Kwan do/ Guan dao/ Da dao

[prayingmantis888]

[Frank Bolte]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jybfZ56UUz8[/youtube]

[prayingmantis888]

I love Shaolin Martial Arts, I have always said that is proably the best rendition of a guan dao set I have seen in a Shaw flick.

[Frank Bolte]

oh i just realised that there is no text in my last post ..weird as I wrote something...

anyway,this is my sigungs brother Lau Kar Wing,I also thought this was a great display of the kwan do set...this is almost the same as we do it.
Of course for the film small things were changed...

offt oppic, Do u have any knowledge about the hung kuen branches in Taiwan ? I heard theres a branch with Lau Jaam in their lineage...

[prayingmantis888]

I am studying here in Taiwan from a shifu who knows both the Cantonese and Taiwanese branches. I don't recognize the term Jaam. Might just be romanization confusion. What is it?

[Frank Bolte]

[prayingmantis888]

[Frank Bolte]

Thanks for the info,

how about this guy here,he has Lau Jaam in his info box written...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKjgJnDUeQg[/youtube]

[prayingmantis888]

Oh, those guys! This is a bit of a sticky issue here. They do a strange multiple animal style that is vaguely related to Hung gar, but different. The Hung Gar poeple tend to dismiss them. I saw one of their videos on youtube, some sort of leopard/snake set I think, and it said Taiwanese Hung Gar in the info box. It wasn't. I am not sure what to make of them personally, so I might be wrong, but I take what they write in their info boxes with a grain of salt.

[Frank Bolte]

[PM]

our Gwaan dou (almost exactly same as in the video above) set is called Cheun chau daai dou, ie. "Spring and autumn long handled broadsword". it is first mentioned in the generation of Wong Feihung/Lam Saiwing.

apart from the practical combat techniques, this is the only weapon set in our curriculum that contains some "flowery movements" (fa sik), not related to combat application, but retelling the story of great hero Gwaan Yu (Gwaan Dai, Gwaan Gung): General Gwaan stroking his beard, sharpening his broadsword, catching a horse, mounting a horse, going into the battle, retreating the battle and entering again... in my opinion it is originally an army weapon, influenced by later by Chinese opera (Lam Saiwing is well know to have many friends among Chinese opera troups people). tribute to God of Martial arts!

it is one of our most advanced weapons, and one of the favourite weapons of my sifu (and his wife, too!).

[prayingmantis888]

I am a huge fan of Beijing Opera, and it is defintely easy to see how real Guan Dao and opera GD have mingled over the years sharing back and forth. I just started the Taiwanese Chun Qiu GD set, and it is already a great form. Much more interesting than the praying mantis CQGD set I learned years ago. The opera moves might seem superfluous to others, but for my, the respect and tradition inherent in them is what kung fu is all about.