Hi. I study kempo. I have learned some various kung fu forms from my Tai Chi instructor and am trying to find out some more information on Choy Lay Fut, especially the branch taught by Master Tat Mau Wong. I am looking for info on history, traditions, forms, and anything else. Websites on this or info anyone can write here for me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks 
Hi Kempo,
You can visit his website at http://www.tatwong.com
He has a video series on Panther Productions, and he also has a Distance Learning program.
Tat Mau Wong’s Sifu is the late Grandmaster Lee Koon Hung, so you would also benefit on finding out about what the Lee Koon Hung Kung-Fu association does. Their site is http://www.leekoonhungkungfu.com
The forms TMW teaches are ones he learned from LKH, but he has made slight modifications for various reasons. But the principles are all constant.
My advice would be to get the book “Choy Lay Fut Kung-Fu: Dynamic Art of Fighting”, from Lee Koon HUng’s school (Tat Mau Wong is pictured in the book, getting beaten up by his Sifu!). You can get the book at:
http://www.leekoonhungkungfu.com/coupon.html
Another great site to get some in depth insights into Choy Lay Fut is the Ng Family Chinese Martial Arts Association’s page. Check out their Choy Lay Fut stuff at:
http://ngfamilymartialarts.com/choylayfut.htm
and read through their concepts, history, lineage, and Sifu Sam Ng.
Hope this was helpful!
best,
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Hello,
Tats 3- section staff video is excellant, good breakdowns and drills !
Although I study Hung-Gar I don’t think you can go wrong with Tat
tat mau wong choy lay fut forms
i’d see a few days ago the videotapes of fey loong sin and muy fah gim from master tat mau wong . i’d hear before that his forms are a little differents . i don’t not another version of muy fah gim , but his fey loong sin is different . but still is the same form and keep the escense . i know many peolpe worry about differents versions of a form . but i think is great see the preferences of differents teachers . i know is confusing , but would be great know 2 or 3 differents versions of a same form .
i agree, rain. i think it would be really cool if the Lee Koon Hung organization eventually made available videos of all the original versions of the forms that Tat Mau Wong has on the market.
At the end of Lee Siu Hung’s Joy Kune tape, it was really cool to see Lee Koon Hung in action, and specifically, him doing Ping Kune. I’d only seen TMW do Ping Kune, and it was really refreshing to see LKH doing it. I can’t wait for the LKH organization to release more LKH footage.
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Variety is the spice of life.
Variety is what makes gung fu training interesting. I also agree that it is cool to see other variations of the same idea. I much prefer to listen and watch the variations in fighting aspects, it always helps me in understanding my perspectives.
nospam.
Tat Mau Wong’s “Five Animal Forms”
I’m a Northern Praying Mantis practicioner, so I don’t know a lot about Southern styles. I was thinking about buying a video that demonstrates Tat Mau Wong’s five animal forms, and was wondering if I can get some feedback. I don’t plan to learn the form from the video; I just want to see what it looks like. Is it like Doc Fai Wong’s five animal form, where all of the techniques are linked, or are there individual forms, like a separate form for each of the five animals? Also, if I were wanting to learn the form from the video (highly unlikely), would it be easy to follow? How would the form be rated in terms of difficulty?
Thanks.
P.S. I took a look at Doc Fai Wong’s book. Just the beginning part, where he bends forward and backward, looked painful. I’m hoping Tat Mau Wong’s form doesn’t have a lot of acrobatics like that.
Doc Fai Wong’s Ng Ying (5 Animal) Kuen book is not a CLF form but rather a siu lum form he learned.
Tat Mau Wong’s is a CLF form and it is one form not individual forms. That is why it is called a 5 Animal form. If it were individual animal sets they would be called: lung (dragon) ying kuen, fu (tiger) ying kuen, hok (crane) ying kuen, seh (snake) ying kuen or pow (panther) ying kuen.
TMW’s form is not too difficult to learn although feel and power would be different coming from another style.
Hope this helps.
this is what the TMW 5 animal form looks like http://www.floridakungfu.com/fiveanw.wmv
And really, this form is pretty indicative of what most of the early/middle level CLF forms look like in this lineage. The main movements that are “exotic” that makes it unique (IMHO) are the one snake-type movement, and that big dragon type movement (is that called Seung Bai Fat?).
Otherwise the rest of it looks like our other forms, with just a different arrangements of techniques we use over and over again.
CLFNole- the Crane Form is the one form I know that looks radically different than all the other handsets. What others are there that look different (that doesn’t have the gwa-kam-chinji-biu-chuin-poon-kam-yum tsop sequence)?
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123:
That sequence is seen in many of our sets and is seen in a lot of other lineages as well albeit somewhat less circular.
Fu Ying Kuen, Baat Kwa Sum Kuen, Bak Mo Kuen, Fut Ga Jeung, Moi Fah Baat Kwa Kuen, Joi Baat Sin Kuen and Fu-Pow Kuen are a bit different than the standards.
All CLF forms have repetative techniques in them.
Peace.
Yutyeesam,
That’s an interesting observation you make. If I may ask then, since CLF has tens to a couple of hundred forms, would it be fair to say that for a given level, the multitude of forms can be grouped into, essentially, families of forms - where within a single family, forms are pretty much the same or variations of each other? So in other words, CLF actually has only a small number of functionally different form families, but the large number comes from the variations of the forms and emphasis on particular techniques within a family?
No is not that simple. While forms can share common sequences each form has its own purpose and main point. All forms have both unique characteristics and shared characteristics.
The best way to group CLF forms is primary level, secondary level and tertiary level. Footwork changes, direction changes, etc…
Peace.
Falcor, I wrote this on another thread (which you started incidentally).
" Within these forms there are systems within the system. So there are 15 longarm sets, 15 animal boxing sets, 8 Bot Gwa sets, Lohan Qigong sets, 3 drunken sets etc.
Most CLF students will learn between 15 and 30 hand forms. This really isn’t different to many other styles. The rest of the 100+ forms figure is made up of 2 person hand forms (half a dozen), weapons and 2 person weapon forms"
However, as CLFnole says, each form does have it’s own distinct flavour and works on a different principle
Tat Mau Wong Videos
Being an active duty soldier, I have almost no way of being able to train under one person for any length of time, since I’ve been jumping from obscure places in the USA to Europe, and points elsewhere for some time now. With this limitation, I’ve purchased a few of Tat Mau Wong’s videos. They are pretty useful, and tend to echo what I’ve been trained on in the past. What I find curious is that, as far as I can tell, he uses a belt system. Has this become the norm in CLF? My last instructor always told me “Belts are for holding your pants up.”
I’m not in any way saying Master Wong is a bad instructor. Quite the contrary. I’m just curious as to why he went to such a system, and if it is pretty common these days.
I also purchased a few Doc Fai Wong videos, but wasn’t too satisified with them, except the plum blossom broadsword one. Anybody else have comments on his tapes?
Finally… what other videos/DVDs are good for training in CLF?
Thanks for reading my scattered and disjointed post.
Drake~
I don’t think it’s the norm for CLF but the norm for “mainstream” MA schools… “Mc(insert type here)” schools.
My sifu is working a series up, but we’re still in the planning phase of things, so nothing now.
If you ever get a duty station at Ft Benning or Ft McPherson in Atlanta, look us up. www.hungsingatl.com
I think he made the sash system up for the panther video series. All the early kung fu series they put out claimed to teach all the requirments up to black sash. He learned from Lee Koon Hung and he never used a belt system like that.
I don’t watch many instructional videos but lee Koon Hung’s brother has put out a couple and if I was going to buy one I would go with his.
Never seen any of the doc fai wong vids.
But tat mau wongs lion dance videos are really good.
quite detailed etc etc.
as for the kungfu forms, again, I haven’t seen those. Just his lion dance stuff.
In fact I would recommend Tat mau’s Lion Dance vids to learn about lion dance and how to do it and learn it.
As for forms, I have learned a few from videos, but learning that way for me is really boring…just personally. But I understand how you mean about no access otherwise and that is what vids are for really. Be aware that you are going to innately add your own flavour to any forms you learn from video simply because you don’t get correction or you get limited reminders on sections in the video and those are subject to your own interpretation.
If at all possible, share and exchange forms with others. That is, if you like the forms. Pretty much every advanced practitioner who is able to exchange forms will know at least one that you are going to like and want to learn. This has been true for me at least.
A lot of schools are introducing belt systems these days for two main reasons.
People expect it and, to make a living, you often need to give people a little of what they want.
As schools and organisations get bigger, it’s easier for people to keep track of what people know this way and to have a more standardised curriculum of teaching.
Kung fu didn’t traditionally have a belt system, but things change and evolve over time. As long as the instruction is good and the kung fu is solid, it doesn’t really matter if and how a teacher marks his students’ progress.
As for learning, if you like CLF, then Chan Family CLF has schools all over Europe and a few in the US now too. 