Drunken Monkey

well, the things that work best are often the most basic, simple things, like the side step/shift, tan sau, pak sau and the good old straight punch. that's why these are the things you see in every wing chun club done every day. it's also why a lot of people give up on wing chun cos they can't get past the repetitive nature can be off-putting. i was quite a hard worker in my time a few years ago but for the last two years i've been 'home-less' but generally, on and off for about 6 years now. real world: two years properly. have also been going to a kick-boxing thing for about 9 months.

well, the things i described were things i had in japan...

it is. but when you get presented with so many answers, you sometimes forget to see if they are correct (for you). like i can receive pretty much anything with a tan sau and side shift/step BUT it doesn't mean that you can. so it isn't the style that has the problem more like some people's approach.

not really unable to do. just not guarenteed be able to make it work. in isolation and in a controlled environment it works. a lot of it is also because wing chun is based on a lot of theories. some times, people concerntrate too much on the theory and forget to actually try. it's also partly due to the fact many wing chun guys do not step outside of their own training hall and so do not actually test the technique. as a result, while it 'works', many do not know how to make it really work. make sense?

note he said 'part'. 'part' as in 'one of many'. nowhere did he say that body dynamics was all you need.

i got a pretty good kick on the box once. i was ok for about ten seconds before i got the incredible urge to crouch down, curl over and go into the fetal postion. it doesn't hurt as much but it still hurts.....

i'm not really sure. but i do know that her boyfriend (also at the club...) isn't too keen on her going for the harder fights..... but if she wants to do it, why not?

so your post was just to tell us that you saw, in your opinion, a crazy guy swirling his arms about. here's a little crazy thought. go and ask him what he's doing. you might get a surprising answer.

and once again, i feel that i should point out that 'martial art' is a term chosen by the western world to describe the fighting arts of china, japan etc etc. in the chinese language, what is used to describe 'martial arts' does not have anything to do with war. it is always refered to as 'hard work' and taken to mean 'way of fighting'. going a little deeper, you would say that you are learning a particular style or family art and once again, war does not feature in it. while a warrior will probably know a style of fighting, the style itself is not a thing of war. it's like saying that money is evil when it is in fact the desire for money which is evil. the fighting arts might be used in war but the arts themselves are not for war. if you take the western definition and pick out the chinese arts that qualify for that definition then all of the styles you can name do not count as martial arts. the ones that do are the traditional horsemanship skills, archery, wrestling, loose techniques with apear, dao and some basic hand techniques that don't have an all encompassing name.

quite a few studies have shown that baseball players swing at almost the same time, if not before, the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. seeing as there is a limit on human reflex time (motor neuron movement speed) it is quite clear that the batter is pre-empting the pitch. and yet another person giving that good old theory that if you watch the shoulders you can see a kick coming. actually, if the shoulders move, it just means that the other guy is moving. it could be that he is stepping, punching, changing line, changing stance or perhaps it is a kick. if everytime you put up a guard when you see if his shoudlers move then you are going to be trouble very soon. also, i can pretty much kick without moving my shoulders. as can most wing chun guys, mantis guys, hung gar guys, choy-li-fut guys and many, many more.

whoa.... a baseball might be small and fast and the bat they hit with might also be small but that's not quite the same as a kick. i read somewhere that the baseball players aren't really aiming for the ball, rather they pre-empt it and kinda guess where it'll be. if you are guessing where/when the kick is coming i think you might be in trouble, especially if you get it wrong....

when i said inferior i meant in terms of training. sometime i just get the impression that i don't train as hard or as much as some other styles. i mean, one thing that strikes me is that at this meet, i will kinda be representing my style and we are notorious for being able to talk a good fight but very unable to prove it...

not quite. you have the cooking thing in front of you so you do it all yourself. shabu shabu is a hotpot of stock and also there should be somewhere for you to fry stuff as well. i know it sounds like hard work but there is nothing like thin slither of beef slapped onto the hot plate, drizzled with soy and then whisked straight into your mouth just as it is cooked.... what you described sounds a lot like teppan (the hot-plate thing with the flying salt+pepper pots, flashing blades, manic chopping, little shouts of 'hup' and flames)

i'm not really sure on that matter. her instructor (the owner of the gym) seems to be quite a successful fighter in hk.

like i said, i haven't seen what you have so i can't comment on that. also, what you see in tournaments are generally forms (and also push hands), right? that isn't all there is to tai chi. tai chi is a fighting art. if you aren't taught how it fights then i wouldn't call it tai chi.

so um, you got halfway through the belt rankings in seven months?

not having seen what you have, i can't really comment. all i can say is that don't take what you see in the park to be 'real' tai chi either...

i have a female friend in hk who goes to a thai boxing club....

i also figured that if we fail to find a suitable place we could just attack one of the london parks, providing the weather was good... anyway. i'm beginning to feel a little inferior to some of the guys here. instructors, muay thai guys.... compared to you, i have very little experience. but i'm always game for things like this. means i can learn more. or perhaps we can find something else to do. there's a big-ish capoeria club in brixton that i've always wanted to go visit. i just like the idea of some sort of "neutral ground". guess the pub it is then.... ***edit*** oops. forgot. i am a student of big talk and slapping hands. also known as wing chun. and i'm prepared for a beating!

y'know, i could've sworn there were more of us here.... i originally figured that if there was enough of us, we could sort out hiring of a hall, talk shop, sort out dinner somewhere where we could talk more shop, then go to a pub or two and talk more shop.... anyway. i've got a huuuge model of berlin that i need to get back to and too much drawing for one little guy like me to finish. if autocad decides to have another "fatal error", i'll be back later tonight.....

have you had the koren bbq thing? it's like shabu shabu in that you pick little bits of things to cook, the difference being taht you have a live grill in front of you to burn the bits of meat/veg instead of the hot soup pot. excellent stuff.

... i feel like we may have gotten off on the wrong foot... i didn't mean to chase you for answers in the other thread. just too tired of people coming here and making blanket statements. i kinda jump on them too quickly.... so here is my formal apology. anyway. kinda from hk. parents are but i'm born and raised in london.

i think that the very name that you chose to use to refer to this 'idea' of yours says much about the mentality behind it. what difference is there between your 'backyard sparring' and (heavy)training sparring? my question to you is do you,who are going to participate in this event, know what you are doing? or is it just a bunch of guys getting together for for a mock nhb fight with more safety gear?

hmm, when you put it so succinctly, i have to agree. if i could only choose one, i too would go for punches.

hmm, oversimplistic.... yes the head might be the 'best' target but in most cases it is also the most guarded. part of winning a fight is how you prevent your opponent from being able to fight back. to this end, kicks/stamps/sweeps are used to 'fight' the legs. if you've stamped on his knee, crushed the top of his foot with your heel and twisted his ankle then you can better deal with his head because he now has more things to worry about. simply saying that hitting the head wins fights is not seeing the whole picture. the boxing example is slightly sked because they don't ha e access to legs as weapons.