Kung Fu bareknuckle sparring vid. Fast forward to 0:42... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lpRkNCPwYo"]WAR DVD 3 - Promo - YouTube[/ame]
Interresting vid. Bare knuckle sparring is nothing new in a good kung fu class, that's how we spar and have always sparred.
Why all the open handed stuff? Are they focusing on an actual open handed strike that's in KF? Got a good chuckle out of the red chinese bench he's swinging around. We've got those in a quite few places here in Hong Kong. You would not want to get hit with one that's for damn sure. What style of KF has that trained as a weapon? I'd seen it before in KF movies and IIRC there was a style that actually trained it.
Hay Say Fu Hung Ga, Hung Fut, Lama Pai and CLF have bench forms . I think there might be one or two more systems as well. It's definitely more rooted in the South(China that is).
Been posted a few times here before. Those guys are out of SF and are an interesting group. Like ID says most Traditional Gung Fu schools do some kind of bare hand work.
I really like that school - progressive methods combined with traditional ones. They've produced at least one decent MMA fighter.
Always train and spar with bare hands,I find it very hard to grasp the aspect of gloves head guards and the likes.
These are tough guys all: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFqV2zZ50SU&feature=related"]TAIKIKEN vs KYOKUSHIN 3 - YouTube[/ame]
Yes, as I said, Full Contact. There have been intense sessions where people have gotten concussions, broken hands, broken ribs, broken feet, etc. (these types of sparring sessions are volunteer only and are geared more towards reality fighting) Though even in regular training we have Full Contact without armor and anything goes, if you're not careful and aren't good enough, you take a licking, hopefully you keep on ticking
Wing chun has a lot of armchair warriors but not bench! Yep, sure beats a mullet hands down...! I had a few sessions like that when I was in my early 20s and it didn't really occur to me that it was crazy, irresponsible and possibly long-term dangerous. It was before I became aware of all these informative forums... Fortunately, apart from a few cuts, bruises, a concussion or two (the bokken sparring was a cracker for that!), chipped teeth, sprained/broken fingers, dislocations, broken noses etc there wasn't really any damage. Nowadays I'm far more sensible and use protection, plus have proper insurance.
Yes the sessions are crazy, irresponsible, and potentially dangerous, but I think they are integral for any martial artist. You have to understand the danger.
As I also stated, sparring at that level was volunteer only, yes it's crazy, it's hard, it's dangerous, yes people get injured, but that's what a fight is like in real life, no better way to train how to fight in real life than actually fighting.