I have noticed that there are quite a lot of kung fu practitioners on here that come from a variety of kung fu backgrounds. The main thing I want to know is how do those of you that train kung fu spar (ie light/full contact, frequency etc)? I have seen so many kung fu schools in my area, yet most of them seem to do no sparring at all (whether it be from light contact to full contact/Sanda type sparring), or that the sparring is a sort of no-contact, technique based sparring (which I personally am not a fan of). Being a big fan of chinese culture and appreciation, I've always liked the look of kung fu, but have been put off by the lack of sparring (not trying to discredit kung fu styles at all, I just personally prefer more sparring in my martial arts). So yeah, how do you all spar?
In my club, it used to be big sparring open hand gloves (the old karate ones) and headguard. Just be very careful of the Tiger claws to the face and strikes to the knees (or the Oblique kick that others seem to refer it to). Also no Spearhand strikes because you'll break your own fingers. Heavy drilling I don't mind. Weirdly enough my forearms arent exactly well conditioned, so it gets annoying when I go home with a hand print or two.
Pro Koushu rules in amateur Koushu gear plus shinpads 3 times a week. One of those sessions may be swapped out for submission wrestling. On top of that there's sticky hands, wrestling and fencing in varying amounts.
Oh ok, sounds pretty cool! Your tagline thing says you've done Muay Thai as well, how do you feel sparring in your kung fu system differs from Muay Thai (ie distance, intensity, variety of strikes etc)? Do you still use tiger claws and such to the body?
What are the Pro Koushu rules? Do they resemble Sanda/Lei Tai sparring? That's great as well that you spar with such a high frequency, most places I've seen spar only once per week! Is there any integration of your wrestling/fencing into your kung fu style? Particularly fencing, I assume you have weapons in your style, is there any sparring with weapons that has any crossover? Also Choy Lee Fut right? Isn't that one of the derivatives to Jow Ga kung fu? I ask because there seem to be plenty of Jow Ga places near me and I don't know if there is any correlation or anything between these two styles.
http://www.pro.kuoshu.co.uk/pro_rules.html My wrestling and fencing is my Kung Fu style, I've never done western sport fencing. Some say Jow Gar came from CLF, some say it came from Choy Gar.
I do sparring under a few different rulesets to work different skills and pressures. My favourite is what I term "burst sparring." Essentially MMA rules with the goal of staying standing and unentangled while getting as many good hits in as possible. Round times are usually about 3-7 seconds and there's no waiting or feeling out your opponent.
My KF, has a very boxer style kind of stance. So it merged well, I also trained MT more intensely, so they blended well. But I keep the styles apart, as much as one can via rulesets. But the power generation in MT made my KF better, my KF made my fluidity and footwork in MT better.
Oh right, thought you meant western fencing for a second. Nonetheless, it's cool that you are able to involve different types of sparring (ie striking, weapons)!
So is it more situational based stuff? I must admit I've always admired the theory of Wing Chun but have never seen it really in practice. In your sparring styles then (particularly in the burst sparring you were talking about), are you still able to effectively utilize your trapping abilities in such fast-paced combat, or is more just all out striking in burst sparring?
I like that you have the ability to apply the strengths of each art to the other. How would you see yourself using both arts in a mixed ruleset though? Like would it be mostly Muay Thai with kung fu techniques (or vice versa), or do you just integrate the assets (not the moves) of each art into a blended striking style?
Actually it's preparatory for building skills for the situation based training. Initially people just try to strike their way through but they get countered and eventually start to make use of more trapping technique. Sometimes it's a good strategy and one worth drilling; strike until you hit a bridge then work trapping from there. As with anything the higher the pressure the more fancy stuff goes out the window and you end up relying on basic, solid techniques, footwork, structure, and positioning. It's also where you get to combine all the skills you build up in chi sao, lap sao, pak sao, etc. You do also have to work on bridging the gap into that range but that's why I include other kinds of sparring as well.
In my school, students will spar in the following different ways: 1. Make 2 circles with one circle inside another circle. The person in the inside circle will spar with the person in the outside circle. After 1 minute, the inside circle will rotate and persons in both circles will spar with different opponents. This is usually used for the beginner of the class as "warm up". This is control sparring. 2. 2 person spar, 1 person play offense while the other person play defense only. The person who plays defense can only move around, block, dodge. He can't attack back. 3. Select 1 technique (or 2). For example, if A can get B's "single leg", A wins that round. Test this for 10 rounds and record the result. 4. Put on gloves and body protection and go full contact. 5. 2 persons spar, the 3rd person can jump in and attack either person. So the sparring guys have to watch his back. This can develop the alert for street fight.
