I like the modern wushu, Sifu does teach us modern wushu. It may seem all flashy to most people and it is, but there is more to it. When your body becomes developed enough to perform all of the acrobatics involved in performance wushu, you will have a physic capable of performing any movement required in traditional kung fu. Also you will be at such a high performance level, you will be much more resistant to sprains and tears of the ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Most people dont think about that, nor do they have the dedication it takes to change thier body type to be able to do wushu.
Yes, with practice it would be no problem. Im 25, 170 lbs. and I can perform wushu. Granted I cannot do the 540 butterfly twists and such but who knows what the future holds. Your at a ver good age. I just started learning the modern wushu a year and a half ago and I have progressed well. Start now and by the time your 18 you will be doing very well. Heck your so young if you start kung fu now your body will easily be formed into the correct shape for kung fu. One of the kids in our class was 13 when he started and quite chubby. Now he is the best modern wushu student in our school. its really quite neat, he can pick up areal and acrobatic movements pretty quickly. But of course his master is the bomb.
There's no place around for Wushu. But when I hit 18 or 19, I'll have a car and a job, and I will be able to drive a farther way for martial arts. Cause the closest places is in Chicago.
If you practice the Shaolin you will develop all of the needed flexability and strength to be able to perform flashy modern wushu. They will most likely teach you several areal techniques anyhow, just not advanced modern wushu. You can always ask the teacher if they can teach you some. you will be surprised at what a teacher knows and does not teach normally. My favorite shaolin system I am learning is Hong Quan. My favorite form is Da Hong Quan. There are several places in the form that implicate killing within the techniques. Shaolin will teach you to disable an opponent with as little time and as much effeciency as possible. Remember Shaolin was developed during a period when people were fighting to kill, over a period of a few thousand years it had been refined to a very deadly and complete system. Correct it takes much longer to master, but hey, you have at least a good 60 or 70 years left on you.
Yes it is quite possible. Shaolin monks at the Shaolin Temple know modern wushu. Simply because they understand that being able to perform all that acrobatic stuff may not be used in a fight, but the conditioning you recieve from mastering the techniques will benefit you in several ways, and those benefits and conditioning WILL be used in a fight. It is highly probable that those teachers will know wushu.
Well Im going home from work now. You can go to that site I told you about over the weekend there are very well informed Kungfu people there. I also noticed the superkicks gives a free class for trial, make use of this.
As a WC man I will naturally say do the Wing Chun. I have done Shaolin Chowga which is a Vietnamese Derivitive of Shaolin Kung Fu. I dont know the ins and outs, I simply know for my own personal tastes it was not the style for me. Then again I am not you so???? What I will say if you are going to study WC you need to be very picky about who your teacher is going to be (if you have that luxury). A good way to spot a good teacher. 1. Look at his students, are they any good. 2. Watch a few lessons, sheck out the way that you are taught, is it more personalised or is it simply en masse 3. Try to find out if they emphasise the use of the stance as opposed to little stance work and more hand work 4. Find out is their focus on technique or principal, if it is principals and concepts then that is a good thing. 5. Check on their lineage, I know many people will disagree with me here, but I believe it is important to establish where on the tree they are, I would personally much preffer to learn from someone who was taught by a first or even secind generation from Yip Man (or other family lines) I am very fourtuanate in that I learn from a first generation student of YM so I am learning a lot of quality stuff. Now to the incomplete question, WC is not as incomplete as many people would think, that may be the case where they have learnt Wing Chun but not from all teachers (and again it comes down to the teacher and there exposure to WC) for example it has often been said there is no grappling in Wing Chun, this is incorrect, it may simply be that the teachers they have learnt of dont have the full picture. My sifu does teach grappling though it is when you have progressed further in his "Syllabus".
I saw the www.ebmaschicago.com link, and was impressed, although it was a somewhat small website. You have a chance to train with Emin Boztepe? What I have read in a couple of places by chance suggests that he has been influential in the method of passing on the knowledge. I would check it out.
I was going to refrain from entering my tuppence worth here, as not wanting to cause offence. But as various shaolin guys seemed to have said enough about WC, I changed my mind. I had a few lessons in shaolin, and was even lucky enough to see them live. For me, there seemed to be a great deal of...acrobaticy type moves, that had little or no use whatsoever on the street. Ask yourself why you're going to study a MA. As an ex serviceman, my fitness was always pretty good, but my WC sifu manages to knacker me out every lesson I go to. WC incomplete? Well, perhaps, but when that mugger yells at you to "hand over yer wallet", I assure you, the last thing going through your mind will be "Hmmm, I wonder what the other forms in WC are?"....WC IS simplistic, like that's a bad thing? My sifu is of the opinion that to survive, it's a good idea to strike first, strike fast, and strike hard. Then vanish. I have to agree with him, and that's pretty much the kind of techniques that he teaches. IMHO, on the street, pub, wherever, simple is best, arty-farty, airy fairy acrobatics will do jack. Unless you train for years and years...unless of course...that's what you want. Try both, see which is most suitable for you, then decide. WC was developed from Shaolin, but it's versatility is precisely what makes it very dangerous, in a relatively short amount of time. However, that said, those Shaolin monks I watched many years ago, were hard as nails. Even the kids! No offence intended to anyone, just what I happen to feel. I happen to have the greatest respect for the Shaolin, and their kung fu, it does strike me that with the Cultural Revolution, it was most likely watered down somewhat, more so than other CMA....
Same advice we give all the people who ask this question: "When the time comes, go to the school, try a few classes, and see which one you like better." Good luck!
Good advice, you're much better off spending time studying with a good instructor from just about any MA, than studying any MA with a poor instructor.
just like to say wc has a lot of stand up grappling.not much on the floor,but the chinese arts seems against groundfighting,just my experiance doing both northern and southern chinese arts.
Korpy, Check out both schools, take the freel class, and see what you like. Dont be worried about it right now. After you have influence from the teachers, then you can make a self educated choice. I have studied and still practice my wing chun and I like it alot. I still use alot of it when I sparr. Real Shaolin yes, there are flips, jumps and acrobatics. But that is not the primary concern for shaolin kung fu. You will be givin a display of physical abilities when observing Shaolin Warriors. If you look in the correct places you will see the applications. In the Shaolin forms (northern longfist system, and the Hong System) I have learned, there is no flips, rarely jumps, and rarely high kicks, mostly its animal styles mixed with fist styles, with the idea of disabling or killing your opponent in 1-3 movements. If you were to tally the amount of groin, throat, joint breaks in an actual shaolin form you will be surprised. Its aim is not to beat up another fighter, its aim is to remove another fighter, permanently. Read the true history of Shaolin. Shaolin kung fu has been used in the field of battle several times to kill armed soldiers. Wing Chun is very applicable in a street fight, it is very simple and is easy to learn. You will excell against most adversaries you will encounter. You will develop very fast reflexes and techniques and will learn how to use your opponents energy against them in a close fight. You will also learn these strategies in Shaolin. It is just with different methods and will require longer practice. Remember Shaolin is the birth of Wing Chun.
Shaolin- There's just more to learn. However, if the shaolin school is just wushu, then go with wing chun.
