Check out my master, master David Bond Chan. The focus is on fighting, but the health is built in: http://www.chan-internal-martial-arts.com/
A champion Tai Boxer visited us last weak; he still had his hands wrap and sporting the gold after the fighting … it was held up the block and he wanted to check the school out.
This was his report posted on Bullshido.com:
Quick background: I’ve been studying MA’s for about 15 years or so, 12 of which have been deveoted almost entirely to Muay Thai and Boxing (with a little submission grappling thrown in).
I went with Djimbe and Tigerfly to see Master Chan’s class after fighting on Friday night. I was introduced to Master Chan who is an extremely nice guy. Very respectful and a great sense of humor. He worked with me to the side of his class for a little bit to show me some of what he teaches is and how he defends/counters boxing and kicks.
My observations:
It is important to state that the few drills that I performed with Master Chan were prearranged drills. We each knew what the ‘attacker’ was going to do first, though we each reacted (countered) without it being ‘prearranged’. Also, we only did about 3 or 4 drills for about 10 minutes. I had just finished fighting in the “Mayhem on Mulberry Street” Muay Thai event, and I needed to get back to the arena to meet with my coaches and teammates.
Master Chan showed me some punch defenses. Master Chan is blazingly fast. I threw a punch and he slipped my punch and had clocked me in the jaw before it had registered that he had moved.
It was very obvious to me that he was holding back. When he hit me, he never followed through, but stopped as his strike as he placed it. Despite the fact that Master Chan was not following through on his strikes, I could feel the power behind them. We all know the difference between someone striking you correctly where it feels “solid” vs. when someone hits you wrong and it feels weak and soft. Despite Chan holding back, you could feel how solid the strikes were.
Also, when he was performing counter strikes vs. my boxing, he repeatedly was hitting the same spot on my arm over and over. Very precise, and he successfully “frogged” my arm each time.
Master Chan invited me to throw roundhouse kicks at him. He had an interesting defense where he angled his arm in such a manner that my kick kinda “slid” up his arm into his other hand to make for what felt like a very soft block. It felt like I was kicking a pillow, even though I was laying into the kicks pretty hard. (not full power, but about 70%). I only moved him with one kick.
Now, obviously my experience with Master Chan is very limited. We weren’t going hard, We weren’t doing anything “for real” We were just playing. What I can say is that my impression is that Master Chan is amazing. I have worked with many talented martial artists over the years, and I really feel that Master Chan is legit, and that what he is teaching is legit.
