hi all, i’ve been doing kung fu for a while now, but i’m starting to realize how cool it would be to be able to do hard kicks, hard punches and just use all strength. I like my kung fu and i think the teachers are good and the style is effective yet the style uses Tai Chi principles which makes the style very slow, BTW i practice 7 star prayingmantis and Su yu chang tought my sifu.
ANyways the style is settle and i get not much muscle from it, other than stances but everything else its just really slow and perfecting technique, we do it fast also. My teacher doesn’t make us do pushups or anything like that and he also says i shouldn’t train with a punching bag because the mechanics arre so much different from human mechanics.
Now when i first wanted to join i wanted to do stuff that was strenuous, and i kind of still want to so i’m thinking about quiting, but i dont know if i should yet because i there might not be any better, and i might regret it. i also know alot of the people in my class and it might suck to leave and join another school with a bad class atmosphere. I’m stuck and i cannot decide on my own so please someone help me make a decision sorry if my grammar is bad
LOL. If you can’t hit the bag, what can you hit? You can’t hit a human… Muay Thai fighters hit bags all the time and they’re awesome fighters. Maybe you should just do all the strenuous stuff on your own.
Exactly what I was going to say.
Start doing the push ups and other strenuous exercises that you wan’t to do. It will build your strength as well as your determination. You can go to a class/dojo - but if you want real results then you need to train on your own.
If you feel you must leave, do research first. If you make a change, make sure that you know going in that it is the right environment for you. Being uneasy when trying to learn an be disruptive.
As long as you work on flexibility as well as building muscle, I don’t think any harm could come of building some strength with bodyweight or even freeweight excercizes. If you want to pound on a heavy bag, go ahead and do so (my school doesn’t have one, either, so I’m seeking out a place to do bagwork myself.) There’s no need to quit neccesarily, just because a school doesn’t offer everything you want. You may just need to add some stuff to fill in the gaps.
And maybe your teacher is having you work slowly to get your basics to a point he thinks you’re ready to do something harder. Could be that out-of-class conditioning will help hurry that along.
Bottom line… any place you go is going to ask you to do stuff you don’t want to do…
That being said; certain styles (of kung fu, of training, of learning) aren’t for everyone.
If you want to gain muscle or get in better shape, you might do better at a fitness club, with weights, cardio machines, etc.
If you want to be a fighter, or just train like one, you might want to go to a place that is known for producing fighters (one person in the lineage doesn’t really count).
It sounds as if the problems you’re having with the school are at the essence of the training that goes on there. At that point, you gotta ask yourself if the end result is something worth putting up with that kind of constant frustration to you.
Spend some time asking yourself what your goals are. There may be a more direct path to what your goals are. If anything, it should at least give you perspective, for when you travel to other locations you’re considering, so you can evaluate whether the situation would be any better.
hi Ralek just doesn’t have the same ring to it… or the history for it to make sense…
thankfully i took heed to that type of advice and sensible advice like it… and all it did was put me in a world of pain and being broke… i wouldn’t have it any other way…
Seriously, a lot of what you are doing won’t be apparent for some time. What you are thinking you need might not help you at all in the long term either. Su Yu Chang is well known for producing fighters, ask him what he thinks of bag work next time he comes up there. I think you may misunderstand about bag work. There is a lot of different types of bag work especially in Piqua training.
Do your push ups and stuff at home. There’s not enough time during class to waste that you might otherwise be working on the basics and learning. And don’t limit your thinking to building muscle and strength.
It’s good to go to other schools, meet and exchange with other martial artists. But sometimes you have to dig to find the gold.
count
Just to be more clear; I do know the history of Su Yu Chang and his fighters. I was trying to make my post as encompassing as possible. If the guy wants to be banging on heavybags in a sweaty, dusty gym; then maybe a style where he spends years laying down a solid foundation isn’t what he really wants.
It all goes back to “take a look at the final results and ask yourself if that’s what you really want”.
It all goes back to “take a look at the final results and ask yourself if that’s what you really want”.
Hard to know or say what the final results are when you are just starting out. The problem here is when you only know a part you might think that’s what there is. It’s like the story frog who lived down in a well and thought the whole sky was just the round peice he could see but when he got out he saw it was much more. That’s why it’s best to ask your seniors and meet as many others as you can for exchange. But I agree with your point.
funny - my 7-star mantis class was hardcore - lots of pushups, situps, kicks, punches, stances, steps, arm banging, etc. Sifu Kwan grew up in HK and Tawain and trained traditionally - he says he broke nearly every bone in his body training. He also has about 8 heavy bags in the kwoon, although the students don’t use them much. We did a half hour of Qi-gong and stretching before every class, though.
Originally posted by Suntzu ‘a while’ vs ‘just starting out’… i guess u know this dude?..
Maybe? Maybe not? Based on his comments and where he describes his training is at. I know his seniors. I know his teacher and I know the program. I can safely say that there are realizations along the way if you work at something long enough that are not even expected when you are starting out.
I can safely say that there are realizations along the way if you work at something long enough that are not even expected when you are starting out.
true… but depending on his goals… those ‘realizations’ might come a little too late…
My advice…do what you want to do…but let me tell you a little story about my friend, let’s say his name was musicalkatatool…anyway this guy was brainwashed and thought kung fu was tha $hit and went all out kissing @ $ $ and getting more and more involved in the program…then one day he realized…this $ux and wanted out but thanks to the traditional way of doing things they had him by the B @ ll$ and he couldn’t get out…so part of me says do what you want and part of me says [SIZE=3]GET THE %$& OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN[/SIZE]
… yeah that kkm stuff needs do die…