start from the shoulder. When he jabs, he only pops his hip at the time of completion of the jab; which is more less the same as how i "pop" my hip for punches. when he moves, his stance is more or less the same and actually resembles hung kuen when he punches in that it switches from something that resembles a standard horse stance to something that resembles a bow ad arrow stance. the use of the body is pretty similar to wing chun; it just looks different and like hung kuen, it is the same but different... if you get what i mean.

i think this depends on the type of film it is going to be. If it is going to be a serious and realistic film then it won't neccesarily (have to) look good. on the other hand it is to be a "wow look at this funky dancing around" then check out what the xma guys do with weapons. i've done a bit of choerographing in my time and the best thing to get ideas from is kali and escrima. Their drills don't take a lot of effort to work a long sword into and there's lots of weapon-to-weapon contact and swinging etc etc.