Chan Tai San stories

[lkfmdc]

On the videos, I have dial up (I know, I know) so it took a while...

the sparring is crap, sorry, but really bad.... didn't even see anything resembling lama in it??

Sifu Choi doing basics, like Michael said, Sifu Chan Tai San was cleaner even at an advanced age.... Sifu Choi does appear to have good power though, and yes, it is similar to some of what we do

The applications are rather basic, adn the fact they aren't using any gear and holding back makes it look sloppy... not really bad, but IMO either put on some gear and go fast, or show it slow, this is sort of half arsed

[Royal Dragon]

Interesting crtique. This is the first time I Have ever heard critisizum of Wai Lun Choi. He is predominantly a Li Ho Ba Fa Sifu, but I have heard his first experiances were in Lama Pai. I wonder if his LHBF has bled into his Lama maybe?

[lkfmdc]

Chris, tell us what you really think

Wai Lun Choi is a good enough sort, but comparing him to Chan Tai San, big shoes to fill.....

The sparring however was f-in hideous

If Michael pops back in here, we need him to scan the pics of Sifu doing that ground set if he still has them.... someone stole my copies about 10 thousand years ago

[Anthony]

Two posts above by Chris Jurak and David Ross comment about what is wrong with the TCMA or why it's going to die out and I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I think that the biggest problem with TCMA is that it's proponents are all talk. I mean you hear nothing but "secret training" or "this set and that set," "we have more forms"....blah, blah, blah, while the TCMA are really not producing any good fighters. So why wouldn't people look elsewhere to learn how to fight. If you (all of us in the TCMA community) want to prove that your martial arts style is great, get off the internet forum, forget the (supposed) history and lineage, walk down to Gleason's Gym in brooklyn and challenge their best guy to a street fight. Too many stlyes have proven themselves in some distant romanticised past (that probably never existed). Personally, I train because I like it.....I'd rather let a lawyer fight for me.

As far as people wanting their TCMA to look like the movies....well....guess what....that is how most people fall in love with TCMA in the first place. No body "NEEDS" TCMA training. Not in our society, and I doubt they did in the past in the way that it's boasted by TCMA stylists.

Sure there are TCMA people who could kick ass, but there are also unschooled fighters with no training that could wipe the floor with any of us (admit it). So how do you prove the fighting skill came from TCMA training (or that it's better than any other type of training). I have to admit that my grandfathers (any many other people unfortunately) could boast the same military and street fighting experience as Chan Tai San. China is not the only place that has ever seen violence, poverty, and war. Those people did not have TCMA and survived. How does survival in those cases prove TCMA ablity.

I know it' hard to set up standards for something like self-defense or martial arts for reality, but the lack of standardization in the TCMA is another big problem. I mean, you set up a system that no one else has, call yourself "master," and voila! you are the authority. "Don't question me....I'm the master!....you'll always be doing it wrong.....even though I've done nothing to prove myself.....I'm a great master of a very rare and deadly style that has so and so forms and such and such great lineage."

[Reign-Of-Terror]

as for the "sparring": I think I looked better my first match as a TKD white belt in 1985, when me and this other guy, Gregg Bodey (funny what you remember), faced off and simultaneously threw right rear-rleg round kicks full contact cracking shins real hard, then switched stances as we lined up again and did the same thing on the other leg!!! that other stuff was pure tripe

the guy sparring was his student and I think in those apps clips hes there as well. It was a bullshido throwdown, and hes the shorter asian guy with the swinging and downward arm motion (someone on bullshido said that its the Lama trademark).

[Brad]

Just curious, do you guys know if you have any kungfu "relatives" teaching in China? Old CTS students, his old classmates students, etc. that kind of thing