dspyrido wrote:What is meant by the statement "door guarding" skills? What are your's jw?
As for genuine gongfu skills - I know a fair number of guys who can fight well and have no concept of "gongfu". I think gongfu should only be obsessed over after a good grounding in sparring is understood. Not the other way around. Then the gongfu is developed based on knowing what is the preferred method.
The "door guarding" skills are the skill that you can use it to "finish" a fight. I have told all my students that if they have learned
- head lock,
- single leg, and
- hay-maker,
from me, they can leave and find themselves another teacher. IMO, the fighting strategy will depend on the "door guarding" skills? For example, in order to take my opponent down with "head lock", I have worked on
- octopus strategy,
- rhino guard strategy,
- double spears strategy, and
- zombie arms strategy.
My purpose is to move my arms to be inside of my opponent's arms when he attacks me or when I attack him. As long as I can use my "head lock" to bend my opponent's spine side way, I can take him down. So for the rest of my life. I just want to concentrate on the stuff that I want to work on and ignore the rest. Since "Fajin - power generation" is not important for both "head lock" and "single leg", I will not spend too much time in it. I may still train tornado kick, jumping kick,... just for "health".
I have also trained 16 different ways to get "single leg" and 8 different ways to "finish". I had used it to take down 7 guys in a role in one Chicago SC tournament. Since it was my 1st bread and butter move that I have developed, I also want to maintain it through my old age.
The last one is the "hay-maker". I have used it to knock down many opponent in challenge fights before. It's the only move from my striking art that I want to maintain.
Bao wrote:The main point is about how you want to spend your time and what goals you have.
I still remember that my teacher forced me to use "single leg" only for 6 months. In that 6 months, I was not allowed to do anything else but to use "single leg" on the mat against different opponents over and over. After that 6 months, I started to learn how to use single leg to set up:
- downward pulling,
- inner hook,
- twist spring,
- ...
I know a SC guy in Taiwan who had spent 2 years in "hip throw" and nothing else. Later on he won Taiwan national SC tournament.
IMO, if you want to train as a "fighter", to master few moves is the only way. From the striker point of view, if you can use your 45 degree downward hay-maker to knock down most of your opponent, that will be your "door guarding" move too. Your opponent punches at your face, you use a 45 degree downward hay-maker that deflect his head punch, hit on the side (or back) of his head, and knock him down. That will be nice.
Crow weep in the dark. Tide bellow in the north wind. How lonesome the world.