Drunken MA

[JusticeZero]

I've only seen one clip of a fight with Drunken - it sounds like the one ScottnShelley mentioned. The problem in the clip was that the Drunken stylists were unable to close through the kicks that were being used to keep them at bay, and that one factor completely defanged them. Hopefully their sifu proceeded to spend the next month drilling them on how to get inside of a kicker's range, but that's not apparent from the clip.

[unknownstyle]

i think it is probably the coolest kind of katas to watch

[Zaine]

Yeah i dont think it does...

[Tef]

I made the horrible mistake of doing MA while really drunk b/c i thought i would be able to do drunken Bok-Fu. Wrong. All that happened was that i fell over a lot and found every strike i did hilarious.

As most say, it's about constantly moving your center of gravity so the opponent has little clue where you're going.

Drunken Style katas look soooo frikkin' dope. I saw a guy do one with a gian (chinese straight sword), i would have killed for a video camera.

[atalaya]

on the drunken styles, one of my sensei was being taught some drunken style and said that the main focus was definitely on the strength of the joints and the hips especially. being able to manuever your center and move around it is the tool for fluidly reacting to an attack and responding in kind. the way he demonstrated it to me was by asking me to attack him, i tried a straight forward lunge high punch. He responded by suddenly lowering his center and dipping back, so far that i was afraid he would fall over! just as i reached out to catch him, his foot lashed out and struck me in the gut. he stressed that the art should never be practiced while actually drunk.

[a_ninja]

well it could really mess him up any amount of achol. i mean drunken boxing is a real style and it is very effective if you can keep your balance, because it confuses your opponent and makes them angry, but that much achol would make you loose your balance and wouldnt help you reaction time at all

[NightOwl]

Drunken isn't it's own style is it? I was under the impression that it was a variation on wushu. Regardless, it is very rare, and usually the only time I see it is in contemporary wushu forms (quite exaggerated... sometimes even with mimed drinking). This of course is just for show, but it would be interesting to find someone who does it as a serious pursuit. Everyone pretty much covered the philosophy behind it: deception and fluidity. Someone also mentioned the sparring clip on youtube, but it seems like they had never really sparred before (or were too used to fighting their own style?). Anyhow, if you find a place might as well stop by and check it out.

[NightOwl]

Here's some stuff I posted on a Chinese thread...maybe it will help here too?

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drunken boxing, while quite old, is very rarely seen as a stand alone style (except in the movies). Rather it is usually found in a 'drunken' move set of Chinese styles such as Choy-lay-fut, Monkey style Kung Fu, Southern Shaolin, Tajichuan, and others. Pure drunken boxing in itself is called Zuijiuquan.

Characterizing these Drunken styles are erratic movements and positions that seem to almost mimic the look of a drunkard, the result being that the practitioner is very fluid and loose, thus being able to bob and weave out of the way of punches easily. Also, it is supposed to lure the practitioner's opponent into a false sense of security to lessen his reaction time to sudden unexpected burst of strikes from what looks like a docile form. Supposedly this is one of the most demanding forms of Kung fu, and often it is only taught to advanced practitioners.

(There must also be a distinction made between traditional and contemporary drunken boxing. Contemporary drunken fist has very highly exaggerated movements and miming that render it purely for show. You usually see this in contemporary wushu competitions where drunken forms show off amazing flexibility and extreme movement that even the most hammered of kung-fu masters could never pull off, but don't do much else than look pretty (

). Traditional is a lot more conservative, with less acrobatics and smaller movements making it a lot more efficient. Regardless, this still brings up the question of Zui Quan's effectiveness in combat.

Well....there is an oft shown video of Drunken boxing vs. Kyokushin:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S3_b9SUDQ-8

This is the only clip of Drunken boxing sparring that I can find. Mind you, It was done for a Japanese variety TV show and since it was posted on a famous 'in your face MA site), it has come under scrutiny as possibly have being set up (or the drunken boxers were karateka who were trying the style as an experiment). Regardless, it doesn't look so hot. Still...it is unfair to judge based off of just one video. Again, the hard thing that it is so hard to find being practiced instead of just being used in a form. I could see it being useful (but slightly unorthodox) if you practiced it against someone coming on with regular attacks though...whether or not there are places that do that remains to be seen.

Searching the web does bring up some gyms that do exclusively teach it, but the are few and far in between. I personally would love to learn it and experiment with it, as the fluidity could potentially make for a nice way to dodge attacks (which I like doing ^^).

Finally to cap things off...more youtube!

(notice the fist and elbow strikes and absence of miming in this more conservative form)

Also a bit more conservative

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqeyTHtS5RU (getting more modern)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LjO_8J1xlRY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nsF_aNSjNjM

more modern madness...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zcWOAmIKl8w some in here...and actual KF sparring...nice to see.

Just threw that in...love seeing tourists get beat up

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gGzr-gkIums&mode=related&search= it's in there..

[The BB of C]

Hey all

Got a question. Is the form on the movie DrunkenMaster real and how would that much alcohal effect a person training in any ma?

From what I hear, it's a martial arts legend that a true master can fight effectively while intoxicated. With this concept in mind the drunken styles were most likely invented under. As far as their applicability, I'm sure it's more than possible to either mimic or actually do, but it must be very difficult.