Kung fu school?

www.uswushu.com can you tell me if it is real self defense oriented kung fu? i know it says wushu, but they desvcrbie wushu the way it traditonally meant, a self defense martial art. I went to the class and took a practice class, where they taught long fist. I couldnt tell ifi t was authentic. We did things like hurricane kickas and butterfly kicks, but the teacher also showed why we would do these things in a fighting situation.

Kung fu school?
coming from someone who also studies CMA (chinese martial arts) I would say look elsewhere.





These are the things I have a problem with:





1- It is a CMA school- Why am I saing this when I study CMA?


CMA is one of the most egregius styles in having teachers that don't teach you anything, but claim to. Any time you look at a cma school you need to be extra cautious unless it is san da or san shou.





2- The site shows nothing about nor mentions sparring, or any kind of resistance training. The pictures are all of people (many people) aligned in straight rows doing "solo practice". Everyone does solo-practice (shadow boxing, bagwork, etc.) but they don't show any groups working together in a class.





3- the weapons video is pure tripe, the only thing missing is the wires. I've seen plays less choreographed than that. That reflects on how they teach the rest of the school.





4- they claim to teach tons of styles. They can't have instructors who actually know how to teach and apply those techniqes in a real fight. Especially since it is difficult enough to find a CMA teacher who can for even a few, they boast like 10+





5- It is a wushu school, that is a double red terror alert. wushu schools teach for dancing and forms.





6- they have very cute little monk uniforms that they make you stand in for pictures. very nice, bet they would be popular in prison.





7- teacher is demonstrating ridiculous "forms" poses that serve no purpose outside of becoming very popular on broadway.





This is just based off the website. You went to the class. I would go back and ask the following IMPORTANT questions:





1- ask about training and sparring.


If you get a responce like "not for beginners, or not right away" then ok, but if you get a responce that involves or sounds anything like the following they are full of what you find in the toilet after reading the morning paper.





"our techniqes are too deadly to spar with".


Ok, every style has something you can't take to the xth level (certain quick breaks, etc.) but to say that you can't ever spar anything they teach means you aren't learning how to apply it and won't be able to in a fight.





2- if they mention "chi" or any form of "chi" application (they already did on the website) as some magical force you "build" they are full of it.





3- how hard is the class training? Do they train in pairs with resistance or does it seem like the people are just letting the other guy get the technique off. Of course at first you need to learn it, but after the first few successfull tries you need to have your opponent resist you so you can practice properly and realistically and make sure you are really doing it right.





4- ask about thier little uniforms and if you will have to dress up like a fool too.





In my personal opinion it is schools like this that give chinese martial arts a bad name and are ruining CMA. That is why I am so hard on it, its existance and lies are an affront to me and every other student of CMA out there who trains legitimately and spars against others and is able to use thier techniques effectively against other styles. Again, maybe they do train properly, but it is not apparent in thier website. In which case thier website is really bad.
Reply:Wushu is a fighting style. From what I've heard, the US Wushu Center is a reputable training facility. They teach a lot of different styles there, so I don't know how they structure their curriculum.





It's nice that he shows you how to do kicks, but I don't like the idea of simply telling you how you would use those in a fighting situation. Maybe it was because it was an intro class and they weren't going to throw you into the fire right away. I would go and watch some of the advanced classes to see what lies ahead. I've been to schools where the advanced classes did pretty much the same thing as the beginners, but a little faster and a little harder. The styles they teach at US Wushu should allow the advanced students to really let loose with some good techniques.





The best way to see if they teach self defense or just competition is to see if the advanced students spar at full speed, or just practice 2-person sets. There are a lot of sceptics here that will tell you that Wushu is worthless in combat but I'm here to tell you that it is not. You just have to find the right school and train the right way.





Good luck to you.








P.S. Can I change my answer to what Bluto said?
Reply:They teach modern wushu. It's not a kung fu school. The chief instructors have competition wushu forms backgrounds. One is a member of the famed Beijing Wushu Team, and the other is known as Queen of Taichi. If you are a modern forms fanatic, I doubt that you can find teachers with better credentials in your area. They can probably teach you everything in the modern wushu taolu system. You can easily find their performance clips on YouTube and similar services. I’m not a big fan of modern Taichi but Gao Jiamin’s forms are awe inspiring to watch. They retained a bit more traditional flavors than the current dancers that grace the floors. While I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both these instructors have dabbled in wushu sanda, they aren’t experts at it so you should see if they have another instructor for that hidden somewhere.





Funny you should mention the word ‘authentic,’ as what they teach is authentic, just not traditional.





So,


If you want to learn modern competition style forms, go for it.


If you want to learn modern sanda sparring, observe a sanda class and see how good they are.


If you want to learn traditional forms, try another school.


If you want to learn traditional applications and sparring, try another school.


If you want to learn practical self-defense fast in a couple of hours per week, forget martial arts schools and try a self-defense school where they teach you how to yell, be alert of your surroundings and practice a few easy but effective moves over and over.

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