What made Hung I Hsiang's Students such good fighters?

[Alexander]

What was unique about Hung I Hsiang's training methodology that permitted his students to be such good fighters? I know that it's rumoured that he tested his skills against a lot of people, both publicly and privately, while he was learning. But in terms of training methods that he used on his students..

Some of the famous students he had were Luo De Xiu, Su Dong chen, and there were several others that won the Taiwan full contact fighting multiple years in a row.

So for anyone who knew him, or knows his students.. Any thoughts?

Cheers

[JAB]

They sparred!
Novel idea eh?

[SPJ]

Yes. They sparred.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6133

[kenneth fish]

Yes, they sparred. And they got correction as they sparred. And they did lots of reaction drills.

[cerebus]

Yup! Lotsa 2-person drills and sparring.

[C.J.Wang]

But it might be interesting to note, as pointed out to me by a man in Taiwan who was well-acquanted with one of Hung early students and tournament fighter Yu Weng-Tung, Hung never entered any full-contacting competitions himself.

[Alexander]

Hung never entered any full-contacting competitions himself.

Interesting -- but I heard (*cough* wikipedia *Cough*) that he scrapped a lot whenever he could. I guess that would fulfill a role 'similar' to competition?

Basically non-compliant sparring..

[kenneth fish]

I think you mean Yu Wentong, who taught at the Confucious temple. Yu also sought "instruction" outside of the class - but sparred regularly in class, with his classmates and with his teacher.

[cerebus]

By all accounts Hung preferred bare-knuckle fights to sport competition and had fought and won quite a few challenge matches. He was well-respected enough as a street fighter that he was often asked to referee other people's challenge matches (when Hung says "stop", people stop... )

[Haoran]

Seems he put a lot of emphasis in Qi according to the BBC documentary but why are they wearing Japanese Gi's??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ4t7mWdKsw

[C.J.Wang]

I think you mean Yu Wentong, who taught at the Confucious temple. Yu also sought "instruction" outside of the class - but sparred regularly in class, with his classmates and with his teacher.

Yes. The gentleman I talked to learned Xingyi from Tsao Lien-Fan, and Yu was his Xingyi brother under Master Tsao. I belive Yu also learned from Wang Shu-Jin or exchanged knowledge with Wang's students.

And sorry, I think I might have made a mistake in saying that Yu was Hung's student. Was Yu a student of Zhang Zhun-Feng as well, and a kung-fu brother of Hung instead?

[cerebus]

Seems he put a lot of emphasis in Qi according to the BBC documentary but why are they wearing Japanese Gi's??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ4t7mWdKsw

Hung traveled to Japan and did a tour of various Karate and Judo schools there. He liked the systematic method of training and the uniforms & belt rankings. The Japanese gis were cheap and much more durable than the street clothes many Chinese martial artists trained in, allowing for more rugged training in the school. It's said that Hung's adoption of the clear and systematic training methods he witnessed in Japan as well as the uniforms and belt ranking are part of what led to his school becoming as large and popular as it was. It also helped to make teaching easier for the instructors who could know what knowledge level a student was at by their belt rank and gave the students a clearer idea of where they stood in the hierarchy and how much more they had to learn.

[baguaboy]

From what I've discussed with Luo DeXiu - His students trained hard - and had a good spirit between themselves - a team. They trained for lots of regional competitions and kept the cardio and conditioning levels high. It seems that the sport training paid off for them... .

Hung I Hsiang's , and his brothers, were very passionate about martial arts by all accounts - I think the sibling rivalry they had could have contributed to the high level of research, practice and syllabus development.