Does anyone like to actually train with people?

I study Wing Chun and have been trying to find people to train with to learn to apply what I know against different tactics rather than just training against Wing Chun people all the time. No one seems interested in doing this, I have asked people that train BJJ, Boxing, Karate, Hapkido and MMA and they all at first think that I'm asking them to teach me their style which I'm not interested in, I have a Sifu I just want to train with other styles as well and get my Wing Chun to work against them, in turn this would give people from other styles to test their techniques against Wing Chun, a win win situation in my opinion.





But they always without fail back out.





Maybe it's just people in Melbourne are to lazy to get out of their comfort zone. I can't even really go do classes somewhere else because I don't envision it would go down to well if I ignored what the teacher was telling me and tried to do my own thing. Thoughts?

Does anyone like to actually train with people?
love to - unfortunately i am currently in israel. I have found the only thing i could do was open my own class where everyone did their own style and practiced together. sometimes it is easier to gether people as a teacher. If i come to melbourne i will look you up.
Reply:I currently train muay thai and kickboxing , and if somebody offers something like you are offering, I'd gladly accept it, as it's an honor to have the chance, and an opportunity to expand knowledge.





I think it's great you want to cross-train with other martial artists, speaks well about you.
Reply:To be brutally honest, there's not a lot of challenge in sparring with most Wing Chun guys. You have a bit of an annoying punching style, but there tends not to be the same power as boxing due to the arm punching, and when you get to the ground, you tend to just spaz and get tapped repeatedly. There's not much benefit in it for anyone who trains realistically, because they *already* know what they can do against untrained opponents.





Best bet is to actually make some friends in whatever community you'd like to spar against and try to manage to remain friendly afterwards.





If you are really serious, you probably need credibility that you are worthwhile. That usually means training in other arts as well (Warning: the deadly anti-grappling elbow-to-the-spine doesn't work quite as well as you might think). I was trained in a Wing-Chunn-y style before returning to grappling.





Oh, I just re-read your last paragraph. If you go to an MMA gym, and you train there, after a while, you'd be able to try your stuff out during sparring. I guarantee it. I bet if you learned 'their skills', you could after you got to know them say, 'Hey, let's see if my WC training works here'. Also if it DID work, you'd see them rapidly adopt the techniques, because they only want to win and won't care how. Maybe you can be the one to introduce the greatness of WC to the world! ;)





I'd go that way if I was you, the worst that happens is you get exposed to a newer way of fighting. Nothing says you HAVE to use it after you've experienced it. I daresay you'll want to, but only experience will tell.
Reply:I love training with other people. It let's me try new things and experiment with old techniques. But I have no problem with learning other styles and finding out what they have that works for me. There's always some new insight to be found when training with others.
Reply:I've always thought that was a good idea. My friends and I often get together to work techniques against each other. They do Aikido and I do Kempo and Shaolin. We often find interesting results from moves we thought were so cool or ones we hadn't thought would be effective.





Most folks don't like to train outside their comfort zones, so they'll never learn to fight any way except in a dojo and against people who are not trying to hurt them.





I'd recommend looking up a MMA gym and offer to be a sparring partner for one of their students. They'll often let people workout with their students for cheap or even free if they are not looking for training but rather just to be a partner. The problem with this is that MMA gyms are full contact so you will most likely get hurt. But you get to spar against partners that have trained in multiple arts and are serious about training hard.
Reply:you need that contact, so good on you for realising it. shame on everyone else. without contact you are just doing kata without intent or understanding.





you need to place an advert on the notice board where you train dude, and fish for bites. you surely cant be the only one, or else they are all wasting their time 'playing' martial arts.
Reply:Every style and every school has their own methods of training. The people you want to train with may not be used to the way you train in Wing Chun and vise versa. First off, both practicioners must keep an open mind. If you both don't have one, then your training with them will get you nowhere. If you teacher is telling you not to take any other martial arts of not to train/show other what you've learned, they are a bad teacher and their methods may be kind of crappy. I believe if a student of one art wishes to try another, let them do it. If they come back, they'll have more experence and can show you what they've learned somewhere else. As Bruce Lee said, "Use what is useful and get rid of that impractical crap." That's not an exact quote, but somewhere along the lines of what he said... ;)
Reply:I would love to try what you are suggesting, but I live in Brownsville, Texas so we're pretty far from each other. If you ever come down here, or to South Padre Island, which is really close, let me know and we can kick the tar out of each other.
Reply:i always train with other people, but only people who are in a martial art and know how to defend themselves. Also, I won't try to actually hurt/hit them; we do have to recycle each other, as my sensei says.

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