I did a search! Please don't hurt me. Recently I found a school for Hung Gar nearby me - part of Yees group I think with Sifu Bruce Clark. So what can I expect as a beginner, what animal forms are predominant in this form of Kung Fu? What weapons are trained traditionally also. Thanks
I can tell you the traditional Chinese way of teaching hung gar though I doubt any western school will use this approach. You start by learning the horse stance and stand in that all the first lesson. Second lesson - stand in horse stance third lesson - stand in horse stance all first month - stand in horse stance all second month - stand in horse stance gradually the stance gets lower as your muscles become stronger and the tendons and opposing muscles relax and stretch. Eventually, when you can stand in horse stance for 30 minutes with a cup of hot tea on each thigh and another on your head without spilling a drop then and only then are you considered worthy of learning techniques. By then your stance is immovable, your root means you can deliver devastating strikes and your leg strength results in superb kicking abilities. at least, that's the theory. I've never seen anyone trained that way but that is the legend of hung gar training. Have fun!!!
LOL...No one really trains that way these days although at first you will do basic stance training. Beginners are usually taught the stances and the basic punches and kicks combos. That includes the horse stance Also two man drills and more horse stance. Most schools of Hung these days will start you on a beginners form. Moi Fa and Lau Gar Kuen being the most popular. After a few years you might begin to learn the first ''pillar'' set Gung Gee F00k Fu Kuen. Also more horse stance. The animals in Hung are the five animals Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, and leopard. You will also learn the five elements and 12 bridgehands later in the more advanced stages. The common Hung Weapons are the long pole, butterfly swords, Kwan Dao, broadsword and other Chinese weapons. Did I mention horse stance training as well?
Yee's Hung is in the Tang Fung line.They don't do the minor hand forms.The first hand form you'll learn is the oldest,Gung Gee ___ Fu -(mods always blank out the 3rd word 'cause it could be mispronounced as a crass term for the sexual act,).3-4 hand forms in total.At full tilt they take around 4-5 minutes each.Except the Iron Wire set,a slow breathing/tension form. Think Bandit covered all their weapons except the Tiger fork. Did I mention Horse training?Oh,I think that was covered. Oh yeah,MORE horse training.
Hey, Hey! I was going to make a thread about my first training Hung Gar lesson, but I suppose it's just an example of perfection in serendipity that you posted your thread not too long ago! I'm studying Hung Gar under Cheung Shu Pui, who, himself is in the tradition of Ho Lap Tin and Tang Fong. And, my first lesson went thusly: Sifu Cheung had a student, incidentally, his son, show me the horse stance, which we practiced for 10 minutes. Then, I practiced on my own for another 10 or 15 minutes. Then, another student was instructed to show me the first few moves of the first form, Gung Ji Kuen, in which I learned cat and unicorn stances. I spent the next hour or so practicing that with Sifu and some of the other students observing me here and there to correct any sloppiness. I'm kind of curious, though. Sifu Cheung does not believe in sparring, apparently, and the other students half-jokingly said not to even mention sparring in Sifu's presence, but is that typical of Hung Gar or is it idiosyncratic to this master? Though there isn't any sparring, there is definitely two-person open-hand and weapon forms, which looked a lot like sparring. There is A LOT of tension in my fingers and wrists when placed in that one-finger-erect-open-palm shape (does that specific shape have a name?) to the point where my left thumb was numb/tingling and still has been (though less so) for the last three hours. Is this a flexibility issue? Is it common? Overall, I had a wicked time. Planning to go at least three days a week, though, I'll only be able to make it once more this week. :\
The hand shape is known as ''One finger pointing to heaven'' . It's usage can be used as a simple block or a dynamic tension exercise. It is in the classic forms as a homage to the Siu Lam revolutionaries. It has been said that the original hand shape was the Fu Jow/Tiger claw. You will be playing this Kiu Sau a lot in Hung.
Weird. Sifu Cheung is associated with GM Yee, right? And GM Yee's guys are VERY active in the kickboxing scene back east. They've done KB, San Shou and even Pancrase in recent years. I was looking for the tournament rules for their yearly Wong Fei Hung tournament and found a bunch of references to Yee's doing and winning various things in full contact venues. I don't get it.
You can except big quads and lots of repetition. Generally a hung gar school will teach you things much slower than you would learn at say...a tae kwon do school, but you build a much better base and it pays off. And it's strange to hear of a hung gar school that does not spar....
Though Sifu Cheung and Sifu Yee can trace their lineage back to Tang Fong, Cheung's sifu was Ho Lap Tin and Yee's was Yuen Ling. I'm still new, so I'm not sure what constitutes a family, tradition, or what-have-you and what the differences between them are.
Different Sifu, Different Methods. That is Something you will notice about MA's in general. Instructors that learn from the same Sifu will teach differently than each other, even in the same style. Each teacher will have different perspectives and experiences and will incorporate things differently. There must be some sort of reason if a Sifu doesn't allow sparring. It could be a variety of things such as bad past experiences with sparring(ie liabilty), only saving sparring to the higher level students, etcetera....... SHAOLIN JACKAL Cheung Sifu comes from a solid background and I have heard mostly positive things so stick it out and train real hard. If you want to fight and spar right away go to a boxing gym and do that with the Hung. It's all in what you want to do.
I train with a great Sifu directly related to the John Leong. My Sifu and Sifu John look very much alike. I've been doing hung gar for 2 years. Enough of that, heres what you wanna hear. When I first started it was sitting in the horse stance for 2 hours while straight punching. Our class is set up like this: Stretching B4 class Warm ups (15-20 minutes sometimes 30) the warm ups in our class all have the horse stance in there somewhere, but we do practice the bow and arrow stance. Beginners would just punch when the sifu yelled out punch (you'd say either di or da if you wanna know why ask me later) Break 2 min Technique Practice Older students either spar or practice technique while my sifu teacher the beginners. You usually learn the bow and arrow stance the first or second day. 2 min break Conditioning Expect finger and knuckle push ups, kicks, one legged stances, etc. After conditioning we do sam sing (beating each others forearms together to make them tougher. Two people stand in front of each other in the horse stance and strike each forearm 3 times in 3 different areas before switching to the other arm. This is done in a circular motion.) Then we do lion dance. Realistic Expectations You can expect to be fighting with someone in 3-6 months depending on your pace and progression. This is not freestyle sparring, but it is two people in horse stance, one punching and one blocking. The movement you will make is called up 2 back 2. I'd say freestyle sparring in about 8 months. Horse stance will always be hard to hold. And I have to correct jade dragon when he said that it will take a couple of years (or months) to develop an immovable horse stance. It took Wong Fei Hung (Father of the system) 30 years to accomplish such a feat. You will start to learn your forms (depending on how many times you go a week) in 6- 8 months at most. Lion Dance, depending on if your sifu does it, will probably start in your third month if you really ask him. I lost 40 pounds in my first year or year in a half, but my diet was still crap. I'd say with a clean diet (no soda, nothing artificial) you could lose that weight in 6 months. Problem is that I ate too little and trained too hard resulting in loss of lean muscle too. Advice on What to Do and What Not to Do Don't over train (I would say never, but this is Hung Gar and overtraining is sometimes inevitable) Never ask to learn more moves unless your sifu promised you. Never fight with anger in your heart, especially in class. If you have goals like attaining maximum strength, endurance, or something else. Feel free to ask -kombat
BSCLF When i first started training in the Choy Lay FUT Buck Sing Gwoon my Master made me do horse stance and straight punching for obout six months, i found out later that our Founder Great Grand Master Tarm Sarm first learned Hung Gar. We had to sit low enough to balance a pole on our legs without it rolling of our legs, it took me many years but the best i got to was twenty minutes with a normal sized person standing on my legs. We had to practice every stance as low as possible. Its way better then weight training your legs become much stronger then a person that trains in a gym doing squats.
kombatmaster77: Do you attend seattle kung fu club at aurora? I've heard they make one hold horse stance for 30 minutes before learning arrow stance. (I go downtown)
Whats up knuckles753. I don't go to that school, but I go to the school in 3rd and cedar in belltown (downtown) run by Sifu David Leong. Do you train with master Mak Fai or John Leong?
My Sifu is John Leong, at the school in the international district. Total badass, and he trained The Beastmaster...enough said. Is David Leong his...brother? son? I have no idea.
International District...You mean in China town, right? Believe it or not I just sat in on one of his classes yesterday (Thursday). Do you do Hung Gar or Tai Chi or both? If you were there that day I was the guy wearing all brown sitting in the corner for an hour watching the Tai Chi practitioners. I actually found out about your Sifu in a magazine with him on the front I am actually considering signing up for tai chi classes, but their 125$ for 2 to 3 times a week. Is it worth it? + I can't believe that you don't know who my Sifu is!!! He's in every big parade and always does lion dances throughout the year in seattle and other places. I was told the Sifu John Leong is Sifu David's uncle, btw. Nice to see some one from seattle on the forums, P.S. PM me you reply to this post cause we don't want this thread to go off topic. -Kombat
knuckles can't pm 'til he/she has 50 posts. Seems I'm a radical.I always got my folks into some sort of sparring,even if a limited type,early on.Regardless what system I was teaching.Guess I inherited that from my first teacher. Now I'll probably have to go in front of the Board of Directors or something.
"Seems I'm a radical.I always got my folks into some sort of sparring,even if a limited type,early on.Regardless what system I was teaching.Guess I inherited that from my first teacher. Now I'll probably have to go in front of the Board of Directors or something." Jeez, where did that come from? And why do you have to go in front of the board of directors (who r they)? Oh yea, knuckels- PM me when you have 50 posts. pce
For evidently starting my folks in sparring much earlier than some on here have mentioned. But I was just kidding about the board. It's probably the Harmonious and Righteous Fists I have to worry about!
