kung fu in colorado and the BSL DVDs?

Hey all

I was hoping someone could give me pointers as to places to train in the Boulder/Denver area. I know very little about CMA, and hardly know what to look for in the few places I've seen so far.

Also, someone recommended the Bak Sum Lim DVDs from http://www.wle.org, but I was a little dubious. How helpful can DVDs really be in learning an art like that - I'd love to do BSL, really - when you don't have a teacher to correct any mistakes you make in the material?

I'd try searching for any of this stuff, but the search engine isn't working for me - I'm getting a problem about the image verification code, and the image won't load in any browser I try.

Anyways, thanks for any help

But I do know about WLE videos. I wrote most of them. Check out our past thread on the subject.

It's actually http://www.wle.com. :cool:

GC - Thanks for the link; I hate not being able to search through forums for stuff that's probably been said sixteen times. Apparently that's not a problem now, though - getting my account validated seemed to fix it..


Raven - Thanks.. Too bad mle.org is taken, too, otherwise I could try scamming people into purchasing stuff through a fake site :cool:

And sorry to harass you Gene, but since you're, um, you know, somewhat familiar with those BSL videos... ;)

My concern with learning from videos alone is that I'd overlook things that a good sifu would catch (stuff like excess tension and co-contraction on punches, etc.).

Might studying taiji with an actual instructor help alleviate some of those natural problems, enough so that studying an external art by video could be pretty worthwhile?

Granted I wouldn't master everything (or anything), but I wonder if that combination could be pretty effective for obtaining a functional and only-slightly impaired external style.

It just shouldn't be your sole source of instruction. Obviously, if you have a master that can coach you directly, that's the best. But if you don't have that, you make do.

I personally don't think you should rely on a single source for any information. Even if you're training with that ideal master, you should look at videos of other masters to compare and contrast. The more you know, the better.

You cannot really learn gong fu from a video. You can learn movements but the nuisances will be missed. I teach Chen shi tai ji and Hou Quan (monkey boxing) and I will show someone something and they will be able to do it but when I walk around them they are missing key parts of the whole. I continually tell one of my students to relax his shoulders and he believes that they are, when in reality I see the tension. A video will not let you see yourself. It can be a great tool; a hammer is also a great tool but you cannot build a house with only a hammer.

Elkeevo my school is in Fort Collins Colorado. Love to have you come up and check out a class or two.
www.meridiangatekungfu.com
Good luck in your search

elkeevo,

There is a decent mix of martial arts available in the Denver metro area. If you let me know exactly where you are Id be happy to point you in the right direction. But like everything else, the more time you spend researching the topic, the more that will pop out of the woodwork...

You can also check out this thread from the past which I outlined a few of the arts available in CO, both North and South of Denver:

http://martial.best.vwh.net/forum/sh...ad.php?t=41919

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ling hou

Elkeevo my school is in Fort Collins Colorado. Love to have you come up and check out a class or two.

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Hey, I appreciate that, but FC is a bit too far. I'm in Boulder, which isn't all that far, but I'm trying to find a school for both myself and my brother, who's moving to Denver.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PlumDragon

There is a decent mix of martial arts available in the Denver metro area. If you let me know exactly where you are Id be happy to point you in the right direction. But like everything else, the more time you spend researching the topic, the more that will pop out of the woodwork...

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Thanks Plum, that thread was a great help. Getting a few more names of schools that I didn't find in the Yellowpages is a good start, and hearing descriptions of some of them helped even more.

I'm highly interested in T'ai Chi (or the internal arts in general - t'ai chi is the only one I have any experience with), but I hardly know how to find a good school right now. I'd also love to balance that out with a nice external art, something focusing not just on forms but on application (and sparring!), as well.

hey there...lmk if you wanted to meet up with me at my school..

i should be in boulder wednesday night

Shaolin Hung Mei in Boulder

#303 507-3800

Do a search on the subject, it's been touched a few times around here...

Also see your PMs, I gave you my old teachers phone #