Hey everyone! How has the past year been treating you all?
I recently made it back into SC. Finally finished up my tech training out in Texas. Got my NREMT-Basic certification and did some initial nursing. Followed up with about 240 hours of clinical work in Mississippi.

So now I'm in Charleston at the air base. I have more clinical work at the VA hospital here. Then in July I will be going for 1 month to San Antonio for flight school followed by about 3 weeks in Washington for Survival/P.O.W. school. Afterwards I will again be returning to SC.

So how is the kwoon? How is training?

I posted a similar question to this in the mantis forums sometimes I visit. Martial arts now days are going through an interesting period. Particularly here in the US. The popularity of the MMA has forced a lot of martialists to evaluate the skills of their chosen art as new methods of fighting are becoming more widespread. At the same time kung fu is going through a rather particular evolution as the shift of the future of the art is really, moving from China to North America and Europe as many a master have immigrated and set up shop in other countries. Of course the US is right in the thick of that as well.

There are a few blogs recently discussing different things like stances, posture and alignment and so forth. This also happens to be a basis for a long standing debate on the differences between kung fu of northern and southern China. I'm sure just about all of you have heard at least once, southern kung fu uses lower stances....

Well, in my short time in kung fu. I have been fortunate enough to study both northern and then southern. And one idea I have now become really 100% committed to is that really, there isn't much difference at all. Not in the ways people express anyways.

The more superficial: nothern kung fu uses more kicks and the south is all about the hands. In a lot of ways it is true. For example Hung Ga definitely uses a lot of hand fighting. But look at Mok ga, they are a southern family known for leg technique. And Pa Chi, a northern system known for its powerful punches said folklorically to be strong enough to smash bamboo armor. My own praying mantis utilized a number of hand techniques for various trapping and locking.