Mui Fa Jeong

[crazedjustice888]

I was trying to find a general thread area not a single style area, so I just chose to post this here. At my sifus school, the mui fah jeong has a very strong influence in the system. I'm not nearly good enough to do it yet, but I was just wondering what other schools/styles seem to put a lot of influence on the mui fah jeong?

[TenTigers]

I've always had an interest in Mui Fa Jong, and Hop-Ga footwork in general.
I want to build a MFJ in my school. I once used stumps from a tree trunk, they were about a foot high. They ended up being infested..We used to do a two-man sam-sing dar stepping pattern on them.
I now have several plywood inch high discs about 12" diam. that I place on the floor for footwork drills. They're great for kids -because if they slip off, they won't snap their ankle! I place them in a 7*(zig-zag) pattern and have them practice walking gwa/cup choy. Kids also do the lion dance sam sing footwork on them.
I would be interested in any information you have on training with them.

[crazedjustice888]

I haven't gotten that far but my sifu says soon, so I'm hoping and keep training. What I can contribute is that when I see people train on the Mui Fa Jeong, its very different compared to what I see at my school. My sifu also makes a comment that most people who train on it today have no idea what it actually means. I proceeded to ask what he meant and he said I will get it soon, but that the hop gar footwork is completely different from practically all styles.

In his book the term used to name the footwork is kaymenbo (sp?). Apparently that translates to footwork against everyone else's or something along that line. All I know is that discussing and training the footwork with my sifu my understanding of Kung Fu in general has skyrocketed. It has helped me in my "scruffles" when I'm bouncing or sparring with my mma friends. Since I don't know that much about it though, I don't want to comment on it really since I don't want to say something that isn't true. However my sifu has put out an open invitation for anyone to come visit, call or attend his intensives.

[TenTigers]

I would love to go. I met your Sifu and bought Mok Yee Pai from him. He was very open and friendly, and we discussed the connections between Hung-Ga and Hop-Ga.
When are his next seminars/workshops?

[crazedjustice888]

Really? Thats awesome. Do you remember what he told you? To be honest, I never really asked him about the similarities because I just keep learning differences between them.

Here is his website. http://tibetanhopgar.com/ He has one coming up this spring, and he takes anyone and everyone who wants to learn so if anyone is interested just call him up or email him. I would suggest calling though. The close the event gets, I will start advertising on this board if people would be interested.

[crazedjustice888]

Hey guys, been a while since I updated. I have been training on the mui fah for about 6 months now and the training is astounding. Due to the posts being a certain length away and if you miss one you fall and hurt yourself, been there done that, the mui fah forces your stance to change. My old hung gar stances are leaving me and getting replaced with smaller light stances for better mobility with this style. Also, due to the mui fah my training in body space elimination has gotten better as well. When constantly walking on them you have to figure out how to use the range on the body and put it to better use. This is where the white crane hands come in as opposed to the lohan which gives at least 6 extra inches of reach with each strike. It also helps out the timing of the body so that your strikes and footwork all land at the same time obviously making your striking power much higher. Hopefully I will continue to learn more but what is everyone's thoughts on this and is there any more info from other styles on their thoughts of this training tool?

[PM]

My thoughts? Well, i am proud of you son Good job!

[crazedjustice888]

[PM]

[Daifong]

[crazedjustice888]

Thanks for the kind words daifong. I fully understand what you mean. When I was still in hung gar I was always told "DEEPER" but now when I'm on the mui fah if I do that, well...lets just say its painful...HAHAHAHA

I will say this though. My Sifu and I were talking about other styles and obviously hung gar came up since I had trained in it before. He said that there stances are low all the times in the forms to help train the root and for the techniques they use, they need that power. Obviously when using short bridges as opposed to long bridges you will need that extra oomph seeing as to how you have less room to generate power. But since we as hop gar people will mainly use the seven star strikes (long) we need footwork that helps us be able to not get caught and maximize our techniques. I'm summing up what we talked about but yeah...lol he was bringing up how the same philosophy was used in fut gar with the stances. So yeah, pretty much every style has its ways. So yeah...lol

[Daifong]

So, are you on a five-stake Jong, or is it a broader pattern?

[crazedjustice888]

[crazedjustice888]

Hey everybody, just letting you know my sifu has noticed that you guys are asking questions and is willing to answer a couple of them so if you have some questions regarding the mui fah then he will see if he can answer them. Obviously if they too advanced he might not answer it since hes old school hahaha but yeah just post some questions and I will take them to him.