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If they fight with their hands down by their waists while standing punching range, I’d definitely fight them.
Later…
Heh, heh, heh. Well…one’s dead, the other is in his 80s (or 90s). Better mail him your challenge soon before he passes away.
On the Hsing I clips, how come none of Hsing I’s principals seem to be present?
Which CMA schools were known for full contact sparring in the early 50s (I’m referring to sparring in training, not fighting leitai or challenge matches)? I’m not saying no one did so, I’m just saying that across-the-board it wasn’t a standard practice in most Kung Fu schools (or so I’ve always been given to understand).
At least one of my teacher’s schools did. He’s also mentioned some kind of weapons sparring that they used to do too. This was on the mainland though. I don’t know how it was elsewhere.
Originally posted by Royal Dragon
On the Hsing I clips, how come none of Hsing I’s principals seem to be present?
I wasn’t aware you trained in xingyi.
Interesting you mention sparring because on shenwu Brian Kennedy wrote:
Yes, contact sparring was part of Ming and Qing era Chinese martial arts. And yes, the Chinese (even back in the Ming era) have enough brains to invent protective gear. Let me quote myself from my wife and I’s upcoming book. This quote is in reference to a Chinese martial arts training manual called Record of Arms and the timeframe is about 1620. The person named Shi was the teacher of the author of the book Record of Arms. Here is the quote:
“One of Shi’s instructional methods was to ask his students to wrap their torsos with paper and bamboo, and then to wrap another layer of leather on top, as a form of protective gear. The students then practiced attacking each other with moderately hard contact. When Shi taught, he taught orally and if the students did not perform the movement correctly then he would not teach them the next movement. This approach was very common among traditional teachers. Shi was also very keen on having his students understand how the techniques should be used in real life; thus the full contact approach.”
Someone else wrote:
iirc from Draeger and Smith, old-school sparring invloved a lot of body contact, not much to the head. Plus throws, chin na etc depending on the style. Striking seems to have always been the skill that is hardest to play with.
Originally posted by sc_guy
The SC - kao would have the right leg “inner hook” the opponent’s back leg.
Like kuo bu in Cheng style bagua?
Unmatchable, thanks for the info. I’m sure there have always been CMA practitioners who sparred with various levels of contact, but was it the usual practice for MOST CMA? From any of the descriptions I’ve read of the “standard” for training, what was usually involved was basics, forms & 2-person drills. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to any of my books (they’re on East coast, I’m on West coast) so I’m unable to search for the specific references. Dealing even more specifically with Tibetan White Crane and Wu style Tai Chi (the arts practiced by the men in the very first fight clip) was contact sparring standard practice at the time for these schools? I admit I’ve only spoken to a few practitioners of these styles but none of them regarded contact sparring as being a traditional part of their arts’ curriculum. Sorry if I was mistaken. 
LMFAO @ that clip! There’s more skill in a Bum Fights video.
Wow those guys really sucked. No balance, no control, no targeting, no power, no smarts. I hope their mothers smacked them silly for wasting their piano lesson money on those Kung Fu lessons.
Interesting, last night I was talking to one of Wah Lun Choi’s long-term students, and he was talking about the sparring at the school. Aparently back in the old Chinatown school, they started sparring right away and sparred hard all of the time. Less time was spent on the forms, and more on punching wallbags filled with metal shot or kicking a wooden post set in concrete with round kicks for up to half an hour. It was most important for the students to be able to fight, right away. Now Choi’s school is finding much success catering to the “internal” crowd, and less action goes down at the kwoon. Apparently there still is sparring with various kinds of gloves, but the TaiJi guys almost never spar, the Bagua guys a little more, and the Xing-Yi guys like to spar a lot, but still no where near as much as they used to spar back in the day. That’s what I heard.
It really is a poor showing by both isn’t it? It’s too bad. It should’nt have been posted as an example of a kungfu fight. It should’ve been posted as an example of a bad kungfu fight restricted by local laws and rules. lol.
It wasn’t in NY was it? 
I wasn’t aware you trained in xingyi.
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I don’t, but I’ve seen enough of it to know Hsing I players don’t go charging in on thier tippie toes, throwing wild punches.
fa_jing,
What are his Li hu, Ba fa classes like now?
Originally posted by Royal Dragon
I don’t, but I’ve seen enough of it to know Hsing I players don’t go charging in on thier tippie toes, throwing wild punches.
I hope you understand if I put BT’s judgment on this issue ahead of yours since a) he trains xingyi, b) he teaches xingyi, c) you don’t do either, d) it worked pretty good, and e) I don’t think xingyi is so simple, nor you so brilliant, that you can pick it up via passive observation such that you can make this judgement.