After our recent article on Drunken Boxing, a friend sent us a Q & A he had synchronistically seen on the subject, from Sifu Mike Sigman. We were not only in agreement with Sifu Sigman, but were also impressed by the way he had handled the question concerning reeling silk in Drunken Boxing, so we contacted him, and he graciously gave us permission to reprint the exchange here.
From Sifu Sigman:
I had a p.m. from one of our forum brethren asking if Drunken Fist perhaps uses silkreeling. The answer is “no”. There is no such style as “Drunken Boxing”. It tends to be more of a show-style of form and there is no particular art that it comes from. Sort of like the chain-whip, Drunken boxing forms were invented/used by the martial-arts street-performers. Fun to watch, but a genuine martial-arts style has forms, technique, weapons-styles (as in the 18 weapons of a legitimate style), and so on.
I’m always reminded of a contemporary wushu guy I knew what was a great poseur. He would go to a tournament and with a noble face and flourishing movements would do a form called “Ta Mo Fist” … stalking haughtily off-stage when he finished, to the applause of the peanut gallery. One of my teachers from China watched this one time and leaned over to ask me if the guy was making a joke: “Ta Mo Fist” is a form that is taught to children.
So, silkreeling, no. Sometimes interesting to watch, but it’s mostly stage presentation.
≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
NOTE: There is an annoying glitch in our “comments” section that does not allow for the normal comment process. Please leave your comments on the form below. They are important to us.
[caldera_form id=”CF5b2c06ab141aa”]
While I agree with Mike Sigman regarding drunken boxing, the performance “styles” etc. I must point out that “Ta Mo Fist” (Da Mo – Bodidharma) is one of the styles that the southern art of Wu Zu Quan (five ancestors fist) comprises of and they do include Da Mo Quan in their practice. Now, I’m not sure what the practitioner in question that Sigman is referring to actually performed, but the comment that ta Mo quan is a joke and /or “taught to children” is not quite accurate when applied to the entirety of Chinese martial arts.