KEND wrote:Wow, blast from the past. I visited George Long's studio, I think it was 1970, his students Staples and a Chinese guy were practicing. George was very friendly, I worked out with them and later wrote an article for a british MA magazine on the school and system. Also visited Brendan Lai and Kuo Lien who were also friendly and allowed me to work out with them[west coast was friendlier than the east coast in those days]
Chinese guy? haha which one...
Might have been Ron Dong,
Mike along with Gary, and some of the other students of Gorge Long, where big influences
on me as a young teen in the city.
The style and way of practice was geared only for one thing
and one thing only,,,"fighting"
The training back then was quite severe and brutal also secretive.
Some times we would get visitors from China town
instead of staying in our 20min ma bo, as usual
we would sit until they left....we had specialty hands like "burning palm" and others that to this day
are not widely known nor talked about much....anyone who's practiced it or come in contact with it
would know what it can do...like in another thread some might question it...its ok and expected
Mike, could just by dropping his hand, using just the back of the hand crumble a cinder block...
Reflecting back on the conditioning training I would have to say it was quite destructive to the body....
For some things, it might be 1 person out of 10 that would get it,,,the rest usually quit or got damaged in the process.
Mike was ahead of his time,,,for the time,,,,Gary, and him, modified the style to include boxing hands,,,which he held in high regard.
It would be at this time I would leave the gym feeling that it was getting away from the "style" that I was interested in.
this thread talks to some of what Mike did back in the day.
viewtopic.php?f=6&p=418672Met David Chin,
Sometimes Mike and I would go to his gym to practice.
Mike was very emphatic that what one trained had to work, and one practiced until it did...
Of course this meant "testing" something that the styles of the day where noted for, and also not
as CMA then and now is not noted for its ring accomplishments ...
Studied with Brendan Lai, 7* mantis,,,very different then the plum flower
I had learned while in Korea.
CMA very rich in history, styles and deep practices....
Respect to all past and present teachers of the art....