kungfu techniques in tournaments

[masterintraining]

OK im going to be in a tournament soon and of course im sparring.

wen ive went to previous tournaments have always conformed to the way other people sparr, using mor kickboxing based moves instead of kungfu based, how might i use more kungfu based moves instead of using what others use.

[ps1]

It's hard to answer your question because your question is so general. That is, there are so many tournaments with a wide variety of rule sets.

Give us a better idea of what the tournament rules are please.

[bushido_man96]

I wouldn't worry so much about using "Kung Fu" techniques or "Kickboxing" techniques; a punch is a punch, anyway. Just focus on what you can do to win. There is no point in doing a certain "technique" if it won't get you anywhere.

[ps1]

In the end, Bushido's correct. You need to use what works within the rules you are given. However, something I was always able to use to my advantage was the crawl. It worked well to counfuse opponents who like to stay back and time you. But it doesn't work well against the guys who just blitz right in regardless of what you're doing.

[bushido_man96]

What is the "crawl?"

[ps1]

It's a way of moving around or waving the arms and moving through a wide range of stances. The indonesian for it is tjimindeku (chi-mindy-coo) which literally means, "movements that confuse."

If done properly, the you will appear to be off balance or have openings that are not really there. It takes lots of practice though because you need to have a keen understanding of the weaknesses for each portion of your movement. Some people do it improperly and it just looks like frantic movement.

[bushido_man96]

Ah, cool. Thanks for the explanation.

[Johnlogic121]

One unfortunate thing about using Kung Fu moves in tournaments judged by kickboxing karate people if that the judges will be looking for certain things that resemble what they are used to seeing in their own dojos and the judges will not necesarily be even qualified to judge Kung Fu. For this reason, many Kung Fu tournaments are held by schools that teach Chinese arts seperate from kickboxing tournaments. In those types of tournament environments, the judges are trained to know what to look for. Chinese martial arts use a lot of soft strikes and circular power, so if you apply a palm strike to the chest a kickboxing judge might think you just pushed him, when if fact a judge of Kung Fu might recognize that manuever as a low power version of a a powerful cavity press that could be lethal if applied in real life. Similarly, you circular power hook punches will tend to look like weaker strikes in comparison to linear striaght punches in the eyes of kickboxing judges because they are not used to judging the power of the body in full rotation. I heard of a case where a Kung Fu practitioner was fighting a karate practitioner in a sparring match, and for a long period of time the Kung Fu person blocked every single attack that the karate man made but didn't make any offensive moves of his own during the karate match. Clearly, he had superior defense, but scoring in kickboxing matches tends to award points only for successful hits to the body, and not blocking. Many self-defense experts would value the ability to block everything with zero offense very highly, but I think the karate practitioner was judged the winner of this particular bout because he showed more offense over the course of the fight even though none of the blows landed. Some Kung Fu artists consider the "perfect" fight to be one in which you make no offensive moves for the first fifteen minutes of the fight, just blocking everything that comes at you, and then finally, when you and the opponent are getting tired, you make one offensive move that wipes out the other guy. This demonstrates a pacifistic attitude and a capacity to do damage that is restrained only until necessary. However, in the West, the things that are considered effective fighting are different. I would say that your finest chances of scoring well in a contemporary kickboxing tournament are to embody everything that kickboxing people value. Kung Fu is commonly considered second best by most karate stylists when they see deceptive efforts that don't just go forward and blast the opponent with everything. Kickboxing doesn't have the same degree of sublety. Furthermore, Kung Fu deceptive motions usually confuse Kung Fu practitioners more than they confuse karate people, who don't recognize any of it. If you recognize a third of it, the rest confuses you. If you recognize none of it, you just fight the unknown. Good luck in your efforts. You might find that participating in forms with Kung Fu does very successfully in the kickboxing arena, as most judges and spectators find soft and circular Kung Fu forms to be very interesting compared to the angular and robotic karate movements. -JL

[bushido_man96]

Don Wilson was able to adapt his Kung Fu to Kickboxing very well. It can be done. The saying goes "the best defense is a good offense."