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Besty's Fightclub - Round 4 - Kung Fu

By Neil Best

The possession of anything begins with the mind.

I can genuinely say that I didn’t know what to expect from Kung Fu before I met with Leroy in the heat and heart of Singapore’s Chinatown. Leroy heads www.singaporekungfu.com where they teach the Hung Gar style of Kung Fu -most popular in Southern China. If you’ve never experienced Singapore’s Chinese quarter – it’s got an amazing buzz and energy that’s completely different to anything else in the city. In many ways the location perfectly complimented what I was about to experience.

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I’m not too proud to admit I was a little more apprehensive about Kung Fu than with some the other combat sports and martial arts I’d experienced. Of course, I expected Kung Fu to be fast – and it was -when it wasn’t being deliberately slowed for my benefit. And I expected it to be a bit more hardcore in a way – but it was much more intense than I’d anticipated. Truly different to anything else I’d experienced over the past number of weeks. And maybe most surprising of all – there was as much if not more crossover for rugby.

If I was currently responsible for strength and condition of any professional rugby club, without hesitation I’d be adapting and incorporating some drilling and techniques from Kung Fu.

There is an overall training style and effect that in some way manages to reduce pain – teaching your body to absorb and ignore it. You just need to look at the how the students take kicks to the shins and legs. For me that alone has real rugby value. As does the technical side of open hand “punching” – it has a natural correlation to handoffs and fends. And some of the blocking defensive movements simulate repetitive impacts in the shoulder girdle that could easily be used to build resistance to injury.

Add to that how people like Leroy use breathing control and specific defined movements to generate extra power and you could see rugby crossover in how a player might anticipate contact.

If you just do the same as your opponent, you have no advantage – Leroy’s advice. And for me Kung Fu training has the potential to provide significant difference and advantage.

With pre-season underway in the UK, I’ve more than a little sympathy for Danny Ciprani’s Jersey experience. And I hope it doesn’t end his England return before he gets properly airborne. I don’t have the detail of what Ciprani did, but I’ve played rugby in Jersey and taken in some of the same venues. Jersey was one of the rare or maybe only times in my life I’ve been asked to leave a licensed establishment sober.

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The security staff took great exemption to my intense interest in the baldness of one of their colleagues. And in doing so they acted with a collective sensitivity rare in a drove of doormen. People don’t often ask me what’s the secret of my great hair – and these bouncers didn’t either – but if they did I was happy to share, it’s coconut oil -even with cue ball.

Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them

 

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Bull Shark 3 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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