Self learning

[Tid Sin]

[TenTigers]

[vaulander]

[ironpalm]

[vaulander]

In the twist stance, I feel best when knee is behind knee, or pressing against calf. If my stance is a little longer, like twisting around from Horse stance, my thighs touch, and sometimes my noogies get squished. Should I shorten it so it's knee to knee/calf, or is it just the contact between legs that matter, I.E. pressing to support the structure?
V.

[ironpalm]

[vaulander]

I have used the 'stance' extensively more as a stepping tool for lining up either a leading foot side kick or a round kick, but the application and method are totally different, which is probably why I need extra time to change my method. The idea of 'locked and stable' vs 'flowing', if you understand what I mean.

[ironpalm]

[vaulander]

Greetings people. I have been practicing every day, and all your advice has helped a lot. I am grinding the straight back and parallel feet in Seipin Ma and Ziwu/Ji ng/Gong Ma in every form I know. Dew Ma feels better as well, and even though I sometimes slip up in the Lao Ma and do the long version, on average I can step right into it and feel the knee slip into the pocket easier. I am still far from good enough, but I DO feel like I am on the right track.

Since I don't know too many drills for Hung Gar, Derrick and I have been learning Wing Lam's Tiger and Crane Sparring. It's basically one long partner drill, and it has been like a revelation to me. I used to think that Huan Gua Kuen to Gua Chui Shuan Lo was a bit exaggerated, as you open your face to whatever before slamming down until I worked the set with Derrick and realized the pulling down effect of Hua Gua Kuen. I am sure we both look like fools flailing around, leading the blocks and whatnot, but in a couple of years of constant practice we might not look too bad.
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I have also learned the movements for the Southern Butterfly Swords, also by Wing Lam. Before you all board a bus to take turns Dim Mak-ing me for rushing ahead let me explain my thinking. Pushups are boring, and I do them because I know I have to. Doing the Six count drill with the Sai loses it's charm because there's not much to it. However, doing a long set, minding the stances and using 2 pound swords is fun AND learning at the same time. My shoulders and upper arms ache from the countless reps of every lesson to get it down, and if I lean forward much my back screams at me, similar to doing Kung Gee Fook Fu Kuen with wristweights on.

The only problem is that it seems to intimidate my neighbors, having some uniformed lunatic waving two really big knives in the air in the hallway of our apartment floor isn't the usual for this apartment complex. It's not like I growl or give them the look or anything. There was this guy, bigger and stronger than me, or at least bulkier bringing up his laundry from the basement laundry room, I nodded like usual to people and went about my practice. As he goes into his apartment, he drops a sock on the floor just outside his door. Being the nice guy I am, I knocked on his door to let him know, and maybe ten minutes later the door goes up just a tad, I see him staring as if I was going to mug him or something for about two seconds before he shut and bolted the door. As far as I know that sock was laying there in front of his door all night long. Funny and sad at the same time.
People who are used to seeing me train outside my garage or in the hallway step out of my way as if I was some thug just looking for an excuse to get violent. Would have been great in my early teens when I was bullied and picked on, but now it's just uncomfortable. Do any of you have similar feelings or experiences?

[Asmo]

Sure, I train in a really quiet area of our city park right behind the houses of a few elderly people. The stereotype people who would be afraid of people swinging with swords and the like.

Be nice, smile, say hello, and eventually they'll ask what you're doing which gives you a chance to be nice and explain. Afterwards its all good. Might take a while, but hey, you're into martial arts where progress is only achieved after years as well, so

Other advice, stop focusing so much on forms Frick, even starting with weapons! I would suggest get the bare basics of unarmed techniques down first. I know when you start you want to get as much as possible, and preferably the most exotic weapons as possible. But I promise you, if you stick to this game in 10 years you want as less of 'm as possible and get into the depth. And you wish you would've done so right from the start. It would've saved you years...

So.. My advice on that part is do those pushups, and do some more, alongside stance training and just a few drills to be able to get them down right. Its sheer impossible to get a technique right when you only do it once in a form. It'll be the only thing you hear from me...

[markt]

[TenTigers]

yes and no. Look, I'm 52 (next week) been training over thirty years. But, I remember all the things that first attracted me to Kung-Fu, and one of them was the weapons. I loved (and still do) the butterfly knives, dahn-dao, and Guan Dao, and couldn't wait to learn them. I had a pair of butterfly knives and a dahn-dao before I was taught the set-just to have them. So I know how it feels to want to learn them.
There is nothing wrong with play. As we get older, we forget how to play. We no longer have recess in school, we no longer have phys ed class, we don't play on little league, or run and jump in the playground with our friends, or ride our bikes.
BUT...we have Gung-Fu. We can still run, jump, hit things, spar, swing cool weapons. Play the Tiger section, and tell me you are not enjoying the shit outta that. Man, I love Hung-Ga. And we get to buy TOYS! My search for the perfect Guand Dao, Dahn-Dao, Butterfly Knives, etc continue, and along the way, I get to buy more toys.
Yes, Vaulander needs to focus on his basics. But cut the kid some slack. It's not like we all don't love these things.

Now, as far as your neighbors are concerned, I used to play in the park, and practice sam sing on the trees. After awhile, the neighbors used to talk about this crazy guy who goes to the park and punches trees. But..they stayed the fuk off my lawn!

[markt]

[PM]

TT: 52?! well, i thought you are in late 30's! congratulation man! and i am very happy for your post, ppl talk about fighting and killing and street fighting all the time, and forget one of the most important things - it is fun!

[vaulander]

I have this issue. When I got into Hung Gar and set my soul on it, I wanted to get as much of it as possible. I have bought far too many DVD's, and far too much equipment that it will take years to learn it all. Call it a greed for knowledge, fear that the supplier will go out of business, whatever. In either case, I have a stack of 21 DVD's, or forms. 3 of those were bad, in that the forms are either wu shu 'artful' forms that's all flash and fancy, and I also have two versions of Fu Hok Seung Ying Kuen, or Tiger Crane for short. That leaves 17 forms. One is the Dragon Fan of Choy Li Fut, another is Shaolin Three Section Staff, by Wing Lam. Nine Eyebrow Height Staff of the Shaolin Curriculum. Two are Ha Say Fu forms, I thought they expanded on the Five Animals Set, but are completely different. Of Hung Gar by Wing Lam, I have the following:
Introduction to Hung Gar and Arrow Hand set *
Lau Gar Kuen (obviously LAU instead of HUNG, but nevermind.) *
Kung Gee Fook Fu Kuen *
Tiger and Crane *(half)
Tiger and Crane Sparring * (lesson 18 of 21)
Five Animals
Five Animals Five Elements
The Monkey King Staff *
Southerns Butterfly Swords *
Coiled Butterfly Swords (Ha Say Fu)
Four Gates Sparring (Ha Say Fu) *
Panther (Ha Say Fu)
Tiger (Ha Say Fu)
Also six DVDs about Chin Na by Wing Lam.
* signifies I know the moves and don't get stuck, but still years and years away from mastery of the set.
A little obsessive perhaps. Will I be able to learn them all? Well, I learned the Southern Butterfly sword set in 3 days, or about 6-8 hours total. But there is no way I can even get close to pretty good in all of them.
I have worked Arrow Hand, Lau Gar, Kung Gee, and Monkey king staff fanatically every day, and I stopped going further in Tiger and Crane after starting this thread. I have gone back to basics, working stances, structure, movement, and made the punching bag whimper the moment I open the garage door. I have slowed down my Kung Gee to single movements, grinding and adjusting them, nitpicking everything. I have taken the shaky movements and drilled them repeatedly, trying to make them part of me, not just a step in the form. Derrick and I have worked the Tiger and Crane Sparring set, and I have taken the 'feel' of an opponent and brought that back into the Kung Gee, like I have been advised by people on this board. I have read Lam Sai Wing's treatise on the form, copying down names for moves, studied and considered the various options he has for applications. If I am not actively practicing or working out, I am reading and pondering.

And yet... there is this stack of DVD's by the TV, just waiting. I have two sets of Sai, two sets of Tonfa, a pair of Butterfly Swords, two Three section staves of wood, and two of Foam, two Rattan 6 foot staves, and two foam staffs for some fun sparring. While I still do my work with Kung Gee Fook Fu, I feel that I am at sort of a plateau, or wall if you like, and there's all these weapons going begging.

In my mind, which may be obsessively fanatic and very single minded, trying to learn several hand forms that build on each other can be confusing as they have a lot of the same movements but in different patterns. However, as Butterfly Swords and a staff are two completely different techniques, there is a distinct separation in the forms. So also for the Thri-section staff which has nothing to do with butterfly swords and just a few similarities with the staff.
Don't think I am just 'passing through' sets to get to the next and better one, I do them all. Each one is an entity unto itself, and I split and drill the moves from all of them. Every day I come home from work I change to lighter clothes in the garage, make the bag cry, and then do all forms I know, sometimes two or three times depending on what I have going on when I go to my apartment. On training days with Scott and Derrick, we work applications of the forms, and do the partner forms like Tiger and Crane Sparring, what we have learned so far. It's not like I decide to pick up the staff once in a while and twirl it around, then pat my back for remembering the form or some sh*t like that.

Sorry for being long winded, but I did say I am a bit obsessed.
V.