Institue of Chinese Martial Arts in Luton: http://www.icma.kuoshu.co.uk/index.html International Academy of Martial Arts in Hertfordshire: http://www.guanyu.co.uk/index.html Sung Chuan Kun Shaolin Kung Fu Bedfordshire: http://www.sungchuanbeds.co.uk/home/4580961344
The first school I would fully endorse, Rob Simpson is very well respected , Tien Shan Pai is a northern school known for practical teaching and indeed Rob produces many full contact fighters and they're THE group for Chinese wrestling in the UK. The second one seems to be a bit of a mishmash. The third one is an offshoot of Nam Pai Chuan which is usually pretty decent.
I recognise some of the faces at the third place from when I used to do Nam Pai Chuan, and based on that I'd say it should be a good school. If it's similar to NPC then it'll be a very broad curriculum, which might not be to everyone's taste. I've no doubt that there will be plenty of sparring once you get bit of knowledge and experience under your belt. (They won't throw you in at the deep end while you are still a complete beginner.) Don't know anything about the other two.
That's what I was doing when I first inflicted myself upon MAP, way back when. (I was a youthful forty year old then.) I did it for about three years I think, but stopped due to a combination of injury, moving to another area and other commitments which clashed.
The first school would be my choice due to the Shuai jiao and overall legitimacy... the second school has a picture of the sifu/sigung riding a motorbike in his uniform.
I don't really understand the website of the first school......what styles do they teach? I'm interested mainly in shaolin styles that involve a lot of gymanstics/acrobatics, wushu (the sport), and weapons in general.
They teach Tien Shan Pai which is a school of Northern longfist. Plenty of weapons and some acrobatic stuff .
What about this London school? It's within commuting distance from where I live, the fees are very affordable, and the masters seem very impressive/credible: http://www.nss-kungfu.org.uk/contact.html
Hmm Ok, I dont' know the club you mention and I am sure that there are lots of positives but here's my take on the website. Personally I find it weird that all the Northern Shaolin clubs seem to be teaching Tai Chi. Not a biggie but it seems an odd thing as you wouldn't think it traditional other than maybe as a way of keeping the cash flow up. Secondly I couldn't really figure out who was teaching the classes unless the person in the video P.E. Panah is another name for the guy in the Masters list Shi Yan Gui. I didn't see anything in the video that would encourage me to go a big distance, especially when you have clubs that look interesting within a short distance from where you are. Just sayin' LFD
Would you recommend the Institute of Chinese Martial Arts then? Link: http://www.icma.kuoshu.co.uk/index.html
Out of curiosity what seems impressive and credible? There's very little information about the teacher, and what there is seems odd. He states that he has over 25 years experience in sport wushu and traditional Shaolin Kung Fu starting at the age of 4? Where did he study? It's unclear if he was born in the UK, but certainly here in the late 80s very few people were doing sport wushu and no-one was doing Songshan Shaolin. Remember in 1980 there were only 8 monks at the temple. It wasn't until the success of Jet Li's Shaolin Temple movies that people went there to learn. To have studied Songshan Shaolin in 1989 you would have had to go to Songshan, which seems unlikely for a 4 year old. Now, he may well have studied a form of TCMA that identifies itself as Shaolin, but that's not what he's teaching now, so it's unclear what it was and gives no insight into how long he's been doing what he now teaches. From what I've heard of Shi De Yang's school I'd want to know that he'd spent at least 5 years there, yet it gives no time frame.
I always thought that it was normal to practice an internal art along side an external one. My kung fu teacher practices Tie chi and Bagua. My great grandfather teacher was an ordained Buddhist monk and practiced kung fu and Bagua.
I always imagine that you're just going to get a poor quality second art tacked on to the main one. Personally my instinct would be to go for somewhere that specialises in one style. Then if you want to cross-train, find somewhere that specialises in that other style. That way you get the best teaching in both.
My Sigung does Choy Li Fut, Yang style Taiji and Yiquan, and he's superb at all of them. However he's done them for 50 years, 40 years and 30 years respectively and was a high level practitioner in each before he started the next one.
the trouble with.. My initial comment was related to how so many 'buddhist' arts appear to have become places where they are also experts in 'taoist' arts. In this day and age there may be a lot more places where you can do both, learn properly and be allowed to be part of both groups (as in national or international orgs etc). Secondly, as many have mentioned here, is that in the long run both systems tend to move towards the same end point. In chinese medicine/philosophy extreme yang is yin and vice versa. There was supposedly a famous battle between a white crane master (small little guy) and a tai chi master (huge powerful guy) where if you looked on you would have had a hard time knowing which guy practice the internal and which the external art. Lastly, and this isn't a slur on anyone, but often what students are told isn't 100% verifiable. In some systems students are taught that their elders were this or did this but it's hard to confirm. There need not be any attempt to mislead as people often believe what they are taught from generation to generation. There is a really interesting Pak Mei book written buy a guy from NYC who discusses what is taught versus what independent history shows to be true. He also looks at the cultural influence on what people were told eg ''a mysterious monk' created the system was more likely to be a revolutionary dissident hoping to bring down the Ching dynasty and posing as a monk was one way not to lose your head etc. So while we all have stories of our lineages it is interesting to step back a step and look with an unbiased eye. The truth may not always be quite what we are led to believe. So do you need to match an external with an internal art? That is a matter of preference more than anything else as far as I can see. Might also be a matter of practicality for some as they age. See how I managed to turn a simple answer into a complicated mess :' D LFD
I have a big problem with the whole idea of "cross-training". My teacher was introduced to his kungufu teacher by his tie chi teacher. Both were native Chinese living in hong kong. The tie chi teacher felt it would be a good idea for my teacher to learn hard boxing. The point is that two very traditional Chinese martial artists felt that it was perfectly reasonable to study two different arts at once. This is in stark contrast to the quasi religious "purity" of martial arts as practiced by some clubs. To me the notion of crosstraining being so unusual that it becomes a verb -" to Crosstrain" is a modern construct based on a misunderstanding about how traditional martial arts were practiced. No single art as all the answers. To practice more than one art, to expose oneself to more than a limited viewpoint and set of techniques makes practical sense.
It's just shorthand for 'trains in multiple things'. You're overthinking it. You're right about the crazy cult purity nonsense that gets peddled in a lot of places.