Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 475702" data-attributes="member: 5400">I'll tell you what I know, such as it is.Kung fu is generally divided along two main axes - northern/southern styles and internal/external styles.Northern - in the north of China are a lot of plains, deserts and similar open spaces. As such, the styles that developed here tend to focus on maximum range. There are lots of long range techniques, lots more high kicking and low stances. The famous "flying leap kick", used to dismount horsemen, originates from northern China.Southern - in the south there are many more mountains, forests and crowded cities. Fights took place at close range and so emphasis was on short range power and techniques. Comparatively more grappling (Chinese martial arts are never big on grappling as a general rule), lots of short punches, locks and low kicks. Wing Chun and Chin Na are two quintessential Southern styles.External - styles which concentrate on developing the physical muscle power of the practitioner. Lots of high speed training, full strength techniques and physical conditioning. A large number of these trace their origins back to the classic Shaolin (sil lum) styles.Internal - these styles focus on developing inner capability of the practitioner, chi (breath) and emotional stability. These styles are frequently not taught in a combat oriented way but noentheless can have combat practicality for the correctly trained. Tai Chi Ch'uan, Hsing-I and Pa Kua are probably the three most famous of these styles. Within these definitions there are a lot of styles with subtle variations. For example, any style that has the word Gar in its name (Chow Gar and Hung Gar are two examples) began as personal family styles, only taught to direct relatives.The Shaolin Temle adopted the precursors to kung fu as a form of physical training to improve their endurance for meditation. Over time the exercise and combat form which they developed, combined with their regimen of self discipline and self denial, made them into formidable fighters. As such, they developed a huge reputation and many styles borrowed from their techniques.During the Ming dynasty there was a famous period of peasant unrest. Being sympathetic to the peasant's plight, some Shaolin monks taught their art as a form of self defence and this spread their techniques even further.Over time, fighters travelled around China showing off their personal techniques and learning new ones. This is how my base style - Buk Sing Choy Lay Fut - came into existence. The founder studied Choy Lay Fut (a southern style) and then went travelling in the north. There he was really impressed by the longer range techniques and so he modified CLF into a hybrid North/South style. It was so successful that he named it Buk Sing, which means "northern winning". Now, when I study BSCLF, I also end up learning the norther Shaolin staff form (buk sil lum gwan). His best student's, top student was a man named Gong On who lived in Hong Kong. He trained his son, Gong Hing. Gong Hing gave a demonstration one day which really impressed the Lacey bothers, who at the time were studying Wing Chun under the then Grandmaster Yip Man. They left wing chun to study with Gong Hing. Eventually the two brothers emigrated to Perth in Australia, where they taught George Michaelson. Sifu George teaches me.This long history is a way of demonstrating a point. Dremen is right when he says that there are common features to all kung fu. One of them is respect for seniors; secrecy is another. If your sifu doesn't talk to you about the schools history, the style's name etc. because he reseverves that for senior students, then that's pretty strange in my experience. Usually it's the first thing you're taught as a test to see if you're committed to the whole art, not just kicking butt.If he's not teaching you the history 'cause he says it's not important, then I'd be very suspicious. Tradtion and reverence for ancestors is fundamental to traditional Chinese culture. The history of a kung fu school is almost always important. Don't get me wrong, you can still be a great martial artist and not teach the tradition and the history, but you're starting to move away from kung fu. This is why Bruce Lee caused such a stir with the way he taught - he didn't point enough emphasis on tradtion. Sure, Jeet Kune Do is a great martial art, but it's not traditional kung fu.Another point of tradition is that in kung fu there is always a right and a wrong way to do things. No true kung fu teacher will ever say "Put your hand about here!" or "Close enough." Kung fu is very specific and the correct placement of hands and feet is an important part of the art. Now that we've finished the history lesson, as to how you can tell what style your gwoon teaches; if you get a lot of emphasis on strong horse stance (sae ping ma) then it's probably Shaolin influenced. If you're always being taught the lower the stance the better, it's probably northern. If you aim to hit a target at maximum reach from yourself, it's probably northern. Other than these things, there's no way to tell until you learn the history.Open to corrections, additions or deletions - I just wrote a lot and may have some of it a bit screwy. Also, my knowledge level dips considerably when we go beyond Chinese arts.</blockquote>

Verification