Which style is best?
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 12:18 AM posted in General Discussion excuter says 
9 hours ago
@ bababardwan, yes that would be fun. But for which style is the best (for you)... that depends on your personality.
And to quote grand master Chen xiao wang:
it's all right, if the principle agrees ^_^
excuter,
I think there is some truth in what you say.It may also perhaps depend on the situation.I have heard that the high kicks in Tae Kwon Do may have had some origin in kicking people off horses.Historically, kung fu was a closely kept secret and was passed down in families.But in recent times ,at least in the west,one can easily enrol in a wide variety of martial arts schools.So naturally one tries to work out which style is the best [or as you say ,perhaps the most suitable for the person].I have heard martial artists debate enthusiastically that their style and their master is the best.This is to be expected.After all ,if one didn't think their style and teacher was the best,one would simply move on to the best.While there may be some validity in what you say,there is no denying that at least amongst some martial artists it is an area of debate.
excuter
February 01, 2009, 06:20 PMright, only practice makes perfect ^_^
I think you have to have both: practice of the techniques and fights to practice the use of them.
The longer a fight goes the more you can learn from it. Experience only comes to those who experience ;-)
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 05:52 AMmisterjess,
re:"best style is the one you will stick with and practice"
I couldn't agree more with this,and your comments that followed.Your point about what the jiu-jitsu practitioners have said to you proves my original point which is that many [but not all;wiser folk like yourself here are excluded ] do like to debate it/assert that their style is the best.Even within kung fu styles I have heard this [and I'm sure even within the same style ,each will often think their Sifu is the best ].My suggestion was originally for what a dialogue on a martial arts lesson might contain and I think this is a common point of discussion amongst practitioners.
ps thanks heaps for your post.
excuter
September 29, 2008, 04:26 PMHi there, finally made it here so I can join the on going conversation ^_^
So...yes, the style is a thematic you can discuss on and off with some persons and if you stick to one it´s the best for you.
As there is always a but in such sentences I through in another idea, which is this: try out different styles and maybe practice two wich complement each other.
One example is a practicioner of Chen tai ji quan who is in the group where I´m practicing, he practices Kung fu as well (in the same Kung fu school where we practice taiji and the Shifu of the school is a Chen tai ji teacher who leads our group on tuesdays).
What I notice is that if I am not calm enough to use taiji (still not advanced enough *sigh*) and it seems to close for what´s left from my Karate times, I automatically use the lever and choke techniques which I love since my Judo times.
As many persons throughout the history of martial arts have said and proven: you should use every technique you can apply without sticking to a style, because at the end it is to win a fight, not to look good (even though it wouldn´t be a bad thing to look good and win the fight...).
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 10:36 PM
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 10:40 PM
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 10:52 PMSorry about my empty entry before my last.I was trying for the first time to embed the above video clip and it didn't work the first time and I couldn't delete it ,but I seem to have worked it out now.
Talking of trying multiple styles reminded me of the above scene from a classic 1975 movie I saw as a kid called "Doc Savage:The Man of Bronze" in which the main character,Doc Savage [who is played by Ron Ely ,TV's Tarzan] has a final showdown with the bad guy,Captain Seas, and fights him with one martial art style after another.Haven't seen it for donkeys years so I'm not sure how funny I'd find it now ,but at the time I thought it was very funny.Has anyone else seen it?
A link to a wiki article on the movie is here
excuter
September 30, 2008, 01:18 PMI´ve never seen this before... but just to say something to that what they showed us there:
the sumo was fun ( if he would have tried this on me I´d kicked him into his balls and it would have been over...).
the "Gung fu"? you´re kidding right?
Taichi what should that be they were doing there...
Karate ok I can accept that...even though it´s an unusual choise of techniques...
Stickfighting nice little play without techniques...
Fisti kuffs... I dunno looks ok for me who´s not familiar with this...
The Jumped Kick was a Kung fu movie classic...can´t complain about it ^_^
bababardwan
September 30, 2008, 09:24 PMexcuter,
As I mentioned to me the movie was a comedy and certainly not to be taken seriously.So the martial arts side of it made me laugh and I never thought of it as particularly good.But it was just funny how they switched from style to style.If you read the link it describes this genre of film as camp which in this setting refers to being overly exaggerated.You'd probably have to see the whole film to get the feeling of where it's coming from and why it's funny.The closest thing it could be described as otherwise is a spoof.But camp is more accurate.
excuter
October 01, 2008, 06:28 PMI didn't mean to take the fun away...I just wanted to analyse their use of the martial arts they chose... x_x
Jess_Andersen
September 29, 2008, 02:27 AMAs a martial arts student and practitioner I would have to say that the best style is the one you will stick with and practice. I've had many jiu-jitsu players tell me that i'm wasting my time with Kung Fu, and we can debate the relative merits of our styles, but the fact is that I'm not training to beat jiu-jutsu, I'm training to beat the knucklehead who who wants to try me out on the street.
excuter
October 04, 2008, 11:18 AMHere is a nicely cut clip of the 36 Chambers of Shaolin, which is a movie I realy like:
bababardwan
October 04, 2008, 12:00 PMexcuter,
Thanks heaps mate.That's awesome.Some of this was looking really familiar ,but I don't think I've actually seen this film [but I'll have to try and track it down and get it out if I can].I think it was looking familiar as I've seen a few other films set at the Shaolin temple [not to mention documentaries ].I am particularly interested in the Shaolin temple.It is a goal of mine to visit there one day.I was reading in an earlier post that Henan is not particularly tourist friendly.I wonder what the set up is for tourists at the Shaolin temple?
I saw the Shaolin warriors perform when they came out here to Australia a few years ago and it was pretty spectacular.
excuter
October 05, 2008, 02:10 PMMost of the shaolinshows are performed by persons who learned at a school of the shaolin near a shaolintempel. Henan is chinas martial arts center and chenjiagou wich is the home of chen tai ji chuan is in henan too. The shaolin tempel have different ideas how to deal with tourists... Some allow interrested persons to life as a monk for a while, so you can join the training. I hope I can live and practice in chen jia go for a year once... due to the number of visitors, they already have a house for the guests with a modern toilet :-)
wisewind
November 21, 2008, 01:05 PMIf you ask me... there is no style better than the other...
It all depends on the practitioner.
For example... Ive practised many martial arts... and My Southern Shaolin Kung Fu is WAAAAY better than my Karate...
wisewind
November 22, 2008, 01:35 PMSorry... I didnt read the previous posts...
Well... for me, souther shaolin Five forms Kung Fu is the shit ^^
bababardwan
December 03, 2008, 12:58 AMHere Huo Yuanjia gives his very wise answer for the age old debate of which style is best.Unfortunately I could only find the dubbed version.I really enjoyed watching the original Mandarin version with English subtitles.Great fun trying to see what Mandarin you recognised.Also martial arts films often have ,at least in parts,less verbose dialogues which gives you a better shot at it.
travesty
January 28, 2009, 09:59 PMI'll throw in my two cents here.
After training for a long time, then one thing I've really learned is that the most important thing about what style is best is how you yourself relate to martial arts. You have to have a good understanding of what it is you want to achieve through training. It can be a long, ardous and demanding undertaking. You will not become Jet Li or Mike Tyson by showing up tuesdays and thursdays for an hour or two.
It's easy to get caught up in the different rituals used in training methods, you really have to pick apart the purposes of different training techniques, and how they would apply in different contexts.
It's easy to glamorize fighting in your head over how you will do this this and this, but then when the moment comes and you have to step up to someone you don't know, the adrenaline makes it all a blur where you'll be lucky if your training has been consistent enough to allow your unconcious reactions to be of actual use.
When it comes down to it, the most important thing is having a training space with a quality teacher that is convenient enough to get to every day. If you have the luxury of choice, find something that fits your bodytype and your tastes. If you want to do any real fighting, or aspire to mastery, you'll have to enjoy it enough to train in it just about every day for a couple hours.
bababardwan
October 01, 2008, 10:33 PMexcuter,
You weren't taking the fun away at all.You comments were all valid.Because you hadn't seen the film ,I was just trying to put in context why the martial arts wasn't very good and explain that it was meant to be funny [at least as far as I can see].I welcome your comments and thanks for getting involved.
bababardwan
September 29, 2008, 12:38 AMps I am not personally interested in debating which style is best as I think that is a bit fruitless and agree that what matters is that a person finds one they are happiest with.My point was more along the lines that it is something that is commonly debated and was thus just one of many ideas of what could be incorporated in a martial arts lesson dialogue.