QUOTE]I hate the “insert actor here could beat a boxer” discussions also.[/QUOTE]
I hear you there. I mean, I can totally respect Jackie, Jet or Donnie’s atheltic and acting talents, but fighting against someone who eats, sleeps and breathes full-contact is WAY different from choreographed “fighting” (though it must be noted that even the choreography, done HK style is pretty brutal stuff, just in a different way.)
Non-martial artists who fancy themselves to be skeptics can be pretty annoying in MA conversations, too.
“Wait, so you’re saying you practice ‘Kung-Fu?’” furrowed brow and skeptical expression
“I guess so. That’s what Chinese martial arts usually tend to be called in this country anyway.”
“Riiight…”
sighs and shakes head.
I also talked to a girl at work once, who said she took kung-fu, and wishes she still could. “Really? Where did you take it, and why did you stop?” said I. “In New York, I stopped because my family and I moved here.” she said. “I take a chinese martial arts class just down the street. WHat did you practice?” I asked of her. “Just Kung-fu. You mean you take Karate, right?” She said. “Not really. Why?” I asked interestedly. “That’s mostly all there is here, what with all the white people. You’re probably not studying real Kung-Fu.” she said rather condescendingly. She hit me with a one-two punch of rather absurd statements with that. " How So?" “There aren’t many Chinese people in Tampa.”
Poor girl. It was actually a more funny conversation than it was annoying. I had to get back to work though, so I didn’t dare to tell her that none of the Sifu’s at my class are Chinese.
Sifu mentioned once in class, if you strike someone in this little cavity (between the tips of the collarbone near throat base) they’ll be unable to speak for a while…FYI.
Also, a phoenix eye to the solar plex can have a quieting effective except for the gasping.
;)
It’s best when martial arts are your secret, don’t you think? It feels good when others recognize our achievements, but I feel better having kung fu skills hidden but ready.
I rarely train outside in the daytime except during class or meeting a group of others in the park.
I will train outside at night if I can find a good spot where I don’t stand out a lot. I like smooth basketball courts, tennis courts or schoolyards best for forms practice. You can never tell what people are thinking sometimes when they watch.
I was training forms at a schoolyard in the middle of the night a couple years ago & looked up to find a lowrider full of G’s parked like 50 yards off, just watching. Turned out they liked kung fu & were entertained, but at first I was kind of scared & hoping they didn’t want to ‘spar’ me. Whew!!
LOL @ 7*,
That’s precisely what I was doing…smile and nod…
stupidity and hard head-ness is very common in martial arts
MP, I’d personally like to thank you FOR JINXING ME! Tonight, one of my old CMA training partners came by the club. Admittedly, she’s more open minded than most I deal with, but I still nodded and smiled to comments about how, even though thai boxing, judo and bjj were good, kung fu is the best out there, how effective standing locks were for self defense, how much it increased her power, etc. She did, however, admit that if she were facing off against an mma exponent, she would probably get massacred, because that’s not what she trains for.
In response to a comment about how I should focus my training instead of training three different styles, I said that she should focus her training on something, as opposed to trying to master weapons, chin na , train iron palm, spar and grapple. It got silent after that…
I can’t believe no one brought up this one:
Moron: All that “karate stuff” won’t work if I pull out a gun.
Hmmmm. I actually had a guy say that to me in the service. When we were on board ship, we practice below decks, where there was always somebody walking around. Anyway, back to the story…
Me: Well, where’s your gun?
While it was registering on his face, I spun him around by the shoulders on put on hadake-jime. Back then, I was powerlifting and doing Isshinryu (and some Judo) and kinda tightened it up a little too much and ****ed near broke the guys windpipe.
Luckily, I’m not that violent anymore. I still got in trouble though 
Heh, heh. I love the fact that no one seems to know what the heck Hsing-I & Bagua are! It saves me from having to listen to those idiotic ramblings.
With me it’s more like this:
Someone hears that I do “Martial Arts”.
Guy: So what do you do? Taekwondo or Kuh-rotty?
Me: No. Hsing-I & Bagua.
Guy: Huh? What’s that?
Me: Like Tai Chi. (It’s not, but close enough for them).
Guy: Scratches head. Doesn’t really know what Tai Chi is but has heard it’s like Yoga. Doesn’t really know what yoga is either Oh, yeah. Okay.
End of conversation.
Re: Martial Arts = Painful Conversations
Originally posted by Merryprankster
“Well, in my style, you know, we try to root, sink the stance and resist the throw. Do you try to do something like that or do you try to, you know, use the other guy’s momentum and reverse him?”
As far as this kind of thing goes, I have a special place in my heart for this particular kind of question. To use the psychological jargon, it puts ouy in a double bind. Layspeak, your ****ed if you do and ****ed if you don’t. The only possible non-violent response requires:
a. Irony
and
b. SOMEONE in hearing range who will GET your irony.
I mean. . . yeah…you sort of do “try to root, sink the stance and resist the throw” OR “use the other guy’s momentum and reverse him”
But it’s really a non-answer. It’s like saying in boxing I try to hit the guy in the face and if he punches as me I try not to get hit. . . in our style I mean.
So for my personal contribution to the dumb questions with smart asnwers thread:
"Hey! I heard you do kung fu!!! So . . . are you like, a black belt? "
Me: "Uhh . . . yes. I AM like a black belt. "
(note: I have no formal rank in any style. But I have trained for many years so technically I AM “like” a black belt. )
Heh, heh. Back when I was doing Karate (and, yes, I WAS a blackbelt ), a guy actually said to me in one of these conversations: “Don’t you, like, have to kill someone with your bare hands to get your blackbelt, or something?” I wasn’t sure if he was joking or being serious. All I could say was “Uuum…yeah.” 
Originally posted by Banjos_dad
I will train outside at night if I can find a good spot where I don’t stand out a lot. I like smooth basketball courts, tennis courts or schoolyards best for forms practice. You can never tell what people are thinking sometimes when they watch.
I was training forms at a schoolyard in the middle of the night a couple years ago & looked up to find a lowrider full of G’s parked like 50 yards off, just watching. Turned out they liked kung fu & were entertained, but at first I was kind of scared & hoping they didn’t want to ‘spar’ me. Whew!!
no offense dude, but what a poser. wasnt there a discussion about the kind of people who go around training in public, especially while wearing their karate/kung fu/whatever get up, and how they reflect so badly on everyone else? havent you got a house?
anyway on topic, one of my mates called Shay is real big. works out every day, is built like a brick, about 6’4 tall. weighs about 110 kg, benches 90kg. hands like dinner plates. I’m about 65kg, 5’10 or so. kinda thin, bit of muscle though (Bruce Lee type muscle, not bodybuilder muscle) and people always ask-
“you do KUNG FU right?”
“yeah. and muay thai”
confused look- no one knows wtf muay thai is
“Could you beat up shay?”
“well he’s about twice as big as me. probably not”
“but you do kung fu?!?!”
“Me fighting shay is like Shay fighting a gorilla or a bear. look at those clubs he calls hands.”
then it generally turns to the guys sister/niece/grandma who does judo/ninjitsu/krotty and could kill both of us with their hands tied and are registered as deadly weapons. I love the general populace.
Ikken Hisatssu–
Who was wearing a uniform? In the future I’ll type slower so you can catch everything.
And no I live in an apartment…Like what you’ll live in when your mommy & daddy kick you out of your house mr born in 1986…You would **** your pants if you met me on the street, slick…
Kung fu taught me to cut slack for ignorant brats…as opposed to karate – “kick ass first & ask questions later…” you get the benefit of the doubt there sonny.
Sounds like your about 50 lbs lighter & five inches on the loser side of this fight as well.
So "no offense"dude, but go grow some hair on yer nuts & let the adults have their talk time, mmmkay? Maybe you can find a Brittney ‘n’ Justin forum, something you could contribute to.
What the f*ck are you even trying to say besides flaming me. How hot you think your big friend is :o
Originally posted by Ikken Hisatsu
[B]
no offense dude, but what a poser. wasnt there a discussion about the kind of people who go around training in public, especially while wearing their karate/kung fu/whatever get up, and how they reflect so badly on everyone else? havent you got a house?
[/B]
He aint a poser unless he actually wants a crowd. And if you actually read what he posted you’d notice that’s what he said. What’s wrong with training outside? You never jog, swim or climb? Are all joggers ‘posers’, I mean don’t they have a house? :rolleyes:
I’ve met countless ignorants who always asks q’s like “but what if I push you really hard?” and “martial arts? aren’t you afraid you’ll hurt somebody?” etc
People never remember what I train so I don’t explain it to anyone anymore. If someone asks “hey, you train Judo right?” I always sais “yeah”
Thanks for that Kristoffer. Bear in mind this guy’s only eighteen. :rolleyes:
I got home from work & saw that post…kind of got under my skin.
His concussion wouldn’t give a f*ck if I was wearing a uniform or not anyway.
Arrgh. Little ******* got on my last nerve.
The Best Part Of Ikken Hisatsu Dribbled Off His Momma’s Chin.
There. Now keep your smooth hairless little candy-hole shut & I won’t hurt you any mo.
Originally posted by Ikken Hisatsu
[B]
no offense dude, but what a poser. wasnt there a discussion about the kind of people who go around training in public, especially while wearing their karate/kung fu/whatever get up, and how they reflect so badly on everyone else? havent you got a house?
[/B]
I don’t see anything at all wrong with training in public. I used to/still do it all the time. When I was in college, my coach and I would train in the field house of the school. If it was a nice day, we’d go outside. We were already on campus - why the he11 should we have gone somewhere else? are american football players, soccer players, etc. showing off? I mean they CAN drill and walk through plays indoors…
When I was in CMA, I would practice my weapons forms outside. It kinda sucks to swing a staff or sword in the house, ya know?
Many of the capoeira schools here train outside on a regular basis. They don’t have a school, so the only place they can be and have room is outdoors, like in a park, on a tennis court, etc.
My current MT coach and I meet a couple days a week, outside of class - we meet at the gym my apt complex has, which is public. Last week, they left the deadbolt on the door - residents only have the key to the bottom lock, not the deadbolt - so we trained on the tennis court.
Are the chinese guys doing taiji in the park posers?
Oh yeah, on the “the jiu jits” thing - I wonder if that’s regional - ask the guys if they are originally from the west coast or somewhere - the two guys I know of who say it are both from cali.
7* knows.
Thanks, KFC. I’m something of a cowboy myself sometimes. Sux to be angry. I feel a little better now. But not because of that link .
This is a kungfu forum. If people are going to call someone a poser with no grounds, they should expect an angry response.
Fighting anger is a struggle for me, I’m trying to be a good zen buddhist…It’s tough but nothing so good is obtained with no struggle.
Still, some of the most eminent zen heroes were known to transmit wisdom with a STICK…
Originally posted by Banjos_dad
Yep…it’s kind of funny. I knew he was talking about the ‘shao lin’ center where they weare gi’s & have a bokken rack (I think…). I went to see if they had a presence online & almost fell out of my chair, dude
Are the Chinese characters backwards on their gis?
http://www.shaolinnm.com/images/srmstrfest1.jpg
The first character from the left is “Lin” or “forest”. The second is “Xiao” or “Small.” Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Banjo’s_dad, it’s just human nature!
I’m mostly human. It shines through. I read my posts later & am like…ooooo. Wish I could take tht back! I know they can be deleted but I think that’s taking the easy way out.
Plus all the fun people will have later seeing us virtual blast each other.
MK, you’re right about the characters on the gi. I bet you also noticed that the banner at the front of the class is spelled out properly, from the top down!
When I was doing karate I would have loved a kung fu gi like that 
Sho Rin Ryu almost equals Xiao Lin Do. That’s something else I noticed. Rin is Japanese for Lin, as they avoid L sounds in their language. I think ryu and do are meant in the same way.
You now have the coolest avatar on KFO. btw.
Later, B-d