I went to Vale Tudo the other day after a break of many, many months. I did this because I don't attend any clubs anymore and this was a gathering of people I knew semi-formally.
One bad habit I had that was revived was trying to deal with low kicks with my hands and arms. This is a really hard habit to break. I thought I had broken it but its come back.
I had a think and I believe its the dummy form that encourages this. When moving across the dummy, there are double garn-sau to kwan sau transitions. The double garn saus must be in there affecting me. I need to erase this but may have to drop the double garn saus [these are pictured in the DVD cases in posts below - it must be dramatic or something].
Why doesn't the Yip-Man lineage dummy form include knees or leg blocks to kicks ? Only the one performed by Randy Williams includes some knee and leg defenses. I must transplant some of these into what I do and / or drill them. (He has a bong gerk type move to the lower dummy arms too - if I recall).
Also whats not in the 116 movements are elbows. Why arn't these in the form ? You don't have to strike the dummy but can simulate. Space could be made for this by removing the tok sau moves that are over-represented, (be honest do you envisage using double-tok sau in a confrontation ?!)
Is this heresy ? Does it matter if you mess with tradition ?
Also while I am at it all my Wing Chun stuff goes out my head when in Vale Tudo. I would have to consciously tell my self 'I know some wing chun shapes' to use them. This is funny because when not doing Vale Tudo - say if I am frightened by something then wing chun shapes emerge. I wonder why this is.
Actually one wooden dummy move does look like a Vale tudo move. The circling hands of the 116 form (kau saus ?!) do look like pummeling for under-hooks in vertical grappling.
I go through ups and downs in faith in my dummy / WC skills. I don't think I would last that long in a traditional WC method vs Vale Tudo style approach. A skilled player can close the range so fast they are chest to chest straight from boxing range - with no in-between it seems. And then they dive to a lower level like a U-boat. Some fast footwork must be needed to counter this to keep the range or something.
