[QUOTE=RenDaHai;1141984]Traditional Song Shan Shaolin favours striking from the front hand, so switches sides frequently in order to use both hands. [/QUOTE]
The Chinese throwing art also use
“front hand” to control your opponent’s neck or waist, and
“back hand” to control your opponent’s arm.
“front leg” as the door.
“back leg” as the axis of the door.
If your body parts are used to do certain jobs, you don’t want to switch.
If you train your hand gun, you can train one hand with 100% accuracy. You can also train both hands with 50% accuracy (because you have to divide your training time in 1/2). During a life a death situation, you may only have one chance to shot. Do you want to have 100% accuracy or 50% accuracy (even if you can shot with both hands)?
The same analogy, if you train “head lock” on one side, you can make it 100% strong. If you train it on both sides, you will make your both arms 50% equally strong. Since you may only have chance to use your head lock once in combat, it’s better to have a 100% strong head lock than to have 50% strong head lock (even if you can apply it on both sides).
Ouote:
EarthDragon
GETHIN
please be advised there called Nunchaku, not numcucks. If you are going to use this primitive farming tool for MA you should at least know how to pronunce and spell it. just an FYI
Unquote.
…
Thanks Earth Dragon, … I’ve called them ‘Shaung jie gun’ here for so long I didn’t think many people would recognize that.
As for primitive farming - that’s all I’ve ever seen in China… kinda goes well with my HD’s then !
We train both sides initially for any and all drills with an emphasis on discovery of any weakness to which we then advocate trying to bring the weak side up to a level of competency.
Both the Hsing I (xingyi) and the Pa Kua (bagua) we practice does most things bilaterally to develop the ability to switch guard, footchange and/or “pyan” shift offline in relation to the attack in order to attain flank advantage, etc.
But as one progresses and discovers the inevitable, which is in agreement with YKW, we will tend to “specialize” this or that skillset to the more comfortable side of the body.
So after awhile, we all find our preferences and that begins to shape the remainder of our continued training. Essentially, once enough experience is gained, we yield to individuality dictated by both the body and mind of the practitioner.
Hsu Hong Chi (Xu Hong Ji) used to like to say; “Not everyone is a size nine shoe.”
[QUOTE=YouKnowWho;1141961]I like to train different moves for different sides. This way, I can train twice as many moves than trying to train the same move on both sides. You may train “general” moves on both sides but you should only train your “door gurding” moves on one side only. If you look at the following picture, there is a mark on his right foot that you don’t see that on his left foot. You can tell that there are certain skills that he only trains on his right leg but not on his left leg.
Training to fight from either side so to speak is a battle field inovation. If you are fighting a single opponent, you can afford to put your best foot forward, but when you are in a situation where you may be faced with many, and from different directions, you really need to be able to respond from either side equally. It is a simple matter of survival on the battle field. In todays world, and especially if you train a martial art simply for the novelty or fun of it, there is no immediate need to train both sides equally, but it would not be a bad thing.
Having said that, I personally trained harder from the left side because my right was dominent. I want equal use from both sides, but even after years of left on training I am still right dominent to the greater extent.
[QUOTE=ginosifu;1141957]How does you guys train? Do you practice techniques only on your dominant side? Do you practice only the Right side? Do you practice techniques on both sides equally?
What are the ins and outs to training the different ways. I have seen many Northern Shaolin forms that are right hand dominant. Hung Gar forms are mostly ambidexterous. Which method do everyone preffer?
ginosifu[/QUOTE]
Train both sides for sure. There’s a pretty decent tactical advantage to being able to easily switch between the two.
I find that I’m just a different fighter using one lead than the other, different moves are most natural, etc. It’s been interesting to me how that developed.
On another note, I think that one should develop both leads. You never know when you go in to do a throw that’s a step through, the other guy manages a good escape, and suddenly, your other lead is in there.
