Customer Reviews

Shaolin Northern Tiger Kung Fu [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With 2 hours of tape, this man has included an astounding amount of information, technique, and application. The Tiger form is very rigourous, requireing the student to learn strength, coordination and endurance. Step by step instruction is given, comprehensively and sequentially; while working through the video at your own pace Master Lyons guides you from simple stretching to stances to several chapters of a complete form. If you take each part and learn it AND practice it before moving on, you will undoubtedly learn an entire, un-watered-down form. And, quite possibly, you'll gain some finer points-other than "clock cleaning"- that can be utilized in every day life. He is traditional and appears very sincere; it shows in the way he teaches. If there are no schools in your area, then this tape is a must.

This tape cannnot be beat if you wish to learn a Kung-Fu system at home. It is jam packed with information. (It would help if you learned a few basics from a live instuctor first before viewing this tape just to head you in the right direction.) If you break the instructions down into small weekly segments and actually practice religously you will learn. It took me 15 months to go from beginnig to end utilizing the weekly method with this video. His Crane video is also just as good. If you wish to learn Kung-Fu and cannot get out of the house to do so this is a viable solution.

Before being fooled by some misleading reviews, try to answer the following trivial questions about this movie.

Have you ever heard about the "American Martial Arts University"? What is that? Where is its address? Why I can't find anything on the internet about it? Who is this Robert Lyons kung fu master? How long did it take for him to become a kung fu master? I should have done more researching before buying it.

I didn't intend to learn kung fu from a video, but I wanted something good, at least to watch, but it isn't good not even for that. I bought this movie because of the very good reviews, but I learned to not trust reviews anymore.

One of the problems is that the image has very poor quality. I can produce better images from my average 4 years old camera.

The other problem is that he looks like an amateur while performing his forms. I don't know if Mr. Robert Lyons is a master in kung fu or not, but the impression I had was that he was an amateur. The way he moves his eyes is the same as of someone that is learning a form, looking at himself if the form is correct.

When he demonstrated the applications with the other guy, it seemed they were improvising. You will see he correcting the other guy's posture and movements many times.

The was one stance that he said you should have your wight 20% on one leg and 70% on ther other. What about the other 10% of your weight? This is an evidence of the poor quality of this movie. It wasn't even edited to fix the obvious errors.

The horse stance he teaches if very different from the ones we see in movies, books and any kung fu school. The one he teaches is very high. And we know that you should train with low horse estance, so your leg muscles will get strong, among other benefits.

The breath techniques he teaches is confusing. He says you should breath in through your nose, and breath out through your mouth, but in the same exercise you will see and hear he breathing in and out through the nose only.

In the bow stance he says that the back leg should be straight, but many times, in the same demonstration, you will see him with his back leg slightly bent.

It is like he says what you are supposed to do but he himself can't do it well.

In summary, is is a very expensive amateur work sold as a work of a kung fu master.

Lyons doesn't look like any Sifu I've ever seen. His movements are weak, and his horse stance is just a slight bend of the knee. He looks like a beginner, who filmed an instructional video in his garage.

When I bought this video, I thought I'd be getting the tiger form I've seen before. Very low stances, with dynamic hand forms. It's called "Tiger" kung fu for a reason.

I don't know what Lyons is doing, but it's definitely not a powerful Tiger form. I wouldn't even recommend this to a beginner, because Lyons just juggles the same 6 or 7 moves. I've seen children do better forms than this. Awful.

I have both Sifu Lyons' Feeding Crane video and this one. At two hours long, he packs a lot of information and good instruction into this video. Much of it is basic applications, of which there are several dozen at least, in addition to the demonstration of the form. Don't worry about the one reviewer that gave this video 1 star, questioning Lyons' ability and citing trivial things like his horse stance being too high and other insignificant things such as he never heard of his academy (he himself says he's no expert and only trained for a month). While he is perhaps too young in the video to be a called a master like the jacket claims, Lyons is a still skilled kung-fu expert and studied in China at one of the Shaolin monasteries for several years before immigrating to the U.S. from Hungary. He also achieved a black belt rank in Shotokan at age 17--also a respectable accomplishment. I myself hold black belt or instructor rank in several martial arts and have been training and teaching for 40 years, since I was very young (including in kung-fu), so I think I know a good teacher and a competent martial artist when I see one. As I said, at two hours long this packs a lot of material into that time, especially since many martial arts videos these days are only an hour or less and I've seen some that are as short as half an hour that cost 50% more than this one, which is a rip-off. So this one is a great bargain at the price. The pacing is just right, not too fast, and not too slow. My only complaint is that I would have liked more advanced combination techniques, and more kicking techniques, perhaps, but this tape is really intended as an introduction to the northern tiger style, so that's not really a problem. But it actually goes beyond the basic level too given all the information it provides. This is a quality video and an excellent value at the price.

I trained with Sifu Lyons for 5 years at his dojo in Lake Arrowhead, California, and he also had a Dojo in Big Bear, California. So any talk of Sifu Lyons being an amatuer is absurd. This guy is the real deal. He trained Tiger, Crane, Monkey, and Snake. He is also a Master of Shaolin Choung Hop Kuen kung-fu, and also extremly versed in the style of Muay Thai. So any of you afraid to purchase the video because of the one-star reviews because he not a real Sifu is 100% false.

I've been training in the martial arts since 1976. While I can not attest to Mr. Lyons credentials, the video is of high quality for those who are looking for instruction in a basic form of Tiger Kung Fu. This is not a kung fu movie for entertainment value, it gives step by step instruction and the instruction is first rate, if you train with the video diligently you will get a fine workout and learn quite a bit about self defense with a traditional Chinese tiger form. Even though it is a basic form, there is a lot of "meat" to it. I don't purchase many training videos but I was very pleased with this one, many of it's principles have become a permanent part of my training regimen.

This Video was very fun to learn. I was able to learn the complete form in just 2 weeks!(results may vary) Now I practice the form every day and makes me feel more powerful with the figthing spirit of the tiger! This is a very powerful form if used correctly.