Practical CMA styles?

[KungFuMan]

There are many styles of kung fu that fall under the title of shaolin. I would say that most, if not all, are practicle when mastered, after all they were all created for combat in the first place.

 

To make these styles "practical" one must dedicate years of hard practice with, and here is the key, a QUALIFIED sifu (and there are not many around, believe me), who knows and understands the style and the concepts that he is teaching.

 

KFM

[CLFDisciple]

Choy lay Fut is a pretty effective style and the concepts aren't as difficult to learn as wing chun. the only thing is that the branch i do which is Hung sing choy lay fut involves strong and mobile stances which are painful to train but a key element to the style. you have to be willing to commit to alot of stance training.

 

theres also lots of forms to learn which you learn and within those forms are thousands of combinations and key concepts that you have to be able to examine as you go through each form. it takes time but things just start coming to you.

 

when you see it and when you do it and if you (regretibly) have to use it. you know its effective.

 

but then again so is wing chun and hung gar or any traditional chinese style.

 

remember that anything is useful in the hands of the right person.

 

ITS NOT IN THE STYLE, ITS IN THE INDIVIDUAL

[JerryLove]

Hrm...

 

I think, if I just wanted to train a brawler out of one CMA, I'd probibly go for Xingyi... though there are several excelling fighting arts in the group.

[italian_guy]

If you mean (by practical) relatively short time to observe visible improvement in self defence capability, I think that most chinese style are not practical ( an exeption to this may be san da I don't know about wing chun) but in the medium to long term they are efficient, and they are more spectacular to see.

[dingyuan]

Baji Quan for sure, it is used by both the Chinese and Taiwanese military and during the old days, Baji Quan is used by the imperial guards at the emperor's side.

[Zhong Gau]

thaegen:

[dtstiachi]

what about tai chi? would you say it is a practical Chinese Martial Art?

[dingyuan]

Thaegen,

 

Wing Chun/Tsun is one of the most practical styles of kung fu. If of course by practical you mean relatively quicker to master. Unfortunately, quicker does not make it necessarilly easier, because as you know by now, some of the postures and movements can seem quite unnatural in the beginning. But when you stick to it you will see that there is a reason for everything in kung fu.

 

In my opinion most styles of kung fu (not modern wu shu) are practical for combat. The problem sometimes is that take a relatively long time to learn and master and of course you will need a good sifu. Once you do master it than you will see really how practical and efficient kung fu can be even compared to other systems.

 

Another style that is also regarded as "simpler' is Bajiquan a practical style that if I am not mistaken was at some stage practiced by Government or Royal bodyguards in China. At its base are the animals the bear and the tiger. It contains extremely powerful and devastating punching techniques. Again as in Wing Chun the training is very hard if not harder, where a lot of attention is given to the bases.

 

Praying Mantis is another "practical" style of kung fu. That is practical in combat sometimes on the lines of Wing Chun. Actually it is not one style but several styles and are divided into northern and southern. Some of these southern schools apparently share similarities with Wing Chun. Again, this style will en general contain ackward stances and movements, but I am afraid that as far as I know there are no kung fu styles that are simple to master.

 

But of course, there are modern varients of kung fu that are more sport/ring oriented that probably use more "natural" stances and movements. But wether this is kung fu or just sport it is another story. Even so I believe one can gain selfdefence abilities in a relatively short time with these type of ring martial arts.

 

I hope that the info was useful.

 

One thing not many people know is that Baji Quan is not as simple and as hard as they think. It's an half internal style, we do a lot of low stance to develop "jing", "bear Step, in which we walk slowly in a low crouch. At any one time our body weight should be almost totally on the leg in front, and our spines upright" and Tiger Arm, "where one punches with both hands stretched out. The trick is use your hip and shoulder instead of the arm power to strike while stepping forward. Both arms should remain relaxed and slightly bend at all times."

 

There's not much extremely powerful and devastating punching techniques

 

but rather we use our body parts like elbow, shoulder, back and backside to do most damge. "Two of the most important techniques, the 顶心肘 center gate elbow strike, and the 侧门顶肘 outer gate elbow strike In the initial stage, when the hand is still not conditioned, the elbow is our most effective weapon due to its natural hardness. Thus there is an emphasis on elbow strikes. However remember also that Baji means the 8 extremes, & one should develop all 8 parts of the body (head, shoulder, back, elbow, fist, palm, knee & feet) to their maximum. The 2 elbow techniques above are very simple and utilize the horse stance. Baji techniques are mostly accompanied by heavy stomping on the leg stepping forward as well as torso twisting. These are natural actions of issuing sinking + cross jing. "

 

There's also a lot of throwing moves in Baji Quan like "Xiao Chan" and "Da Chan" or what people usually call as body trapping.

 

"Body trapping is also featured in the Baji structural form, but it has more importance in the big form. As shown above it is performed by clasping the opponent's attacking hand, trapping it by swinging the back arm over it & then wrapping it around the opponent's back, efficiently immobilizing him. At the same time stick your lead leg close behind the opponent's lead leg to prevent him from kicking. From here one could strike with a palm thrust or take him down by twisting backwards, or preferably do both. Take note that you need to control the opponent's balance throughout, or risk being struck immediately in the face by the opponent's free hand. Trap before striking - this is the ideal counter attack in Baji."

[David]

The difficulty in making Shaolin longfist styles work is you have to forget everything you ever saw in a film. You also have to know your moves well enough not to revert to kickboxer-fu.

 

To defend yourself you should have a natural stance until the last moment when you may have a guard up. Don't even think about a low stance or a high kick unless you have to.

 

No technique will come off cleanly during a fight so don't choreograph yourself - just get to the end and trust to the luck you've built-up from training hard and thinking hard .

 

Rgds,

 

David

[David]

Oops I posted without realising there's a Page 2 to read first.

 

Hearing mention of t'ai chi and then reading about baji, t'ai chi also concerns itself with using the full power of the body from the go. It's natural to the extent that the exertion can be invisible and it's effects thus compounded by surprise. Unlike bajiquan, t'ai chi doesn't concentrate on in-fighting elbows etc.

 

As said before it's the practitioner. CMA styles are mostly flouncy and awkward until you make some crucial mental connections and physical-skill landmarks. But that's why it's called kung fu - give it the time and the effort and it will work.

 

Rgds,

 

David