Sifu Zhong Luo's School - White Eye Brow

[bailewen]

Bare knuckle fighting is silly and un-needed. Otherwise looks tight. Do they do BJJ or something to supplement their stand up? I saw some ground stuff there.
Jake

I'm told that their ground fighting comes from one of the Chinese styles they do.

I could be wrong but that's the word in the bay area.

Omar, any help?

For the most part, yes. There are no assistant grappling coaches or anything. It's all just Zhong and his dad. Mostly they focus on standing up safely after a fall and the "Mongolian Wrestling" is just Shuai Jiao but it's not their focus AFAIK. Honestly, I got the impression that the groundfighting was basicaly just Zhong Sifu's experience on the streets of Guangzhou where I am pretty damn sure he was some sort of Chinese gang banger. He's smart and he watches MMA and I think he has just worked out how to deal with MMA via White Eyebrow. They do extensive footwork drills focused specifically on dodging a shoot. I also saw a number of very creative ways to stay evasive and regain your feet when you are on the ground and the other guy isn't.

They are a striking / G&P type of gym. Not grappling experts but not ignorant there either.

[CaliG]

For the most part, yes. There are no assistant grappling coaches or anything. It's all just Zhong and his dad. Mostly they focus on standing up safely after a fall and the "Mongolian Wrestling" is just Shuai Jiao but it's not their focus AFAIK. Honestly, I got the impression that the groundfighting was basicaly just Zhong Sifu's experience on the streets of Guangzhou where I am pretty damn sure he was some sort of Chinese gang banger. He's smart and he watches MMA and I think he has just worked out how to deal with MMA via White Eyebrow.

Good stuff, to me that's the difference between a living art and a dead art.

In a living art the principles can be applied and adapted to new situations through the experience of trial and error.

Where as in a dead art people do what they do because they are told to do it and the conclusions they arrive at are not their own therefore they find it hard to adapt to new and different situations because their understanding of why something is the way it is not based on their actual experience.

It sounds like things are definitely alive at Sifu Zhong Luo's school and his art is constantly evolving.

[ashe]

what i want to know is where are they finding the guys that want to train hard like that?

[CaliG]

what i want to know is where are they finding the guys that want to train hard like that?

Not everyone in the San Francisco bay area is a hippy.

[bailewen]

SF has tons of real fighting schools. We got Fairtex here. We got a couple of BJJ schools and there's CMA. You open a school like Zhong's and people will come. Mostly they don't give a rats ass wether its Chinese or Brazilian, traditional or modern. They just want to fight and they find schools that give them that chance. The rivalry only exists online. In the real world, IME anyways, nobody cares. Chris Chan's boys are always brawling. Lot's of cops in his Wing Chun classes. The Hung Sing boys have always been ready to scrap and even YC Wong's school has a couple of real fighters hanging out in the basement most nights even if it's not made a central thing. I have friends who train Silat and Capoeria and then their friends train MMA. It's all mixed up down here and I never really sensed much rivalry between so called "modern" and "traditional" schools in these parts.

[Ian]

"It's all mixed up down here and I never really sensed much rivalry between so called "modern" and "traditional" schools in these parts."

Because as soon as you start fighting, nobody cares a fig for what you and your teacher do.

NOT A FIG!

[CaliG]

SF has tons of real fighting schools. We got Fairtex here. We got a couple of BJJ schools and there's CMA. You open a school like Zhong's and people will come. Mostly they don't give a rats ass wether its Chinese or Brazilian, traditional or modern. They just want to fight and they find schools that give them that chance. The rivalry only exists online. In the real world, IME anyways, nobody cares. Chris Chan's boys are always brawling. Lot's of cops in his Wing Chun classes. The Hung Sing boys have always been ready to scrap and even YC Wong's school has a couple of real fighters hanging out in the basement most nights even if it's not made a central thing. I have friends who train Silat and Capoeria and then their friends train MMA. It's all mixed up down here and I never really sensed much rivalry between so called "modern" and "traditional" schools in these parts.

Also outside SF there are lots of schools.

Some students of Jack Man Wong now compete in the san shou worlds. King's Boxing Gym in Oakland is considered one of the top gyms in the nation. In the South Bay you can find most of the Olympic Judo team. Lots of Gracies live here. The list goes on and on.

In terms of CMA it's not the mainland where you can find everything and anything, but for general MAs the bay area is good.

[ilove_thistuff]

yeah when i trained there, some of the guys had some bjj experience and what Sifu taught for ground I believe was definitely from his experience in fighting in the streets. He's totally aware of CMA's lack of ground fighting and feels that it's something that CMA needs to adopt not only for the street but if they also want to do MMA sport. So although there is alot of training in stand up at the school he also encourages and pulls out the matts to take the fight from stand up to ground. There are also alot of guys from different background who train there. I think its a good thing to add ground work to the "traditional" arts. We should all be innovators in our arts, just make sure that what you add works.

[ilove_thistuff]

Oh and with the bare knuckle sparring....he leaves it open to his students if they want to join in on it. Not all the students go out for the bare knuckle stuff but it's a good way for some of them to test out their principles. Some guys have more control than others and thats the choice that some folks have to make when they get involved. But i think there's value in both protected and bare knuckle type sparring. I personally lean towards protected but find that it gets in the way sometimes.

[Coach DAi]

I do 50/50 of my bag work with and without gloves. Hitting a body is different from a bag. There are bones and weird angles that can mess you up.

Absolutely! I do the same exact thing, also because on the flip side, the bag is tougher in some ways than the human body so if i can really lay into a bag imagine how a body will be effected.

[Coach DAi]

As far as the clip I would have liked to see some more skilled (varied) attacks in their standup and not just slapping and flailing like a couple of girls. More shuai fa mixed in maybe. But i do appreciate the realism, it just doesnt have to be that sloppy. Anyone can wail away like that and most do.

[JAB]

Good point bro!
Good to see you around again.
Cheers
Jake

[bailewen]

As far as the clip I would have liked to see some more skilled (varied) attacks in their standup and not just slapping and flailing like a couple of girls. More shuai fa mixed in maybe. But i do appreciate the realism, it just doesnt have to be that sloppy. Anyone can wail away like that and most do.

Keep in mind that Zhong only came to the States and opened a school about 5 years ago or so ...so . . . how much experience can they have? With that said, their accomplishments are all the more impressive. They weren't there when I left for China in 2000.

[ashe]

what i want to know is where are they finding the guys that want to train hard like that?

Not everyone in the San Francisco bay area is a hippy.

you say "hippy" like that's a bad thing!

[klonk]

I would have liked to have seen more of the bench work. It is a uniquely Chinese idea to make an art of hitting people with furniture.