BMmonk

The 5 element theory is an interesting concept, once you learn that its like an eye opener of how each move or set of movements corelates to each each elements.

I agree with you as well, your other senses should be able to counteract other ways as well. I've been trained alot different from what people train here in the states. Im sure you yourself have trained rigorously hard in certain ways to attain your bodys tolerance of pain and i respect that. I guess you can say i like to be careful when i fight and having the least amount of damage put upon me. What is funny is when i see how some kids or even adults train in these McDojos and can't even take a hit and when they do they nearly cough up a lung cus they got kicked in the stomach to hard or they start getting whiney about how they got kicked in teh arm or leg.

Well a better perspective is like this. WHen you strengthen your body to become solid what you are doing is protecting every nerve in your body. Take for example this, Im sure you've heard of people doing hitting exercises to kill the nerve endings , so they dont feel pain yada yada yada. To me that just sounds like uneccesary. One thing i was taught prior to my training was that conditioning ones body was not about hitting yourself more times then you can imagine only to tell yourself that it will numb after a while, but to protect one main central muscle. Your Brain is your main central Muscle. NOw it came to me as odd because i used to think that if you hit yourself enough eventually you will build a tolerance and numb out the pain, now to some degree that is true. BUt the whole body is centered around your brain because it tells you what to feel and how to feel, and how to move and react etc etc. Each signal tells you mind what it feels, thus your mind will always be working. But for every time you damage your nerve endings, a signal is sent from the nerve to the brain telling you that something is being damaged and causing your brain to stop function in a particular area. If that signal dies how will your brain tell you to avoid getting hit there again? It won't because your just going to end up taking the beating. Example if you keep hitting your right shin and knee, you later then build a tolerance yes. But the fact that your mind will not register movement may be hindered. Lets say you are fighting in a tournament and your opponent hits you in that area, sure you can take the hit. But now how does your mind tell you to counteract with the same leg and deliver a counter attack that can be extremely explosive? It sometimes does and sometimes doesnt react. Point is Its ok to condition a body to be rock hard and strong, but keep in mind the science of the human body also. and how they work.

To be honest im not to sure if there are books in reference to these postures, but because my Sifu learned them from his SiCoung(my sifu's grandmaster). He applied physical knowledge for me to learn these postures and to strengthen my own body. Whats interesting is that how strong your body parts can be when doing these postures, from the strength in your arms to how strong your grip in your fingers become. If you do look it up try looking for books that are based off the Shaolin Style and maybe they may dab into the postures. But to give you an idea of the base posture is The horse stance from the waist down, with your feet no further then your shoulder width, toes pointed in, knees locked facing outward. What this does is stabalizes the horse stance so you do not get tired fast. Because of the locking of the knees in an outward position it breaks down the stress in your thighs through your knees thus making you able to withstand long periods of standing time. One example of a posture is doing this lower stance as i mentioned and then with both hands place them together as if you are praying. With all your strength each arm would push into the other, and then you would position your arm to move to the left, then to the right, up above as high as you can, and as low as you can, while creating as much resistance into your muscle. WHat this does is stretches your muscles and hardens it in its longest lengh.

Thank you for the sites ill definetely look into them.

My father in law(my Sifu) is a WingLu Master, and amongst 10 other different styles. He is also an avid sword collector and is extremely proficient in all types of swords from katanas, to a tai chi sword, to chinese broad sword just to name a few. Plus fathers day is coming up so i thought id add another sword to his collection.

One thing my Sifu taught me was being able to create body armor in which the Shaolin used 24 postures to strengthen their muscles. Basically its a form of resistance using your own bodys strength. The reason why i was taught this is that what it does is stretches out the muscle but hardening it and creating the muscle to be extremely flexible but yet strong enough to with stand abuse if you get hit. Before i used to weight train alot, and grant it when you do this all your muscles are bunched in together, but when i learned the Shaolin 24 body postures my muscles didn't look so bunched up but it made it flexible for me to move my arms and legs fast and still carry power to them.

Being that Fathers day is on the 19th, I would like to purchase my father in law(my Sifu) a Japanese Sword. But I dont know where exactly to look at nor do i know what the average price of a good sword should cost. Can anyone give me any sites to look at purchasing swords and any other martial arts equipment from.

I never knew Jackie Chan studied Pak Mei I know that other actor James Lew(usually plays a bad guy in most asian martial arts movie) studied Pak Mei.

Hey thats good exercise for you.

My Sifu is my father in law, so i train usually an average of 1-2 times a week at 1hour each and usually 1-2 hours on sundays. I could train more but because of work and college i spend most of my time studying or if i can squeeze in a half an hour through the evening ill try.

Yeah i know what you mean, Plus When my father in law was growing up he told me about he he trained with his SiCoung(His Sifu's master) he trained hard but learned only 2 things. Reason being was that the rest of his training spawned off of one motion or form, it was up to him to figure out the rest, which he did, and later found out how effective it became when he to went to compititions as a young man. I honestly dont mind waiting to compete. I guess i want to make him proud that his teachings can still live on through myself and his real son(my brother in law). Not only that he is already in his late 50's and his body can't move in certain ways but nonetheless pushes himself to teach me.

Well my Sifu(Father in law) actually would like for me to compete, but not right now. He once told me that the only time he would let me compete is when i can fight with him using all my knowledge and training. But even free sparring up till now im still far behind. Alot of my training consist of 75 percent mental 25 percent physical. Reason being is that as he and I train he gives full explanantions of movements but before he does he asks me why/how/when/where/what for the movements. He wants to make sure i know why/how/when/where/what i do and for what reason and how will it affect myself in the situation. i.e. if i came at you would you throw a punch or a chop or a kick or a knee or an elbow etc etc etc. and for every thing i think is correct it generally isnt and when he demonstrates it on me i end up feeling the pain of it all. Thats why usually when or if i plan to compete i need to observe/and gather information on the style that i may compete in. Find faults/techniques that may either hinder me or help me. Is there a place on this board that mentions competitions being held in the local areas

Mr. Mike-yes that is a small bit of info but nonetheless correct. From my research and my Sifu(my father in law) was that it is called the White EyeBrow KungFu. But the Monk himself Bac Mei is also the name of the style. From my Sifus teaching the reason why he went in hiding was because of his disloyalty to the Shaolin Monestary/monks. In the words of my Sifu, Bac Mei is orginally "a style for the bad men" Whats ironic is how in old age KungFu movies the bad guy is always portrayed with white hair, white goatee, and white long eyebrows. Refer to Kill Bill vol2 in which uma thurman trains at the temple with her instructor who teaches her the art of fighting but making her the more deadlier out of all the assasins in the movie. Kinda weird how in old movies they were never perceived as good guys or the good teachers, but as teh bad guys who always killed everyone. Well now we all know where it orginated from. Orginally my Sifu was going to train me in Shaolin/and or WingLu. But because as i started to train, my body was not as fluid as my hands were. Because of my body frame and the fact that im not afraid to get hit i sort of hold a boldish way of fighting Bac Mei would be best suited for my motions. Im only 5'5" 180 lbs. so im carrying my weight around so i have to rely on my hand eye speed to counteract hits. I still have to get in the habit of moving my body with the opponents body to be more practical to fighting.

Thanks for the info Aodhan:)