Socratic_Sifu

The funny thing about all verbage is that it often says more about the speaker than the hearer. IMHO When a person makes derogatory, offensive or demaning remarks towards another, the hearer can: 1) Give the remarks permission to offend, demean or anger you and beat the crap out of the speaker; 2) Decide not to be offended, demeaned or angered and either create a new peaceful situation with humor, etc or have the discipline, to leave if it is not possible to keep the peace.

Personally, when i get adrenaline shakes, I try to think of it as "Powering Up" Very simplistic I know but simply changing your way of thinking about it --into a positive rather than negative thought-- is a good way of using the meditation idea--works too. If you have time though, that is a perfect time to practice your technique because you not only build muscle memory but you experience what it would be like in real life!

Yip Man (Ip) WIlliam Chueng Jerry Bolding Me

There have been quite a few very good opinions expressed all of which had valid arguments but -ever loving the position of underdog--I am going to choose one over the other. For my money, speed (acceleration) is the greater of the two. By way of analogy, if you hit a nail with a hammer by simply dropping it, chances are there will be enough mass and velocity generated by gravity itself to cause the nail to pierce whatever the nail is pointed at however, if you kept the mass of the hammer the same yet increased its acceleration upon hitting the head of the nail, it is more likely to pierce deeper. Ofcourse, you have to consider the objects mass in either case but again, my opinion that an increase in acceleration is an increase not only in the force generated but the piercing power of that force. It is essentially the very minute difference between shooting square bullets from a pistol and oval shaped bullets, they both can maim or even kill, but one is better suited to the environment than the other and will be more effective.

I must admit that there was in fact, some method to the madness but, wow! I watched it again just to get a good laugh!

That was the most ridiculous display I have ever seen outside a comedy club!

great exposure to other styles--if it is a truly open tournament--Sometimes "Open" tournaments are one style--great opportunity to see the other styles out there, learn more about your own particular brand of MA, meet lifelong friends, if you plan on moving ou can also find out which schools from whatever area you are moving to best compliment your personality & Physical traits, tourneys are just fun! whether competing or not. The best part for me is seeing the glow on a student's face when he applies the concepts and techniques that he/she learned in class actually work!

Traditional-Fist: Thank you very much for that link! It was both informative and an exciting read. I had no idea of the that there wass such a hypothesis out there even though I could see via the forms the similarities between the two arts. It makes me want to take up the art of muay thai if for no other reason than to understand my Wing Chun even more fully-I definitely have an even greater respect for Sifu Muk Jong

Something that I have noticed that noone has yet to mention is the similarities between the arts mentioned, especially between wing chun and muay thai. for example, the teep or kicks used to set up in muay thai operate on the same principle as WC's stop-hit, or intercept: basically you use your closest weapon, in this case your foot, to open the gate, so to speak, for your next weapon. Likewise, WC also has devastating elbow strikes: see WC's second form chum kiu, and utilizes the knee for its entry technique. Also, as far asw kickboxing is concerned, WC uses a semblance of the "Stick & move" strategy. For those of you who are uninitiated into the traditional training of WC and sparring, we do not sit like ducks on a pond when fighting! True, we do not like to waste energy but that does nto mean that we sacrifice ourselves by not moving away from an oncoming target. Fact is, WC's triangular stepping is most effective against many so called "real-fighting" styles (as if to imply that there are martial arts that do not train for "real life" combat) and boxers, kickboxers or otherwise, do not corner the market on having evasive or even aggressive footwork. As Ovine-king" suggested, training is everything! No martial art is perfect by itself, it takes the diligence and pain of discipline to truly master an art rather than have it as master over you. WC has been very adept at preventing me from receiving harm from the hands of both the desperate thugs of the street and the white collar thugs from the dojo, perhaps the same is true of others for muay thai or kickboxing--a question of "who would win" even if all things are equal is misleading because even twins are not equal--none ever recorded were delivered at exactly the same time--instead, as some budo texts recite: the warrior should consider his own demise daily" as a way of defeating his own fear of martial engagement or more precisely, defeat. But I digress, check out the text below my post about the anture of training in MA

SenseiKeithL Thank for your response and to answer your question, I will keep WC basically the same. I have added BJJ to my repetoire to deal with grapplers but I have pretty extensive submission training already. Hopefully I will learn enough anti-grappling, by virtue of the grappling training to avoid the ground fight (although I am very confident there and the BJJ is helping that even more) but I want to showcase the stop-hitting, power and especially entry techniques of WC specifically. I agree wholeheartedly that it is not really the style as much as the fighter and know that a part of my learning will come eventually from defeat but, I want to be able to say: "you know what?! WC can compete--b/c I did it" which will require some significant victories. I have heard of several WC only events and even some mixed traditional style events on the east coast that I will enter to prepare myself for what I am considering "the show" aka something similar to "pride" but I don't know of any events such as this that take place primarily in the midwest which is where I am located--the whole thing could prove to be cost prohibitive. Any help on possible tourneys or events would be very helpful.

elbows and knees--they move first and often telegraph a punch or kick. It is a good idea to pay more attention to one or the other depending upon the range or even feint with your eyes.

I agree wholeheartedly--evidently the guy missed the pride fight where rorion gracie was knocked out by a single knee to the chin---by a grappler no less

Never heard of a wing chun system that advocates retreating of any sort even if it is in a stick & move type thing so I would be a little leary of the WC --and I do not normally like to contradict peoples opinion's of martial arts but I will digress just this once--long range weakness of wing chun? what weakness is this exactly? no art, no matter how proficientit may seem is adept outside the distance where strikes can be made. If by this comment you meant kicking distance then you truly are unaware of wing chun and I apologize for my insensitive comment. Barring that however, to put it simply-- if you are not in any striking distance (kicking, punching, or grappling) then your art is useless--you have to close the gap and personally I think that WC has excelled where a lot of MA's have ignored which is closing the gap,i.e entry techniques. Phew! I feel much better now. Anyway, I think WC and kickboxing can be a good combo--a bit redundant because there are kicks in WC in fact chi gerk is an outstanding kicking form-- but I think you would find a grappling art more useful to take with your WC training than another primarily striking art. (I say primarily because even though it is kickboxing, most of the competitions I have seen look like amatuer boxing matches with a few muay thai kicks thrown in to weaken the opponent)

Beware confusing the two arts if you are going to train them simultaneously, you don't want to stop-hit an aikido technique or start chain punching in the middle of your aikido drills---I have only briefly studied any aikido but have extensive judo experience and the two arts can be complimentary, especially since WC does not have a lot of techniques that are usuable on the ground but try to keep the 2 arts seperated in your mind and in your practice until you become proficient at them both and build up some muscle memory, otherwise you will likely experience brain scramble.

Wow! Lots of good responses here. Here's my 2 cents: (1)Since I always watch the elbows and knees, I would first use a stop-hit while simultaneously punching. (2) if already in grappling range, step even further into the punch so that it goes past me --step to the outside and take out the legs--from here it is submission city!! Alternatively, I could simply block the punch by raising the elbow to the high outside gate (Bil sao would be effective too) and punch with the we sao hand while kicking either the groin or knee.

Ki has, in some instances been built up to be some magical energy that allows the MA proponent to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, etc. but quite simply put, as an old tai chi (taiji?) master once told me--ki is simply bio-energy. To put it in a more westernly way--it is the ability to utilize kinectic transfer of energy without any, or a great deal of movement for purposes of thwarting an adversary or conversly, in a way to effect or flip on like a switch, the body's already present ability to heal. If you really want an understanding of ki try some anatomy & physiology books concerning the central nervous system or books on meridian therapy. these will give an example of what it is but not necessarily how to use it. Have fun with your WC and pay close attention to the siu lum tao--it is a little dull,atleast in the sense that it is not a flashy form but, the whole of the system relies heavily upon the foundations it lays.

Checked out the website--it is obviously professionally done--and the school itself appears to be doing well financially from the looks of it but, are you aware that level 10 is the "new" sifu level? What I mean is that level 10 is the equivalent of just getting a black belt in any other MA. Not that this is a bad thing mind you, just that you shoudl be aware that your sifu may still be learning the in's & out's of the system even though he/she obviously knows all of the techniques. That's my $0.02--I feel I must also admit that I am more than a little skeptical about really big commercial training halls and kwoons so my opinion may be a little jaded

If you are using WC against a boxer or any other form of pugilism, it is best to keep it simple and remeber the principles that you learned. Gaurd the center, watch the leading elbow and/or knees, and if you use your chain punching, do not just throw them out there, be patient, set up the punches with pak sao or other technique and choose your timing--which by the way works best against a boxer because they have a tendency to punch and move in almost 2 step rhythms and the off-timing of WC punches can often disrupt this beat before the opponent has time to recover. Be smart though, much like boxing, WC is a martial science, before it is an art form (my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of all WC fighters). If you are able, study your opponents fighting style before you fight him.