[p-man]

To me it's like this.

Martial Arts is one of those things,that you can never fully understand.To understand it all,you would have to know it all.There are so many styles and techniques.Forms and secrets.It pretty much depends on the person studying the art.Martial Arts are an extended tool of your soul.How you understand and appreciate it,is going to be the way you bring it across on the physical level.With some Arts I guess experience does play a really big role.You perfect a certain technique that you could pull off in your sleep.But I do believe that if one person has been studying a certain art for a longer period of time,they can get their asses kicked by a "beginner".They just missused the tool that they have been studying.I mean you can pick up a screwdriver,knowing exactly what to do with it,and you can still cut yourself,you can still screw the nail in crooked!!!
I believe that there is a certain art for everyone out there,something that when you practice it,it just feels like it's supposed to be a part of you.
Maybe Karate was not for these guys and Wing-Chung was for the other guy.But this is where the experience plays a factor.Any fighter in any tournament is going to see who he is up against.So if there is one guy drowning the competition with chain punches,there should have been another guy,amongst all these black-belts,who should have picked up on this.Studying your opponent is a pretty big factor.But using your tools the right way is the other,even if you think you know your opponent 100%,you could still make a mistake.You don't expect yourself to make one,but if your ass is knocked out on the floor you did.You'll be asking yourself,"How the hell could I loose,I studied my opponent"?
Maybe you did,and maybe you had all the experience,but you did not use your tools the right way.

[nbotary]

My sifu told us of a similar story where someone had just practiced the opposite hand/opposite foot, straight kick/punch combination and was so proficient at it, he was mopping the floor with people at a tournament he fought in. If a fighter does the same technique over and over, in the same order, then he's telegraphing what his intent is and will be an easy opponent to overcome. If the other fighters weren't learning from this then they deserved to get their ass kicked.

I guess it all boils down to the basics and fundamentals. If you're not proficient at that, then no amount of flowery or acrobatic shit will make you a good fighter - it just means you'll look pretty when you get your ass kicked!!

[xcal]

haha, that's very funny HOWEVER, would you stop buying music cd's after listening to me sing? You DO NOT want to hear me sing

I firmly believe in what I once read "blame the artist, and not the art".

that being said, I think that the points system has brought many modern karate styles down to a mere game of tag. This should actually have made it easier for a karate-man to score points by kicking the puncher(whatever his style).

take olympic boxing style as another example: South Africa recently hosted the world military boxing tournament which followed the olympic rules. I watched it on TV and got XTREMLY bored by the tap-tap and run system that seems to have developed....although it was great of SABC (local tv broadcaster) to cover the event.

regards
Xcal

[wuming]

I wasn't trying to say that Wing Chun is superior or anything. I also believe that it is the fighter not the art. I was just relaying a story I heard that I found kind of interesting. But you have to admit though, that there are some cases where a person's training can be flawed. Have you ever seen a karate guy with good root? There are some things that some arts do train better than others: like wing chun training to guard the center and keep in close, and so on (I am sure you can think of others). I wasn't trying to show that karate was inferior. If you think about it, there has to be some reason why this 8 mo. long practitioner was beating guys w/ black belts. It just sounded a bit odd to me that is all.

[Muay_Thai_MGM]

My teacher once told me, "Don't be a jack of all trades, but a master of none". This Wing Chun guy (if the story is accurate), found something that worked for him and because it worked, used it to win.
After my teacher gave me the "jack of trades" line he went on to explain how when he was wrestling at the University of Minnesota there was a guy from Ohio State who dominated guys. He used a single leg takedown that everyone of is opponents knew was coming, it was his bread and butter move. Because he was so proficient at it, nobody could stop it. He had "mastered" that particular technique.
I'm not saying this to discredit the notion of being well-rounded. You have to be in MA. It is nice to have something that you can use in just about any situation, that you have complete confidence in.

[buicken]

Edit by setsu nin to

[wuming]

Ummm bro, you should check a new thread where some new member gave the break down on who this man was and what the tournament was. All the info he gave was congruent w/ what my friend told me. And hell you might even be able to google it and find something. Prepare to eat your words. lol

[MiDn1GhT]

this is an advertisement for a lineage ,thats what it sound like.
and a very bad one chain punching the way to victory yiiiihhhhiaaaaa
give me a break?

"At one point the Judge did ask him if he could use some technique other than a chain punch"

only doing 1 technique and especially chain puncing shows that you are a rookie ,you have no flexibility as a fighter nor do you understand wc principles and philosophy.

i am a student of sifu nectarios eftymiou twc and he only chain punches people when there on the ground and hes on top or when he has blind side and hes trapped you.
chain punching is a finishing move

as a person who loves and practises wing chun almost daily this does shows me how many teacher consider wc to be as an external style and that reflects on how the people spar and behave

his reply to the judge was :"with all due respect sir, they should try blocking my punches", at which time the judge smiled and let them match proceed."

this is arrogant not confident and as all that study the internal parts of wing chun know
"When fear is removed, the arrogance of uncertainty is dispelled.
Therere, it is no longer necessary to prove yourself in any form of combat.
By learning how to fight, you learn how not to fight"

i dont want to offened anyone but this is a post that does not glorify wc but actually does the opposite

[Maelut]

All due respect, Midnight, but I think you may be misinterpreting some things.

""only doing 1 technique and especially chain puncing shows that you are a rookie ,you have no flexibility as a fighter nor do you understand wc principles and philosophy. ""

It seems that only doing a single technique would exemplify the ideal of efficiency, which is central to the practice of Ving Tsun. Why should I have played unnecessary techniques when the simple, nonflashy, ones were working?


""chain punching is a finishing move ""

I would strongly recommend you talking to your sifu, and asking him about this question. Chain punch is much more than a finishing move; it dominates the centerline in an extremely dynamic and sophisticated way. The punch is much more than a punch. I'm sure you've experienced this in chi sao, where punches do more than simply hit.


I fully agree with the last part of your article. Now that I've continued to train, I would not choose to go to another tournament. As was mentioned, my Kung Fu was very young at that point, and I was curious to see where it lay in relation to other styles. Our lineage does not promote tournaments, in fact no students compete, since tournaments and sparring are not parts of the Ving Tsun system. This was an unusual case, and one which I did on my own initiative.

[zefff]

If you dont do any sparring, what do you do instead to test yourself?