some very valid points raised here. Some people are tough and would excel in any art anyway. And LG is the most popular form of "kung fu" in the UK. Would it be so if all the old training, conditioning etc was still in place?
That’s the problem it still is in place, but only if you can get to Birmingham and train directly with john Russell, quality control in such a large organisation is very hard, hence the guardian programme was set up, all of them have decades in the art and have to go to brum to train regularly. but then it’s the conditioning, ging work, etc that’s taught not so much the hard sparring bit Ironically Yau would normally be in a separate room practising his tai chi when the forms and line work was being done, he would only really come in when application work, sticky hands work was being done, and if you and a partner went to a corner to work sparring etc he would always come over, always… it was always clear to me what Yau liked and saw as important even as he got older, not sure how he felt about the direction the seniors took the style, but it certainly made him a ton of money that’s for sure
I remember when I was 18 being sat at the edge of the mat next to Nathan Lewis. Those of you who know me know that I'm a pretty big guy. He dwarfed me. Yet when he fought it was like gravity didn't apply to him, he seemed to fly across the mat. I was actually glad to be eliminated in the first round so I wouldn't have to face him.
lol Nathan is a big, tough man. The folks I train with in Bristol (when I train!) are pretty much from the old school, that's what I like about them. Sean Veira is my instructor, definitely comes from the "points/continuous/full contact, I don't care I'll beat you at them all" days.
Nathan ran the national squad training sessions in Birmingham on Sundays, we would do extra training and knew when he had turned up and it was time to go as it became very dark as he tended to block out the sun coming down the main stairwell lol
I've only met him a couple of times, I know he & Sean go back a long way. One tough session years back he trained with us. I was waiting for my turn on the pads, panting & sweating, & he told me off for not standing up straight!
The death squad guys out of Bristol were always tough, and allot of those early guys were specimens, so I was a bit shocked when yau said that babbs was hands down the best athlete he had ever worked with with and no one else came close, made me wonder just how good the guy was if he was better than Lewis athletically and as a fighter lol but the stories I heard about the guy were impressive to say the least
I'm a bit removed from Babbs, I know that he, Alfie Lewis & Neville Wray were the guys that Sean & Nathan (and the rest of the Death Squad) would have aspired to. Next time I get my backside down to training I'll ask Sean about him.
It was actually Neville I was thinking about who was the guardian coaching the national squad, if anything he was bigger than Lewis Babbs was known for knocking people out of the ring with his side kick when fighting full contact then dropping into the splits whilst waiting from them to get back in lol
I love that attitude. This is what so many including some posting on this thread have always failed to see. All the points is crap brigade Or semi contact training has no street relevance. Semi contact, points full contact, low kicks, highs only etc etc..... these are sets of competition rules for the mats. In class on a day to day training, everyone trains the same. if you have a competition coming up then there would be focused training for the comp. But in general class sparing was the same whether full,semi,light or whatever. Go tell Neville that he can't fight because all he did was semi contact. hahaha he'd just laugh. There used to be an old saying "put up or shut up". Lau Gar has put up and won more times than any single ma style in the uk. They tested there system and their fighting methods on every platform and been successful. No other kung fu style has shown that their stuff actually works against all comers in anything like the way Lau Gar has. The most dangerous animal in kung fu is the Green eyed Monster.
