Tell Us Who You Are!

[Jeremy]

Hi all,

I am very happy to be here. Mostly I stay off of the internet but am honored to have been invited to this forum!

My name is Jeremy,

I have practiced Martial Arts for around 18 years give or take. I've trained Kukkiwon Taekwondo, some Kuk Sool, some Hapkido, Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Art of Pressure Fighting, Shaolin Kung Fu (Songshan Temple Shifu) Judo, BJJ, Taekkyeon and some FMA. I have kept Shaolin very close as well as TKD kicking. I am currently semi active in Taekkyon and BJJ and try to spar regularly with a sparring group of like minded folks.

I search for the connective tissue between the arts. I am amazed by structure, leverage, power and positioning and the ones I have met who can use and explain it much better then myself. I have little confidence in my abilities to use what I have learned with any sort of mastery but love it all and consider the journey to be life long. I believe Martial Arts training allows us to connect internally with the fundamentals of what it means to be human. I believe those who practice Martial Arts share a common understanding, a secret of sorts whose knowledge is not easy to impart, which can only be experienced with an open mind and open heart and eventually makes the practitioner a better human being

Thanks Chris and great to meet you all!

[chriscrudelli]

Hi Sean, welcome to the forum, glad to have you here and I can see you have extensive knowledge I hope you will add many posts and share with the growing group.
Best wishes
Chris

[Sean]

[chriscrudelli]

Hey James! thanks for introducing yourself! sounds like a lot of well earned experience right there! Welcome to my forum!

[chriscrudelli]

Great stuff! Welcome Gary! Humility is a trademark of mastery, nice one.

[bishbox]

My name is Gary and i have been studying a traditional style of Wing Chun for the past 20 years. In terms of the three hand forms, weapons (pole,knives) and dummy I have completed the system but obviously training and learning are ongoing. Look forward to reading some interesting posts.

[robg]

"I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous. Turns out he didn't think it was ridiculous, but was so taken aback by my response that he didn't know what to do"

I've experienced the same situations. Misdirection and confusing or humorous reactions to aggression can be developed/ allowed by the confidence that comes from any self-defence training and can see-off a lot of nutjobs. A mixture of humour or odd movements, delivered with a clear calm strong body posture, breathing energy and eyes that say at his subconscious level "don't!" will usually do for most enraged or vindictive people. Health warning - doesn't work on really drunk guys!

[chriscrudelli]

[chriscrudelli]

[MarJay]

Hello all!

My name is Mark and I have been studying Gulao Wing Chun for 16 years. It's an interesting style, it's not like much other Wing Chun I've seen as it's from the Lee Sing lineage which means it has elements of what is referred to as the 'Womans form' in it, so it has more turning, is more tightly defensive of the centre and has more rotation and things like that. My Sifu is absolutely amazing in my eyes, and I could only wish to be half as good as he is. He's very exacting, and will never say that something is good, but I've learned what to take from him as a positive and when to listen to his advice (always!).

I've never had to use it on the street, but as others have mentioned, I've harnessed the confidence and skills I've learned to stop and avoid confrontations previously. I did make one mistake which was when a guy told me he was going to 'tear me apart' I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous. Turns out he didn't think it was ridiculous, but was so taken aback by my response that he didn't know what to do so I took that opportunity to depart.

I am endlessly sad about the decline in Kung Fu and other traditional styles of art. If you believe a large section of YouTube, martial arts are worthless unless you can prove them in the MMA octagon. I always say to this that MMA has rules, pits you in a clean area with no objects or debris against a single trained opponent where both participants are trained in similar fighting techniques. I even saw one of these learned individuals did a video on how Wing Chun can't work because it only teaches how to defend against a small number of specific punches. This pains me, because as with all martial arts Wing Chun merely gives you a toolkit which you must learn to apply to a wide variety of situations. A student in their first year of study will learn to defend against a set number of attacks, but then the advanced student learns to apply those techniques in a wider way. Often the Bruce Lee thing gets brought up, but as I understand it he only learned the first form from Ip Man (maybe the second too?) and so filled in the gaps with his own Jeet Kune Do art. That shows the talent of the man, as he was able to see what was missing from his own Kung Fu and find other things to fill that gap. I only wish I could be so self aware!

Of course there are ropey 'traditional' styles out there, but I believe that comes from the dilution and lack of time and effort available in modern life to study. Lots of teachers wouldn't teach every student the whole system, and there are a lot of bad teachers out there, sadly. Two years of a traditional style is generally not enough time to then go and teach it!

Apologies, this ended up longer than I meant it to be, but I am very much looking forward to engaging with people who (hopefully) won't make broad assumptions about people based on which art they train in. The internet can be a toxic place, so I'm happy to join a group which won't share in that toxicity. Nice work Sifu Chris!

[robg]

Thanks Chris!
That means a lot coming from a master of the art.
When I watched "mind body" in the early 00's I felt finally someone was explaining to the world what I had always felt about martial arts, the magical reality of the power derived from intention, technique, focus and connection, from not trying, not hating or hurting.
Watching you demonstrating heaviness or chi space (my random names for this stuff) just opened a wellspring of exploration in me.
My son is always amazed when he is out of breath hitting his floor bag with haymakers and I walk up to it rest my fist on it and knock it to the ground with seemingly just a twitch and a shaped shout.
"Chi Is Real" should be a car bumper sticker eh

[chriscrudelli]

[chriscrudelli]

Great to have you here Paul, thanks for sharing your story with he group, your unique history and experienced will enrich the forum. Great stuff!

[chriscrudelli]

Hi James thanks for this introduction, you have had a fascinating journey so far in the arts and in life. Your posts, thoughts and insights will be useful to the community here

[chriscrudelli]

Thanks for posting Linda! 17 years is no short amount of time! Your input and insights in posts will be most welcome and useful