Martial Arts/Wing Chun

These sound like really good movies, I might have to go check them out

 

Thanks much for this thread, Benjamin. My son mentioned these to me, and I'm looking forward to hopefully picking them up while on furlough starting this fall.

I trained some in Wing Chun in the lineage of Ip Man's nephew, Lo Man Kam. But I never learned the wooden dummy, so I can't claim to be advanced in Wing Chun. But the movies sound like a blast.

 

I see Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan's buddy, is in #2. Sammo is an amazing martial artist for his size and build. The wife and I always enjoy his acting and fight scenes.

 

Wing chun?? Never heard of it. Is it a move that we who are way down the line at KFC use to move up?? LOL J/K Brother!!

Now wing chin? I might know something about that. You get this by eating way too much KFC!!! LOL.....I know, oh brother......

 

Boy are you in good humor today, LOL!

Wing Chun is only probably the most famous kung fu style from Souther China! It's the style Bruce Lee originally trained in and based a good portion of his kung fu on.

 

Bruce Lee? Bruce Lee? Hmmmmm....why does that name ring a bell? Oh, I remember. He was the one who won the decathalon at the 1976 summer olympics for the USA?? Nah, just funning ya, Bro. John.


Wasn't Bruce Lee a tenth degree black belt? I had heard that. I do not know what he black belted in though. Was it judo, jujitsu(sp?), or something else. I know next to nothing about these different oriental combat styles, and I feel that using the word "karate" is kinda a generic term. Is "karate" a class to itself?

 

What? You mean it was all a joke??? :laugh:

Old Bruce trained mostly in boxing and the traditional Chinese art of Wing Chun, which has no belt ranking, which was a Japanese invention. Most Chinese martial arts have no belt ranking, though in recent years some have started to do so. Bruce then trained off and on with various people, studying and thinking until he came up with some unique concepts he called Jeet Kune Do, "The Continuing and Returning Fist."

In modern American English, karate means any time you kick and punch at someone. But to martial artists, karate is the traditional Japanese kick and punch martial art. Karate originated a couple of centuries ago (depending on what history book you read) when Chinese kung fu masters from Fukien Province would travel to Okinawa and teach the people there how to fight.

 

Okinawan Karate is what they used to teach the Marines. My buddy became a black belt (Ive no Idea what level) & used it to defend himself in a Auto Garage break-in in Newark. There is also a pressure point method used to incapacitate an opponent but they dont generally teach you that.

Now I think they teach some kind of Israeli fighting

 

A lot of the Marines based down in Okinawa train in Okinawan karate on their own time. Personally I think it's much better than the watered down Japanese version. I love the Okinawan weapons (the Japanese versions don't teach weapons) and still do sai (a truncheon with three tines) and nunchaku ("nunchuks") forms from Okinawa.

That would be Krav Maga, which I've never trained in but have heard it's effective.

 

Thanks for sharing your personal history, Benjamin. Sounds like you got some wonderful training while you were in it. I hope you still practice what you learned! I was without a teacher for many years until I got back under my old instructor, but trained in what I knew and taught my son. It was a great way to keep in shape and fellowship with my son.