Drunken Monkey

y'know, i'm wondering how long before 'photoshop' enters the english dictionary. dammit, that was OUR secret five years ago...

i would call my local carpenter a master. we everyone in our kitchen 'sifu'.

from what i've seen, the general response is to reach for his/her asp and call in more officers...

if you're talking about the chinese thing then it translates better as 'no image' kick. even then that's more or less a direct translation and as such is wrong. the true meaning is basically a kick that your opponent dosen't 'see'.

we are arguing around the same thing here. like i said, you seem to be saying that it doesn't matter whether you are grounded or not because all that matters is muscle strength. this is what i disagree with. useful power includes being 100% grounded. you seem to say it doesn't matter.

i'm going to be general here and say that without a good foundation, you cannot build anything.

and you believe all you see in the media? and no, i haven't seen it. as a rule i tend to stay away from martial arts programs because the ones that i have seen in the past have been to full of this 'mystical eastern' image that the producers seem to to pushing at the western world.

i don't know. maybe i'm just not used to thinking along the same lines as you guys do regarding belts. it just seems too trivial a thing to get upset about. i can understand that you feel like you're being demoted as guys there have seen you as a black belt but does it matter? does it really matter? will your training be any different?

this is what happens when you put to much emphasis on the belt as opposed to what you know. everytime i started training under a new sifu i was put through the basics. that meant going through a week of basic punching, stance and steps etc etc. you could say that this process was just them making sure that i was up to the level that they would want me to be for my 'rank/years experience'. it didn't bother me that i was a regarded as a beginner at the new club because the people that crossed hands with me know that i'm not a beginner. you've got to look at it from the point of view of the club. any new person who joins the club, especially one who has a significant gap in their training and in your case, has no 'proof' of past experience is going to cause friction in the other members training there. the club doesn't want one one of it's sho dans losing to a lesser grade because i) other students won't like how it looks (who's that new dude?) ii) it looks bad for the club (why's he got a black belt?) iii) it singles you out as a target (look there's the guy who THINKS he's a black belt) if you've already earned your belt once, then what harm is it to go through the motions again? for a start, it'll make sure that you are at a level that the instructors are happy with. like the guys say, if you are good enough, they'll see it.

actually, technically, it isn't the sky that is blue... sorry....

the only guy i know in london from Ng Chun Hong in london is ML's place. i guess you're one of his then. as for me, i'm a bit of a 'mutt'. my wing chun training history is a very long and complex one spanning fifteen years, more off than on... and five different teachers.

so why don't you just get some gloves and have a go in your back yard?

why does 'master' mean something supernatural?

but i have given you a reason. you are just dismissing it with your 'i am obviously right' attitude. let's try again using simple english. you throw a punch using all of your lauded muscle and technique but without being grounded. all of that forward action 'generates' a reaction. if you are not grounded, i.e not directing all reaction into the ground (again, ignoring frictional forces) then you are not truely using all of your power. being grounded helps your power. how to get grounded was not an issue here. you are saying that it doesn't matter. i am saying that it does. being grounded is about fully utilising your body structure so that you are directing as much of any action causing you to go backwards, into the ground by means of aligning up joints and triangulating forces. what's going to hurt more, running into a rooted object or running into a 'floating' object? same principle.

oona? as in the little fairy from legend?

his name is "sir"!

hate to be blunt but um, well. ...cow deposite...

my advice is don't do it. the wooden dummy is a complete tool for wing chun, the martial arm is a singular training device. the price of a wooden dummy, at first, seems a bit excessive but if you invest in a good one it will last you forever. what i did whilst saving for my dummy (which i had my local carpenter make up for me) i went to the local parks maintenance place and asked for uncut trees/logs. sometimes they charged me, sometimes they didn't. what i got was basically a tree which i stripped of bark and smoothed down as much as i could. i drilled the holes for arms and legs and mounted onto my frame. when the body split i got a new trunk.

by fighting like wing chun i meant that it seems very focused around the elbow, 'separate' top/bottom and intercepting. by the way, you quote sifu wong, are you part of his line? if so, where abouts do you train?

don't worry about it. i have a bit of a short temper and i sometimes snap at people. and well, different people post in different styles. i'm one of them guys who like to post in 'conversation', others like to post one off statements. this mish mash of posting styles does make it hard to get sense of what is being said and what is replying to what.

well, you seem to be saying that the ground has nothing to do with how much power you can use. and yes you can get more grounded. go visit one of ron heimberger's classes and test his one leg stance.

and i think you have some kind of ego thing going on... i responded to the wing chun comment. not you.

well, like many have said, he was demonstrating the kind of things you can do, not something that you really would do... don't you think that if the attack was different, the 'reaction' would be different? what he showed was a starting point. you moved it on a bit by modifying the attack BUT you still refered to his original demonstration.

and to say that katas are a set of moves, hidden or otherwise is way too simplistic a way to see them. it's like kids seeing some bits of kata and then proceeding to 'fight' each other with kata, not realising that it isn't like that. i say there are no 'moves', only types of 'movement'. like you say, a block is a strike is a lock is a throw. they are all more or less the same hand+arm movement. if you think of things in such a narrow fashion as moves and techniques suggests, then i say you are limiting yourself.

ahhhh, you can tell who really has seen it and who hasn't just from the thngs they post...