Heading off to chinese academy, does this school look legit?

Sean333

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to head off to china at the start of June for 6 months to a year (Maybe longer depending on if I would like to stay) to learn martial arts and to just get a break from work/life.

I'm 21 and it great shape, I run 5 miles a day and lift in the gym 4 days a week.

The school I was looking at is http://www.risingdragonschool.com/

Its a school that has only been up for 2 years but looks great (Apparently they have had like 200 students so far). They seem honest compared to many of the "black belt in 4 days" type schools.

Was thinking about this school because it looks very foreigner friendly and offers lessons in Qi Gong and basic Chinese, both of which are free and optional. Also the location seems extremely beautiful and refreshing.

I was planning on learning Sanda (Sanshou) or Shaolin Kung fu.

The prices for the school are like 900 euro for 5 weeks or like 2000 euro for 12 weeks. This includes housing, food, Qi Gong lessons each morning + Run , 7 hours of martial arts Mon-Fri and Chinese lessons 3 days a week. They also set up mountain hiking trips on weekends etc.


If anyone knows anything about this school or has any recommendations I would greatly appreciate it.

danlen

while I don't have any information that helps you on this particular subject I must say that it sounds like a really cool idea and I say go for it!

I have often thought of doing something similar and hope to do it once I'm finished college next year. imo if you are planning on giving up your current life for a year in order to travel half way across the world to train you must be committed to seeing this goal through so fair play to you.

I sure there's plenty of guys on here that have done something similar so hopefully they can help you out.

Anyway best of luck with it and I'm sure it will be really cool.


(p.s tired of work at 21!!:D)

Sid_Justice

If you want to go to Asia and study martial arts full time I recommend you go to Thailand and learn Muay Thai. Judo in Japan would also be a great experience, both culturally and martial artsy but would be far far far more expensive.

I had a look through the website gallery and it doesn't seem that much time would be spent doing Sanshou/Sanda unfortunately.

I don't think learning the softer sides of Kung-fu/Tai-chi/crouching tiger hidden Kung Fu Panda would be enjoyable or worthwhile (personally speaking).

Sean333

Thanks for the replies! I'll take it under consideration.

Sean333

danlen wrote: »

(p.s tired of work at 21!!:D)

Why work to live if you kill yourself working?

Sean333

http://www.yantaikungfu.com/index.htm

Is another school I'm looking at. Any and all help is greatly appreciated as I dont really want to spend two grand on a macdojo.

Niall Keane

A lot of the best "masters" moved to Hong Kong and to Taiwan to avoid Cultural Revolution etc. and many of the Hong Kong stylists moved to the UK, so often the direct line / transmission lies outside of China. Since Kung Fu has become an industry, many charlatans have taken up the game, promoting hundreds of made up flowery forms as Kung Fu, the State itself aids this with modern wushu dances/forms be wary of this.
If I was starting Kung Fu with the idea of going to China to learn I'd hope to learn in Xian from Sanda King Lui Hai Long's coach who is famous for producing many top sanshou fighters and teaches in a very traditional way the internal art Xing Yi. If I didn't do Tai Chi Chuan I would go for Xing Yi myself. It's approach is simple and direct, and it's ciriculum not too broad. There is no point in learning a million different hand forms, to do so is to confuse dancing with martial arts. Xing Yi has five fists. A few months of such would give you one he'll of a foundation as opposed to skimming the surface of several styles. Old proverb states: onehundred blades and none of them sharp.
Xian is also close to many martial art meccas Hua Shan, Wudang, the Chen village, Shaolin are all relatively close to the east, Emei Shan birth place of Ba Gua is to the south. All of these places are breath takingly beautiful, save the tacky wushu schools that appear here and there. My own sifu has photos taken in 1984 of Shaolin and Wudang amongst others both were in ruins. Today the state will tell you that schools of Kung Fu have existed there in unbroken lines for hundreds of years!

hunggar

sounds great. i would love to have done this a few years ago.

have you any experience in martial arts? chinese arts or otherwise?

if your a beginner any decent school of a hard art will require you spending a lot of time learning and practicing the basics and conditioning the body.

learning one art would probably be best to give you a good basic foundation and then you could continue learning when you get back. so chose an art that is taught nearby your hometown. martial arts require years of dedication so no point choosing to do it short term.

suey71

I saw a documentary a couple of years ago about some guy who went to China to train for a couple of months in one of those "Temples".
He really liked it and didn't want to leave after his fee ran out. He offered to teach some of the instructors English so he could stay a little longer. Have you considered this?

Oh and by the way, like Hunggar said, try and train in a style that is in your area now, or near you, so when you come back you can continue your training.

Best of luck over there.

Oh, and try keep in touch with this forum and let us know what its like.:cool:.

Khannie

Sid_Justice wrote: »

If you want to go to Asia and study martial arts full time I recommend you go to Thailand and learn Muay Thai.

I am totally biased, but if I were in your position there is *no question* that I would be doing this. Thailand is a flippin' amazing country. I'm absolutely in love with the North (where it's less touristy and significantly cheaper).

Sean333

Thanks a bunch for all the replies,

Firstly I'm well aware martial arts is a full time thing, I plan to study it full time.

Secondly, I forgot to mention I have a year or two of Ju Jitsu experience from when I was a lot younger (14 or so I think). Cant really remember much of it. So no not much experience, although I have always loved the art itself.

Niall Keane wrote: »

A lot of the best "masters" moved to Hong Kong and to Taiwan to avoid Cultural Revolution etc. and many of the Hong Kong stylists moved to the UK, so often the direct line / transmission lies outside of China. Since Kung Fu has become an industry, many charlatans have taken up the game, promoting hundreds of made up flowery forms as Kung Fu, the State itself aids this with modern wushu dances/forms be wary of this.
If I was starting Kung Fu with the idea of going to China to learn I'd hope to learn in Xian from Sanda King Lui Hai Long's coach who is famous for producing many top sanshou fighters and teaches in a very traditional way the internal art Xing Yi. If I didn't do Tai Chi Chuan I would go for Xing Yi myself. It's approach is simple and direct, and it's ciriculum not too broad. There is no point in learning a million different hand forms, to do so is to confuse dancing with martial arts. Xing Yi has five fists. A few months of such would give you one he'll of a foundation as opposed to skimming the surface of several styles. Old proverb states: onehundred blades and none of them sharp.
Xian is also close to many martial art meccas Hua Shan, Wudang, the Chen village, Shaolin are all relatively close to the east, Emei Shan birth place of Ba Gua is to the south. All of these places are breath takingly beautiful, save the tacky wushu schools that appear here and there. My own sifu has photos taken in 1984 of Shaolin and Wudang amongst others both were in ruins. Today the state will tell you that schools of Kung Fu have existed there in unbroken lines for hundreds of years!

Thanks for the post,

Would you recommend I study Xing Yi then? I'm well aware that its mainly the fighter not the Form but deciding which to practice is a tad overwhelming. I may have misunderstood what you said but are you saying Xing Yi is a type of sanshou? Or is sanshou a broader art then covers more then one form? I'm fairly confused here. All help is apreciated.

Also in case you hadent looked at the website the forms they teach are,

• Shaolin Quan
• Modern Wushu
• Sanda
  
• Qinna
• Baji Quan
• Pigua Zhang
• Taiji Quan
• XingYi
• Bagua
• White Crane

Upon joining the academy you are required to choose which form you would like to learn.

Doug Cartel

Sean333 wrote: »

I'm well aware that its mainly the fighter not the Form

Yes and no. No martial art is guaranteed to make you a badass, but certain styles have a more consistent track record of producing decent fighters on average. You also get the occasional guy who can fight despite training in something really stupid. You've got to ignore the outliers and look at the average practitioners when evaluating these things.

I may have misunderstood what you said but are you saying Xing Yi is a type of sanshou? Or is sanshou a broader art then covers more then one form? I'm fairly confused here. All help is apreciated.

San shou is a form of competition that allows different martial arts to compete. I don't know anything about xing yi, but I imagine that if you were training at a xing yi school to compete in san shou, your training would be slightlh different, in that they would concentrate more on the applied punching, kicking, throwing and fitness, and less on the forms and ceremony.

YamaMotoYama

Before deciding on China - check out the book

http://www.amazon.com/Fighters-Heart-Journey-Through-Fighting/dp/0871139502

The author went to China and Thailand... and many other spots... Fairfax I think is the big gym in Bangkok... tbh I'd choose Thailand as they are used to foreigners coming over to train (and have a good track record), there are a number of foreigner catering Chinese acadamys now that are just money machines. Most of the temples were disassembled during the Communist Revolution so they not accient martial art centres at all.

Anyway - whatever you choose... best of luck, but just be very careful of where you go in the end.

Khannie

YamaMotoYama wrote: »

Fairfax I think is the big gym in Bangkok

Fairtex. The famous Yodsanklai (among others) fights out of it. It has a bad rep among those who are serious about Muay Thai though. I'm not saying that it's not possible to get good training there. Only that you are more likely to get better training elsewhere.

Sean333

After looking at some of the places in Thailand it looks like I might be going there instead.

The schools I was looking at have MUCH MUCH better facilities and training.

Does anyone know any top notch Maui Thai schools around Thailand.

Khannie

Depends what you're after really. If you want sun and sand I'd say Koh Samui's the place to go. There are two WMC gyms there (one in Chaweng and one in Lamai) and Pinyos (in between the two beaches), all of which give decent training. The islands are very expensive compared to the north though. If you're going for a prolonged period you can negotiate very good rents mind you.

If you want a more chilled out experience, the north is the place to go. There are no beaches up north, but the jungle is a lovely spot IMO. It's harder to get good training up north though. If you're just starting out, any training at all will rapidly improve your skill level.

If you're serious about training Muay Thai, I would get as fit as you can before you head over. The training regime is fairly tough if you're not used to it.

Lastly, don't judge a book by its cover. The better gyms usually look like crap.

foams

I would recommend http://www.kiatphontipgym.com/ and http://www.muaythaikaewsamrit.com/ there both in Bangkok and have good stadium fighters and always have forigners training there. You'l get food training and accomadition for about six hundred euro's a month.

YamaMotoYama

Sean333 wrote: »

After looking at some of the places in Thailand it looks like I might be going there instead.

The schools I was looking at have MUCH MUCH better facilities and training.

Does anyone know any top notch Maui Thai schools around Thailand.

To be honest - its a wise move... and I don't even train in Muay Thai

English is taught in Thai schools so you will always find someone to answer questions when you are lost Like Khannie said - North Thailand is cheaper than the tourist oriented south and will be cheaper. If you are in Bangkok go to the stadium at Lumpini (class).

I'd recommend Chiang Mai... Also last bit of advice - don't wear red or yellow over there... read the newspapers its political.

Sean333

The school I was mainly looking at was http://www.tigermuaythai.com/.

It looks brilliant, with some of the reviews I have read from other sites saying its fantastic.


What do you guys think?

Sean333

Khannie wrote: »

Depends what you're after really. If you want sun and sand I'd say Koh Samui's the place to go. There are two WMC gyms there (one in Chaweng and one in Lamai) and Pinyos (in between the two beaches), all of which give decent training. The islands are very expensive compared to the north though. If you're going for a prolonged period you can negotiate very good rents mind you.

If you want a more chilled out experience, the north is the place to go. There are no beaches up north, but the jungle is a lovely spot IMO. It's harder to get good training up north though. If you're just starting out, any training at all will rapidly improve your skill level.

If you're serious about training Muay Thai, I would get as fit as you can before you head over. The training regime is fairly tough if you're not used to it.

Lastly, don't judge a book by its cover. The better gyms usually look like crap.

Thanks for your time, Ill keep it in mind.

rom

lots of links here

http://www.rawaimuaythai.com/Muaythai_links.htm