UC Berkeley this weekend

[beiquan]

Is anyone going to be at the UC Berkeley tournament this weekend? I am going to be there, and possibly my teacher and a classmate of his might attend also.

[Buddha_Fist]

I'm going to be there...

[GeneChing]

Be sure to come up a say 'hi' so we can put some faces to some posts. I'm pretty easy to recognize. I'll look a lot like this: http://store6.yimg.com/I/martialartsmart_1682_10263834 - sans the ma dao, but hopefully not sans the woman standing on me...ok, ok, probably without her too.
Look forward to meeting you all.

[NorthernShaolin]

Beiquan,

I'll be there. Gook luck to all competitors.

[beiquan]

NorthernShaolin - are you going to be head judge again this year? i think that my teacher might be doing some judging as well, hopefully not in my division because i know he'll give me the lowest scores

Gene - i'll be on the lookout for a mean-looking asian guy in a hoodie! i'll be the tall white guy doing northern shaolin...

[GeneChing]

Well, I must say that I was disappointed with Berkeley and the forum memebers here. Only one member came up and introduced himself. I missed the rest of you. Usually when I go to tournaments, I meet a dozen or so forum members, but here in my own backyard, just one? You all have to find me, since there's no way I cn recognize you. I hope next time I can meet a few more of you - seriously I don't bite. Not very hard at least...

[MonkeySlap Too]

Well, I was there, but the only time I saw Gene he was talking to a guy that did a kookie (Hey, my opinion) fan form. I didn't want to interupt.

I had a fun time, but it had nothing to with the events. I'm not a modern wushu fan, but I loved watching the little kids - really cool. One woman did a beautiful M-Wushufied BaGua set. The Hung Gar contingent seemed to be the one that demonstrated abilities that most followed the principles of their art - although there is no way I could see everything, so if I missed you, I apologize. I saw one guy from the Oakland Omei group practice a little baji - he looked pretty cool doing it.

There are always a couple stereotypes I see at these events, and they were all there on the floor - which offered some real humor. ( I had the Wing Lam vendor laughing when I asked him 'how do you recognize a Wing Chun dummy?' - "oh, they are usually about 170 lbs, 5'5"-6', and walk around leaning backwards" - sorry, I could not resist, someone told me that one and I died laughing. Apologies to my Wing Chun friends.)

The shove hands evolved into push hands as the day went on. One school that wore these wife-beater style school shirts performed really well - so did Stephen Chan - whose name I only know because someone I know knows him.

Overall - not enough traditional stuff to get me to come back - especially since there is no san shou division. For me, it gets pretty boring watching compulsory forms. Which is what the audience must of thought too, because it really thinned out. I'd suggest bringing the sparring back. It's a branding issue - the people you draw in with a 'martial arts' tournement promotion want to see, well, something martial. I'm not sure Americans get the dichotemy created by modern Wushu.

Finally - it was a great effort by those involved. I met some great people up in the stands, but if I was going to change anything, the stuff I mention above would really make it more enticing to me and my friends. None of us went to the masters demo, as again our personal interest is 'traditional' wushu, so the thought of sitting through more modern wushu - even if it is really well done, was not appealing - and as we did not know the names on the demo list, we just assumed they were mostly modern wushu, and went to Jupiters to drink beer.

So - over all, if you liked modern wusho Taolu, it was great fun. There were some traditional players there, and some 'cross-over' schools who do both, and I gotta tell you, I wish we had modern Wushu around when I was kid - that just looked like fun for kids.

[beiquan]

I had a great time, and I got to meet Gene! I don't mind watching the modern wushu, although it gets kind of old after a while - good wushu is fun to watch, but bad contemporary wushu looks really bad. In my traditional divisions, I met some great people, a couple of Seven Star guys, an eagle claw practitioner from Florida, and also a few people that practice the same style as me, from a few different lineages, which is always a good experience. There were also a lot of Choy Li Fut guys there that looked really sharp. It's so easy to get into a clique mentality in martial arts -- contemporary/traditional, northern/southern, sanshou/forms, my lineage/your lineage, etc... but i feel like i always learn something when i get the kind of broad exposure that you find at an event like this.

[GeneChing]

ms: Was that the dreadlock guy? He was very interesting, eh? You should have interupted. Next time... BTW, I thought you were going to wear a monkey head or something. I was looking forward to that. Berkeley's roots are in wushu, so that dominate this event. Sifu Fong brings some BSL into it too, but his BSL has a heavy wushu accent.

bq: Yes it was good to meet you. Kudos to you for starting this thread, saying hi and going out a busting some moves on the floor.

And I should qualify my earlier statement by saying I had a great time too, but I was disappointed by not seeing more of you.

[MonkeySlap Too]

Hey Gene,
I should have interupted - but I'll find a way to meet you at some point - we are in the same area, and in theory I'm submitting some articles to Martha for consideration - if I can ever get the photos to my liking.

I was weraing a monkey mask! No, wait, I wasn't wearing a mask...

[MonkeySlap Too]

weraing = wearing.

sheesh...

[GeneChing]

...maybe the next one. Too bad, you could have chatted up me and the dread.

[kungfuyou]

Sorry guys, I had all intent on going, but my clutch went out in my car the night before, and by the sounds of it, I'm even MORE disappointed now then I was before for not being able to make it!! Should have called a cab or caught a bus or something to make it!! I'm sure there will be more!!