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Showing posts from December, 2008

Competition in Fu Zhou

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I recently had an amazing experience in a martial arts competition in Fu Zhou, China on Dec 12, 2008. It was a competion between all of the masters or "participating masters" from Taiwan v.s. the masters of Fu Zhou and other regions of China. Even though I am not big on competition myself, but was honored to be a representitave of the Taiwanese team as well as traditional martial arts. The tournament took two days and the members of the Taiwanese team travelled together for 5 days. It was a wonderful opportunity to work with many masters hands on and learn the differences between the many different styles. I believe that trying to compare so many arts and masters and to say who is better or more effective is impossible. So the trophies and medals I don't really pay attention to. But the best part of the experience was being accepted as a master of the traditional arts. It was incredible being able to talk to the other masters regarding history, culture and the future of t

My brother master Eddie doing a demo in Korea

This is my brother doin a little demo in Korea. This gives a little closer view to the application of Huek Choo Kwan

Training is research. This is our responsiblity

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I find that many people these days believe MMA to be the most effective form of fighting. Not that I have a problem MMA being a former believer in mixed styles myself, but I have found it to be lacking in comparison to traditional styles in terms of power and effectiveness. Why does MMA and ultimate fighting tend to dominate in competition? 1. Mixed martial arts is one of the easiest and quickest fighting styles to learn. In every style learning the basics can be done in a couple of months and the later more advanced techniques take years to achieve. MMA is a combination of the most basic manuevers from boxing, grappling, kicking etc. In short a person training Bagua for a year or two vs. a person doing mma for a year or two will be beaten. Since we live in a microwave society the quicker route is most appealing in all countries. 2. The second reasoning is that in competition everyone is limited to the same sets of rules. Wearing gloves completely eliminates wristlocks, pressure points