Welcome to the rum soaked fist. Please introduce yourself

[pennsooner]

I sent you a PM MaartenSFS. If Ma Hong bothered to teach someone, they must be good so you are quite lucky to get to study with your teacher, imo. Enjoy.

[MaartenSFS]

Hey, thanks for the welcome guys. I am on page 20 and have been reading the various threads. Lots of great discourse and crude humour. This is the forum for me.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but Ma Hong is not my actual teacher, but I am learning from his student's student (thank God I don't live in Shijiazhuang). I will start a thread with my specific "traditional" training curriculum today or tomorrow. I would like to see how it compares with others'.

[MaartenSFS]

I hope so for all of our sakes..

[Didge]

(who knew that they were all hiding out in the park?)

I did, and I don't live there

Saw some great taijiquan hidden in a park in China, but the stuff out in front for all to see....not so good.

[MaartenSFS]

In my defence, it usually costs 70元 for non-locals to get into the parks here and my city isn't known for martial arts. There's a hell of a lot more MA in China than one would think at first (over four years) glance. Now, through connections, I have been introduced to more and more that would be impossible to find otherwise.

[Didge]

In my defence, it usually costs 70元 for non-locals to get into the parks here and my city isn't known for martial arts. There's a hell of a lot more MA in China than one would think at first (over four years) glance. Now, through connections, I have been introduced to more and more that would be impossible to find otherwise.

I'm just bustin on you

I had a bit of an advantage when I was there...my wife lived there her whole life

There is a lot of good martial arts there but it is hard to find.... kind of goes back to the nail that sticks up gets pounded down

[MaartenSFS]

There's not exactly a phone book with a martial arts section over here.

My wife grew up in China too but knows next to nothing about MA... She's not a local of this city, though she told me that there was a martial family several doors down known for their fighting prowess that were often oppressed by local officials, but always helped out when the shite hit the fan, as it were. The entire family moved to Guangdong, unfortunately, and this was around twenty years ago..

Another local Hui minority master known for his Bajiquan (but that also knows all of the internal arts) moved to Yunnan province because there are apparently more of that ethnic group there. He did a lot of Leitai fights and knows more arts than you can count with your own fingers. He is the leader of their Mosque and also teaches Islam. Although his wife lives here he doesn't come back often (not sure how that works) and his daughter lives in Malaysia. I think that I will have the chance to meet him one of these days, when he does return.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one that has struggled to find "the good stuff".

[brer_momonga]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jon

For the past 2 years I've practiced Wutan system kung fu and yang tai chi with John Chen

longtime lurker, first time poster.

my first intro to martial arts was aikido when I was a kid - or... rather, the karate kid.

In my early 20's wilderness years in a drunken boat, I picked up some basic kung fu stuff from friends here and there.

also took a yang tai chi class at one of those new age centers that smells like artificially lavender-scented candles and is always trying to get you to pay them hundreds or dollars for some saturday healer certification.

After settling into married life, I somehow decided that I wanted to learn "the" - later to realize - "a" tai chi form to do when I'm old.

I looked for tai chi videos and after a video or two, discovered YMAA and then looked for similar quality material.

Learning from books and videos and seminars was not working to learn what I - at the time time - thought was a "form" so I set out to find an instructor.

Took some classes for a year and a half from someone who taught what I now recognize as the popular yang zhenduo tai chi.

in the end, while the qigong aspect of the class was very good, the teaching lacked the details of martial application to satisfy my interest in learning a "whole" art.

after finding a master who gradually agrees to teach me, here I am training and looking forward to the fellowship at rsf

[MonkeyKing]

Hello fellow martial artist,

I've finally went the extra mile and contacted an admin thru email to have my account activated after trying to make at least two accounts over the past two years that never were activated.

I started off my martial arts training with MMA/grappling schools since I was following the UFC in the early years before it became a trendy thing for the mass to follow and this is what realy sparked my motivation to start training in martial arts.

The grappling arts ive studfied are Shoot Fighting, Brazilian Ju Jitsu & Judo so I developed a pretty good ground game with a pretty well evolved guard game that I used more of under and over hooks to set up the submissions with rather then lapel, sleeve and collar grips making it more applicable for street self defense.

The CMA I've studied are Choy Li Fut, Wing Chun, Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan and Bagua Chuan but I would have to say my Foundation art is CLF (since i was an instructor for a couple of years in that style) with the other styles complimenting it and making it even a more effective self deffense system.

At the moment I've been concentrating on practicing the small amount of Bagua Chuan that I learned from a Chinese exchange student that was in my judo class about 10 years ago. Luckily he gave me a pretty good foundation on details so I've been able to supplement with some instructional DVD's (Joe Bisiso Bagua DVDs and a few others). Yes I'm aware of the fact that DVDs don't replace instructors but it's the best I could get where my current residence is.

Well I hope I can be a good adition to this forum and look forward to participating in the topics.

[Waynea]

Hi

Just a quick intro. I live near the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia and have been involved in the martial arts for a while now.

Started Western Boxing as a kid.
Moved to Brisbane and tried a variety of things settling on a Goju style Karate.
In 1990 I started Kali/Escrima and Jun Fan/JKD
Lived in Japan for 3 years (2006-2009) and trained in Iaido and Shinkage Ryu Iaijutsu.
Since a "major" health issue I'm getting back into training doing whatever I feel like at the time.

Looking forward to learning and hopefully contributing here.

Cheers

[MaartenSFS]

I'm new here myself, but welcome, gents.

I have just read through all 167 pages of threads on the forum. There are some great ones in there for sure. I highly recommend going back all the way to the beginning as most questions have been asked already (and better) and it seems the answers got lazier over time (tired of repeating the same thing over and over again). I felt like a hole in my soul had closed up after getting to the end and I don't quite know which of my questions could have been left unanswered, if any. Enjoy.

[Taste of Death]

MaartenSFS, you have set a worthy example to follow. When I finally put down Secret Fighting Arts of the World I will start scrolling.

My father and maternal grandfather were boxers, collegiate and golden gloves. Five minutes into my first viewing of Enter the Dragon I knew that taking up the study of martial arts would turn into a lifelong pursuit including TKD, Aikido (Peter Arno), Guang Ping Yang Taiji and Hsing-I (Henry Look), Judo (Mac Takeda) and Han Shi Yi Quan (Martin Wong). All the arts I have studied including Qi Gong and Yoga have led me to Han Shi Yi Quan.

In Yui Shosetsu’s military instructions, ‘The Way of the Three Ultimates,’ there is a passage on the character of karma. He received an oral teaching of about eighteen chapters concerning the Greater Bravery and the Lesser Bravery. He neither wrote them down nor committed them to memory but rather forgot them completely. Then, in facing real situations, he acted on impulse and the things that he had learned became wisdom of his own. This is the character of karma. Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure – The Book of the Samurai

[neijia_boxer]

Hmmm i never introduced myself-
Matt-
been doing martial arts for 24 years- mainly Yang Taijiquan (Cheng man ching, later, Fu Zhong Wen (Yongnian association/Weiqi He), then Yang Zhen Dou/Yang Jun (Yang Family Association), and Yang zhenjie (USWA/Chris Pei) details and applications, push hands, da shou, weapons).
Practiced traditional and modern Wushu (Long fist, basics) with Weiqi he, Zhou jian hua, Lu Xiao lin (Black sash at Omei Wushu in Fairfax Va.). Chen Taiji, Qin-na, Shuai Chiao, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, with various reputable teachers: Chen Zhenlei, Park Bok Nam, Liang Shouyu, Xia Baihua. Competed Internationally and Nationally in competitions (1993-2010), forms, weapons, tui shou, san shou events with various associations, including USCKF, USAWKF, ICMAC, Chin Woo, AToC, in Winchester Va., Baltimore MD., Towson MD. Pittsburgh PA., Dallas Tx., Orlando FL.,Shanghai China. Maintain website/blog, visitor to local DC push hands gatherings, sparring events, fights.
Did MMA training and teaching for 8 years at a MMA school in Northern Va doing Judo, Wrestling, Muay thai, Boxing, BJJ, and strength training with world class fighters. Tried a few San shou and Lei Tai fights. Nationally certified Massage Therapist with NCBTMB, and Virginia Board of Nursing (2006-2013). Student of TCM (Traditional Chinese medicine) at VUOM. Internal alchemy: Practice variou Yoga, and Meditation of Taoist, Buddhist, and Tibetan with several monks including Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.

[C_Huffman]

Hello, my name is Charles. Loooong time lurker.

I started training in martial arts ("American Karate") in 1989. After digging my way out of all the garbage, I finally began studying Penglai Wuji Tanglangmen in 2001-2. I recently had the opportunity to learn some Bak Mei, and so far am quite taken with that. I sincerely hope that time will permit me to pursue that more fully in the near future.

I've picked up lots of bits and pieces of smatterings of other things, e.g., Santishi, Iron Vest (though I have never been consistent with it due to time), some Yiquan, one Bajiquan standing exercise that I don't even know that name of, etc. I recently thought it might be interesting to start practicing Santishi in an old school, Li Luoneng fashion, so that should be fun.

[Mert]

Hi folks,

My name is Mert Gambito. I recently joined RSF after about four years of using it as a reference regarding IMAs. The primary art I study is Hakkoryu, which is a Japanese integrated jujutsu and shiatsu system descended from Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu.

Nice to be here, and look forward to participating in this online community.