I went to one class of Kung Fu or Wing Chun I believe was the specific brand of Kung Fu with a friend. Those "shock ups" are real as was the smacking the shit out of your own hands on a sandbag at first and later on a stone. The idea is to toughen you up or something. The instructor had a sort of high pressure sales pitch where you basically assaults you and ends up throwing you into a sofa by punching you in the chest from 1 inch away and this is supposed to impress you. This made me mad but I am not going to strike a guy who teaches crazy Kung Fu.

I didn't return to that one because it seemed more like a cult than a martial arts practice.

I'm a bit older now but I like the idea of boxing just to be able to punch better and because you can stay in shape pretty well. I'm not necessarily looking for a new hobby but I do have some free time and if I could find a gym that would let me do it on my terms that would probably be the one for me