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Djimbe
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Big Rick Rock said:
Actually , it was the only system that he had ANY formal training in , and he only studied at the school of Yip Man for a period of 18-22 months depending on wich of his classmates was asked the question (still a pretty accurate Margin considering that theyre being asked to remember over 40 years ago) Also of note was the fact that bruce was there while Yip Man was at his WORST with his Battle with Opium (he was a well-known Addict) and most of , if not practically all , of Bruces lessons came from other Students . Later ,after coming to America , Bruce was matched up against one of Gin Foon Marks Praying Mantis Students of 11 months and he could not best him . Wing Chun and Mantis should have level development curves , but like I said , Yip Man was SERIOUSLY into his Opium just then .
Bruce Lee knew somewhere between 1/3 qnd 1/5 of the Wing Chun system . He could not have POSSIBLY had a clear enough picture of what was and was not "Needed" to be a complete Wing Chun player . He just ended up filling the Gaps that he DIDNT KNOW in WC with crap from other MAs .
I mean , you do Muay Thai , right ? I could study MT for a while , then DECIDE that I dont realy NEED a Teep , couldnt I ? mean , I could use the Sidekicks and Roundkicks to my Advantadge , and whatnot - heck , I might even make it work for myself , but would that even BE MT any longer ? Im saying that a LOT of the Strategem , Spacing , hell , the FEEL to MT is playing of of the Spacing and Rythym that Teeping gives you , right ? So even if something may not strictly be NEEDED (you could surely win a MT Match without ever throwing a single one) that dosent mean that the style isnt BETTER with it being there , does it ?
There was Sparring (Freeing Of The Hands) in Wing Chun in Yip Mans school , and as far as I know all of his Students teach it to this day . In Fact , I dont know any GOOD WC school that dosent spar on some sort of Schedule , although at the lower and Higher levels its less emphasised than in the middle "Ranks" . Its only schools in the US that seem to fail to Spar , I dont know of ANY MA school in China that dosent do it .
It actually AMAZES me that ppl from MT still think that Chinese Fighters dont Spar ! I think I own more Sparring Gear than anyone else I know ! You always get Comments how "Jet Li Couldnt REALLY Fight" when he went to an MA SCHOOL where sparring was A MANDATORY CLASS ! And the guy has likely sparred as much or more than anyone else on the planet ! But hey , he was a FormsChamp , so he couldnt ever have sparred , you know , TOO ?
