Flow drills in hard-soft systems

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Bill Glasheen
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Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY

Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Patrick McCarthy is a bit of an international treasure in martial arts. We were lucky enough to have him as a guest at my school about a decade ago. He's a former full contact martial artist, international traveler, applications expert, traditionalist, historian, and author. He's probably best known for his book The Bubishi which is sometimes called the bible of karate. Allegedly Kanbun had some sort of copy of The Bubishi but lost it in a fire or other mishap.

In my opinion - worth what you paid for it - one of the biggest things missing from Okinawa's interpretation of Kanbun's Southern China art is the sticky hands. Kyu and Dan kumite are fun, but they were meant for teaching people tournament fighting. Tournament fighting is tournament fighting; it isn't Kanbun's root art of fighting and self-defense. In that original art there was no seiken fist and there was a lot of body contact.

Raffi Derderian appears a lot at George's yearly camps, and helps bridge that gap with his cross training into Filipino martial arts. In that art is the kind of flow drills that take this maintaining contact rule of Southern China Gung Fu and bring it to the next level. Grapplers also do this, although usually to as quick an end as possible. Flow drills maintain the fun part for as long as possible, often repeating so you get to do it until you drop. Repetition to mindless practice is the goal.

Here's a fun drill which appears to have Southern China sticky hands origins. It appears a touch more Goju than Uechi, but it is closer to China te than it is Okinawa te. Enjoy and comment. If you like, it would be fun for me to "steal" and teach.

- Bill

..... Lee Adams and Patrick McCarthy
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Van Canna
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Re: Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Van Canna »

Very nice Bill, thanks for sharing.
Van
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Here is a Southern China system which has preserved its inside fighting, constant touch sensitivity. They also fight out of a shallow stance. The really good practitioners can do with their legs as well. It is in fact suggested in the Seisan jump posture where the front leg is (or should be) held at an angle.

- Bill

..... How to: Wing Chun Kung Fu Sticky Hands
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Bill Glasheen »

A couple of kids will take you to the Filipino side of things. These kinds of drills can often be done identically with knife and with stick. Raffi teaches lots of these at Uechi Summerfest.

..... Filipino Martial Arts Empty Hand Flow Drills

Below shows some adults with application examples. Note the flow now goes from one to three dimensional. Some days I pound my head against the wall when people see the tai sabaki and verticality and say "That's not Uechi!!!" See the elbows? The circles? The knees? The tenshin? Predominantly shallow and then suddenly deep stances? Several applications of hawk-chases-sparrow followed by a leg up-down? Yep... that's all Uechi. And look, ma, they're not fighting at tournament sparring distance (a la Kyu and Dan Kumite)!

..... This is KALI (The Way of Kali) Best of

- Bill
Stryke
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Re: Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Stryke »

Hi Bill , this is really it

I came to uechi through kyoshi McCarthy after learning a uechi style sanchin from him

I saw the tegumi drills as a part and directly saw the possible interpretation of kotikitae as more a hubud type pattern

Incorporating flows and extrapolating uechi versions from the kata and comparative and reverse engineering such drills.

I had no use for the tournament drills , i came to uechi for the close range effectiveness , the realness still inherent in the forms.

I was already a sport fighting expert , but it was not practical self protection imho.

I cannot recommend or endorse exploring this material more if you want to truly understand the system as a practical tactile short style contact system

As for thats not uechi , well that's me because i prefer this stuff to the pc sport drilling , but well-worth it
Stryke
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Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:48 am

Re: Flow drills in hard-soft systems

Post by Stryke »

Ps the sticking drills aren't missing , just the sticking part

Kotikitae with all the range and without losing contact is the base hubud and is reflected in many systems

It's all about ranges angles and contact and control
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