lau gar kung fu/ kickboxing

[seany85]

i just wanted to know if lau gar kung fu/kickboxing was an effective martial arts or not, just i was thinking about starting it.

[swan104]

I did it for a few months when I was 16, but wasn't impressed with it. I even failed my first grading (I believe for white belt)!! Apparently, I didn't put enough effort into my punches/kicks etc.

At the time, I was just getting back into martial arts, but it wasn't for me. They seemed to be very interested in competitions.

[Thai Bri]

I saw alot of it in Stafford when I was a student though, admittedly, it was a long time ago. It looked real cool, fancy black gi and beautiful sashes. And they liked to do the flambouyant kicks and build there bodies with weights a bit (and then find every excuse under the sum to take their tops of and show of their muscles, lol).

But it was basically a semi contact style, and I got the impression that style most defintely mattered more than substance.

There was a Judo class run in the other half of the training area, and I got the impression that the Judo instructor could take on any of them rather easily.

[swan104]

When I trained at the club, it was held in a church hall somewhere. At the time, I had to rely on my dad to drop me off (even though it was only up the road). I remember my dad wasn't too impressed because the instructor was late, and we were all standing outside waiting for him to open up.

It seemed like they were very interested in moulding the next semi-contact champion, which wasn't really my cup of tea. I could be wrong though because I only trained there for a few months in a beginners class, and never got the see the whole club.

[funky-fist]

Lau Gar is very traditional (sometimes)!

Hi,
I train in Lau Gar Kung Fu in London.
The class is very traditional with lots of basics, form work, chi kung & pushing hands.

Lau Gar kickboxing is regarded as a separate activity, with a different grading system.

It really depends on the instructor, because some only teach the traditional Kung Fu while others also practice sparring for competition.

We don't do semi-contact sparring, only pushing hands & occasionally traditional free sparring without any pads.

Oh and it's really hard, but I love it!
Have a look at www.laugar.org.uk

cheers
Funky-fist..