In my last style you went to seminars taught by different teachers that might have a different twist on the style of martial arts. So you would seek them out to see if you can learn anything extra or different. A little something extra.
You are a beginner in Hung Gar, right? I would say no, or at least not yet. Get the basics down in your style. Understand why your lineage does things a certain way, Understand why and what they teach. Once you become more experienced, then maybe you can supplement in the way you say. Then, it is up to you. I find the differences in lineages in CLF very interesting, but am content with my own. But then again, the head of our organization had three different teachers. But he only went to study with other teachers as well after learning for years under one. As a beginner, don't confuse yourself with different theories. Get a thorough understanding and muscle memory of one way before adding others. For example, our lineage of CLF teaches a very low kneeling horse. It is to build leg strength and to be able to do strikes and all at a low level- to change things up. Other lineages have a higher more mobile kneeling horse. It barely even looks like a kneeling horse to me. My understanding is they stress a more mobile faster approach. Both have validity. After 11 years, I could play with either way, but as a beginner this would have been confusing. (Mind you, my kneeling horse isn't all that low because of knee issues, but I STRIVE for the lower stance.) Any lineage should be teaching you the same basic foundation though, the rest is just nuances. As long as the teacher is good, you shouldn't be missing anything major. Certain foundational concepts should be there in any school or lineage. Also, as a beginner in this style, I am sure you will have plenty enough forms in one school to challenge you.
Hung Gar has the same-iest forms ever, and most of the non core hand forms are really just smaller forms for novice students. If you're taught the core forms well you shouldn't need them.
Thank you for the help. Our school from what I see our legs arent parallel to the floor. But just a little higher. From what I understand our school is a reputable school. So I will just continue to go to class and train like crazy. Im liking the style very much from what I have seen and read.
Glad you are enjoying it. Other than the mind over matter stuff. what is it about the art you really like? For me it is he dynamics of movement. I really like how the stances and techniques are designed to help the practitioner learn to move in a flow and the range of possibilities that this flow opens up. What do you like about it?
I would have to say for the little I have learned it is the explosiveness. How in the forms you basically explode into the next step. The ability bring your chi up from the ground and use it. Ive also done a some Karate and thought the curriculum was a little boring, but it seems Hung has a really big curriculum. We did some drills where we go from bow stance to horse to bow. Where we punch from bow and then step back into horse to block the oncoming punch. But it doenst really feel like a block but more of an absorption of the opponent's energy. Very similar to aikido. The whole aspect on roots, being able to root to the ground and use it to attack. Also a big fan of the conditioning part. For my age conditioning is pretty important to try and keep myself young.
Ignore him he is just old and cynical. The idea of chi is a very helpful one for learning how the body likes to move. Good comment about the block - the word block is banned in our training hall. The intention of every contact should be to attack the opponent sometimes by causing damage, sometimes wedging or trapping them to restrict their movement, more often by unbalancing the opponent making it harder for them to hit you. This said we do have some purely defensive blocks which come under the general heading of "oh dear!" techniques (we don't actually call them that but this is a family website). So there are a small number of blocks of last resort to be used to cover up when it all goes horribly wrong.
What I meant about the Chi comment is your bring your power up from the ground and thru the rest of your body. Maybe im being a little too spirtual at the minute. But im excited to go to the forms class tonight and learn the next series in the million move kata.. Hopefully they will see I've been practicing the first set everyday and push me a little. But we will see. So most of the stuff I will see will be move of an absorption or a parry? We did one drill where I stepped outside, at a 45 and "blocked"(Not the right word cant think of any other atm). Punched to the head then to the body. In my first class I heard the instructor breakdown the body, he said the head is the glass, the body is stone and the legs are wood. You must break the glass before you break the stone. Can someone elaborate on this a little for me? I understand the breaking of the glass then the stone, but where does the wood come into play?
Hmmm, Kinetic chaining. Much more scientific term. I like it.. "Closed kinetic chain exercises or closed chain exercises (CKC) are physical exercises performed where the hand (for arm movement) or foot (for leg movement) is fixed in space and cannot move. The extremity remains in constant contact with the immobile surface, usually the ground or the base of a machine." I was thinking more about drawing your power from the ground and up thru your body, and using that power. Its more spiritual than scientific.. I havent had enough espresso this morning..
To understand the science of power-generation one needs to understand not only the physics and the anatomy but also the technique that is being applied. Fish of Doom has posted some excellent stuff on the anatomy of striking. Really worth a look using the search facility on the site. In my opinion however, attempting to combine the physics with the anatomy actually gets so complicated that it is of limited practical use. Again in my opinion, whether you talk about chi or elastic energy, muscular energy, kinetic energy, and force the benefit is in having a short-hand that you can use to begin to see how your body is moving in any situation.
I used to take this stance, but experience has shown me that esotericism in martial arts causes too many problems.
So from reading a few of Fish's posts it seems he weight trains a lot? Does anyone else weight train to complement their martial arts training?
Now where do I put the weight training that it wont interfere with everything else im doin... SMH....
