build internal connection vs. spar too early?

[johnwang]

Sparring should come after heavy PH training.

There is still a gap between the PH and sparring. you can fill up that gap by:

- Start from PH.
- Add wrist grip (develop your locking skill).
- Add grip fight (develop your locking skill).
- Add head lock (develop your locking skill).
- Add arm control (develop your locking skill).
- Add shoulder control (develop your locking skill).
- Add leg hooks (develop your throwing skill).
- Add hand touch face (develop your punching skill).
- Add foot touch chest (develop your kicking skill).
- Add 1/2 way throw (develop your throwing skill).
- ...
If you add the "hand touch face", the moment your opponent touches your face, the moment that you stop and start all over again. This way the friendly and safety environment can still be maintained as the original PH format. You don't even have to add everything into your PH. Sometime you can just add 1 element and you'll have a lot of fun with it.

The kick, punch, lock, throw integration can only be achieved through staging training.

[Formosa Neijia]

Sparring should come after heavy PH training.

There is still a gap between the PH and sparring. you can fill up that gap by:

- Start from PH.
- Add wrist grip (develop your locking skill).
- Add grip fight (develop your locking skill).
- Add head lock (develop your locking skill).
- Add arm control (develop your locking skill).
- Add shoulder control (develop your locking skill).
- Add leg hooks (develop your throwing skill).
- Add hand touch face (develop your punching skill).
- Add foot touch chest (develop your kicking skill).
- Add 1/2 way throw (develop your throwing skill).
- ...
If you add the "hand touch face", the moment your opponent touches your face, the moment that you stop and start all over again. This way the friendly and safety environment can still be maintained as the original PH format. You don't even have to add everything into your PH. Sometime you can just add 1 element and you'll have a lot of fun with it.

The kick, punch, lock, throw integration can only be achieved through staging training.

Yes, this is the progression from PH to sanshou. But in my paradigm, quite a bit of that can be included under PH. I have a broader idea of what PH is than many people.

Dave C.

[Aged Tiger]

You can use a spiral metaphor for training: train - test - evaluate - train etc. Sparring would be the testing phase. Evaluate the results to see where you need more training and adjust the training accordingly.

You can vary the time and effort put into each phase according to your goals and level. A beginner should do more training (working on basic principles), while someone into competition, will do much more sparring. Drills can apply into both cases, but they may be different or done differently.

IMHO, this is best way, not the fastest, but it gives a deeper understanding and true "Gong".

After 25 years, if I could go back and do it over, this is the method I would use. But of course back then, I knew everything and insisted on sparring to early. Such is the paradox of life......

C

[johnwang]

Should you have sex before or after marriage? What if you find out you have sex problem with your girl? You can leave her and find another one if you are not married. You have to divorce her otherwise. If you don't spar in the early stage then how will you be able to know that the current style that you are studying is truly what you want?

[Wanderingdragon]

All the reasoning you guys are providing I find myself agreeing with, however I notice that some of you guys are still seem to be using the concept of "this before that", implying that one experiences a one-way evolution in martial training. I'm blatantly trying to push a multi-faceted approach to training here where all the pieces of the pie are used regularly. One doesn't evolve past the need to do solo work. Likewise, one never stops benefitting from having a more controlled medium than full-speed, full-contact, free-form, resistive sparring to try new ideas or to keep one's timing and sensitivity skills honed. One also never stops benefitting from the pressure testing of new functional skills as well as old stand-by's. IOW, it's all good.

And above all there must be fighting, everything else teaches control, in training, the ability to not hit shows a higher achievement than the ability to hit.

[Little Bai]

And above all there must be fighting, everything else teaches control, in training, the ability to not hit shows a higher achievement than the ability to hit.

Wow, then I can claim the highest achievement there is!

[Wanderingdragon]

And above all there must be fighting, everything else teaches control, in training, the ability to not hit shows a higher achievement than the ability to hit.

Wow, then I can claim the highest achievement there is!

Gotta know the rules
You must be fighting
you must be controlling you opponent
and you can't be getting hit

[iwalkthecircle]

All of this is true. I am married so internal connections are rare.

only 2 times every year:
~ your birthday
~ anniversary