Hey, I figure I’ll bite. A lot of folks I know probly already know this one; and if the wrong people read it, they may get ticked, but what the he||.
Started when I was 16, after my friend/idol blasted me a good 4 feet with a no-inch / taiji brush knee push kinda thing. Hooked up with the guy he was studying with at the time before my friend moved on to the Fillipino MAs.
Trained with that first sifu for about 2 years in a bunch of stuff. Focused mostly on competition Taiji, hsing yi (wang shu jin style I’ve heard), and somewhat of a melange of animal styles. At the time I wanted to be a fighting Jet Li. Worked on tons of flexibility and acrobatics, cuz I could do a lot as a skinny 16 year old. My sparring was no-pad slap fighting. Got stomped one day by an older classmate who decided to get more serious about his training and lost all my confidence fighting wise. Thought I knew it all, cuz that was the attitude of the teacher. Still remember most, if not all, of the forms I learned (36); the hsing yi and 24 taiji really stuck with me.
Went off to college (unwillingly), got real depressed, gained a ton of weight, and didn’t have a school. Tried out a JKD school for a couple classes, but the teacher decided to turn a focus mitt session into a no-pad freespar situation. Guess he was tryin to spank me to convince me I needed the class; but all he connected with was a single leg kick so it just ended up giving me a bad taste in my mouth.
Got a co-op in another town, and got a reprieve from college for a little while. Hooked up with a mantis school when I was down there. Realized that it hurts to start over more than it does the first time around. First trip was 6 months, and was almost in shape by the time i left. Went back to school to get out of shape for another 5 months before goin back on a second trip. Second trip was almost a year and a half and went through the same experience again.
As before, I was learning tons of forms. Got a feeling of superiority because of the “grandmasters” that I was meeting through various seminars at the school. Sparring was a bit more involved; but about the level of continuous sparring at tourneys. Wasn’t really getting in shape the second time around. The training sessions left me seriously sore & overtrained; my diet wasn’t much help either.
Never quite felt like I fit in at the mantis school. Started getting on KFO back then & I liked reading up on a lot of stuff. I KNOW I talked waaaay too much sh*t online back then. I think my interest in history, theory, etc made some of my classmates think I was c0cky; eventho I talked decidedly less at the school. Think I knew back then that it wasn’t right for me but didn’t know how to process it.
While I was still with the mantis school, I worked out with a Shuai Chao school once a week for a few months towards the end of my co-op stint. Really liked working out with the Shuai Chao people; all the people in the class were real advanced and a tight group. Was really intimidated about free wrestling with them at the time. Wish I could’ve stayed there longer; good group and I may have found my niche.
Went back to college to graduate. Hooked up with a Taiwanese guy the last 4 months before graduation. He fought in King of San Da in China. We hung out like everyday. Was posting a lot; which probably means I was talking a ton of sh*t but it was my first real experience with sport fighting and I liked it a lot. The training was more geared to helping my friend than developing myself, so I didn’t feel completely immersed, but it was at least exposure; plus I was finally starting to get in shape again.
Graduated with nowhere to go. Hibernated at my folks’ place in San Antonio for the next 6 to 8 months. Got more out of shape than ever before; eventho I was occasionally hitting the gym and working out with Martialduolos from here. Spent too much time on the net, reading and posting. Didn’t know where I was gonna go- where I was gonna live, where I was gonna work, what I was gonna do martial arts wise.
Eventually I got a job and moved to the East coast. Been here just over a year and a half. Hooked up with a traditional school and got back into the swing of things…again. After a year of not feeling like my shape was improving any, I figured something had to change. Also started realizing that I wanted to fight full contact & actually practise stuff like I was gonna use it with full intensity.
Hooked up with Suntzu and Julio & fixed my diet; haven’t regretted it since. Got in a lot better shape with more confidence. Seeing both sides of the issue that I thought I’d understood through various internet arguments years before was eye opening. Resolved the old Traditional vs Sport Fighting arguments for myself.
I still do lion dance and hit up my traditional school pretty regularly; because they’re family & I just like doing it (especially lion). While I go through bouts of frustration with the kung fu school; or overtraining at the gym; I do think I’ve found my niche. I don’t have the old “crisis of training” every few months that I was getting with just training forms & tournament sparring. I also got friends to go film stupid joke movies with after training. 
I’ve gone from being your typical traditional purist to having a more “moderate” standpoint. I think there’s reasons to train forms if you want to. I think there’s good stuff that can be used in traditional kung fu. I also think styles are more of an individual thing- that people are fluid, they grow, and they need to exploit their strengths. So I don’t see the point of not using something if it works, if I can use it, and if it makes me a better fighter.
I think belonging to X-type of traditional kung fu is more about family, loyalty, morals, ethics, philosophy, etiquette, and principles rather than what stance you fight out of, only training exactly what was trained hundreds of years ago, only hanging with certain people, and only attending certain events.
Realized that cuz “so and so” could fight back in the day; or because “grandmaster X” was visiting my school twice a year; or cuz sifu fights real good was no excuse for me not to see what I could do. I really had some insecurities at always having to point to someone else’s ability.
Went from being a guy who kept using the “well the ring isn’t the street” argument; to realizing that “the street” didn’t make any sense for me; personally, to base my training around. I’d rather avoid a street confrontation at any cost; and I’ve never had any as an adult to begin with.
I realize that I’d prefer to have a skillset that was only used in a ring with specific rules & that knowing what I could do in that ring was enough to quiet those insecurities I’d always had at the other kung fu schools where the training wasn’t based around competing full contact.
Another thing that came about as a result of the gym was the concept of no longer having to wait until someone told me it was “okay” to start training to fight. In kung fu there was this perception that sifu would someday tell me I was ready to start training to fight and until then just train what i was doing. Of course, waiting for your coach to say you’re ready for a competition’s a different story; but it was nice to find out that the training wasn’t reserved for 5 or 10 year advanced students.
First fight’s in a week and a half. Coming off a bad bout of overtraining & undereating last weekend and I just hope I’m where I need to be in time for the event.
Sorry for the long post. Not trying to pizz anyone off, just relating some personal experiences. I’ll let yah know how it goes.
)
