Monthly Archives: August 2013

Stances

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All Kung Fu styles have their strengths, but one they all share is strength of the lower body, or leg strength.  They all employ low stances so as to be able to root themselves for offensive as well as defensive movements.

The twelve ton tois that we train are actually sets of movements which are designed to work on your stances.  Ton toi means thunderkick in Chinese.  Low stances gives a practitioner a lot of jumping and kicking power as well as excellent cardiovascular training.

So lower your stances!

Massage and Your Martial Arts Practice

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Brea Shaolin Martial Arts - Massage

Brea Shaolin Martial Arts – Massage

Therapeutic massage in China has a very long history.  An ancient book dating back to first century AD says, “if the body is benumbed as a result of the blocking of the jingluo (or meridians), it may be cured by massage.”  Massage departments were established in the Imperial Court during the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581-907 A.D.)  Further development took place in subsequent dynasties.

Massage falls into the broad range of traditional Chinese medicine practices that have a history of thousands of years, which can’t/won’t be discussed in detail here.  Massage is a sibling of acupuncture, herbal medicine, qigong and exercise, and diet that make up Traditional Chinese Medicine.  It’s historical purpose is not simply to relax muscles and relieve stress, but to be an integral part of a complete medical system.  It’s goal is to cure diseases, both acute and chronic, by relieving symptoms and attacking the root of problems.  Traditional Chinese Massage treats not just sports injuries, joint and muscle related disorders (including dislocated joints), and minor broken bones, but also internal chronic disorders.   The ancients found massage as a method to treat atrophy, paralysis, digestive system disorders, and more.  Commonly known in the west, Acupressure is just one of the techniques of Chinese massage where pressure is applied to acupuncture points.

Your kung fu practice will likely benefit from consistent massage – be it administered by yourself, a western massage therapist, or a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner.  When sore, explore the sore area of your body by pressing and massaging the areas surrounding it.  You will likely find one or more places that help release pain and pressure.  If possible, find a qualified Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and find out for yourself how advanced Chinese massage can be a valuable piece of your overall health.

Late To Class

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu

A point of etiquette when coming late to class.  When joining class after it has started, go to the back of the line when bowed in unless Sifu tells you otherwise.  Stay at the back of the line until that section is over.  For example, when joining class in the process of doing kicks, go to the back of the line until kicks are over.  When they are over and the class is directed into forms or something else, go into your normal place in line based on your rank.

Fighting Foundation

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Martial Arts

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Martial Arts

Stances are a critical part of technique.  A student must learn proper balance of body both for defensive and offensive ability.  Before any technique can be mastered proper body posture and a mental attitude must be present.  This is a required foundation for ability in technique.  It grows and changes as a student pursues it.

The Key To Tai Chi

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Brea Tai Chi Martial Arts

Brea Tai Chi Martial Arts

The Key To Tai Chi

By Jeffrey Reulbach

Everyone is aware that keys unlock and open doors.  Within every martial art there are keys that open doors to the highest level of skill in the style.  The key to unlocking the door to those higher levels of skill in Tai Chi is referred to in Chinese as sung.

Sung is usually translated by the word relax.  The concept of relaxing in Tai Chi does not mean to become limp or to recline.  To be loose or open are more closely related to the idea of sung.  When doing an empty hand form, push hands, sparring, weapons, or chi kung (energy work) the relaxation must be in total.

Of course, reaching a high level of sung doesn’t happen in an instant.  Developing the true relaxation of Tai Chi that enables the artist to be soft and yielding but not limp and weak is progressive.  To gain the real skill of Tai Chi self-defense you have to be relaxed in mind and body.

Relaxing the body means that you must free it of all unnecessary tension.  In other words, you have to use only the amount of muscular exertion needed for any action.  For example, when doing a push or palm strike the arm doesn’t get real tense or stiff, it remains soft but firm enough to get the job done.  To accomplish this means you have to pay very close attention to the movement in order to feel tension.  To get rid of tension in the body, you have to focus on loosening and opening the joints.  The relaxed tendon is an important part of issuing internal force.  Gaining the kind of sung in the body necessary for higher level skills calls for reeling tension in the joints, especially at the shoulder, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles.  In addition, excellent physical posture and alignment with gravity aid in the development of physical relaxation.

Mental relaxation is the other side of the coin needed for skill in Tai Chi.  A sung mind is open and yet extremely focused.  Relaxing the mind also means to rid it of unnecessary tension.  The idea of getting rid of tension in the mind means that it only concentrates on the task at hand in the present, which means it is free from the shackles of the past and the anxiety of the future.

To rid the mind of tension, visualization is very important when doing a form.  Tai Chi is often referred to as “swimming on dry land” because of its appearance and the fact that swimming is a relaxing activity.  Applying the image of swimming means that you imagine you are moving through water, feeling the sensation of the water’s pressure on each movement.  The imagined water, over time, produces a buoyant feeling of floating and flowing in movement, and a calmness in mind.  Although there are other excellent visualizations, the “swimming on land” is extremely effective for releasing tension and developing sung.

Turning the key of relaxation in Tai Chi has many positive benefits.  It makes more use of your parasympathetic nervous system producing a calming effect.  The increase in relaxation helps to combat stress-related illness, which is a primary reason why so many turn to Tai Chi in the first place.  As a martial artist, relaxation gives you speed, heightened awareness, and the ability to adjust to an attacker smoothly in a self-defense situation.  The key to Tai Chi will not only benefit internal martial artists, but anyone who is willing to unlock and open the door.

The Health Trinity

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Health TrinityTwo of the primary reasons to train in martial arts is to develop martial ability and supreme physical health.  As you can imagine, the development of kung fu skill and personal fitness go hand in hand.  The more you train, the fitter, faster, stronger, more supple and enduring your body becomes.  Although there are many factors that come into play with everyday health and wellness (genetics, stress, environment, etc.), there are three major factors to health and continuing development of kung fu:  Sleep, Nutrition, and Training.

Sleep may seem like an obvious addition to the Health Trinity, but one out of five people in the country get less than six hours of sleep at night.  Most people (not all) need seven to eight hours every night.  It is particularly important when you train in martial arts as your body requires deep sleep to recover from the wear and tear of hard training.  Muscles need to repair themselves.  The occasional sprains and bruises associated with training need to heal.  This is accomplished most rapidly when a consistent 7-8 hours of sleep is had.  Should eight hours not be in the cards or simply not enough to feel rested, take a nap and catch up – it’s absolutely crucial to stay on track for both optimal health and progress in your kung fu skills.  You will learn the hard way by lingering injuries and lackluster performance if you don’t.

Nutrition is also a very important factor for developing optimum health and martial skill.  You might have adequate sleep and train consistently, but if you’re skipping meals routinely or eating meals that are nutritionally barren you will eventually find yourself sick, injured, or exhausted – likely a combination of them.  Think to yourself, “My body is my temple” and feed it appropriately.  Nutritionally dense foods like vegetables, fruit, meat, and nuts/seeds should be the staple of your diet.  Hard training will likely make you more hungry than normal.  Listen to your body and feed it what it needs, but again, try to minimize the foods and beverages that have no or low nutritional value.  You should know what these are, but if you don’t do some research on the internet or pick up a few books.

Training is the third of the Health Trinity.  Kung fu training offers its practitioners a variety of benefits including the development of full body physical strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination, release of tension and stress, among others.  With adequate sleep and excellent nutrition, students can make the most out of the time they spend training and eventually increase the number of hours they spend training each week.  The more you train, the better your kung fu will get and the healthier you will become.  After some time training, you will become extremely attune to your body.  Listen to it.  Push as hard as you can for as long as you can.  Train multiple hours a day, if possible.  It’s not meant to be easy.  However, listen to what your body is telling you and take a break when needed to recover.

Lacking any one of the three components of the Health Trinity negatively impacts the other two so do your best to stay on course with proper sleep, nutrition, and training.  Staying on track with each of the three will accelerate both your expanding fitness and martial ability.

Kung Fu Wisdom

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Wisdom

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Wisdom

When you have envisaged a goal and created its attainment on the plane of mind, nothing can stop you from realizing that goal but the creation of your failure on the plane of mind.

There is no such thing as failure unless it is accepted.  There is no such thing as defeat unless it is accepted.  There is no such thing as evil unless it is accepted.

Exercise vs. Training

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu

The Difference Between Exercising and Training

Why did/do you you go to school?  Why do you think there are grades and exams and reviews in school? Why not just pick up a few books and start reading randomly? Why do you work at an organization with a structure? Why are the most successful organizations the ones with the best policies and strategies? Why not just walk out into the world and figure out some random way to make a living? Why do you practice the same movements over and over again? Why not just move your limbs the way you want to or draw some random colored lines and hope they make sense?

Success doesn’t work that way. And a transformation from skilled to unskilled, fat to fit, weak to strong, or unhealthy to healthy doesn’t work that way either.

Exercise is as any activity requiring physical effort, carried out especially to sustain or improve health and fitness.  It is exercise for today – focused on the short-term.  Training, on the other hand, is way more than that.

Training is the act of learning, practicing, analyzing, monitoring and progressing per a plan that is designed taking into consideration the student’s current position in the relevant space and future goals. It involves careful instruction, self-reflection, structure, testing, commitment, and adherence.  It is exercise with a purpose.

It is important to understand that random acts of physical activity, though better than a carefully planned regimen of sitting around, eating junk, and doing virtually nothing, won’t take you far in acquiring skill. You need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. You need to learn to understand your body and it’s capacity for strength, agility, and flexibility. You need to practice movements that have a purpose. You need to strive to progress. You need to train.

The Base of a Mountain

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Martial Arts Foundation

Martial Arts Foundation

“In this world, if you start at the base of a mountain and travel far enough, you will find yourself on the other side at the base of the mountain again;  you are still at the base of the mountain, but in a completely different place.  This is the same for any path of study.  You start at the beginning and struggle uphill.  You go deeper and deeper into it until you find yourself on the other side with a heart of understanding.  This is the way of all learning, and it is the only path to enlightenment.  

Understanding this, I do not hold back knowledge from my students because they have not trained long enough.  Each person is different and understanding comes differently to each of us, so I try to gauge the student’s level of understanding and teach each one what he is ready for at that time.  I do not like pledges or oaths of secrecy.  There are no secrets.  Knowledge is open to all, but few truly want it.  There is no need to hide things; most people go out of their way to avoid the truth.  

With this in mind, teach the students everything they can handle and hide nothing, because very few of them will ever come to real understanding anyway.  Leave the knowledge in the open and only true warriors will find it.  Give them everything you have and help them past whatever shortcomings they have.  The teacher should help the student come to his own enlightenment.  Only this way will the student truly know strategy.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), founder of Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship.  The Book of Five Rings Trans. D.E. Tarver

Wondering If You’re Getting Any Health Benefits From Your Program? So Was I.

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Brea Shaolin Kung fu Martial Arts

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Martial Arts

When I walked into the Shaolin Kung Fu School for the first time, I wasn’t thinking about my health.  My aim was more about self-discovery.  Could I develop some new qualities to even a mediocre level, let alone a higher sash level, when I was starting with no experience and no skill?  Where would any balance, any flexibility, any technique, any mental focus really come from?  These would certainly not spring out from my years of “training” as a black sash in the art of Couch Potato.  The only qualities achieved from that program were my remote control thumb techniques and a well developed spare tire.

Early on, I didn’t figure to achieve any health benefits, because I wasn’t sure I’d be around long.  It seemed to take many weeks just to not fall over on a low stretch kick.  Watching the more experienced students practice sometimes made me feel agonizingly slow and lacking in talent.  The road to yellow sash seemed miles and miles long.  Moving in inches was making for a long journey.  I could tell this was going to be another story of the tortoise and the hare, where I was the tortoise once again.  Like the tortoise, I knew I could be determined and consistent at least.  However, I do believe I was sweating a lot more than a tortoise.

After about ten months at the School, I went to my doctor and had blood drawn for a follow-up to a medical procedure.  By coincidence, I had baseline tests taken shortly before I started kung fu.  I was curious to see how my heart and blood qualities had changed following less than a year of training.  The results showed pretty big changes:

  • Overall Cholesterol at 178, improved 15%.
  • LDL’s (the “bad” cholesterol) at 113, improved 19%.
  • Blood pressure at 104/70, improved by 19%/21%.
  • Pulse rate at 52, down from 77 or 32%.

I was excited, and felt this was nice improvement, especially for a tortoise.  Maybe best of all, it reminded me that studying kung fu is not a competition with others, and certainly not a race.  My first year of diligent effort had paid off nicely, even recognizing my own skill level and slow starting physical condition.  I was competent in many basic techniques, and shown improvement in flexibility and balance.  And surprise, I had achieved much improvement in an unexpected area, my health!

By Jim Reeder, a former Brea Shaolin Kung Fu School student

The Components of Martial Skill – Power, Speed, Endurance, and Technique

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Martial Arts

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Martial Arts

Power is something that most everyone can develop.  Proper breathing (timely exhaling during the execution of a strike), whole body strength (a firm rooting to the ground, strong and loose muscles, and release of energy), and proper body alignment (posture and structure) create more power than what simple muscles can deliver.  There is far more to power than strong musculature.  Of course, if you attempt to employ power without correct speed or technique, then you have a wasted movement as you will not likely impact your target or if you do it may not have much effect.

Speed is a necessity for many techniques to work.  Without proper speed, your movements will likely be blocked, avoided or countered or, defensively, your blocks and evading techniques won’t be effective.  As with all of the components to fighting ability, speed can be developed with consistent training.  Each time you practice a movement – be it a punch, a kick, a sweep, a throw, a joint lock – you must try to do it faster (while maintaining both proper form and power).  Relaxation is a must to maximize speed as tightness delays movement.

Endurance ensures you have the physical capacity to successfully utilize techniques after a good deal of physical exertion.  You never know when you may be called on to defend yourself and loved ones from one or multiple opponents.  Sparring is typically held towards the end of class for this very reason.  Much of the hard work has already been done and it forces you to gather yourself (read:  “your energy”) and give 100% focus and effort when sparring your opponent.  This hard training is often when “chi” is cultivated and can come into play for more advanced students.  Never forget, you may be strong and fast, but if you’re too gassed to react properly in a physical encounter – you’re history.

Technique conquers all.  Technique is a broad concept that covers the proper execution of defensive and offensive fighting movements – including striking, grappling, throwing, sweeping, timing and distance.  It is the essence of any and all martial arts.  You may have power, speed and endurance (which might make you an incredible athlete), but without technique you will very likely not have the ability to successfully defend yourself against someone who does.

Learning a technique is one thing, but truly possessing a technique in such a way that you can call on it immediately in a fight is another.  This kind of mastery takes many years of practice with your kung fu brothers and sisters.  It’s learning the technique, re-learning it, repeating it over and over in hundreds (even thousands) of different positions and scenarios for the purpose of using it in the few serious physical engagements you may encounter.  Luckily, it doesn’t require a large arsenal of these mastered techniques to successfully defend yourself from untrained and even trained adversaries.  However, mastering technique is unquestionably the most difficult and time consuming of the four components.  It is also one of the most rewarding.

You must develop and maintain power, speed and endurance to make techniques work.  In fact, all four components of martial skill must be present.  If a punch or kick is flying to your face or body, your speed and technique will allow you to create space from the oncoming blow and block it.  Speed, power and technique are still required to successfully counter the attack.  Endurance may be required in certain circumstances, but is a necessity in your training when you are developing your speed, power and technique.  The endurance aspect brings ALL the components of martial skill together when you are exhausted while sparring and have to draw on your highest abilities to bring power, speed and technique to bear against an opponent.

Health Benefits of Tai Chi Chuan

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  • The gentle movements help the body strengthen bone mass with zero joint damage and are lower impact than brisk walking.
  • Burns nearly as many calories as downhill skiing and has many of the same benefits as low-impact aerobic exercise.
  • Balance and coordination improvements that are nearly twice as effective as the best balance training exercises.
  • Helps in letting go of nervous tension.  This makes everything inside the body work better, which often makes the world around us seem better.
  • Sometimes lowers blood pressure as effectively as medicine
  • The goal is balance, with a mindful of awareness of constant adjustment of posture; increasing grace, flexibility and an elongated form.  As we age, it is tension that shortens our bodies more than gravity.
  • Promotes stroke recovery due to soothing demands on left brain – right brain interaction as well as mind-body connection.
  • Tones the muscles, increases breathing capacity, lowers stress levels, improves organ function, and corrects poor posture.  All these things help the body maximize its self-healing potential.
  • Requires the body to rotate about 95% thereby clearing the joints of calcium deposits and gently massages the internal organs to improve digestion.  Swimming only rotates 65% of the body motions.
  • Stimulates the liquid systems of the body to keep our joints flexible.
  • The muscles seem to begin releasing their tight grip on the bones.  This allows the spine to realign and reduces chronic pain.
  • Slow standing movements massage the bottoms of the feet, stimulating all the acupuncture points through acupressure, thereby treating the whole body.
  • Encourages stillness within so that the nervous system can begin to cleanse the accumulated toxins and clear the lymph glands.  Anxiety creates lactic acid within our body and relaxation allows for tissue cleansing.

Self Study – Super Slow Kicks

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Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Kicking

Brea Shaolin Kung Fu Kicking

An excellent way to increase strength and develop proper kicking form is to practice kicking very slowly – the slower you can do it, the harder it is.

One way to develop this, and the best way for newer students, is to put one hand on a wall and practice your slow kick – thus taking much of the balance difficulty out of the equation.  The kick could be a snap kick, heal kick, turn kick, or side kick for starters…. hook kick, cutting kick, or others can also be practiced for more advanced students.  Be sure to begin each kick by bringing up your knee first.  Then, depending on what kick it is, fully extend your leg as slowly as possible and move your torso accordingly.  As slowly as the kick went out, re-bend the knee and bring your torso back to an upright position.  This takes a great deal of body control and strength – both from your leg muscles and core of your body.

To add even more difficulty, take your hand off the wall and do these kicks without supporting yourself.  In addition to developing your ability to balance, this method requires even more strict attention to proper form.  Just as when you’re balancing on the wall, you must initiate each kick by raising your knee first, extend the leg fully, re-bend the knee while bringing torso back to upright position, and step back into start position.

This method of training is relatively difficult for people to do, typically for less limber practitioners who struggle with balance.   Start small by only doing a few kicks and keeping it at a speed that’s manageable.  Remember that proper form is more important than anything else.  Should you feel tightness in your hip or leg muscles, spend time stretching those muscles.  After practicing for a few weeks, add more kicks or simply keep the same number of kicks only do them more slowly.

The ultimate end result of this practice is the ability to properly execute head height kicks and hold them at full extension without losing your balance.  This requires a great deal of strength and flexibility, particularly in your legs and the benefits of this ability will certainly show in your sparring and forms.  However, the ability to execute slow kicks with perfect form will translate into fast, sharp full speed kicks, which will prove quite useful in sparring.

Training at Home

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“A day of missed training can never be recovered.”  This thought has been echoed by Kung Fu masters for generations.

There is no question that the more time you spend intently practicing your art the faster you will advance and the more skill you will acquire.  That said, when you can’t attend class for whatever reason try to spend some time training on your own.  Many have found solitary practice indispensable for overcoming weak areas, practicing new movements and conditioning their body.

There are three kinds of home practice.  The first is focused on creating a class-like workout at home, which would typically include kicking, single-step movements, forms, stances, exercises, etc.  Ideally, this workout is based on a self-examination of your kung fu skills and a focused effort on overcoming your imperfections (e.g. stances, kicks, saltongs, upper body strength, etc.) or further development of movements and techniques that you want to perfect.  If you are lucky enough to have a housemate or family member to train with you can even work on chin na, san shou and potentially sparring, although sparring must be done cautiously (just be careful not to get injured.)  This should be your primary training when not at the kung fu school.  At the very least, practice the latest forms you’ve learned or work on perfecting the eight stances and holding them until your legs begin to shake (and then a little more).

The second kind of training, some call it “cross-training”, can also be of value by way of physical conditioning.  This training seeks to develop speed, strength, and endurance.  Swimming is an excellent exercise that both strengthens and stretches your body while giving your joints a break from gravity.  Jogging, lifting weights, yoga, and playing various sports will all benefit your kung fu training as long as you are careful not to overdo it and avoid injury.  Another good idea is to combine some of the above exercises with traditional kung fu training.  For example, jog a lap around the block, do a few forms, followed by push ups and stances, and repeat.  An excellent work out.

The third kind of training involves resting your body and using your mind.  Simply put, there are times when you must rest like when you are sick, injured, or just plain exhausted to the point where you become irritable and achey.  Resting your body and brain allows it to recharge and regenerate, which is necessary for growth.   Many studies have supported the benefits of getting eight hours of sleep and how it significantly improves both physical and mental performance.  Daytime naps have also been shown to be healthy.

While your body is resting, kung fu training can continue in your mind through self-imagery.  Imagine yourself in various sparring scenarios successfully utilizing counters to your opponents attacks.  Go further and think of your opponents response to your counter and what you would do.  Or, you can think about chin na techniques you know and visualize exactly how they are to be performed.  The same can be said for san shou.  You can even think about your forms and what fighting techniques can be derived from various movements in the form.  This self-imagery training is very valuable and many professional athletes swear by it.  One of the all-time great golfers, Jack Nicklaus said, “I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie.  First, I “see” the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I “see” the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality and only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.”

At times life can get hectic and unfortunately take precedence over coming to the school for class.  However, you can and should find a way to practice on your own – if even for a short time – and you may very well find your skills move to the next level because of it.  Sample home workouts will come in future posts.  Keep training…