Never in the history of boxing has someone demonstrated the techniques by having someone else stand still while they threw punches at them. The incredibly obvious reality is that there are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of boxing fights you can watch where two people are fighting each other using the techniques of boxing in a real fight.

Aside from demonstrations for stupid TV shows and even more ignorant tourists, you don’t see many compliant Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) demonstrations either. Once again, the proof is in the ring. You can find thousands of Muay Thai fights in which the technique is very clear in REAL FIGHTS.

In the age of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), the fact is in very real fights with very few restrictions you can still see the techniques of boxing and Muay Thai. You can also see the techniques of wrestling, judo, Jiu Jitsu and even Karate and Taekwondo.

WHERE IS THE KUNG FU? It seems that every time we see a kung fu student fighting, the other kung fu people say “that’s not right!”. Kung Fu students always fight using “kickboxing” and BAD kickboxing usually. Or they have “stolen” Muay Thai. Apparently no one has ever learned the “real stuff” and no one can use the real stuff. Or the REAL kung fu people are too deadly or are Buddhist monks who have decided to contemplate their navels?

Do people REALLY think that in the entire world, in the age of cell phone cameras and the internet, no one has ever happened to catch “THE REAL KUNG FU” on film?? Personally, and I think there is TONS of evidence to rebuke this, I think the theory that kung fu is so secret and deadly it can’t be caught on film is complete BULL CRAP.

So what we are left with is a few other possible theories. One is that “back in the day” in China people fought differently. They used “bridges” and “trapping” and “stuck / glued” and absorbed and redirected and the techniques work a certain way when the other person is reacting this way. In other words, my “gwa choih, teut sau, yu cham” doesn’t work as a combination unless you block and respond with certain techniques and tactics that USED to be common back in China.

But there is some evidence this is crap as well. A good place to start with this theory is the article I wrote on the early “Lei Tai” fights (CLICK HERE for “Lei Tai – fighting in the good old days”). In those events, held in China, you had traditionally trained kung fu men, from excellent lineages, learning the “real stuff” and given the opportunity to show it. By most accounts, you saw relatively unskilled brawls.

Have you ever seen the 1954 “fight” between two “masters”? Chan Hak Fu (White Crane) vs. Wu Kung Yi (Tai Chi). There is a LOT of denial and people sticking their head in the sand regarding this so watch it yourself (be prepared to ruin your lunch)

If you are a kung fu person, take a deep breath, splash some cold water on your face, maybe smack your face and just admit that it was TERRIBLE and they looked like little kids on the school yard. Today, beginning students in sparring classes look better.

There are a few reasons why that ended up looking like a Mongolian-cluster-fook but part of the reason is that people expect kung fu to be something that clearly it is not. In other words, KUNG FU NEVER LOOKED IN APPLICATION LIKE A JACKIE CHAN OR JET LI MOVIE.

Wing Chun, the much ridiculed and scorned kung fu system. Who stands like that and fights like that? Well maybe it was never meant to be used that way! A relative of a well known Wing Chun sifu, who himself spend most of his life practicing under his uncle’s careful eye, insists that Wing Chun is a bunch of IDEAS about fighting and that the actual techniques and structures are teaching tools NEVER MEANT TO LOOK THAT WAY IN A REAL FIGHT.

Last night, I actually took two Wing Chun techniques, Man Sau and Bong Sau (spelling?) and instead of showing them in a “kick and punch and block” structure, showed them as DEFENSES AGAINST ARM DRAGS. If you are all really nice, I might put in on youtube for you LOL. Even “stranger” (or maybe NOT!) is the fact that after I blocked the arm drag, I was in fact in a good position to do some straight blast “Jihk Choih” wing chun punches!

PLEASE NOTE: most of the kung fu people stopped reading this blog after the fourth paragraph and will never see that… that’s another point in this!

NOW GO TRAIN!

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