Beating the Stars

[Uwe]

Anybody seen the Kung Fu Documentary Dragons of the Orient this weekend?


If so, what do you think of the whole film and especially the the excercise Jet Li demonstrated "Beating the stars"?



Uwe

[doc]

No, I didn't. I've lost a lot of interest lately in watching these things, for some reason. Curious to hear what "beating the stars" is though.

[shaolinstylee]

I could never guess why doc...

[Maestro]

what the hell

what the hell man..where are you guys seeing all these documentarys on kung fu and all this?

i havent seen shit on pbs about doc or shaolin or anything

and the only kung fu documentary i saw was on discovery..and i saw it once..a couple years ago..and it was fairly well done..

i think shi yan ming was in it..im not sure, but i think he was

besides that i havent seen jack man and its annoying cause you guys talk about them alot

are they coming up on a certain channel or something or what? i usually only watch a select few channels and youd think these would be the ones youd see this stuff on..like; discovery, a&e, history channel, fox, amc etc

so what the heck?

[Uwe]

Documentary

Maestro,

this one was on on the International Channel. It's called Dragons of the Orient and was made in 1988. It's in English.

Uwe

[Uwe]

Documentary

Maestro,

a little follow-up:

You can actually get the DVD from Amazon and in a few other places.


Uwe

[Uwe]

Beating the Stars

Doc,

while I agree with your sentiments in general, I consider this 1988 one better, because it actually shows the whole gamut in a bit more expanded view. Granted, the sound effects for the techniques are s....


Now to your question

Beating the stars is actually a very interesting and challenging excercise. Consider yourself in a "cage" with straps all around with a top, and some of them going accross with irregular spacing. On specific places in this little "universe" you have balls wrapped into the strings. The idea is to work on precision movements with kicks and punches and moving around and only hitting the balls, but not any of the straps. I personally consider this one one of the best excercises I ever found.


Before I made my something like this, I started out in a different way.

I strapped a cord between tow trees and started the weaving from one side to the other, just like boxers do. After a while I added stakes with balls fixed on top on each side in various heights. That’s when I started to throw kicks and punches for the weaving. After a few months, I proceeded to create my little universe. The size of mine is roughly 20 square feet. However, in the beginning, I had a bigger one, and as I became better on this one, I reduced the size to roughly 20 by 20 feet with roughly 7 feet height. That’s the way, I have it now and it stays that way.

I have a piece like this at my workout area. What I did was actually designing it first on the computer and then I used hand balls (20) and tied it together with wide rubber bands (I used the ones being used for air cargo) wrapped with bed sheets, which were cut into stripes of approximately 3 inch wide and then twisted a bit. For the interconnecting between to make it "a universe" I went and did some "guessing", until I had it right. The trickiest part for me was the top. Once started and until you have it right, it can take a few months. And until I really got to the point where I am using it the way shown, it took me over a year with least 3 1 hour practices per week.


Uwe


PS: Thanks for moving the message to the right forum

[doc]

Do you have a picture of this little universe that you've created? Your explanations are good, but I'm having trouble imagining it.

As for these documentaries, I've been involved with three so far. I think I'm just getting tired of the way these people treat all of us little guys, who go out of our way to help them get their productions finished. And, when I watch them, all I can think of is "what bullshit". They all seem to miss the essence of the reality. They all seem to have a "purpose" which the producer is trying to demonstrate, regardless of what the truth is. You even find this in some History Channel historical documentaries. I guess I've reached a point in my life where my tolerance for nonsense has really diminished.

[Uwe]

Universe

Doc,

you do have a point in regards to your commentary.

As for the picture, that will follow as soon as I have my camera back. It got slighly damaged, and I am waiting for the verdict, meaning repair or buy a new one.

Children are such a wonderful thing.


Uwe

[Maestro]

uwe

uwes the man

[lester1/2jr]

is that the same as meteor fist?

[LeiYunFat]

I've seen the beating stars workout, and it is pretty sweet. I doubt it's the same as meteor fist, lester. The beating stars is something I have seen that is unique to Jet Li.

And props to Uwe for making his own.

[shaolinstylee]

I have seen this....

Doc, imagine yourself in a junglegym.... and someone put up double sided speed balls all around you...

[Greenknight2]

I believe it wasn't beating the stars, but some other name. My copy is on loan to smeone else. By the way, Uwe, I think I was talking about this a few months or so ago on the forum. Do a search on it.

set this up myself but I didn't use balls, I used plastic bottles, my own newspaper balls, and some thicker stuff. I think it might be funner with balls. I think it's suppost to simulate multiple attackers.

As toward your original question, I thought it was interesting the various types of kung fu, and seeing so many different styles in action. I gave a copy the person my teacher goes through, and I "heard" he liked it.

[onesp1ng]

Maestro,

nice sig line... It's really funny! Ahh, the perfections of the chinglish language... I swear it will become the most highly respected yet... we must only wait to witness it's development.....

I'm a dope...

g