Budokan is also correct. What you wear has nothing to do with the quality of practice or technique.
I would also like to say that if everyone in class wears a school logo T-shirt and Kung Fu pants I would condider that a uniform of sorts.
This also has to be taken in context. People who are taking classes or teaching in a Parks & Recreation or club format are probably looking at a cost issue. They may baulk at purchasing a uniform that costs more than a month of tuition.
A flashy uniform can never make up for poor technique or lack of conditioning.
I hate wearing a Gi, they are lame. They have their place in grappling, but i don;t think theyre nessesary for that. Even a regular Gi will get torn up in grappleing, you need a heavy duty Judo/Juj. gi to survive that. And those are hot and heavy for training other stuff and people tend to focus on grappling with the gi and choking out with the gi lapels and grabbing by the belt. A uniform or gi has nothing to do with quality training, theyre just glorified girl scout uniforms (hey, not that theres anything wrong with girlscouts, they make some of the best cookies!), especially the schools that wear all the tacky patches, buttons, stripes, etc.
If a SiFu chooses to have a standard ‘uniform’ though, i think a school t-shirt (cheap and abundant so you can tear 'um up) will suffice. You can go through a lot of t-shirts before you equal the cost of a high quality gi. And an assailant in the real world isnt going to be wearing a gi anyway, why train to primarily against that type of outfit?
Silk pajamas make good lingerie, but are silly to train in. They can look sharp in a flashy competition form though, the silk matches the shiney crome-foil weapons. :rolleyes:
I think the judogi/short sleeve shuai chiao jacket/whatever similar article of clothing are a very important part of any grappling intensive training. If you intend to go with the sporting application, the uniform is part of the sport; you’ve got to know how to deal with it. If you’re doing grappling from a self defense perspective, using an attackers clothing against him is vital to know. I agree you shouldn’t concentrate too much on gi/jacket dependent techs, but most of those techs translate into a ‘skins game’ type situation pretty easily anyway in my (quite limited) experience.
Now that I stated the obvious…Uniforms are great. First they make people students included, feel like they are doing somthing important. They also make people feel like part of the group. Personally when I put on my uniform I know it’s time for business and I just feel completely into my training. On the other side I train in sweats outside of class and can get down to business. Our class uniform is Black Kf pants and a class t shirt people can choose to wear a KF jacket but that is optional. If you are rebelling against the uniform ask yourself what is the point?
Personally I think GI’s are fine, even for KF training. I think some people judge whether a school is legit based on the GI though. That’s sad cause they are way more cost effective than any of the KF uniforms out there.
agreed on the cost issue. could it just be japanese frugality shining through again?
on a serious note, i like what my kwoon does. we have general school kung fu uniforms (black kung fu pants and a white school t-shirt). for students who have been there for a while, they are invited to join the international wing tsun association, and we have specific uniforms for those students (same style and colors, just higher quality with organizational logos). when a student has progressed far enough within the ranks, has gone through a couple instruction courses and has tested with the IWTA, they are given their assistant instructors license and then wear a black shirt. beyond that, there are different uniforms, but most wear a t-shirt that designates their logo and the typical, stout organizational pants.
i like this idea, because it makes it easy to pick out senior students, and it makes it even easier to pick out instructors. personally, i don’t like the idea of belts in chinese systems. it’s one tradition i like to keep. i also think it’d be a little disrespectful to japanese masters who made their own arts distinct to simply take part of their tradition from them.
Uniforms do serve a purpose. For example hakima pants hide the foot work in aikido, also judo Gi’s have woven front to grab on to as many hear have said.
But also the word “uniform” means one, together, alike, so with that anyone that is part of a group or school needs to look like their fellow kung fu brothers.
When I teach it is nice to see all my students look the same and when one person forgets their uniform they have told me they dont feel like part of the group. Strange you say, but fitting in plays a part in phsycological feeling of belonging. and being a member of something you should take pride in , why else to lodge members wear those funny hats?
You guys are starting to drift from what the issue is. I think if you are going to study Chinese Martial Arts and wear a uniform, it should be a Chinese Martial Arts uniform. I moved to Denver a year and a half ago, when I was looking for a new school, I went to one (which has been brought up a few times) that said that they were very “traditional.” However, when their students walked in the school with gis on I was a bit confused, I watched some do a few forms, that looked sort of like most Shaolin that I have seen but a bit choppy, so I just politely excused myself, left, and never went back, (plus, I heard it was easy to a black belt there, just have to learn the forms, not really know them). As far as sashes and rankings are conserned, I think when the circumstances are right it may be good to implement a sash system. If you have a big school or one that is expanding, then it may be good to show seniority, skill level, etc. This would come in handy when people either new to the school or new to ma in general had a question and the sifu is busy, not there, whatever. I also think if you are going to use a ranking system in cma then it should be sashes, as they are seen as more “traditional” than as would a belt. Don’t get me wrong, gis are cool and all, but if you want to rock a uni, rock it right.
Norther practitioner you contradict yourself. First you say you should wear a CMA uniform if you are in CMA but then you say color rankings are good. Color rankings are japanese in origin. You based your judgement of that school on thier movement right? So what does them wearing GI’s have to do with anything? If they wear GI’s but their Kungfu was good would you have still left the school? I bet so, those of us who have been in CMA for a while tend to be judgementive of other practitioners especially if they have some elements in their school that aren’t chinese. Alot of the time we judge people on superficial matters like what kind of uniform they have on. Personally I like to keep the Chinese style uniforms cause I like to distance our school from karate since in our town most people don’t know the difference but I don’t pass judgement on other schools based on what they wear.
