Drunken Monkey

i know, they are nice little cars (much like the 106 that it is based on) and yup, it is the baseball cap brigade that ruin it's reputation. very much like bmw. they are all loverly cars but would you really buy one? cos that would be joining the "rep brigade", the "asian youth brigade" and the "want people to think i'm rich so i'll de-badge my 316 brigade" all at the same time... now i'm sure i've offended a lot of people out there cos i am just stereotyping but i am also sure you understand what i mean. in any case, apologies if i have offended for that was not my intention.

um, anyone with half a brain would know what not to use in a fight. what i was talking about was that these guys, at five, already have flexible and strong bodies, good handspeed, good control of body movement etc etc... how much sparring/training would it take to hone their display skils into fighting skills?

if your stance is good you can also resist a push standing on one leg in stance... try it, you might like it!

hmmm, it all depends on the film. the first once upona time in china was excellent and jet li was good in that but you have to admit the sequels were a bit suspect. chow yun fat was good in crouching tiger but he's no martial artist. same with ol' keanu in the matrix films. and who can argue with jackie in police story...?

whoa, did someone just say he didn't know who dan inosanto is?

and back to the wrestling vs wing chun thing... i have no doubt that a wing chun guy who has not trained to fight against a wrestler is going to lose. you guys are right, a lot of wing chun people have too much faith in what their sifu tells them. the problem is that most of them will never know how to handle any other martial art because like or not wing chun teaches you to respond to wing chun so the moment you come up against a non wing chun guy your trained reflex actions won't have the same effect. my first light sparring with a tkd guy ended really badly. as did my first spar with a shaolin guy. won't even mention my first bout with a grappler... but then this applies to all fighting arts. if you don't train to defend/fight against a wrestler then what hope do you think you'll have in the ring against one. on a personal note, why does wing chun get so much flak in these discussions...? would a karateka or shaolin guy get the same response?

hmmm, yip man himslef never claimed to ba grandmaster. in hk he was always training and discussing wing chun with others in his generation of wing chun and none of these people claimed be grandmasters either. on the whole william cheung/leung ting/successor thing. would you say that a classical man like yip man would chose a student over his own son/s to be the successor of his wing chun? strange to note that neither of his sons claim to be grandmaster... but then enough people call them that anyway. if you look into both william cheungs and leung tings stories you will see a lot of inconsistancies. all i say is do not believe all that you read or what you are told until you do your own research.

well, i just want to say, don't do it. you will end up learning the whole set of moves but not being a master of any of it. in wing chun, it will take you fifteen seconds to learn the straight punch but it will take you a life time to master it. and this is just the most basic thing we learn. but if you don't master this most basic move, even if you have learnt all of the forms form books/videos, you will have your butt handed to you on a plate...

i still believe that all martial arts, if taught correctly and trained properly will be effective. after all, they've survived all these hundreds of years through how-ever many generations.

you really need to train hard in wing chun. you don't get any belts, any prizes, medals or anything similar. the only way of knowing if you are good within your style is in your chi sau and your sparring. if your chi sau is good then your sparring should reflect this. what you've got to remember is that this does not mean that you are an effective fighter. this comes with taking what you have learnt and testing it against other styles. i'm lucky to have a group of friends at university who practice other styles and have had my * kicked on many times and each time i get my butt handed back to me, i learn something new.

but the really interesting bit is, how much training would it then take to teach them to fight?

you're right, training the wing chun punch does take a long time and dedication but then that is the very meaning of kung fu. but i don't really agree with what you say about restrictig power. the real strength of our punch comes from correct body position. your stance really has to be rooted to push from the ground. our best friend is the speed we develop in our hands movements. we never over-commit any of these movements and as such we aim to be able to hit/strike from any hand position.

er, what do you mean by shaolin uniform? the orange robes that the monks wear?

martial arts are supposed to keep you healthy and fit. if you don't feel like you are getting either i think you should take a look at your training.

well, it also comes down to the amount of training you do.

i'm just going to ask that everyone here disregard what was shown in the video. anyone with half a brain can tell that the so-called wing chun opponent was as good as a wet paper bag. and yes i know, there are no good videos of wing chun fights against other styles. maybe that's our fault. maybe we should just go out and fight. maybe i'll do it... when i'm good enough...

well, they don't even call it a style, more a "way of thinking"...

a little bit late but i'm in love with the toyota yaris t-sport... it's just about fast enough to fend off the nova brigade but still gives you at least 40mpg, insurance isn't too high and being a japanese car it is virtually bombproof (but not saxo proof as i discovered... fekking saxo drivers...). whatever you get, have fun and don't let them baseball capped saxo drivers get in your way! tata.

but then that's part of the environment that the "fight" took place. it was supposed to be seminar. william cheung was not expecting to be jumped and it looked like emin was just trying to get cheung onto the floor. but anyway, back to the video from this post. you have to admit, the supposed wing chun guy didn't show any of the basic principles that even a beginner would be displaying. his elbow placement was all over the place, didn't spot a single punch aimed towards the head, no elbows, no footwork, no stance, just jumped in like a fool. maybe that was his problem, he was stupid. all slightly dubious to me...

one problem many have with the wing chun straight punch is that they see it, copy it and then without understanding it or training in it, say it is useless. that is like me picking up a three section staff, hitting myself with it and saying it is dangerous... many beginners often say that they don't feel the straight punch is strong enough but that is only because they haven't trained their punch and they haven't practiced it in it's environment against an opponent. when learning a martial art, you have to first learn all there is to know within it's own context.when you have sufficient knowledge, then and only then can you step outside of your styles boundaries and see with new eyes.

almost invisible. most of the time you will use them during chi sau and not know you have used it unless someone steps in and shows you your hand/body positions. in particular, the locking/trapping motions in the first form are very well hidden...

and that hand always ends up tapping you on the chest accompanied by a little smile...

the problem with learning wing chun from books and videos is that you cannot learn the most important thing which is "feel". i cannot stress how futile it is to try to leant any wing chun without proper instruction. afer all you don't read a book and say you know how to drive...

we train chain punches with a partner. one side just chain punches and the other side just does pak sau to "brush off" or stop the punches. by ourselves, nothing beats a regular 1000 punches a night. chain punches starting with your left 10x1, 10x3chain, 10x5chain, 10x7chain, 10x9chain this adds to a total of 250 punches. slowly build up the number of times you do these. i'm currently doing four sets ot these everynight. it's supposed to get easier sometime soon but it isn't happening. don't think i'll be moving up to 1250 punches yet...

well i guess it depends on what they are training. i'm sure at the higher levels, there is more interaction... i mean, before we trained with a partner, we spent quite a long time doing moves in the air. then we added a person punching to show the direct/ideal application. then we stepped it up a bit (harder, faster punch). after a while, once this has been done with a few (hundred:) ) moves, it just evolved into light sparring, which in turn moved into chi sau... different styles train differently and at every level, training is different.