[Ben]

i recently attended a martial arts festival and at the end there was a set of fight round competitions, my sifu told me to watch from this and i found seeing combat in action was a real eye opener for me!

basically i noticed that in the fight styles seem to disappear, there was no difference between the mauy tai boxing and the dragon kung fu, this might be because i wasn't looking at the right things or because many of the participants were fairly inexperienced. I was particularly surprised at the student from the school i go to, many of the techniques we learned weren't present in his fighting.

i understand that lots of techniques are very difficult to recall even when im sparring let alone in a competition but this student wasnt a novice yet he was fighting like a western boxer


basically i wanted to ask is style important in a fight, i currently study mainly shaolin kung fu, should i make an extra effort to 'implant' certain key things like stances into my head because although i am only a young spectator i could spot several points where a simple shaolin technique may have got him out of a sticky situation? because when i fight i want to be able to use the techniques i learn, not just to use the strength or speed i aquire