Hello I have done Sambo and some Karate which I didn’t always find practical for self preservation. They tend to lean in the direction of sport which has been the biggest scourge of martial arts. I was advised to check out kung fu styles as there is some hands on style amongst them. So following advice I came to the idea that CLF and Wing Chun might be the styles to take seriously. I am sure there is other styles to consider but these are the 2 that I wittled it down to. I live in the South East so naturally I looked around here first. From what I have found the better CLF schools seem to be more up north. Some plumblossom(?) schools in the south seem to be peddling out MMA as an extra which from my experience turns out to be crap that is just added on for more cash from the student. I checked out this plumblossom and on their site they are offering distance learning(!), so am I to assume that this is a McDojo outfit? I looked at youtube and I have seen some terrible instruction but there is also some very good instructors on there but on closer inspection they seem to all be in America which is frustrating. With Wing Chun it seems to be more about which line you come from and they seem to argue a lot amongst themselves as to which one is better. But the style does look pretty functional and straight the point. The south also seems to have some good schools but I am sure that there is some bad ones as well. I checked out some youtubes and this William Cheung looks crap to be but some of the newer and younger instructors look the business. So good and bad in both I suppose. So can anyone tell what is good and what is bad in both styles and what to avoid? Can anyone recommend associations, schools and/or instructors?
Collins1922, welcome to MAP. Whereabouts in the south east are you, it will help us make recommendatons?
Weekends are generally quieter on MAP, but someone will send you some ideas. If self protection is what you want, have you considered any other arts?
Yes I have looked at the RBSD kind of stuff but I want something more traditional, and these were the only 2 styles that seemed to tick most of the boxes.
What exactly are you looking for in training environment? Lots of cooperative paired drills? Esoteric techniques? Specific "for the street" techniques? Resistance training? What kind of contact levels? You could get anything from full contact sanda type training to completely non-contact solo tai-chi-in-the-park type work, with wildly varying levels of self-defense specific training attached.
so you think wing chun is better for self defense than sambo....this should get interesting real quick
Sambo is excellent for self defence if its taught that way and thats what attracted me to it in the first place. But I made the schoolboy error of going to a coach who taught it for sport and submission only and thinking that I could make it for self defence. I want to return to something more stand up, traditional at the same time functional. Nowhere in my posts did I say Wing Chun better or that Sambo was bad in anyway. Wing Chun is just one of the traditional stand ups that happens to interest me.
well if it interests you then why listen to what people you dont know have to say, go find a local club and expereince the joys of training personally i have done a little wing chun and some CLF, i would go with the CLF, its traditional, they spar and the techniques work under pressure, also what you see in CLF, hooks, overhands, straights are what you see on the street
Good call Mano Mano. Sifu Ben can be found here. The OP needs at least 10 posts to be able to send a private message, but may be able to leave a visitor message on his profile page.
Because sometimes it helps if somebody (whether you know them or not) with experience can offer a bit of valueable advice that might help someone. And I like to read or hear what people have to say, that's why I am here. Thanks for your input anyway.
Collins1922, we have had more than our fair share of Wing Chun fools here on MAP, the guys are just having fun. Within 15 posts though you have a recommendation of a good CLF school in Swindon, run by one of our own members. I would say Martial Arts Planet came up trumps. Tell you what, to prove we are good guys I will send Sifu Ben a PM and ask him to visit this page, how's that?
I haven't, I have sent him a message though and asked him to visit this page. Keep your eyes on this thread over the next couple of days.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL0EnRUAjKE"]Choy Li Fut Poon Kiu application‏ - YouTube[/ame] Is this the same guy?