FOLLOW UP RE WING CHUN EXPERIENCE.
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I had visited a local CMA school many years ago. The curriculum was very Mcdojo'y. Yet the Head instructor at this local was a solid kung fu stylist. This instructor was very well trained and his physique & body movement spoke volumes... A couple other instructor level practitioners there weren't bad. At the time, I was mainly focused on traditional karate. The Head instructor was highly critical of the Japanese style karate's and strongly discouraged me from joining up. Any way I was able to join up.
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One particular student there took an interest in me personally. Turns out he had a black-belt in WC which he had attained from a school on the east coast, I think Boston. He also felt the curriculum was very McDojo'y. However, there wasn't much choice close to him and he was interested in a special Kung fu style that the school advertised for advanced students. The WC Black-belt also had trained under another kung fu sifu in my area, but that school had closed. That school taught a more generic Shaolin style, which was what I was interested in.
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The WC Black-Belt was also interested in full contact.... pressure testing. So he invited me to his house to practice. He agreed to train me what he knew about Northern Shaolin; why I was there... Any way, I agreed to go a round of full contact with him to see the impact. He was also into boxing,,, which he explained had advantages over kung fu.. in his mind (which I strongly disagreed). Anyway, he put some protective equipment on me and then he started full contact. Well at one point he punched me in the chest real (real) hard and the pain felt as if there wasn't any chest protector on me. He had demonstrated a sneaky boxing type gambit.
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I stopped him at that point. You may say I was sissy for not going on. Frankly, my safety and health were the reasons I was studying TMA... which was not what I had just experienced. But let me tell you the bigger point, which my WC friend entirely missed in that attack.
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In throwing that really debilitating punch by the sneaky boxing routine-- he left his head exposed a mile-wide open. The real success from TMA comes from mental discipline... which I had developed to a high pretty level at that time. Had I not been in exploration mode, but combat mode, he may have caused me some pain & physical shock from his boxing gambit.... he would also have been rendered unconscious from my power blow to his exposed head. TMA is not some joke. At that point, I saw no reason to continue full contact with him. The WC Black-belt had enormous respect for my thought process.
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To continue, the Mcdojo kung fu instructor kinda picked on my like here at MT 'cause of my karate style dedication, and because well, you know, I'm kinda a Laszlo kinda guy. Privately, the WC Black-belt stuck up for me in class and usually requested to be my training partner. Anyhow, the Head Instructor challenged me to spar one day, and i declined. I told I don't like sparring... which prompted a few wisecracks (MT poster-like) from the instructor's buddies. The Head Instructor let me off the hook, for now he said. I told the WC-Black-belt I've never fight the instructor.
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Well one of the classes, when I was absent, the Head Instructor challenged the WC-Black Belt to a spirited sparring match. Well, the WC-Black Belt, who embraced full contact, eagerly took the challenge. For one, he felt the Head Instructor was trying to prove himself to us 'dummy' new students. Furthermore, the WC-Black-Belt respected my intelligence and felt the Head Instructor has insulted me on a number of occasions and even roughed me up a bit too much in one class (I still refused to spar.).
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Well both the Head Instructor and the WC black-belt were eager to demonstrate to the class what they could do. Problem for the Head Instructor, he didn't bother to ask about the background of the WC-Black-Belt who had attended a pretty good school, including pressure testing I'm sure....
The upshot is that the WC-Black-Belt unloaded some on the Head Instructor and sent the Instructor scrambling all over the floor trying to regain his composure. Once the Head Instructor did that... he was able to take my WC-Black Belt co-student head on (with some struggle). The WC Black-Belt recounted the surprised look on the Head Instructor's face @ the sparring match start... was beyond words.... After, the Head Instructor began to stop selling himself to us so hard following that WC Black-Belt match.
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The moral with Laszlo-like me, is that I train to the kata standard in the Tatsuya Naka YT demo vid. I don't require pressure testing the way others do because I will simply unload full body power driven through mental disciple that will end the fight very quickly... no matter how sneaky, clever your boxing... whatever gambit is. The WC Black-Belt got this about me and we remained friends while he was stationed in my local.
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I always wondered why he felt WC wasn't enough in it's own.
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Now, someone here else can make fun of "shotonoob," it's really quite revealing... like my real life anecdote.
) as I was taught are different from a Karateka's in that once launched away from our body/core...they are prepared for striking/impact anywhere along its trajectory. In other words, the structure behind the weapon is by design intended to be a threat while in motion, vice say the last few inches or so. Fighting is way too dynamic to always think your target will be in the desired impact area / range of your weapons...
