傳統中國武術vs現代格鬥技

今日看新聞見到「格鬥狂人」徐曉冬再次擊敗「武術高手」，這次對手是一位名田野的老師傅，這場「比賽」相當一面倒，可觀性甚低，如大家還有興趣可看看這視頻。還是去年對詠春丁浩那一場比較有趣：

作為業餘愛好者的我和朋友，只看此片段已看到幾點值得一提：

• 中國功夫欠缺抗打訓練 
• 中國武術衫亦是弱點，鬆身容易被人拉住衫領打頭 
• 主持說結果是平手，真是「假到無朋友」（不過徐和主辦單位則似乎甚有交情，對此沒有異議） 
• 拳手落地即停止進攻，對詠春相當有利，不用在地面抵擋巴柔的殺著。

在網上還找到（似乎是）懂詠春的人寫的分析，以及當日裁判的訪問，也提到以上幾點呢。

達摩，少林，武功

我喜歡觀看各種體育項目，當中除了球類，也包括格鬥；十幾年前更親身練過一點太極，又曾「試班」跟少林師傅學過一套復興拳；一直對天下武功出少林，而少林武功則由達摩祖師手創的講法深信不疑！現今網絡資訊發達，要求證及找更多資料實在容易，讀完此文方知完全不是那樣一回事。文中提到以下幾點：

• 達摩不會武功，基本上沒有任何史書傳記記載他會武
• 達摩不是少林僧，由梁武帝撰寫的「禪門第一祖菩提達摩大師碑」說達摩畢生，只是一個遊方和尚，「莫知其所居，未詳其姓氏」，最終圓寂，也不是在少林寺，而是在「洛州禹門山」。
• 少林武功和禪學思想關係不大
• 有名的少林棍法其實由明朝名將俞大猷所授，少林原本的反而有所不及
• 易筋經很可能由道士所寫，主旨是壯陽術

我想我讀得太多武俠小說（尤其是金庸的）了！

八卦掌 vs MMA

繼太極師傅挑戰MMA教練的Epic FAIL視像成為大熱後，又傳出八卦掌李姓師傅不敵MMA好手的片，後者董建（和香港前特首差一字:）的師父則是散打冠軍仲叢陽，仲又被稱為「少林梅花樁第一人」，不過從片中可見董出拳腿都不太有少林功夫的影子，至於李的八卦掌功力如何，也無從印證。

太極拳及MMA

少時候的我最討厭隨波逐流，所以要到大學時代才聽The Beatles及看李小龍電影（多得老友樂迷戲迷周輝介紹），其實我也不是好勇鬥狠之徒，所以廿幾歲才因好奇習武，那次九陽神功及少林傳人示範如何練功，例如用鐵掃把打手手腳腳，又免費教了我們十二式復興拳，是來自台灣的國術。後來又在公司參加由練楊式太極多年的資深同事教授的太極班，再加上《武論金庸》作者潘國森的講述，總算對太極有點認識及感情。見識過一些以太極招式自衛的示範，深信太極除了是適合老人家的運動，也有實戰用途。

十年前左右，因為YouTube興起及電視開始轉播MMA賽事，我又有點改觀。從前者可看到「史上最出名」的中國功夫擂台戰：五十年代太極吳公儀vs白鶴陳克夫（即啟發金庸創作武俠小說一戰）陳被打至流鼻血，但裁判判打和，其實也無所謂吧，我最失望的是兩人根本沒有使用任何中國功手招式，出的不外乎直拳勾拳，這些打法看電視播的現代MMA也有，不過防守嚴密得多了，再加上當年比武沒有的腿戰及地戰。

上星期發生了一件震動中國武術界的大事：中國一位不滿傳統國術門派自吹自擂的MMA教練徐曉冬，出來挑戰各方高手，而自創雷式太極的魏雷憤然應戰，卻極速被打倒地上，抱頭捱打，當然被裁判判TKO！老老實實，以我相當皮毛的認識，也看得出這個擂擂完全不懂格鬥，不要說出拳對打，連步法也完全不行，又缺防守意識，對手一推即跌，我想他懂的只是演演太極拳招式吧。

到底太極拳vsMMA，是否如此不濟？網民當然議論紛紛，莫衷一是，我較有興趣聽聽媒體對武術有真正認識人士的看法，這篇提出幾點均有說服力：

• 練MMA者集各家所長，出拳肘腿膝，再加地戰攻防；相反地，練太極者一般只練太極拳，又怎有對抗前者多樣化的打法呢？（不過作者有點矛盾地引用李小龍說：「我不懼怕對手識一萬種腿法，但懼怕對手只懂一種腿法，而練了一萬次。」）所以此戰後，中國陳式太極拳第十二代傳人、太極拳世界冠軍王占海，據報導打算派出師門六十五徒弟陳前挑戰徐曉冬，這位陳前其實不只跟王練太極，後來更成為散打冠軍，散打即中國式綜合格鬥技也。
• 太極拳是「以柔制剛」、「以弱勝強」嗎？這都是真的，包括以弱勝強，但我們看得武俠小說太多，便覺得以弱勝強等於「以最弱勝最強」，這是不可能的，因為這違反物理定律。
• 太極拳當然有技擊，但多年經驗顯示，很多理論上可行的技法，在實際上是非常難用。很簡單，太極拳講求鬆沉，因為只有這樣才能以柔制剛，但能保持鬆沉的狀態，是與心理有關的。自己練功時，練套路時，要練到鬆沉當然較容易，但上了擂台，要保持這種狀態很難
• 練太極拳，你會學到巧勁，不用拙力，用巧力，在日常生活中非常有用。咁即係唔打得？也不然，因為你可以將當中的運力原則，放進其他武術。就如上述那位散打冠軍可能也受惠於太極㡳子。

同一網媒也有發表撐太極的文章，指有日本空手道高手坦承敗於太極老人手㡳，可信程度見人見智。

再看看YouTube一些近代太極格鬥影片：

• 看慣慢吞吞出拳轉手踼腿的太極，可能對本片中的類似摔跤的打法不以為然，不過我當年練過少許推手，知道推手比賽就是如此起手的。第一位紅衫參賽者王戰海就是上述陳前的師父王占海的本名。
• 這場2011年由中央電視台舉辦的所謂太極拳武林大會，打得也像摔跤或柔道多過傳統太極，勝出者就是王戰海的兄弟，名氣有過之而無不及的王戰軍。

如有太極拳手戰勝徐曉冬之類MMA專家，想來也是運用類似打法吧，據報導格鬥賽事《勇士的榮耀》創辦人郭晨冬，將拿出120萬作獎金舉行比武賽事。規則是徐需於一個晚上，連續戰勝2-3位武林掌門人才可獲勝，比賽不戴任何護具，可踢襠插眼，限10分鐘內分勝負。希望真的成事。

2014 deja vu moments?

I wrote this in 2010 about certain teams and athletes. Then I wrote this in 2012 about the same group. Here is the 2014 version:
1) The University of Texas football team lost to Oklahoma in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Well, this is a rebuilding year under 1st year coach Charlie Strong. In fact, it's unlikely the team will have a .500 season :(
2) The University of Wisconsin lost to Michigan State in 2010 and 2012. They won't play against each other in 2014.
3) Will Power couldn't win the IndyCar championship in spite of a good chance entering the final race in 2010 and 2012 but he finally overcome his last-race-jitter and won it in 2014.
4) US lost to Europe in Ryder Cup in all 3 years. US had a huge lead before the final day and blew it in 2012 but we are not even close in 2014. Looking forward to a new generation of young players picking up the slack.
5) Tiequan Zhang lost his UFC fight in Macau in 2012 and that was the last time he fought. Li Jingliang was another Chinese fighter signed by the UFC and appeared in FOX Fight Night 54 but lost.
6) Last but not least, SF Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014!

The MMA Experience

I have been a fan of fight sports for years but I saw my first fight live (boxing) only last year and my first MMA event, Dragon House 17, last weekend. Kezar Pavillion was a small venue and we bought VIP seats so we got real close to the actions. I knew it won't be like watching on TV with many different angles and replays but I didn't miss much of it. 13 fights were on the card. 9 of them were KO or submission. And none of them was boring. I'm surprised by the quality of the fights given these are not big names from UFC. We were impressed by the victory of Robert Prakhantree who was taken to the ground by Alex Uribe but got on top later and ground-and-pounded to win. The Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Marcel Fortuna and Mike Ortega was another good one: Fortuna seized the opportunity to summit Ortega via rear-naked choke. Definitely looking forward to attending more local MMA events.

Sports highlights: Daytona 500, UFC 170

I was really looking forward to this weekend because it's NASCAR's season opener, Daytona 500, which happened to be the biggest event of the whole sports. Among all sports, NASCAR probably has the shortest off-season. Still, I had waited for 3 months! The other big event for me was UFC 170 featuring Rhonda Rousey vs Sara McMann as the main event. It has been a little less than 2 months since Rousey's last fight. I am happy about the winners of both: Daytona 500 won by Dale Earnhardt Jr and Rhonda Rousey successfully defended her title. However, the road to victory cannot be more different between them: Junior hasn't won a race since two years ago. And before this victory, he had exactly two W since 2008! Yet he was the most popular driver among fans 11 years in a row, mostly because of his last name. Anyone could see how much pressure was on him. The amount of frustration must have been through the roof! On the other hand, Rhonda Rousey has been undefeated in UFC. She dominated her opponents most of the time and scoring 1st round victory one after another (until her Dec 2013 fight in which she needed 3 rounds) She TKO-ed her opponent (who was well-rested compared to her) in the 1st round again this time. Junior had to "fight" really hard among all those great drivers who were front-runners towards the end of the race: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Danny Hamlin (they were either former Daytona 500 winners, former NASCAR series champs or driver on a hot streak!) Even though he was leading the race late, he had to restart perfectly to hold off the competition several times after wrecks/cautions. It's certainly no fluke as Junior finished close to the top many times during the past few seasons which showed how good he was.

I also watched a bit of Winter Olympics (mostly hockey and curling) but certainly nothing as dramatic as the above.

It's deja vu all over again!

Sports fan would know the title was one of the famous quotes by 金句大師 former Yankee great Yogi Berra. I read some of my old posts and found this from 2010:
1) University of Texas football team lost to Oklahoma that year. Same thing happened in 2012.
2) University of Wisconsin lost to Michigan State. Same in 2012.
3) Will Power couldn't win the IndyCar championship in spite of a good chance entering the final race. Same in 2012.
4) US lost to Europe in Ryder Cup. The 2012 version was worse: US had a huge lead before the final day and blew it.
5) Tiequan Zhang will fight again next week, this time with UFC in Macau. Hope he will win again!
6) Last but not least, SF Giants won NL West (and went on to win the World Series)

[Update:  Turned out Tiequan Zhang didn't win in Macau. Too bad, but at least he was competitive in that fight.]

Sports highlights: Silva vs Sonnen, former F1 drivers in NASCAR

I have not watched any of Anderson Silva's fight live before this Sat but I'll make sure I do next time. The fight last Sat just added some more to his already legendary status. He was taken down and was dominated all 5 rounds and did not look like he had anything left to fight back. And then he did it! He submitted Sonnen. I guess that's why he's a legend.

Three former F1 drivers (that I know of) competed in NASCAR races this weekend. Both Villeneuve (the former F1 champ) and Piquet Jr did well in the Nationwide race (finished 8th and 7th, respectively) but they were 1-uped by Juan Pablo Montoya, who won his 2nd Sprint Cup races in his career. Both times he did in on a road course rather than oval. I guess he hopes Sprint Cup has more road course races than just 2 times per year!

Sports highlights: UFC, NASCAR at Daytona, CFL Kickoff, World cup

When Fedor lost the week before, naturally the attention turned to: who will be the next Fedor? Well, I am pretty sure both UFC heavyweights that fighted this weekend: Lesnar and Carwin, did not want to suffer the fate of Fedor, losing to a lesser opponent or be submitted. Lesnar almost did the former in the first round but Carwin was the one submitted in the second round. It was exciting to watch.

I am not a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr (or his dad) but I was happy to see him winning the Nationwide race at Daytona running the number (3) that belonged to his dad. It was emotional. And the Sprint Cup race at Daytona was equally good. Hate to say this but the big wrecks were something to watch.

And of course, there were world cup quarter finals that featured quite a few instant-classic moments. The top one gotta be Suarez's handball save of the goal that would have sent his team out of the tournament and the subsequent missed PK by Gyan.

With all these events going on, I didn't realize it's CFL's kick off weekend! Thanks to CFL's official site, I caught the highlight of an exciting (high scoring) comeback win by Saskatchewan Rough Riders over the team that beat them in last Grey Cup, Montreal Alouettes.

Sports highlights: Fedor, F1, NASCAR, World Cup

What was the biggest upset of the week? I would say it was the top ranked MMA fighter Fedor losing to Werdum in their StrikeForce fight, not to mention, in the first round, by submission. It seems to me that Fedor was caught off guard and made a bad mistake. And he summed it up the best: "The one who doesn't fall, doesn't stand up." This perfectly described another fighter on the same card, Cung Le: he rebounded from his first loss in MMA, by beating the same opponent Scott Smith. He looked to be in a much better shape than the last time, when he just came back from a hiatus to acting in movies. His kicks were as spectacular as ever. I guess StrikeForce would be especially happy to see Cung Le back to his form after their biggest star Fedor fell.

Not much of an upset in F1. It was shown after the England vs Germany WC match so I almost missed it (and it's on FOX, a channel available at home!) When I tuned in, Webber has crashed already. Vettel had a good lead on Hamilton while Kobayashi was hogging up the traffic. I also saw Hamilton got "penalized" for passing the safety car. His was a pit drive-through penalty. How much position did he lose after he took the penalty? None! That was actually quite amazing and showed how far ahead he was in front of Kobayashi. Another highlight of the race was Kobayashi delayed the mandatory pit stop (for tire changing) until the last few laps of the race. When he came out of the pit, he was behind former champ Alonzo and the move he made to pass Alonzo was a pretty good one. That's Asian power on display!

Talking about Asian power, we saw Japan and South Korea advanced to the round of 16 in WC while traditional power houses (and recent champs) France and Italy went home. Although no one predicted either France and Italy would did great in the tournament, the way they went down could be considered as minor upsets too.

Finally, the upset I was rooting for in NASCAR didn't happen. It seems like Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson win every weekend (the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series, respectively) Danica finally returned to the Nationwide series but has yet another dissappointing finish. Looking forward to her next race in 2 weeks!

Sports highlights: UFC, F1 and mostly racing

It was Super 14's final last Sat. I couldn't watch the 2nd half but I guess I didn't miss much. The Bulls was leading at half time and went on to beat the Stormers and successfully defended their title. There won't be Super 14 next year as the league has expanded to 15.

The Rampage-Evans fight turned out to be not bad. Rampage looked passive in the beginning but he showed a bit of his old explosiveness at round 3. Evans did a great job trying to dominate.

The weekend was mainly about auto racing though: I watched both NASCAR races, Indy 500 and F1. I can't remember when was the last time the F1 race was actually more dramatic among all of them! I mean, the dominating driver in the beginning didn't win! The TV commentators mostly agreed that Vettel ruined teammate Webber's day but it wasn't so clear cut according to post-race analysis. After that crash, there was another close battle between teammates, Hamiton and Button. And that was just spectacular: Button passed the race leader Hamilton and the latter was able to regain his lead and went on to win. Another great finish I watched was the GT class of American Le Man Series at Laguna Seca Raceway at Monterrey. The Porsche passed the Bimmer at the final restart. These cars are more stock than those race for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (yeah, that's NASCAR) and they didn't need double file restart to have exciting passes during restart! It deserved to be more popular than it currently does. The coverage was not typical (wasn't even live). Instead, it's more like a documentary, which served as a great introduction to uneducated fans like me. As predicted, hardcore fans didn't like it but I agree with the posters here that it would have got even fewer audiences if the full 6 hour race was broadcasted. Kudo to CBS for showing it.

Congrat to Danica Patrick for her 6th place finish at Indy 500. It was much better than expected!

Sports highlights: GSP, F1, Hong Kong 7 plus more

Last weekend began with an NRL game. Then there were a couple of big events during the weekend: George St Pierre totally dominated in his UFC fight against Hardy. Gotta give some kudos to Hardy though 'coz he really defended hard and avoided submission (his arm was twisted really bad twice but he survived!) The F1 race in Australia was much more excited than expected, probably because of the rain. It was exciting to see Hamilton quickly catching up near the end of the race, which caused Webber to crash (and he couldn't pass Alonzo either) Of course, the home team winning the Shield in Hong Kong Seven Rugby was huge too. (It was not the Cup, but we were happy for the team no matter what)

Both the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg and NASCAR at Martinsville were delayed from Sunday to Monday because of rain. Both were exciting! My idol Danica Patrick had a decent showing by finishing 7th. And Denny Hamlin's surge from 3rd to 1st during the final restart (with 2 laps remaining) at Martinsville was simply unbelievable! Everyone thought he was done when he went to the pit and gave up the lead a few laps earlier in the race.

Also catched an Aussie rule football match, a bit of NLL and NCAA Hockey (Go Badgers!)