Posts by Jamie Fowler2

Look, Charlie Brown!

🙂

Training alone won't fix your weight issues—it’s usually just pure lack of discipline in everything else you do.

For instance? Yang Cheng Fu was so out of shape by his fifties he couldn't even execute Tai Chi properly. Died at 56, too.

(I could use myself as an example and call myself a total slob, but my ego is way too big for that 😁)

Claiming martial arts don't depend on physical fitness is... stupid. You need a baseline level of mental and physical capability to do anything, let alone fighting... you can't even be an alcoholic without a minimum level of bodily (liver 😁) capacity.

Then again, I once met a guy who practices Aikido despite being blind. Where there's will, there's a way. (And that's mental toughness right there...)

So you don't have time to practice the forms?

😁

wanderingridge said:What kind of style can you actually pick up in like a year or two?😕 Is it more Tai Chi stuff or something legit for fighting?

That’s just enough time to learn the basic movements. How long does it take to actually master all the levers and chokes? How long until someone can even use them in a scrap? And how long before they're actually a master?...

Man, whatever version I've seen, it's got like 8 basic techniques. But that's not the point... 😁 that's the big joke with internal martial arts. You can learn the moves in a few weeks—but you'll never be able to use them because you're training the wrong thing.

If the skill sets overlap, they can definitely feed into each other. Think Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu karate. Or even Ki-aikido and Iwama ryu.

Anyone actually serious about martial arts is gonna be curious about what everyone else is doing—even if it's just to size up a potential opponent...

For anyone who hasn't stepped onto a mat yet, my advice is to spend a month or two training BJJ—or whatever people around here call it these days, right wanderingridge? If you can't swing that, find a judoka to walk you through some newaza. Ground fighting is a completely different beast than standing up...

Cangelosi is a polarizing figure. On one hand, he actually spent years living in China, and his students put on demos that supposedly look legit. On the other hand—and let's be real here—he’s probably way too young to have truly mastered all those different styles. Hung Gar? Sure, I buy that. 😁 Tai chi takes about two years per style to even grasp; Ba Gua takes anywhere from six months to two years depending on the school, and that's if you're actually putting in the work. That's just the time needed to learn the basics—not even master them—based on my own experience and what my instructors told me.

Tsui pa Hsien should basically be the eight drunken immortals. (You guys seen the movie Drunken Master? Yeah, that's not it 😁) It’s a "soft" style where the specialty is maintaining balance in every body position, mobility, and chi kung. (At least, that's what I've gathered from a few instructors outside of China and Taiwan. Another name for it is Zui ba xian quan.)

Tyler Taylor6 said:What’s the plan for the demo? Some kung fu, Wing Chun, BJJ, maybe Escrima?

As for the Pa Qua... I’m pretty sure they're gonna demo those old eight-palm forms. (Doesn't look much like actual fighting most of the time—but in a real scrap, it's lethal)

The guys doing Escrima will almost certainly be there too...

Great. Just my luck—I’m working the 7 PM shift today. 🙂