Seems like we got a lot of Bak Mei posters here. I just thought that I would ask you guys and gals about your grading tests at your gwoons. Do you have grading and how often? I was just wondering if you all grade only one form at a time. Or say you are grading for three levels, do you test just that level, or for all those levels together at once? What all is included in your gradings: conditioning, pad work, two man drills, weapons, etc? Basically, whats going on at your grading tests?
I have just moved to OZ to study Yau Kung Mun. I got here a week ago and got the chance to see one of the grading tests for two of the students here. Needless to say, it was “full on”!!! Actually, I just wanted to see how other grading regiments compare up to the one I witnessed today. I am very glad to be where I am at because I have found what would be defined as a definite traditional kung fu school! Good stuff! MATE!
To be completely honest, in traditional chinese martial arts, there were no gradings.
The Master would advance the student when he / she has shown that they can:
Show correct body posture, foundation & breathing when executing the techniques.
Show the correct mentality and personality traits.
Perform what they have been taught.
Understand what they are practising.
Fundamentally, in our Pak Mei school ALL students where a black sash. This is generally considered as a beginners sash in Chinese Martial Arts.
It also manages to get rid of any egotism that students invitably get when they reach higher levels in a school as they go for their grades.
At the end of the day, gradings is very much a western school of thought.
The higher you reach in your skill, the more you’ll realise where you are within the school, and what your able to do with your ability…and that gradings don’t really mean anything other than a piece of paper with your name on it.
I have always been told by my Pak Mei Sifu: “The most important points in Pak Mei are the Foundation, Breathing and Body Posture”. once you have achieved these,any technique that you learn or use should become a lot easier.
‘Gradings’ are just one elaboration of the ‘status’ issue that pervades all human activities - TCMA included. What some regard as a ‘western’ phenomenon is far more universal than that. it’s simply a matter of perspective. as for coloured belts - the Okinawans and Japanese not ‘wetserners’ as such - were responsible for intrioducing that - although you get similar things in some S.E.Asian arts and even in some mainland Indian Kalari systems. The variations on traditional ‘family’ titles within TCMA are ‘gradings’ in the sense that they are legitimised cultural titles/positions from within a specific reference group i.e. a 'style’or TCMA family (Pai). Like it or not ‘gradings’ are simply and irreducibly an issue of status within a group - the specific form of which is less imporatnt than the fact of its existance.
So all you guys are basically just telling me that as long as I can do the movements with correct breathing, correct posture, correct movement, and correct applications, that I get to pass to the next kuen? That sounds great!!! I guess mastering these kinds of arts doesn’t take as long as I thought.
If I am taught the movements, correct breathing, correct posture, correct applications, and the correct other stuff; and then I am told to just perform that, OF COURSE I’ll be able to do it at least one time! Come on???
This doesn’t have anything to do with western thought. If a person grades another person and tries to push them to the edge, that makes the person who is learning better. Do you guys really think that the monks never pushed each other? Or did they just learn how to do the correct this and that once in front of the master? Then he say “good, now I teach you next kuen”???
Now if it did have something to do with western thought. I would just go to the grading and no matter how good or bad I did, I would pass.
CLOUD ONE: Sifu grades us on who passes and fails. And you already know who my Sifu is. If you fail at first, you get a second chance, but after the second chance you have to pay.
Sui Fuw: What does Man Kwong Fong have to do with any of this? Do you know how he grades his students, or if he even does? Do you get to pass to your next level only when you uproot the bamboo? So is first level at the bottom or middle? Good luck!
Hey renegade, are you doing Yau Kung Mun? What kind of training are you doing? Any Jow Gar at all? Things are going very good here. I’ll drop you an e-mail.
The point of martial arts is to liberate a person not to enslave a person. If you need recognition from someone or everyone why not do martial sports instead? One respects the skill of Bak Mei stylist by choice, a Bak Mei practitioner would not demand respects from anyone because he/she understands that like the skill itself, respects is hard earned. There is no glory in the study of Bak Mei but there is hard work - plain and simple Kung Fu.
i bet you couldn’t do it? whats up the ykm not good in america?or is it your no good learn all you want,learn as much as you want,its you that has to satify yourself.the teacher satifys your ego?
In our kwoon those who do a grading have to show stances , postures , breathing, application understanding , history, fitness, form with/without iron rings. granted grading may not be considered traditional but does not mean they aren’t affective, people have to really study their forms and train hard for the grading because in our kwoon it’s no walk in the park.
sifu doesn’t just hand you the next form like many other schools once you’ve completed the previous, he pushs you to your limit and past to make you “EARN” it, If you can’t do your form under pressure of the whole kwoon watching and being absolutely buggered then how will it work on the street!
Each level includes everything from the previous level , so each grading level gets harder so you must train hard for the understanding and fitness.
If you want to learn the next level you "must ’ show you understand the present one first.
At my previous school after 3 years I walked out with almost 30 forms with nothing above basic understanding , if that! I learnt more in 6 months at YKM and the hard gradings pushed people to study and train hard so it depends on how your gradings are designed and for what purpose but their is no “ego” about it in our kwoon.
bui its nice you feel this way about your school,however how does a form work on the street,remember good fights are not pre-rehersed. meaning come across a good fight he might have broken rythem?
Where in my post did I say a street fight was some pre-rehersed thing, you read that one wrong!
My point , if you’d bothered to look deeper into it , was toward mind set. If under pressure of people merely watching you do forms and also being tired already you give up or can’t push on through fatige or nerves how the hell are you going to fight a real fight. My point was about the mental focus you git, not the obvious fu(king point of street fights not being pre-rehereded, no sh!t they’re not.
Sui Fuw you really crack me up. What is the matter with you actually? Can you read and then analyze what you have read, with the ability to give a normal answer. You are looking at it negatively. What for? I never said I was good, or anything for that matter. All I WAS saying is that if you are only going to do the kuens one time, with correct this and that, it would be a lot easier then doing with repitition for a grading. Again, I never said I was good. I am trying to better my kung fu and learn, thats all. It’s up to me. I don’t have any idea what the American Yau Kung Mun is like. The dont offer live in training like FT does. But I do not have to justify to you or anyone, my reason for wanting to study with FT. I’ve got an idea for you though. Come and find out why I am here.
It really gets on my nerves how negative you people are about everything dealing with YKM, bak mei, hakka, or whatever. It would be nice to discuss something useful to the arts. Of course there are different levels of being good or whatever, but in the end, everyone is learning…right???
Reply usefully, or don’t. Sui Fuw are you starting something? Cool.
What can you learn on this forum?
Why do you post these questions?
Ask your SIFU he should have the answers, shouln’t he?
If not then ask him why?
Is he a teacher or still a student?
Visualizing differences in technique is something people do when reading. You know, like all the monks and their books. Never, did I say I could learn how to do a certain move or whatever. Analization is normal in reading. Analyzing reading that plays on someone else’s memory pictures, can open doors to others who want to figure certain situations out.
“Why do you post these questions?”
Well, I asked this question simply to see what grading requirements happen in all these bak mei branches.
“Ask your Sifu, he should have the answers, shouldn’t he.”
Yes, and there was no reason to ask him this question because I freaking saw the grading that he required of his students!"
“If not then ask him why.”
Don’t worry I will if I don’t understand the answer, but that would be my own fault.
“Is he a teacher or still a student?”
Are you hakka, or cantonese?
Now see folks, I answered every freaking question this genius asked me.
I haven’t spoke with you in a while, how expensive was the relocation and getting housing there?
meaning come across a good fight he might have broken rythem? 
