Drunken Monkey

i'm kinda fond of the really old hk flicks. the ones with the slow, forms done as fighting in perfect beat, fight scenes.... you just vegetate watching them kinda theraputic.

hmm, i am tempted to say that before you develope your own style, you should first seek out everything that exists that is similar to what you know. from the sounds of things, you have been primarily exposed to the japanese way of things and while this is not by itself a bad thing, it is not the only way that exsists. but then that is me. i much prefere learning.

and there i thought helping others was something to do with conscience, honour and morality...

as jerry once said (in not these exact words..) it is done slow to get all movements correct.

that is one possible debate i guess....

if it is chinese, why would it use a japanese name? if it is chinese, why would it use japanese terminology? if it is chinese, why would they wear japanese uniform? the real question is does it matter? if it is good, does the name matter? if it is good, does what you call things matter? if it is good, does what you wear matter?

which is why i said that it was debateable....

don't like jet li. when's the last time you saw actual technique in a film he's in? it wasn't too bad in the hk films but the new hollywood stuff is just awful.

now i would say you're just picking... but i don't mind. it's a valid statement. like i said, name a skill, type of move/movement/technique needed in a typical mma fight and i can point to it in a kung fu style. it is accepted taht most martial arts come from chinese arts somewhere. in a way, the moves you do arechinese (although like most things, this too is debateable). also, if the guy is training for a mma event then he probably wants to win. the quickest way is to then train in a mma school which has the experience and can give you the experience to do well. part of it is just that there is a lot to learn when you take on a traditional martial art. some of it is about fighting, some of it is about culture. martial arts in chinese culture isn't always about fighting (although it should make you a capable fight... but that's a different discussion). mma schools however, are totally different. they exist to teach guys how to fight like the guys in the events. whether or not they take part is another matter but that is how they train. mma type styles is based more on experience. the nature of mma is to not really recognise any style. the nature of kung fu is to learn of and from a system/style.

i know i suck. that's my point. i can train for ten years in mma then lose against a good kung fu guy. does that then mean that mma sucks? well, no, of course it doesn't....

how many 'kung fu' guys can you name that entered an mma event? then compare them to the number of mma guys? anyway... let's see. pure boxers get pounded in K1, therefore boxing is crap..... my point is name the skills needed to do well and i'm sure i can point to its existence in a kung fu style. the guy wasn't ready, not that the style isn't able.

how many 'kung fu' guys can you name that entered an mma event compared to the number of mma guys? anyway... let's see. pure boxers get pounded in K1, therefore boxing is crap.....

if entered a mma event now, i would probably lose. if i trained intensively in my style specifically for another mma event i would probably lose. if i trained in a mma for a mma event, i would still probably lose... we've been through these types of discussions before. nothing new is being said. we all have our opinions and normally, they are going to be biased opinions or even ignorant opinions. why argue? it does not serve a purpose. you can't judge an art on its performance in a fighting event. that's almost as bad as making a judgement on an art without actually trying it.

hit with chest? not really familiar with that. you might be aware of how we use the shoulders. i guess, you could say that we touch with our chest as well (though not really hit), as a precusor to the rotation for shoulder movement. of course all this is normally accompanied by a push/pull/turn/torque movement.

well, actually, lots of martial arts have trapping aspects. just from the chinese schools, styles, shaolin five animals, hung gar, choy li fut, bak mei, mantis and plenty others have trapping. the fact that more people know about wing chun's trapping is probably because more people know about wing chun, not because that is what it does. just a side note. silat also has lots of trapping, much of which is wing chun like in appearance but slightly different in application (from my inexperienced eyes).

that's my point. your post sounded like your understanding of wing chun is that trapping/pinning is our 'method' of fighting. i just wanted to clarify that: you don't use trapping. trapping occurs as things progress. we don't rely on doing it, rather we take advantage of it happening. there are times when you force the trap but it isn't like that all we do is seek to trap. if i sounded a bit curt i should apologise. just trying to be brief and to the point.

so has it occured to you that you don't find it 'effective' because you don't actually know anything about it? "what is jeet kune do?" "pak sau and hip."

y'know, i keep seeing sickle things for sale in the old shops in yuen long (hong kong new territories). was tempted to buy some but i couldn't think how i would explain them to customs...

pinning? i kinda prefere the term trapping. it sounds lke you don't fully understand when trapping occurs or what pak sau is. we do not aim to trap, rather the trap appears from our positioning during attack and pak sau is just another hand position (in relation to your elbow and where your hand is to begin with) used to receive. if you seek to trap, you will get hit. if you actually watch wing chun and silat, you will see more than a few similarities (well, at least i did) and jerry, we like to get into practially body contact distance too. it kinda happens as we close the gap and it allows us to fully control opponents body movement and instead of making our attacks hit him, we make them 'hit' our attacks. ...if that makes any sense...

and as we know, the movies are such a great reference source for the martial arts...

i don't really care what people think of what i do because it doesn't matter to me. i know what i am capable of and i know that if i ever need to defend myself, i'd be better prepared than the average joe. after all, not everyone out there is a martial artist or natural born fighter. but then that's no really what i'm training for. i don't claim superiority over anyone. i don't claim that wing chun is better or worse than any other style/training method. i don't even claim that i would be able to defend myself if caught in that kind of situation. what i can tell you is what i do, how i do it, and why i do it. if you ask me if wing chun will win in a ufc fight then i can only say that it depends on how the guy trained. i have said this before, the success of the style depends on the fighter. most mma guys train like pigs in heat. they have way more fight time than the average martial artist and they tend to 'fight' harder. on the other hand, not all martial arts teach and train as vigorously. but i guess my point is, if you take a traditional martial arts guy and have him train as hard as the mma guy, how would he fare then? i don't know but then who does?

well, i said coffe cos i figured that not all of us here are drinking age....

roasting char siu....

how about 'rikki o: the story of rikki'

stray dog....