Is my kung fu class lame?

[blitz]

if you dont get yourself to a real school and start some serious training, your going to keep looking like this....

Oh come on how many times are you going to post that pic!?

[EmptyneSs]

Oh come on how many times are you going to post that pic!?

i love that pic lol. im gonna keep posting it till trianglechoke makes it part of his sig.

[7r14ngL3Ch0k3]

Lmao! You know now i dont look like that

[RAB]

You should talk to your instructor. If your goals and his goals are not matching then you will always feel dissatisfied. Give your instructor an opportunity to explain his methods. It's not disrespectful to understand what the goal is in the training method.

Good luck

[Nothingness]

Forms are only useful if you know how to use them.
If your school doesn't have one-two drills at low intentsity, drills at high intensity, then some kind of sparring training (maybe at controlled speed and power first, and gradually adding the intensity), you will NEVER be able to fight. Even if you are a very calm person who can control the adrenaline rush and also a genious who can know about the usage of each movement in the forms, if you never spar, your distance calculation will still mess up

It doesn't matter what MA you learn, you need to have somekind of sparring (contact).

Avoid schools that:
- Promise you a certain time of proficiency at a guaranteed time. Who can guarantee the differences in people's learning curves?
- Whose instructors only talk about the greatness of the style in the past and the existence of "secret movements." Any styles need to evolve and improve in each generation to stay effective. Every attack has a counterattack.
- Basking in reflected glory of a certain person who happens to win a certain championship representing the instructor's style. You have to really see him moves.
- An instructor who avoids contacts with his students. This type of instructor implies: 1) insecurity of his own skills or 2) his unwillingness to teach. A good instructor will see your level and often adapt his movements to actually allows your attack to reach the target even if it means that he is going to get hit (his ego permitting). However, he knows to handle the attack and the hit will not be fatal.
- Teaching ONLY forms without their applications and broken down drills at FULL speed and power. Sparring is to test if you understand and can apply what you have learned. Drills have eventually be at full speed and power. Slow drills help you to understand concepts, but never build your power, speed, and reflexes.
- Avoiding answering your questions. A good instructor is happy when you ask about the applications of a techique, its counterattack, the counterattack to the counterattack, etc.
- An instructor who is always bashing other styles. Every style has its own strengths and weaknesses.

In general, the difficulties to learn depend on these variables:

1) Capability of instructor.
2) Willingnes of instructor to teach.
3) Your absorption rate: how fast you understand new concepts.
4) Your willingness to train: first, how you train your body to actually move according to the concept that you understand. Second, your body will need to adjust to the training to develop the proficiency (including speed, power, and reflexes). Third, applications of this training, including drills and spars.

So, you have to balance those variables. For an example, it is sometimes better to train under an instructor that has "lesser" skills but really want to teach you than under a very well known instructor who only walks around and says "good" and delegate the teaching to his assistants.

Training only forms are NOT sufficient. Forms are just like review of your training, like shadowboxing in boxing. Training forms will refine your skills only after you have got strong understanding of them from drills and spars. In addition, training forms only work if and only if 1) the forms resemble the way you would fight in reality (like in shadowboxing) 2) you execute the forms in full speed and power.


A good fighting art looks ugly because the movements are effective and concealed as much as possible so that the enermy can't guess the attacks. Movie making makes the movements as wide as possible to make it look good. In addition, you have to know your own goals in learning. In the western hemisphere, the world "martial arts" attract:

1) A person who wants to learn self-defense.
2) A person who likes to compete in a sanctioned competition.
3) A person who just wants to "look good."
4) A person who wants to channel his aggresion.
5) A person who wants to find somekind of spiritual enlightment.
6) A person who wants to have a good workout

Of course, they are not absolute, there could be mixes.

In the western hemisphere, the appropriate learning for those categories are:
1) Something like Krav Maga, military-based self defense, etc.
2) Judo, Taekwondo, Boxing, MMA, anything that has a competition.
3) Wushu and forms-only "kung fu".
4) Anything that emphasizes on controlled sparring like boxing, etc.
5) Tai Chi, Aikido.
6) Cardio Kickboxing, Tae Bo.

There is also the "epicenter" principle: The closer the location to the area where the art is developed, the better it is. Nowadays, the category of "closer" can be replaced by "ease to travel" due to technology.

I hope this helps,

Best wishes.

[shaolin-warrior]

AKU
You really need to do your own research before you choose your next style. Kung fu is almost all forms and I personally love doing forms, but I'm older and don't do it for self defense training. I also have a black belt in shaolin kempo wich if needed I could use to defend myself. The low stances and level of difficulty in the KF forms helps to keep me in shape and the balance and speed i've gotten from the kung fu has realy helped me in my Kempo. Kung Fu is like a dance class but you have to like that kind of stuff. Check out some classes first hand. Go and watch and talk with the instructors to see if you like them. Then make a choice and have fun with it. Try kempo, it dosen't take years to master and if you practice it can be very effective. Good luck, let me know how you make out.

[Sagacious Lu]

I also have a black belt in shaolin kempo wich if needed I could use to defend myself.

What are you going to do, take off your belt and spank your attackers with it

Kung fu is almost all forms and I personally love doing forms, but I'm older and don't do it for self defense training...
...Kung Fu is like a dance class but you have to like that kind of stuff.

This is only true in a bullshit school. Just because your kung fu sucks doesn't mean everyone's does

[Tom Yum]

This is only true in a bullshit school. Just because your kung fu sucks doesn't mean everyone's does

Kempo comes straight from Chinese martial arts, whereas karate was an interpretation of the Okinawan martial arts (like kempo).

I could be wrong though.

[Sagacious Lu]

Kempo comes straight from Chinese martial arts, whereas karate was an interpretation of the Okinawan martial arts (like kempo).

I could be wrong though.

My post doesn't say anything at all about kempo

[gregimotis]

What are you going to do, take off your belt and spank your attackers with it?

This is only true in a bullshit school. Just because your kung fu sucks doesn't mean everyone's does

Allright, but the POINT of his post was correct: If a school focuses on forms and teaches them well, but you want to learn self-defense; then it isn't true that the school sucks, just that your goals are different.


I've seen fourteen million arguments on this board over the years simply because people don't realize that thier goals or the goals of their school are not necasarily the same as everyone else's goals (and yes, I can't spell that word without a dictionary ).

[Sagacious Lu]

Allright, but the POINT of his post was correct: If a school focuses on forms and teaches them well, but you want to learn self-defense; then it isn't true that the school sucks, just that your goals are different.

I agree with you Gregi, that's why I said this in post 5:

If you enjoy learning forms and that's what you want to do than you're probably in the the right place and more power to you.

But Shaolin Warrior didn't say anything about that being the focus of the school, he just described ALL kung fu as "like dancing". He said the same thing in the thread on drunken kung fu. If a kung fu school teaches nothing but forms and tells their students that's all there is to it than they are lying, plain and simple. There most definately is a very practical, combative side to kung fu, it's just hard to find a school that focuses on it

[shaolin-warrior]

I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I love Kung Fu and am blessed with a family of four who also share my passion for the art.We eat, sleep and breath shaolin. what I poorly tried to state was that in a world where the trend leeds towards the sporting arts and grappling, it's hard to package authentic kung fu and market it to a cult following. I agree with sage completely there are alot of bullshit schools out there. But true Shaolin comes with many hours of hard basics and form work. But is truely a viable and very effective form of self defense. I've always enjoyed your posts and meant not to offend sa.lu.

[Sagacious Lu]

Fair play SW The sad reality is that hard-nosed, combat-oriented kung fu schools are out there, but they are few and far between

[Nothingness]

If you want to really be proficient in fighting, the least you get from your trainign classes are soreness and sweat. You are also very liable to bleed and sprain from your training from the sparring. This actually serves as a negative reinforcement in learning: what would I do so that I won't get this pain next time?

Some people are just not ready to take these liabilities.

Don't bother to argue about kung fu being effective or not effective. You'd end up talking about orange and apple.

I grew up in a different part of the world. When I first came to US I was very suprised to see how kung fu schools here are somewhat ..... different.

[gregimotis]

If you want to really be proficient in fighting, the least you get from your trainign classes are soreness and sweat. You are also very liable to bleed and sprain from your training from the sparring. This actually serves as a negative reinforcement in learning...

Reminds me of an expression: "Pain is the best teacher, but nobody wants to take his class."