Real Kung Fu...it is possible.

[Torakaka]

Hey Kidspatula,

We do that sweep a lot where I train, and we have a drill that makes it a little easier to practice. And yeah, that ****'s not easy on anybody resisting, so using the lead hand to unbalance them really helps and truly, it's more like the shoulder, almost like you step into them and then throw the lead arm straight out and just past them so that your whole arm get's used to trip them. If you want a better description of the drill (which may already be obvious to you, I don't know.) feel free email me. onesearch@gmail.com.

that sounds like pretty much exactly the way I was taught

[Poop Loops]

Good kung fu is possible, but so is winning the lottery on the same day you suffer from a spontaneous mutation that enlarges your penis.

It's called an "erection". I'd get one too if I won the lottery.

[JP]

I'll give this a shot, but I may **** it up. Just fair warning. And for the record, I don't do kung fu and I'm not a fan of it at all, I've trained it and I don't like the methods the instructors used, for the moment I train a silat system which has a bunch of stuff mixed in that my teacher wasn't able to tell which is what. So if this sounds something like what you do, it might very well be related. It makes sense it sounds exactly like what Kidspatula does, I see a lot of similarities between silat and muay thai. I'm working to encorporate the way thai boxers train, with the physical methods of the silat I've learned. A lot of the same stuff, just more of it.

Basically the way I was taught was footwork first:

Moving back and forth on a straight line, simultaneously reaching in front of you with your lead hand as you slide the matching leg forward with a slight curve to the step. Meaning instead of just sliding forward, you make a kind of crecsent shape on the floor, but a very shallow one. You want to stay as close to the straight line you're walking and keep that little curve. Repeat the **** out of this, until it's smooth. keep your foot as much on the floor as you can and still slide it. Move you body weight evenly, it's not like a low round kick or a cat stance or something. Everything moves at once.

With a Partner:

Have them throw a strike with commitment at first. A kick is easier and one that aims at either your torso or head. Move right alongside the kick so that you go from more frontal, to completely sideways. Your lead hand should extend across their chest, and your lead leg takes out the standing leg. Ankle to ankle. If you try to go any higher it'll just be a kick and they might not fall. If you can get your hand on them though and the sweep fails, you can pull on their upper body and hook the leg out and drop them anyway.

The thing I like best about this is that the footwork get's you inside if it's done right. So if it doesn't go perfectly your at their back, or at least inside their guard partially. You're still better off than you were before.

Somebody tell me if this description doesn't make any sense. And for the record, I've used it succesfully a couple of times in sparring with somebody resisting. It's not magic and only once did I get a real clean sweep where they ended up on their ass. They dropped the other times, but it didn't look as cool or feel as good as when they just went ass over teakettle