# Please tell me im not the only one...



## ilhe4e12345 (Apr 18, 2011)

hi everyone, im new to the forums and but have been reading them for a couple months now. first off i wanted to say how its nice to find a forum thats dedicated like this to martial arts.

Now my thing is this...Wing Chun NEVER interested me...ever. i always knew it was Bruce Lee's starting art and how good Wing Chun was (never saw any og the techniques just heard about it via friends)...well 

I have been taking Kung Fu for the past 2 years, going on my 3rd year and im trainging in a few different styles (my Sifu knows a lot of different styles). I first started off with some Pai Lum (which to be honest, it just seemed so boring) Then i switched to 7 Star Mantis and i am loving it! While training Bung Bo one day me and my teacher began talking about different styles, and i brought up one of my favorite movies The One and said how much i loved the evil Jet Li's style he used in that movie. I know its a movie and all but i said it would be great to learn it just becuase it looks so simple but so devistating and so much fun! Thats when my Sifu told me that he has trained Hsing-I and if i wanted to i could learn that at some point. So i was even more excited. After learning the first two element over the winter months) we started back to my Mantis training. Then it happened....

I was practicing my form in the driveway when my friend stops by and says "you need to watch this with me! It looks like the style your taking now (Hsing-I) and its a great movie!"

IP Man.....that was it....the first fight scene in that movie i was freaking out! i know its a movie but the moves and style were so great i couldnt help but be more interested. I knew right awya it wasnt Hsing-I like my friend though, but i was drawn in. I ask my Sifu and boom....WC was the first style he ever took up (he learned everything but the weapon forms i believe as he took it when he was young then went to Mantis). I asked him about it and he said he would show the principles and basics to see if i would like it.....Yesterday was my first class on WC and i cannot believe how amazing it is. So simple, so devistating, so powerful........

Now i know what your all saying, why taking so many styles at once? Well......our classes are 2-3 hours long and we dont mix styles. One class will be one style thats it no "well heres something from Hsing-I, and mantis oh look a pretty flower!"..no no no...he is a great teacher and knows what hes talking about...I take detailed notes, i review before i leave after each class then when i get home i review again for atleast 30 minutes and practice everything i have learned that day. So dont think "omg your not going to learn anything that way!" or "he sounds like he doesnt know what hes talking about..." because we keep them seperate, train them seperate and review them seperate... 

I just need to say....did that happen to anyone else where you were just randomly watching a movie or studying another style and BOOM...your struck like a deer crossing the highway?.....i just want to say that I LOVE WC and only had one class so far with the basics (straight punch, chain punching, stance work, triangle theory, elbow strikes, elbow placement, kicking and 2 blocks so far)


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## yak sao (Apr 18, 2011)

Welome to the forum.
I would have to say you have an awful lot of balls in the air. The best advice I could give you is find the style you like most and give it your all. I would even go as far as to ask your sifu which style of MA he is the most well versed in. For example, if WC is the art you choose, but he is twice as good at mantis, then maybe mantis should be your choice.

Keep punching


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## zepedawingchun (Apr 18, 2011)

yak sao said:


> Welome to the forum.
> I would have to say you have an awful lot of balls in the air. The best advice I could give you is find the style you like most and give it your all. I would even go as far as to ask your sifu which style of MA he is the most well versed in. For example, if WC is the art you choose, but he is twice as good at mantis, then maybe mantis should be your choice.
> 
> Keep punching


 
Ditto.


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 18, 2011)

Well I'd be lying if I said Ip Man the movie did not rekindle my interest in Wing Chun.

As to Xingyiquan (Hsing-I) training...how much santi shi training does your sifu have you do?

Jet Li's Character Lawless in the Movie the one is doing XIngyiquan and Gabe Yulaw is doing Baguazhang.

And I have seen similarities between Wing Chun and Xingyiquan when it comes to movement


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## zepedawingchun (Apr 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> . . . . . . And I have seen similarities between Wing Chun and Xingyiquan when it comes to movement


 
There are going to be a lot of similarities between most of the CMA's because they all pretty much originated from the same location . . . . . . the Shaolin Temples.  With Wing Chun being a culmination of the best ideas of everything at the time, you're gonna see something that came from this or that.


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 19, 2011)

zepedawingchun said:


> There are going to be a lot of similarities between most of the CMA's because they all pretty much originated from the same location . . . . . . the Shaolin Temples. With Wing Chun being a culmination of the best ideas of everything at the time, you're gonna see something that came from this or that.


 
Actually the Shaolin Temple being the source of Chinese Martial Arts is not exactly true. 

It most certainly was a contributor of note to CMA but many styles, Xingyiquan being one of them, do not come from or have any origin association with Shaolin.


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## ilhe4e12345 (Apr 19, 2011)

yak sao said:


> Welome to the forum.
> I would have to say you have an awful lot of balls in the air. The best advice I could give you is find the style you like most and give it your all. I would even go as far as to ask your sifu which style of MA he is the most well versed in. For example, if WC is the art you choose, but he is twice as good at mantis, then maybe mantis should be your choice.
> 
> Keep punching


 
Im sorry i explained it wrong.....my fault. Yes his primary style is Mantis and that is my first style. The others (Wing Chun and Hsing-I) im not fully training in yet. Basically with Wing Chun he is just teaching me the principles of it and honestly they can be used in Mantis, just like principles from toehr styles can be used with each other. Wing Chun principles are just so interesting and i love it! im sticking with mantis as i have wanted to learn since i was very young (about 10 or 11). Hsing-I and WC have similar movements and work well together i wanted to learn Hsing-I, so that will be another style i am looking into/learning slowly. He is spending all of his time teaching me mantis but anytime we have a free or "fun" day as i call it, he throws in some Hsing-I training/Element work. I wont be going into the Animal Forms anytime soon with Hsing-I, just the basics.

 but i am loving WC....i was doing bag work yesterday in my garage (heavy bag) just practicing straight/chain punches and elbow placement and i am loving it


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## ilhe4e12345 (Apr 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> Well I'd be lying if I said Ip Man the movie did not rekindle my interest in Wing Chun.
> 
> As to Xingyiquan (Hsing-I) training...how much santi shi training does your sifu have you do?
> 
> ...


 

Due to a knee injury (which i am currently nursing, nothing serious) he had to change up our class alittle. I dont do the normal drills/punch combos like you would see in a typical class. When i have class My Sifu has me come in 30 minutes-45 minutes after the main class has started. He has me stretch and warm up my own way (how the doctors want me to stretch my leg/knee, light cardio type stuff) then i do stance work for 30 seconds per stance (horse, long bo, crane, monkey, 7 Star, twisted) on both sides, then stretch a little more (legs/knees). After that i go right into My forms for Mantis (which is currently Bung Bo, section 2). Before this my Sifu had me doing Long Fist 1 and Long Fist 2. He teaches them to everyone so you learn to switch between stances and learn to pivot/weight exchange and long fist 2 for jumping/movement. After i go through the Forms, then he asks me what i remember from the previous class (his normal class is about 2 hours or so, so at this point they are doing sparing while im working forms so he comes over to me as the other teachers work sparing)

At the end of class (2 or so hours depending on hwo my knee holds up) i work Santi Shi stance work, try and hold it for 5-10 minutes per side. I know its not mantis, but its a great workout so i like to work it daily into my routine.


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## Domino (Apr 27, 2011)

Welcome to the forum, 
Be sure to contribute and post with this vast wealth of knowledge.

Reminded me of the film, must watch it again later, Donnie Yen ...... like a duck to water !


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## devasta (Apr 27, 2011)

you will b disappointed just like how I was when I tell you that Donnie Yen only learned Wing Chun for 8months to make that movie. 80% of the moves were choreograhed by Sammuel Hung who doesnt do Wing Chun either. This movie got me cited up and signed up  wing chun class but what I was told by the school instructer is not "real" wing chun.


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 27, 2011)

devasta said:


> you will b disappointed just like how I was when I tell you that Donnie Yen only learned Wing Chun for 8months to make that movie. 80% of the moves were choreograhed by Sammuel Hung who doesnt do Wing Chun either. This movie got me cited up and signed up wing chun class but what I was told by the school instructer is not "real" wing chun.


 
Donnie Yen did not learn Wing Chun prior to the movie hat is true but he has been in CMA his entire life. He is the son of Bo Sim Mak who is also a martial artist.

Here' s more for you, 
Tony Jaa is more of a Gymnast than a Muay Thai guy.
Jackie Chan was trained in the Chinese Opera.
Michelle Yeoh was a Beauty Pagent winner
Chow Yun-fat (Bullet Proof Monk) is an actor

Ip Man was a movie which was VERY loosely based on the life of Ip Man. You want to know what else, Ip Man (the real person) never fought the Japanese like he did in the movie nor was he shot by the Japanese for winning the fight because it never happened. But you know, I still think it was a great movie and that is what it was, a movie, not a historical account of Ip Man any more than the Oliver Stone movie about JFK was


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## mograph (Apr 27, 2011)

Personally, I don't watch martial arts movies to learn martial arts or look for authenticity. I watch them for entertaining stories, old-fashioned heroism and some convincing and/or inventive fight sequences. (... and I like the wire-fu to be either over-the-top or unnoticeable.)
Ip Man was entertaining with convincing stage fighting, to my eye at least.


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## zepedawingchun (Apr 27, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> . . . .Jackie Chan was trained in the Chinese Opera.


 
Jackie Chan was also a stunt man and stand in for Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. In the beginning fight scene where Bruce is fighting Samo Hung, when it is finished and Bruce flips over the raised arm bridge, that is really Jackie Chan doing the flip.

Also, on Han's Island, in the tunnels, when Bruce has a flunky's arms pinned behind him and has him by the hair, the camera pans to Bruce's face as he breaks the flunky's neck, that is Jackie Chan who is the flunky.


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## WC_lun (Apr 27, 2011)

The Ip Man movies are great and fun movies. The choreography is Wing Chun-esque looking, but it isn't really Wing Chun. Wing Chun isn't well suited for film. It isn't pretty and doesn't last long enough.

It is great you have sparked an interest in Wing Chun. Its always nice to welcome another brother into the fold. However I would caution you with the saying, "A man can only serve one mistress at a time." All those systems you list take many, many years to become well versed in.


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## Ruzec (Apr 28, 2011)

The movie Ip Man: The legend is born, seems to have some true facts on Ip Mans life in his younger years. Please correct me if I am wrong.


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## yak sao (Apr 28, 2011)

From what I know, which is close to nothing, Yip Man was the last of only 13 dsciples of Chan Wah Shun. I heard that they trained in an old temple that was owned by Yip Man's father. Chan wah Shun died very early in Yip Man's training and his si-hing, Ng Chung So took over his training. Then he went away to Hong Kong to school, where he met Leung Bik.
The movie portrays all that pretty well.
I don't know that he ever had encounters with ninjas........


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 28, 2011)

yak sao said:


> I don't know that he ever had encounters with ninjas........


 
Of course he did...if your in Martial Arts long enough.... everyone knows....sooner or later... you will have to fight Ninjas


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## yak sao (Apr 28, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> Of course he did...if your in Martial Arts long enough.... everyone knows....sooner or later... you will have to fight Ninjas


 
So what you're saying is, (*_Gasp_*) I could have fought ninjas and never even known they were ninjas???!!!


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 28, 2011)

yak sao said:


> So what you're saying is, (*_Gasp_*) I could have fought ninjas and never even known they were ninjas???!!!


 
EXACTLY!!!


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## Domino (May 5, 2011)

Where does the ninja bit come in? I missed that ...


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