i sent an email asking more information. I fully respect Wushu practitioners but i want to learn Zui Quan from more of a self defense/traditional sense. i know its not as affective as most styles and its more showy but honestly i can see in a real life situation that it might be extremely advantagious. Im not saying against another well trained martial artisit, as they would see it and know what to expect but in real life situations the random footwork and movements could def be a better "surprise" tactic. Then again i dont really know, this is why i want to look into learning it. Everyone that i have seen talk about it a lot of times they say how "useless" it is accept for show...but....i still want to learn it, nothing wrong with that right?
lol
I don't know if it's any more or any less effective than any other method. It is a specific approach that teaches certain skills. If the student learns to use those skills appropriately, it could be extremely effective. Otherwise it might be useless.
I have no direct experience with drunken boxing. I will make a couple more comments, tho. If you envision drunken boxing in self defense as staggering around and weaving back and forth like a drunkard, and doing those backbends and hand postures like Jackie Chan in Drunken Master, then no I do not believe that is effective application of drunken boxing.
However, if you use the element of surprise, and learn to apply technique from unusual positionings, even when you appear to be in a compromised or vulnerable position, then it could be quite effective and nobody will "know what's coming", not even another experienced martial artist.
I think a lot of people have some serious misunderstandings about how Chinese martial arts tend to work. I'll use my own training as an example. I train in Tibetan White Crane system. This is a mimetic system based on observations of the Crane. I've done some serious reading about the bird, and there are some remarkable descriptions written by ornithologists and conservation biologists, people who have zero connection to martial arts. They have described crane behavior that is remarkably similar to movements and strategies that are found directly in our forms. What I'm saying is: the system was clearly inspired by direct observations of cranes, as verified by independent descriptions written by people with no connection to the art. Many of the movements that we practice are directly connected to observable crane behavior. The system was not simply "made up" based on what someone "imagined" a crane might do.
However, when we fight, we do not use these "crane" movements in a direct and obvious way. The real goal of white crane is to teach you how to fully engage the entire body to power every technique that you do. Those crane movements that we practice are designed to give you that skill, and those movements are simply a training vehicle to teach you to do so.
When it comes to actually using your technique, we strive to have no recognizeable form at all. We do not try to "fight like a crane". Rather, we fight with full body engagement, which makes our techniques land with the destructive power of an eight-pound maul. But it no longer looks like a crane. The training method has taught us to do this, so we can then drop the "form" of the technique and deliver the goods from any position, in any way we wish. This concept is a little abstract, but hopefully it makes sense to you.
Likewise, I think Drunken Boxing does not teach you to actually stagger and fall and roll and bend up like a pretzel as a way of fighting. Rather, the practice of those movements, when properly understood, teaches you to deliver techniques with a certain kind of power, in a certain unexpected way. When you actually fight with it, you don't look like you are drunk.
Make sense?
