Antonio Graceffo articles

[No_Know]

If one takes from a form the best for that one, even undefeatable don't different people shine at different techniques? Keeping the forms provides the armory. And as was mentioned, select the weapons of choice.

I No_Know

[Pork Chop]

Yah but without honing, tools can be useless.
Without the drilling (honest to god, real speed & power drilling), then those techniques will still be useless.
Just because you see a move in a form that you've got natural ability to perform doesn't mean it's the move that's going to save your hiney in a fight.
It's the supplemental training around it (the technique in the form) that makes the technique usable.

[WinterPalm]

Pork Chop - I agree 100%.

If you aren't learning the applications in the forms, drilling them against partners, then applying them against heavy bag/wooden dummy, pads, and sparring, you probably aren't training very hard or properly.

The funny thing is that there are very, very skilled kung fu people out there with no desire to compete. Somehow this makes what they do less good?

Every technique in a form has either a health or combative application. You can tell people haven't learned this difference when they take movements from sets that aren't meant for fighting and try to make them for fighting. Most Kung Fu application isn't really that complicated...you just have to learn it, drill it, and apply it in sparring training.

I think it is when people take out the direct combative applications and instead try to look like something from a movie that they start to betray what they've been taught!

[No_Know]

Hello-Heaven-high, what might be some techniques that are used for health but not useable for fighting. As long as speed, power, angle, breathing may be adjusted to fit the situation, please show me/ tell me of techniques that cannot be used for fighting, I might No_Know.

I No_Know

[GeneChing]

Here's something Antonio just sent me, sort of his personal version of Human Weapon ala YouTube.

[viper]

The only problem i saw in his article was the idea that a mma fight has never been finished by standing joint manipulation. Its my understanding the rules stop ppl using any form of joint lock on small joints and i have seen fights in mma finished with standing arm breaks. To me mma just means cross training so i think this is the new wave of cross training i think as time goes on we will c more mma winners under the "tma" banner just give it time and I say this because its not the system its the training in using it. Less ***** more punch

[WinterPalm]

I like how his demo of a takedown is just like the ones where we see TCMA guys defending against in videos...
But how is that possible? He's a mma guy and he just bent over at the waist and rushed forward? What's going on?

[Pork Chop]

I like how his demo of a takedown is just like the ones where we see TCMA guys defending against in videos...
But how is that possible? He's a mma guy and he just bent over at the waist and rushed forward? What's going on?

did you miss the part where he said he's mainly a striker, a boxer and a kickboxer?
I wouldn't go to crocop to learn how to shoot, eventhough he's pretty good at defending them.

Antonio seems to do all the martial arts they cover in Human Weapon. Boxing background, trained at shaolin, 8 months in thailand with muay thai, and like I said, he's got a movie about khmer bokator boxing too.

Haven't seen any of his stuff outside of what's on youtube. Also haven't heard of him fighting mma. So i don't know how versed he is in mma.

[WinterPalm]

did you miss the part where he said he's mainly a striker, a boxer and a kickboxer?
I wouldn't go to crocop to learn how to shoot, eventhough he's pretty good at defending them.

Antonio seems to do all the martial arts they cover in Human Weapon. Boxing background, trained at shaolin, 8 months in thailand with muay thai, and like I said, he's got a movie about khmer bokator boxing too.

Haven't seen any of his stuff outside of what's on youtube. Also haven't heard of him fighting mma. So i don't know how versed he is in mma.

Yeah, I know.
Just thought I'd jump the gun for the usual suspects.
When they see a clip of a kung fu guy doing his takedown defense against another kung fu guy, sometimes with a similar takedown to that one, they jump all over it and dismiss it.

[Pork Chop]

Yeah, I know.
Just thought I'd jump the gun for the usual suspects.
When they see a clip of a kung fu guy doing his takedown defense against another kung fu guy, sometimes with a similar takedown to that one, they jump all over it and dismiss it.

a cr@ppy takedown is a cr@ppy takedown, regardless of whether you call yourself kung fu, muay thai, or mma.

[GeneChing]

Check out Antonio's latest submission, The Old Wolf and the Young Wolf

[MightyB]

Both articles make you think...

The only thing I can say is the old argument of invested time. You do something 'cuz you think the reward will be there- you work in ernest- years go by--- suddenly you realize that it's too late to change, you know you should, but it just doesn't fit the plan anymore (and you don't really care). Next thing you know- you're teaching somebody else who trains in ernest.

[GeneChing]

Read Combat and Shan Kung Fu: Training with the Shan State Army by Antonio Graceffo. This is a shotgun article with one Antonio has in our 2008 May/June issue, hitting the stands now. Read Lai Tai: The Kung Fu of the Shan People, another piece about Burmese kung fu in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Read Combat and Shan Kung Fu: Training with the Shan State Army by Antonio Graceffo. This is a shotgun article with one Antonio has in our 2008 May/June issue, hitting the stands now. Read Lai Tai: The Kung Fu of the Shan People, another piece about Burmese kung fu in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.

Nice article, thanks Gene.
I guess that fighting for independence is one way to do it

[Brooklynmonk]

Burma Martial Arts video Lai Tai
From Antonio Graceffo, The Monk from Brooklyn

I hope people enjoy reading about the Shan State Army and the Shan martial art of Lai Tai. Make sure to see the accompanying Lai Tai story in the print version of Kung Fu Magazine.

I have been reporting on the conflict in Burma and the ethnic people driven over the border into Thailand for the last six years. Finally, last year, I went into Burma for the first time and connected with the Shan State Army. My friends, the Shan soldiers and refugees, tell me horrifying stories about their villages being burned and their families murdered. I began spending nearly all my time in the war zone, looking for any way possible to help. I wrote stories for magazines, taught martial arts, and made a series of about 25 videos on you tube about the Shan and about their Lai Tai. I have done all of this work for free, first financing the work out of my own pocket, and later through small donations from people around the world who were concerned about the Shan people and the situation inside of Burma.

Martial arts are extremely important cultural elements which often get lost after a nation has endured a genocide. Readers may know that in my years of reporting from the remote parts of Asia I “discovered” the Cambodian martial art of Bokator and the Shan martial art of Lai Tai. Parallel to promoting the culture or publicizing the genocide, I was always wishing there were some direct way I could help the people.

On my last visit into the war zone we had a motorcycle accident while going through a military checkpoint. An American artist who was working on a series of Shan sculptures was injured. A tribal man was nearly killed. One of my Shan State Army soldier friends was captured.

That incident frightened me. It was a wake up call. For years I had been considering attending paramedic training. After I recovered from a head injury, a number of kind people around the world sent me small sums of money so I could fly to Manila and attend paramedic school. It was the cheapest option.

I have been here for eight weeks and will take my license exam and start volunteering on an ambulance here, before finishing my schooling. When my paramedic training is over, I will be returning to Shanland and the Burma border to help with backpack medic teams. I am still continuing with my Shanland, Burma writing and film making, releasing one piece per week.

I need some help. I am reaching out to the martial arts community who has always been so kind to me in the past.

I need to get my paramedic equipment this week and need some financial help for my training and for film editing. If you can help, thank you. If you can’t, I completely understand. Just enjoy the videos and spread the word about Shanland and the ethnic people of Burma.

If you wish to contribute to paramedic training and “In Shanland” film project, you can donate through paypal, through the Burma page of my website.
http://speakingadventure.com/burma.htm

If you would like to see the Lai Tai videos on youtube, click here.

http://youtube.com/results?search_qu...i&search_type=