I am looking to pick up a couple videos for a few weapons techniques, and was wondering if anyone could give some recommendations. Wing Lam seems to have every video known to man or animal for that matter. So I wonder if they are any good.
Specifically basic Staff, Spear, and straight sword.
I would appreciate any links to good video reference areas as well.
Thanks.
I’ll vouch for the quality of the WLE vids. They are well put together and get quite detailed.
If you have some decent foundational knowlkedge and skill it is likely you will like these vids. The focus is North Shaolin, Hung Gar and Sun Tai Chi. All his basics tapes are geared towards these styles.
http://us.yesasia.com/en/brPrdDept.aspx/did-6447/code-c/section-videos/
If you have some basic understanding of Kung Fu, the Shaolin VCDs from Shi De Yang are awesome. They’re in Chinese, but you can see the forms from 3 different angles and in varying speeds.
I have the 3-sectioned staff video.. I would recomend it.
WLE
I wrote most of those videos, so I’m biased.
Why did you post this on the media forum?
Gene, while I’m no expert, I’m guessing because it is a form of Media.. but like I said, I’m no expert.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense
Although it would probably be more powerful on either the Southern (Hung Gar), Shaolin or internal forum. I almost missed it myself here.
Just because of YOUR browsing insufficiencies we should move it.. yeah, you’re right though…lol
Nah, I’m not moving it.
It just seemed funny to me, that’s all.
nevermind…
…looks like Design Sifu moved it.
“not moving it”
but are you missing it? The Hung Ga that is?
Hi Gene,
When you put a form out on video, is it the whole form or is it chaged for the gerneral public?
Do you or anyone else know if the Wing Lam videos ore authentic or changed?
Thanks for your time
have a nice day
I believe Gene has stated this on the forum before but the forms on the video are as close to what is taught at the time at Lam Kwoon as possible. Nothing is changed specifically for the videos.
That said, as with any performance, there are always some idiosyncracies and they don’t really get highlighted in the video. Overall, they are as authentic as any instruction you could get.
Realize too that even within a school, two people will have some variations in the way they perform a set.
Authentic kungfu
The question sparks a major concern for those who want to learn from videos etc.
The simple solution is to find a legitimate style, an authentic lineage holder (and skilled) and learn from him/her.
Here you ask the authenticity of the forms in the WLE videos, but you can ask the same question of any video or vcd.
Let me give you an example, coming from mainland china were a set of vcds on Ziranmen , demonstrated by Du Feihu who claims to be grandson of the famed Du xinwu , and also a student of Wan Laisheng. Guess what? He got sued by Du xinwu’s grand daughters for claiming to be Du xinwu’s grandson (if I’m not mistaken).
Would that give you a lot of confidence in what he puts out?
I can go on about suspected made-up systems but the point is not to start some flaming.
The point? Much better to find authentic sifu of a real style and ask to be taught. Requires possibly lots of research and thought, but I think the results are more rewarding then picking up a commercial audio-visual.
Of course the audio-visuals can satisfy possibly some curiosity or research desire, but do you think eg a BJJ guy would put his best techniques out on video so that the other stylists can see and find counters for them?
i have the first twop wing lam hung gar videos and my buddy has the shaolin double daggers one. they are pretty good videos.
I think it’s different with forms
For fighters, a lot of them do put out their best techniques - if not, you can surely see them in fight footage. What makes their techniques so effective tends to be their execution, not the technique itself. Can I do Cung Le’s famous takedowns? Sure, if my opponent is just standing there cooperating with the fall. Can I do that in the ring like Cung. Not in my life.
As for forms, it’s different. You do want to show off your skills in any public demonstration (otherwise, why bother?) and you want to look good. But there’s no evidence, no body, nobody gets knocked out in forms, so you got to bust out your strong moves.
Anyway, that being said, there were modifications made to some of the internal stuff - particularly the iron body/iron palm methods - but the forms themselves are as ture to what Wing Lam was teaching at the time as we could make them. There are a few errors here and there, since we cranked’em out pretty fast (at least one a week, once one was shot, scripted, edited and narrated in a single day). So the few of us (well, four or five people) who worked on those videos might be able to tell a video student from those errors, but that wasn’t intentional. I wish I could say we planned that.
Wing Lam’s Tom Toy video sucks balls
I got his Tom Toy vid and Wing Lam doesn’t even perform on it. It’s one of his students and Wing Lam has to correct him on the same thing every time. SAME CORRECTION and his stupid student doesn’t even get it. It’s awful. Save the lessons for your school. We want to see something polished from the video of a master. I’ve seen a few of his other videos and Wing Lam doesn’t even perform the whole set from beginning to end. They’re all edited and spliced together. This guy is supposed to be a master? Give me a break.
lol @ redflags lame attempt to troll with the old vanguards of bile, vitriol and personal bitterness. hahahahaha.
so one of lam’s students kick your azz recently or something? 
redflag - was it me? Did I kick your ass? Please say “yes”
Because I’m gonna kick your ass again.
I will grant you that your criticism is somewhat fair. Sifu Wing Lam has one of his students demonstrate for the breakdowns on the Tom Toy (tan tui) video, and does have to correct him in the process. I remember having a big argument about that when we were in production. Sifu Lam’s video series was produced very quickly - we knocked out around a hundred videos in a year (that’s about two a week). The early ones, like Tom Toy, have their flaws. I think Tom Toy was the only one that someone else did the form, but I can’t remember for sure. I think in his Lian Bu video he did it in tandem with a student - one of our members here, in fact, Gene’s first (BTW, she goes by that moniker because she was one of our first got qi girl, not because what she probably wanted you to think). As for the splicing, you’ll see that throughout his series. Again, it was another debated topic in production, but Sifu Lam’s take on it was that he preferred his execution of particular sections of several renditions of the form. Basically, he did the form several times, then sat down and watched them and said which sections he preferred. Sometimes he went back for sections. But I’ve seen a lot of instructional videos - it’s my job - and to have splicing in form rendition is not at all uncommon. In fact, it’s sort of the opposite nowadays. To have the form done in one shot is exceptional.
I’ll argue that Sifu Wing Lam’s Tom Toy is the best video on that form out so far. It gives multiple angles, in depth descriptions, lyrics, and applications. i personally put a lot of work into developing that script into something unprecedented. Sure, it’s imperfect. It was an early video for a company that was crossing over from amateur to professional. Excepting the big MA video production companies, ALL MA VIDEOS ARE AMATEUR MADE. Until you have 50-100 videos under your belt, your still amateur, I’d say. But as for the quality of this particular video, what other Tom Toy videos compare for content?
Si-hing, your forum fu never ceases to amaze me.
Thanks for the historical too.