wildfire

Not only is it ok. It's bibical. (Gasp?!?) Look into the Original Covenant (Old Testement) Christians have convinently forgotten about. See all the versus about how the blood is the life? Compare that to how we use Chi and how Chi relates to blood... This is but one example.

I agree, I guess what I'm asking is, and understanding that everyone individually is still different, if you could take an average how long does it take most people to become reasonably proficent.

Lets say for argument sake though that there IS something wrong with Kung Fu. Is it not more likely the way that it is taught, not the art itself? Krav Maga has had a high success rate in applicability, but it is also taught to be applicable. After all, the roots of Kung Fu served successfully for to long to not be of value.

I can't necissarily agree. It really depends on the schools importance and deffinition of what a black belt is. I attended the most non-mcdojo school of Karate I have so far seen and it's minimum time towards blackbelt was two years and some months. But a black belt was the begining, not the end. It was a display of basic skills. (And actually, the black belt test was quite tough). That was also, minimum time. Had they made a promise like "Guaranteed Blackbelt in two years!!" I'd have agreed to the mcdojo mentality. But plenty of students were held behind. One girl I knew was going on her seventh month learning Kusanku. Money certainly wasn't a motivation for that, as the instructors were not paid and the dojo's dues were for paying the rent....And it barely covered that.

The school of Pakua I'm joining doesn't use a ranking system, which I think is great thats what I wanted. But for students of Pakua, or a similar style like I-Hsing or Tai Chi Chaun, if we consider the concept that a "black belt" is a student that knows the basics of his style, how long does it take the average student to reach that point in Pakua? For most forms of Karate, I think its around 2-3 years. I wouldn't be suprised to find its longer to reach that point in Pakua, what do you think?

You know how music conasuiers will sometimes say, "You have to listen to the notes they are not playing?" It's alot like that. To give a demonstration of principle, you have to have exagerated movements to display how a technique functions. The purpose of the video wasn't the same as the Krav Maga videos you see sometimes that displays a scenario (those were very good) but it seems the function was to display the elemental principles of the fighting philosophy of the style. Which depended largely on good foot work and conversion of opposing power.

Well I went to the school today to check it out and meet the Shifu. I am so impressed! The schools great, the teacher is great! Every policy they have is exactly what I thought a martial arts school should be, but I have never found one before now that did it. I think I may very well have found where I belong. The Shifu is just amazing. I feel like I learned a great deal just by talking to him for a few minutes. I'm really excited to begin training, which should be in a week or so. Thank you for your help.

Wow...I think I might be in love with this style. I already liked the forms because in Karate I loved Taisabaki but I wished it was focused on alot more and the Paqua equivelent to that seems to be one of the main focuses. Then I saw the application, and again...wow..... It's so applicable, yet so pretty to watch!!! See these videos showed paqua about the same way as described on the website of the school I'm going to attend. But some of the other ones on Youttube that claimed to be Baqua had a whole bunch of high kicks and acrobaticts and I couldn't beleive my eyes...Katanas....huh? Apparently there are a few fake schools out there.

It takes a special kind of person to be a good teacher at anything. Martial Arts, or english Literature. Both of these teachers have similar qualities. And in both I'd say experince is very important. An English teacher that doesn't write makes little sense to me, as does a Martial Arts instructor without real world experince. I know. That is frightening to say. It almost sounds like I'm saying if you want to be an instructor go pick a few fights. But not quite. Having had to use your skills does help you help others cope with the aftermath though. But on the other side of that is a saying I heard, that a martial arts instructor doesn't train students. A student trains himself. A martial arts instructor corrects mistakes and presents new knowledge. But if I had to pick only one most important factor I'd say Ethics is the most important thing. You must be a profoundly moral person to teach martial arts. You are role model not just a walking martial dictionary. If your students are dishonorable it reflects directly on the teacher. You must lead by example. Lots of people are good at martial arts but not all are set out to be teachers. In some places and schools, instructor qualification is the ultimate goal. This should not be. Instructor qualification should be a bonus pursuit of those with the ethics and teaching skills capable of the position. it's very rewarding to open your own school, and very challanging, and most of all, it is a huge responsibility. Your responsible for every student who bows in, inside and outside your facility. No insurance waiver form will ever truely change that. There are not enough good role models out there, I mean for adults just as well as young people. Thats right, adults need role models too. For the matter, role models need role models. Its important that our sensei's and Shifu's are good role models, even more important than how many boards they can break or how many opponets they can ward off at once.

Thank you. What is circle walking exactly? I saw that on the website for the school I plan to attend but I don't understand what it is. Is it like taisabaki in Karate? Moving around an attack to evade?

BUT!!! It looks cool.... And thats the important thing right? That everyone thinks we look cool? (kidding) I wouldn't like training in shorts or a t-shirt though...I don't know why, I guess it's a karate background hampering me, I always liked the way the uniform snaps when you do a technique. Plus I hate seeing what my legs look like when I kick.

I used to be a student of Isshinryu Karate-do, but my Sensei's dojo closed. I have been off and on again trying to find a new school and became very interested in the chinese arts. It's a change to be certain, but I'm excited about getting into something completely new to me. My area really doesn't offer much in the form of martial arts training. Oh there are some training halls, but most of them are franchise places that say 'Karate' on them even though they teach a modified dubbed down americanized competetion version of Tae-Kwon-do. Which naturally I stray away from. But I located one school not to far from me that offers Pa-kua and they seem to be a very good school. Very rooted in tradition, application, and demand good hard work. (after all, what is "Kung-Fu" without hard work??) I'm excited, just hope I can afford it. I'm contacting the school today about classes and tuition. I was just wondering if there was some things anyone here could tell me about the style? I know a little, but every perspective is different. If there is anything you would suggest reading, any special physical conditioning that might better prepare me, what to look for to ensure this is a good school in this style (though they look pretty good from where I'm standing) and a little baout your own experince in this style. They also supliment in teaching Qi-Gong so information on that is helpful to. I've been to Karate forums before, but this is also exciting as I never got to contribute and meet the artist in the Chinese Arts section before. I look forward to meeting all of you.