Got invited to do some CLF training today

[Juan]

I met Sifu Raymond Chan at my first fighting tournament last year. His students (including his son) all fought in the heavy weight division. We lost touch after the tournament and reconnected at the Long Beach Internationals. From there he invited me to go train at his school and I had the chance to go today. Let me say that I was very impressed. Sifu Chan is all about combat. He doesn't even like to call what he does martial arts, but rather combat science. His students do not spend much time on forms but rather on drills and sparring. And when they spar they gear up and go pretty hard. I was very, very impressed, as well as honored that he invited me to go to his school. He wants me to go back and share some of Muay Thai with them while they share the CLF with them. It was a great experience and will definitely take him up on his offer.

Here are some pics from today:


This is me with Sifu Chan (all the way at the end) and another Sifu who I am embarrassed to say that I forgot his name. The Sifu in the middle is 73 years old and still moves great. He is also a licensed boxing coach.


This is me with Sifu Chan and some of his students.

[Finny]

Juan = Galo?

Buk Sing CLF was the first CMA I ever studied, so I've always had love for CLF based on that, but I did leave the school because I became disenchanted with their training practices - heavy on forms, aerobics and conditioning (aerobic, not toughening)

But CLF can be a decent system if trained in the right way, Im sure.

[Juan]

Hey Finny,

Yeah I'm Galo. Decided to use my real name. Dd you study with Sifu Chan? He doesn't do much form practice.

[Finny]

Hey Juan, yeah I remembered that ur real name is Juan, and recognised u from some of ur Capoeira pics back in the day

No, Im in Western Australia man - I started with a Buk Sing CLF group led by the Laceys here - very commercial and more interested in getting the young folks in who want to get fit and feel like they do MA, rather than actually learning to fight/fighting - hence all the aerobic conditioning and forms.

[Chanchu]

CLF is a great system- it is very big deep can be quite aggressive. Choy system is the long arm, Li method has the pole The Fut Buddha method is circular almost like ba gwa with the arms has great force generation. They can be all used in a type of unified way is some forms or seperate. Choy and Li methods have merged the most. I was able to see some of the Buddha method from my teacher. never learned it. When I met him I was very surprised to see something of what CLF contains. Chi Kung, Weapons, Chin Na, Dummys, foot work against multiple oponents Etc.

That will be a great exchange for you Juan- if you can learn some of the long arm walking drills I would dig into them very hard Pao, Gwa ,Sao, Charp etc. you can drill them like hsing-I lu or ba gwa palm change over and over again. fun and useful.

If you are a young person and have time CLF would be a outstanding system to enter if you can find a good master..

Some CLF teachers don't teach alot of forms teach short sequence of attacking movements, etc aggressive and devious.