# Yau-Man?



## yardmeat (Aug 10, 2011)

I've been wanting to join a Kung Fu class, but there is only one in my area.  They teach a style I've never heard of call Yau-Man (can't even find much about it online) and I was wanting to know if anyone here had any experience with this style.

I've been to one trial class, and it was a little more informal than I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it.  The first hour of every class focuses on Kung Fu and then instructors split up the class for the last hour and give you the option to either work on the earlier class material, or to do some Tai-Chi.

The called the main stance mabu, but it was very different from anything I've seen before.  The knees are pulled close together and your lead foot is turned at a 45 degree angle, almost pigeon toed.  It was uncomfortable at first, but surprisingly stable.  The whole body is kept loose through most of the movements, and the elbows are always kept close to the body.  All of the strikes seem quick and they put a lot of emphasis on returning your hands to a defensive position.  Most of the strikes are with what they call "ginger fist" and "phoenix beak."

I'm completely new to Kung Fu, and I just had a few questions.

1) Have you heard of this style before and, if not, does it sound similar to another style that you are familiar with?

2) I am probably only going to be in this city for one more year.  Wherever I go next will probably not offer this same style of Kung Fu.  Is it better to do this for a year and then transition to something else, or am I better off waiting to learn Kung Fu after I find a school that I know I will be able to attend for several years?


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## clfsean (Aug 10, 2011)

Do you mean "Yau Gung (Kung) Mun" maybe?


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## yardmeat (Aug 10, 2011)

They definitely called it Yau-Man (it was on their brochure and T-shirts), but maybe it is alternative spelling of the same thing.


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## fangjian (Aug 10, 2011)

The stance you described is not MaBu, but 'Gong Bu'. I think DongsengMa in Cantonese. But clfsean will know. Some schools have the front foot 'pigeon toed'


http://www.yau-man.com.br/

Affiliated with above?


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## clfsean (Aug 10, 2011)

yardmeat said:


> They definitely called it Yau-Man (it was on their brochure and T-shirts), but maybe it is alternative spelling of the same thing.



Nah... YKM is YKM... not an alternative spelling. From what you were describing, it's YKM. Send me a website or something.


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## clfsean (Aug 10, 2011)

fangjian said:


> The stance you described is not MaBu, but 'Gong Bu'. I think DongsengMa in Cantonese. But clfsean will know. Some schools have the front foot 'pigeon toed'
> 
> 
> http://www.yau-man.com.br/
> ...



Eh... stance names... that's almost a personalized thing at times. In large part, in the south, a horse stance is generally referred to as Sei Ping Ma/4 Level Horse given it's low & flat nature. Almost every stance found in the south is also generalized as a ma/horse... gong ma, diu ma, sei ping ma, etc... some kind of "horse". 

I looked at that site above. I've never heard of Yau Mun. YKM yes... it's a Bak Mei little brother. This could be a family style & appears Hakka in nature given the pigeoned stance in the pics & the fact they dance a unicorn. Mostly only Hakka styles dance the unicorn. Not exclusively, but most of the unicorns I've seen, have been associated with or directly from Hakka schools.


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## Xue Sheng (Aug 11, 2011)

Not saying good or bad or real or fake but after reading this it made me think of Wuxia


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## yardmeat (Aug 11, 2011)

By all means, if anything seems amiss, let me know.  They are nice enough people, and don't really seem like they are trying to rip me off, but there is plenty of well-intentioned hooey out there.

I am a little nervous that I haven't been able to find more information about the style, but I'm probably going to ask another one of the instructors about it before I attend more classes.

clfsean, you mentioned the unicorn dance.  If that is the same thing as the Qilin dance (I think it is, not sure though), then yes, they put a lot of focus into it.

Here is the website: http://ammacs.com/kungfu.html


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## yardmeat (Aug 11, 2011)

Whoa, I just spotted this in the link that fangjian posted, "Master Yip has shared his knowledge and passed on meaningful teachings  of Chinese culture and philosophy to his students, *being today the only  Grand Master in this style worldwide*."  Again, I know nothing of Kung Fu, but that makes me a little nervous.

Tell me if this sounds weird: I'm going to be moving to Austin in about a year or so.  I may just find a Kung Fu school up there, visit for a session, and ask the instructor if he/she will show me the basic stance of his style, how to move forward, move back, and turn in that stance and primarily work on that in the year leading up to me moving to Austin.  I could make a trip back every once in a while to see if he can help me correct anything.  Do you think most instructors would be willing to do that, or would they be insulted by it?


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## clfsean (Aug 11, 2011)

yardmeat said:


> By all means, if anything seems amiss, let me know.  They are nice enough people, and don't really seem like they are trying to rip me off, but there is plenty of well-intentioned hooey out there.
> 
> I am a little nervous that I haven't been able to find more information about the style, but I'm probably going to ask another one of the instructors about it before I attend more classes.
> 
> ...



Yeah... Unicorn = kei lin (qilin is Mandarin).

Like I said... it looks Hakka, so it could be a family style which would lend itself to not being well known. Yau Kung Mun I'm familiar with, this not so much. Either way, go for it. If you're moving to Austin in a year, you won't find this up that way. There is Choy Lay Fut, Shuai Jiao & Hung Ga I think in Austin that I can name. You would have to start all over since the Hakka stuff is pretty different from everything thing else. In a year, you won't develop habits that will cause you hard times to adjust to a different method of doing things. You may even pick up things you hang on to. Who's to say.


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## Nabakatsu (Sep 3, 2011)

Wow, a family hakka system, what luck to stumble upon that your first look into kung fu.
I know there is some good wing tzun/chun schools out in austin, so at least you'd have something similar to switch to.


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## blindsage (Sep 20, 2011)

I looked through the website a bit.  The photos and the videos look pretty legit.  I see some similarities to Bak Mei, Dragon, Southern Mantis, White Crane and Phoenix Eye Fist styles, but it doesn't really look particularly like any of them.  I wouldn't be suprised if it is a Hakka family style since they mention that they participated in a demonstration for the 'Hakka Association from Brazil' http://en.yau-man.com.br/Yau-Man-Institute .


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