I appreciate everyone’s responses. Personally, my ideal kung fu school would be one that keeps traditional training but is also laid back and includes combat sport training like san shou or shuai chiao. I’m drawn to Chinese martial arts for cultural, artisitic, creative and spiritual reasons, and it would be cool to get immersed in a system that teaches empty fist and weapons forms, keeps cultural traditions, and has internal training as well like Tai Chi. However, I am also a believer in “alive” training (to use Matt Thornton’s terminology), and want a broader emphasis than just forms training at this point in my life. That’s completely my opinion and interest, and I’m certainly not trying to be offensive or cause a flame war.
My old Choy Lay Fut school was run by an old white Texas guy, and was very nontraditional and relaxed. He dropped all of the eastern religious influences amd culture. We still learned maybe 10 forms, but focused more on point sparring and some free form MMA type training. At that point that was fine with me as I was working in state hospitals and as a counselor at probation, and was more into pure self defense. I also took BJJ and muay thai for about a year, which was hard core and very cool and practical, but I kept getting injured! Now, I’m getting older (35) and am a university student again, so I’m looking for a laid back school that I can just have fun at, get in shape, socialize, etc. It would be really cool to find a CMA school that combines the forms and cultural training, but still has sport training like san shou that I could have fun with in a relaxed fashion without trying to kill anyone or lose brain cells. I don’t really want to compete in matches at my age (which always seems like a great idea when one is 20), but I do like that way of training. As I get older I could get further into the system and learn the cultural and internal sides of the art.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a Choy Lay Fut school here in Denver, as in my experience, they often stress fighting and will train san shou, and also have huge amount of forms and traditional training that’s fascinating culturally (iron palm, internal wire sets). From what I gather, the Wah Lum school spars some and will train san shou if anyone has an upcoming match, and does include shuai chiao further on the system. Although not outrageous, their prices were probably a bit high for what I can afford right now, though.
PlumDragon-- I will check out the White Dragon school and the Denver AMA school. They both look good. I like much of the JKDC style and approach, and that would work fine if I can’t find a CMA school I like. BoulderDawg-- I’m aware of Shaolin-Do and its history, and it’s probably not for me. But I appreciate your suggestion.
Also, PlumDragon-- that would be cool to workout with you. I will have to drag my lazy butt off the couch, so don’t expect a lot as I’m way out of shape and haven’t trained in 3 years! Send me an email.
Thanks for everyone’s input on the Denver scene. I hope I didn’t step on anyone’s toes, all the above is just my opinion.
Kent
