Martial Arts & Fighting Forms | Asian American Poll

MARTIAL ARTS & FIGHTING FORMS
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:09 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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I take our little baby boy to his dad's Kung Fu class to watch. He is only 8 months old, but gets very excited and starts yelling "DADA!!" when my husband goes through his forms. There are alot of young children also at this school, starting at age 4 and up. This school concentrates on Wushu Kung-Fu and is something that does not seem dangerous to the kids, as it is all forms for the younger ones. There is warm-up tumbling and cart-wheels which is something that even a PE class at elementry school would offer. If he shows an interest in it as he grows, we are going to let him start with kung-fu.
Hannybunbun Friday, March 08, 2002 at 06:21:22 (PST)

"That's my point the military trains people for the a very specific environment of combat. Urban setting, or underwater setting, etc. They don't ask a soldiers trained in one field to go into another. Even Seals, Ranger Team, Special Forces members are trained for a very specific area."

"Hence, if you goal is learning the in and out of street fighting and how assault someone in a street without picking up a police record. Then yes, you will need to fight on the street a lot or find someone to show you the ropes."

Across different combat settings, urban, underwater, trench, etc, there are commonalities such as shooting a gun, carry heavy load, communication, attack strategy that are applicable in all environments. By the same analogy, boxing, grappling, kicking are common elements to street fighting. You are suggesting one to get into street fights to learn street fighting, this is like suggesting military send its troops into real battle to gain battle experience without training. Sure there is no substitute for actual combat experience, but I sure would like to have as much training as possible before I get into a battle. You are so full of it.

Jay Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 22:35:12 (PST)

It's not the fighting style but the coach. I;ve had the opportunity to train in different systems and concepts (JKDC, kali, jujitsu, okinawan karate, japanese karate) I've had good coaches and really really bad ones. I do agree with Drmidnite about some systems and concepts may be too much for a child at certain ages. I have seen young kids learn JKD and pick it up for what's it's worth. I've seen some bad examples of teaching arrogance and bullying at a local TKD school and a Tiger Shulman center. I had a Wado Ryu teacher kick my knee out and put me out of commission for 5 months for "side stepping him during a sparring session in front of the other parents." I had a Doce Pares teacher on the jersey side who tore my left ligament elbow for cross training at another system and getting proficient at my fighting game. I don't mean to digress too much here. Systems emphasis different ranges and concepts. It's the coach. It's better for the parent to at least 2 sessions to get a feel of the class culture draw your own conclusions.
TenchiBushi Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 15:27:01 (PST)

AC:

I don't know where you got the idea that the Kung-fu schools in NYC only caters to getting kids into triads or gangs.

Though I did walk into a so-called "Triad meeting" when I was a teen growing up in the city. I wanted to learn Kung-fu so I went to one that was advertised in NYC Chinatown, the FuJow Pai or Tiger Claw school in Canal street. So I walk up the stairs and lo! You have an Italian guy at the door saying: "What do you want?" Then an old chinese man yells out to let me in. I ask if this was the FuJow School and He said that they moved even though that sign was still out there and he didn't even knows where they moved to.

The cool thing was that the Old man was sitting on the head of the table and there were people sitting around him in a long table eating their dinner but even when he was speaking to me, no one even raised their heads to even look at me, only the old man.

Maybe he was the godfather of chinatown or maybe a famous kung-fu master but the funny thing was that there was an Italian guy (Mafia?) at the door blocking my entrance or maybe the old guy thought I was part of the youth gangs. Who knows? But it just looked fishy. Like something out of a movie.

I was lucky to be able to practice with schools that were not affliated with gangs. I guess that is why most Chinese parents don't want their kids to practise Kung-fu for the fear of them joining the latest "Flying Dragon or Cockaroach" gang. I personally don't like any of them because they only put down their own people and instead of helping the community; they are only interested in helping themselves.

Overall these gangs only perpetuate a bad image of the martial arts and prevents some honest asian kid who is interested in learning about their culture.

I know that there are some korean gang in Queens who use the Taekwondo school as a gang and called themselves "Korean Killers"

What styles do these gangs practice in?
Is it associated with the name of the gang they are in? Like if they are called the 'Ghost Shadows', do they practice Lost Track Boxing? or the Flying Dragons, do they practice dragon boxing or Leaping Prawn style?

I wonder how effective their kung-fu is and how authentic it is instead of the traditional hatchets and guns they normally use.
AM Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 11:10:54 (PST)

TSJ,

I doubt he would be afraid to the point of non-performance. But all fighters get the butterflies, how else does he know the adrenline is flowing.

I'm also pretty sure Mr. Shamrock now takes care of himself for sanctioned fights and not pick random fights on the street.

Back in the days, if he walked into a Chinese resturant in our turf and started mouthing off, insulting Chinese people. He would have been treated like all the other white trash in the area and get jumped into an alley. Sure a few of us would be impress with how tough he would have been to bring down. But the conclusion would have still been the same "assault by unknown assailent, no eyewitnesses, no descriptions."
AC Dropout Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 09:32:53 (PST)

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