Legends of Kung-Fu #18 Forms or Fighting? Among tournament competitors, there's the age-old question: "Should I concentrate on doing forms or sparring/fighting, or can I do both?" I can't tell you how many martial arts students, regardless of style, have thrown that question by me, and I've always had a hard time answering them since my personal bias is towards combat. Some practitioners tend towards the aesthetics of a beautiful form, like those found in modern wushu, for example. Others treat the forms as merely a means of practicing basics and advancing in rank, a distraction from the sparring training they came to do. Last month, in Atlanta, I had the good fortune of meeting with Jason Ming Yee of Boston, Massachusetts. His reputation preceded him, as I'd heard of him and seen him from a distance at tournaments I'd attended in years past. The soft-spoken Yee was one of the first Americans to compete internationally in both modern wushu taolu (forms) and sanshou (Chinese style full-contact fighting), making him the perfect person to answer the issue of forms versus fighting. Yee's background includes traditional style Kung-Fu as well as wushu, having trained under Kwong Tit-fu. In 1988, he competed in the traditional southern fist forms division' using his "tiger-crane" Hung gar form, in the first Chinese Martial Art Nationals (Jeff Bolt's Houston tournament) in 1988, because there was no modern wushu nanquan (southern fist) division. Yee also fought in that tournament, back when the kung-fu sparring competitors wore shoes, open finger gloves, and no headgear. By the time he made it to the semifinals, everyone remaining was disqualified because of liability issues regarding full-contact fighting. In his first competition, Jason was trying to fight just like the techniques in his forms. "Over time, I realized that there were more efficient ways to fight with gloved hands. There are a lot of traditional techniques that are really effective for open hands, but when the boxing gloves go on, you might be in for a rude awakening in a sport arena. Eventually Sanshou worked its way into becoming a sort of style, with techniques that set it apart from other styles of kickboxing, especially with range & cutting angles. It's not what people think. A lot of people say that it's just Thai boxing with judo or wrestling throws, but it's so much more different than that. We've got a longer range and a faster game than people give it credit for." In 1989, Yee returned to win the traditional Southern long-short hand (tiger crane form) and wushu nanquan divisions, placing in weapons forms competition as well. Yet in spite of his superstar status in the forms competitions, he found himself disqualified again for excessive contact in early rounds. "In any tournament when I did both, one thing or the other suffered. Between 91-94, I started to really get into sanshou, when it started to become popular." Jason made the US Sanshou Team in '90, also won all-around wushu championships (hand, long weapon, short weapon, and open weapons forms) in Houston. This made him one of America's sanshou pioneers, driving him all the way to Beijing to fight in the First World Wushu-Sanshou Full Contact Championships in 1991. He was the only competitor in the entire tournament who did both forms and fighting, and the first American to medal at that tournament. "From what I hear, they don't even allow competitors to do both anymore," says Yee, knowing he was crossing the line when he literally signed his life away in Beijing, when the disclaimer read in broken English "if you die…" In spite of such an intimidating line, he brought home a bronze medal in sanshou and placed ninth in the nanquan forms division. More recently, Yee also coached the 1999 US National Sanshou Team that competed in Hong Kong. One of his students won silver, and three of the team members were his direct students: Josh Bartholomew, Al Lorieux, and Rudi Ott. For those who are thinking of following in his footsteps, Yee has a few words of sound advice. "If your goal is to be a really successful competitor, you should really choose one or the other, forms or fighting," says the former US Sanshou Team member. "If you want to be competitive at both, you'd better be training all day long. It's not something that everyone can do, especially with school, work, or all the other things that we have to do in our modern lives. You also need good coaches and good sparring partners. To try to advance to the next level of your game, you need someone who can hang with you, or push you to improve your technique. I had a distinct disadvantage because at that time, there weren't any real full-time coaches doing that sort of thing here in the US. Now, there are tons of people who are trying to push sanshou, from big names like Cung Le to the guys who are just starting to get noticed. As a forms competitor, you need to have a coach who not only knows the compulsory forms, but also one who is relentless with helping you correct all of the minor errors in your form. That in itself can take up an entire day of training, nevermind the sparring." Coach Jason Ming Yee's words of advice are pearls of wisdom for those who are trying to become legends of kung-fu. Priorities are important for anyone who wants to be a successful athlete. Understanding your own preferences and accepting the consequences for your decisions makes you a better student, better competitor, and in the long run, a better coach. Translated into simple English, you've got to work hard for what you want. If you want it all, you've got to train hard and invest the time to train that way consistently. About the subject: To get in touch with Coach Jason Ming Yee,
you can visit him on the web at the sanshou section of The Boston
Kung-Fu Tai-Chi Institute at www.taichi.com. |