Hung Ga and Children

[ibuchanan82]

Hey, this is a question that doesn't help me much as i'm just beginning my own studies but I would like to know anyway.

What would you say the minimum age should be for training in hung gar?
What limitations should be in place for young people should they practice body conditioning at such a young age?
Is there any training materials specifically designed for kids? like little ninja's etc.

the reason I ask is my son has been imitating me, around the house, we "play" 5 animal fists which to him is a tickling game,
also we do earthbending, (playfighting in horse stance)

has anyone thaught of using the earthbending thing to encourage kids to learn hung gar? earthbending is from "Avatar: the last airbender"
a popular kids program that uses traditional kung fu forms
to "bend" or manipulate the elements, earthbending uses hung gar.

Just a thought

Ian

www.hung-gar.co.uk

[HungFamilyFist]

[ngokfei]

[TenTigers]

[markt]

[ibuchanan82]

[Asmo]

[markt]

[Asmo]

[TenTigers]

[ngokfei]

[Asmo]

[TenTigers]

OTB=Off The Boat
FOB=Fresh Off the Boat
ABC=American Born Chinese aka Jook-Sing
Kenpo, such as Ed Parker's, Tracy's and styles that were developed in the 50's abd 60's are definately closer to Hung, as the founder Cow Kai-Sun trained this from his father, Chow-Hoon. But newer styles from Fred Villari and his offshoots are xerox's of xerox's or xerox's.....
but I see your point/
Shuai-Jiao is a good adjunct to Hung Foundational training, but I did not say it was the same thing. `It is especially good for 'disguising repetition' and other things, such as mental/physical toughening, but through fun drills. I do the same exercises, rolls, fall, tumbles, etc in my own shuai-jio training-except there seems to be alot less giggling....more like grunting,heaving,moaning....

[markt]

My sifu started training sam sing at an early age and I would bet it would be the same with the older generation from other branches - (Lam family, Chiu family, etc).
So why is the curriculum being changed when our teachers started young and never had any health problems ??

[TenTigers]

sam-sing is different than palm training. The bones of the forearms don't have joints, so it can be done at a younger age. I will tell you this-I don't know if it is from horse stance training or what, but I am slightly bowlegged. I had a girlfriend who thought it was sexy, so I'm ok with that.
Then again, did'ja ever see those old bowlegged men with a beer gut walkin around? Not very sexy....