Course of Study and Costs for Hung Gar

Courses of Study and Costs - Hung Gar

For our money Grandmaster Wing Lam was the best Hung Gar teacher in the Bay Area. He has retired. A great pity.

We are currently teaching only a very few Hung Gar sets - all nine of them involve weapons, so someone wishing to

seriously study Hung Gar should seek another teacher. Present offerings: double gen (Chinese sai); Eight Trigram staff;

General Chai Yang Long-handled knife (pu dao); Hunting Tiger trident; Kunlun Mountain straight sword; Lau Gar

long staff; Monkey King staff; Plum Flower spear and Soldier's saber. There is considerable variety in sabers - one may

choose wood or several types of metal as well as whether to get a scabbard or not. So prices might range from $25 to $75 or

more. We recommend a pair of steel sais - student's choice between chrome or black - for about $40. For lau gar staff

we recommend tapered white wax wood, 108" long and 4.5 lbs. This can actually be shipped by Fedex, although it

may be financially attractive to go pick it up. The other two staff sets use a normal staff - one can choose between

graphite (different colors), red oak, stainless steel, white oak, rattan ... Traditionally, this staff should come to your

eyebrow. They vary a great deal in price - from $20 up. We suggest visiting a store and trying several. A basic waxwood

shafted 78" spear with steel spearhead and red tassel is about $40. You can buy spearheads and use any number of

materials (see the list for staffs above - plus copper, brass ...) for the shaft. Both the pu dao and the trident cost about $110.

There is a wide variety of swords available and the choice is really up to the buyer. With the possible exception of the lau

gar staff, all weapons used for Hung Gar can be used in Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan and other arts. Note that one need only

buy a weapon when it is to be studied. Hauling the long weapons around is tedious, so usually one practices at home with

a personal weapon and uses a borrowed weapon at class. You would bring your personal weapon to exhibitions.

No special clothing needed for Hung Gar classes - a t-shirt and shorts or comfortable pants will suffice. Socks with either

kung fu or normal athletic shoes will be satisfactory. Shown below is a favorite image of Grandmaster Wing Lam

in formal Hung Gar clothing with a straight sword. It is popular to wear studded leather wrist wraps.

Besides photos, the Weapons page has links about transporting, bags, covers, flags and tassles.