Justin Treadaway

Yeah, keep the knee your standing on slightly bend. Also practice doing all your kicks from standing on one leg(crane) without putting the kicking leg down. It will help with balance and stability.

We are taught not to blink at our school.

Yeah, it doesn't get much more traditional than kung fu..... but i should have rephrased my statement earlier,"Fighting a martial artist differently" would be if i knew he was a martial artist or after the fight started and then he showed he was trained. Then i might change my fighting technique, because if someone is truly trained the basic front snap to the groin will prob get block/parried.

True, but I would say more so for kung fu because of its richness and complicatedness, specially when the internals are involved. Good to hear that . Out of interest does your school have a web site I could look at? We are a sister school of Grandmaster Ward's School. My instructor trained for years with GM Ward until he moved down here and started his own school. http://www.kungfuarnis.com/index.html You have to read the life of Grandmaster Ward, read what all training he has done, its very impressive.

Grats

Yes it is very common for Kung fu masters to have mastered multiple styles. Most of the different kung fu styles are very similar and carry over from one style to the next very easily, with that being said if he has lied already then I would be leery of the school. As for the last comment about finding a good kung fu school that is true, but that is also true for pretty much every style, so many schools are just belt factories so they can get more money/students (do a kata get a belt). I am so lucky to have found a traditional kung fu/ modern arnis school that actually makes sure you have mastered the form and know the combat application of every move in the form before you can move on, we also have to learn control moves, knife defenses, throws, rolls, how to fall, weapons, defend against weapons when you areunarmed, fight multiple opponents etc etc etc..... But don't judge the guy yet, since he just started the school he might not have been added on that list yet, but I would sit in on a few of the classes and see how he teaches and stuff before I would fully join the school. Hopefully, you can find a good kung fu school, the style has so much to offer. GOOD LUCK

Yeah, thats true for any school really, luckily I have a great school. My teacher's teacher was actually a Shaolin monk, and his Arnis teacher was world renowned Grand Master Remy Presas, so ours is as tradition as you can get in America at least.

Very nice, this looks like he knows his stuff. The reason i say this is because it flows and he is relaxed, also, something I noticed on all the other videos, is peoples head bobbing up an down. If i am not mistaken your not supposed to bob up and down when changing from one stance to another (at least we aren't in kung fu). To me this guy video is the only one that really impressed me. The other guys aren't bad just not super impressive. The last guy would have been better to me if he wasn't so stiff. But that could be the difference in Chinese and Japanese arts, we(Kung Fu) are taught to be relaxed.

I was wondering if there are any good books/videos on kenjutsu? There are no schools even remotely close to me. I am very interested in learning this style and was wondering if there are any books/videos worth getting.

Mantis is a wonderful style, it will definitely help you in a fight, it will teach you to deflect and trap/lock your opponents then take them to the ground and imobilize them. Just watch the insect it deflects grabs, then takes them to the ground, then eats them. I suggest you don't eat your opponent but make them pay

I hate to say this but shotokan is as far away from kung fu as you can get.....

Yeah, thats one thing i like about kung fu, we never "karate Block". Its a deflection then a strike. We slap "Bear Slap""robin wing" it out of the way while we are moving so even if we miss the deflection we still get out of the way(Its called a ward off) The move is a slap with one hand while the other follows it moving it out of the way, then the hand that slaps does a strike its very very very fast and very effective. Also soon as we deflect we have a strike coming as part of the technique, so we never block anything even in forms. Its called wu wei "never interupt the natural flow of things", because if you stop his punch, he has time to respond but if you deflect and allow his punch to continue just slightly away from you. He doesnt have time to respond.

25, will be 26 in august

I took isshinryu karate for a few years and i thought it was good until i moved and starting take Sil Lum Kung fu. I have been doing kung fu for a few years now and I feel a lot more comfortable with my fighting skills. The main thing that i found that i didnt like about karate was it is so "hard" (as in blocks) and straight line. I found kung fu more to my liking it is a lot softer, very similer to JKD. Most of JKD is right out of wing chun kung fu.

Yeah this is true. Usually if the class is teaching the combat application its called tai chi chaun. My instructor teaches tai chi chaun as well as our kung fu/arnis class and does incorperate some of the tai chi chaun stuff in class, its a very effective style if the person teaching, actually knows the combat application of it. But i would say half of the classes in america just teach the moves kinda like a yoga class....

Some of aikido does seen useful but all of the useful stuff i see, we already learn in Kung fu, plus a lot more. Not downing the style but all of the locks and throws we already do, but we dont have to have the people run at us while holding their arm out, like they are a one horned bull or somthing.

Yeah never completely lock out a joint from a strike, and i mean never.

Just hope the guy hasnt trained in rolls, then he might just roll out of it. We actually train to roll out of stuff like that.

I personally wouldnt kick to the head except for a cresent kick, if you throw a few front kicks then go to cresent they will block low then get hit in the head. But most kicks would go to the knees for me. It would also depend on if the person is trained. If he is a martial artist then the my fighting style would be diff, but a simple front snap kick to the groin/balls will pretty much drop most people(assuming they are male ) But traing high kicks makes your low kicks more powerful so there are reasons for them.

What would he do if the opponent "pulled a Rick Flair" and poked him in the eye there?

I tore my meniscus as well, I had surgery on it and its about at 95% now. Only a few things hurt now but not bad enough that i cant push myself through them. Well if you for sure cant do karate, you could always switch to a softer style such as kung fu, tai chi, etc etc

Yeah I should rephrase that, its had influence on all asian martial arts. Sorry about that.

Well neither sport is fully "Street Fighting" but MMA is a whole lot closer than boxing is. I would prefer to watch MMA. I think that people want to see as close to the real thing as possible and right now MMA is closer to the real thing. On another note, I am tired of people putting down styles that arent incorperated in MMA. I take Sil Lum Kungfu. 3/4 the stuff we learn isnt allowed in MMA. They aren't allowed to strike to the throat, eyes, grown, wrist locks, arm bars (open joints locks from standing.. ie trapping a punch, breaking their wrist, elbow, and shoulder while you throw them down. I mean dont get me wrong not dissing MMA, a lot of those guys could do well on the street, but dont diss other styles because their style isnt represented in UFC. Because on the street there are no rules anything goes. That is also why you will never see our schools fighting in a tourniment with a point system. We would be disqualified first 10 seconds of the fight.... Anyways thats just my $.02

Yeah we do the samthing, we wil take one move and drill it for one full class.

My instructor has taken/teaches a class on it, I its called warriors not sure on the name (its the same thing as ninjitsu but chinese/japanese not a lot of peps know but both countries pretty much both had ninjas and if i am not mistaken its pretty much the samething, i know both styles fed off of one another or somthing like that I dont know much about it, but I know its all ninja weapons and the same training).... but you have to become a black belt in sil lum kungfu before they will allow you into it. You have to be invited because there are no forms or anything its all about stealth, fighting the dark, throwing weapons, killing an opponent, wall climbing, fighting on ropes, wilderness survival etc.. I will ask a little more about it, because I dont know much about it. I know he was taught by Grandmaster Rick Ward in Boone, NC.