The Pensacola Kung Fu School

**ignatzami** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 9:48am

Originally Posted by WhiteShark

I agree the rating seem high but there is a competition video on their website. Looks like several solid amateurs in Sanda and Grappling tournaments.

But amateur events do not equal a ten. I think the example for a ten was something like ATT Orlando, huge facility, golden gloves boxing coach, Muay Thai fighters with awesome records, etc. etc. etc.

Just bothers me when I see ratings with tens, tens should be incredibly rare.

**Rivington** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 9:59am

Gongfu has such a poor rep around here that I think anyone who walks into a school and experiences actual, you know, gong, gets a little too happy and inflates the grades.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 10:53am

I didn't put the gym size as a 10. You are looking at the wrong one. I put gym size as a 6.

As far as grappling tournaments, they have video of their grappling tournaments and San Da competitions.

The instructors have competed in kickboxing and Master Coughlin has verifiable leniage in instruction. To me that means that he is legit and there is no reason to drop that raiting scale. I would not rate a Kung Fu school based on MT or Boxing coaches because it is not a MT or boxing school. The do push hands and compete, San Da and Compete. That is enough for a 10 in my opinion. However anyone is welcome to visit the school and adjust the ratings based on their experience.

**Shadowsot** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 11:00am

I'm curios as to what weapons they train with, and how?

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 12:14pm

I'm not sure about the weapons. I saw a bunch of them there, mostly bo and some crazy looking staff that had a blade on the end of it. I'm not sure what kind of training they do with them. I will have to ask later.

**Bluto Blutarsky** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 3:38pm

Originally Posted by Rivington

Gongfu has such a poor rep around here that I think anyone who walks into a school and experiences actual, you know, gong, gets a little too happy and inflates the grades.

and some people just go in looking for things wrong that they will be harsher too than a "mediocre" boxing gym or something else similar.

it all depends on the individual which is why we should hope more than one person rates a gym to get multiple opinions and takes.

**ruptureclothing** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 4:59pm

I would actually love to see a second rating on this school (not that I don't trust diesel_tke) but for another opinion or perspective. As an aside, I think it's great that a TMA (especially Kung-Fu) school focuses on aliveness, striking and grappling.

Diesel_tke, which parts of the training did you find physically demanding? When I was a kid and did Vovinam for a while, the warm-ups alone were brutal. Just curious.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 3/30/2010 6:26pm

Yeah, the warm ups was a thing called "Fuhu Gong". We only did 3 sets because they were teaching me as they went along. But they said that sometimes they will do up to 21. That is ridiculous to me. Then we went through some Qi Gong(I believe) which was pretty cool but tired out my legs even more. We did some stuff where you walk around in a circle and there are kicks and punches that are done as you walk. There was also some moves that were similar to Thai Boxing like shin checks, tepes, and roundhouse kicks. But it was all incorporated into this constant motion and movement. It was actually a lot of fun. We went on from there to do other stuff like Tai Chi Chuan and Xing Yi.

I hope that more people will rate the school. But I will also come back regularly and change stuff as I get more familiar with the school and systems. This is the first real Kung Fu school I have ever been to, and based on this experience, I am not sure why the Kung Fu gets such crappy reputation.

But yes, everyone has to also take into consideration that I just started here. But they do have a video on you tube that shows other stuff too.