Category Archives: Effort

Hard Training – Not for the Faint of Heart

by

Kung Fu training is hard.  Whether it’s your first class or 5,000th class, there is no way to get around it (at least at our school).  Intense and consistent physical conditioning is a pre-requisite to develop the “kung fu body” that can successfully employ martial techniques against one or many non-cooperative, determined opponents.

Hard training comes in many forms.  First, your muscles will consistently get sore from the numerous exercises and drills that have trained kung fu fighters for centuries.  More than anything, your legs and core will be pushed and pushed to get stronger and looser at the same time – no easy feat.  Kicks, stances, forms, sparring, and exercises will test your will to overcome exhaustion and pain.  For those simply wanting to get in shape, this will take care of you.  Second, you will undoubtedly receive bumps and bruises as you learn how to employ your newly learned martial techniques against both cooperative and uncooperative opponents in san shou and sparring.  These bumps and bruises will heal and sharpen your skills.  A simple way to think about it is that you must be willing to accept bumps and bruises from friends in a controlled environment in order to successfully defend yourself from those meaning to hurt or kill you in an uncontrolled environment.  It’s a small sacrifice.

There is more to having heart and courage than to simply withstand the physical struggles of training.  Having the heart to consistently attend class, maybe two or three classes a day, even when you are not feeling up to it shows heart.  Perhaps you have a minor injury and still train while taking care not to aggravate the injury .  Some might feel they’ve reached a plateau that can’t be improved upon and lose confidence.  By accepting that training is “the way” and a part of their life, these students will will have the courage to push onward  instead of giving up.  They will reflect honestly on their relative weaknesses and continue on their path knowing that effort and time are the overwhelming factors in breaking through plateaus and improving both their character and martial skill.

This is why traditional martial arts is so particularly valuable and important for children.  Kids facing their fears, weaknesses, struggles, and pains develops strength of character, which is so difficult to acquire.  This strength of character, physical fitness, and self-defense skill will prove invaluable to them as adults as it creates massive self-confidence.

Visualizing An Imaginary Opponent

by

As mentioned before there is “no fat” in your kung fu training.  Everything has a purpose and the primary purpose is to develop your martial skills to the highest level possible given the amount of time and effort you devote to training.  Something that can really benefit your training from very early on to higher levels is visualizing an imaginary opponent or “shadowboxing”.  It can and should be something you do in every training session.

A wide variety of kicks are performed in each class – tens, hundreds, even a thousand-plus kicks can be counted out.  At times these kicks can become “lifeless” if you’re not trying hard or having an off day.  To avoid this waste of time, make the mental effort to imagine a potential threat in front of you and use that to motivate yourself to block an imaginary attack or arm out of the way and kick this imaginary opponent with as much speed, power and height as possible.  This mental imagery will not only bring “life” back into your kicks, but will also help you develop better kicking ability for forms, san shou and, most importantly, sparring.

The same mental exercise should be used for single step movements.  As you are stepping to do a forward bow punch, imagine you are blocking an imaginary attack or arm out of the way with the retreating hand and strike the imaginary opponent with as much speed and force as you can muster.  You will realize that you move smoother and can execute the technique with more power against your imaginary opponent with low stances.  Again, your san shou and sparring will greatly benefit from this visualization practice.

Lastly, visualization can really come alive when it comes to forms.  In the beginning, it may be difficult to understand what techniques the forms are teaching and how an opponent would attack.  However, you will be taught the purpose of many of the form’s movements (there are usually a number of uses for each individual movement in a form) and you need to think and ingrain how the technique would work against your imaginary sparring partner.  This is especially helpful when doing the form on count as movements are broken down into pieces (although visualization can and should also be done with forms at full speed eventually).  Practicing forms at home while visualizing an imaginary opponent is an excellent self-study practice.

Humility

by

Humility is a key attribute to attaining both a high degree of martial skill and a high degree of martial morality.  It is also a very shaolin trait.

Our school doesn’t focus on punching (such as western boxing).  It doesn’t focus on kicking (such as some tae kwon do).  It doesn’t focus on chin na/grappling (such as aikido and jiujitsu).  It doesn’t focus on shuia jiao/wrestling (such as western wrestling and judo).  It requires training and development in all of those skills and then some.  Because of this, our school’s kung fu is very comprehensive, complex and demanding of the student.  It also requires a student to remain humble as they learn and develop… excellence in all of these disciplines undoubtedly takes time.

Because of the comprehensiveness of our art, students will find certain parts of training more difficult than others.  This is mostly due to natural abilities and athleticism that were brought to the school on the first day of training.  Some will find kicks particularly difficult because they’ve never kicked anything in there life and may be relatively inflexible or unbalanced.  Some will find shuai jiao to be quite hard as they’ve never had to wrestle anyone before.  Whatever it is, EVERYONE has strengths and weaknesses.   Humility allows your ego to accept that others are better than you at certain things at various points in your training.  Kung fu is all about the process… the training.  Where you are at the moment is what matters – not where you think you should be.

In addition to individual strengths and weaknesses, everyone has good days and bad days.  Perhaps you didn’t have a good night sleep, had an exhausting day at work or school, or skipped lunch and breakfast.  Maybe you were just having a “bad day”.  Your humility will accept that you are not perfect and that your training effort (read:  consistency) is more important than your performance on any given day.  It will allow you to accept “off” days as they are and get you back in class the next day.

Humility is equally important outside of the school.  Understanding your own weaknesses and need for improvement is reason to never take anyone for granted should an altercation occur with someone.  There are always going to be others out there who have trained hard in their respective martial disciplines or maybe you’ll encounter someone with friends lurking nearby.  In such an event, you need to lose your arrogance, sink your chi, and calm yourself for what you’ll need to do.  Remember, avoiding a fight shows superior technique when the only thing on the line is your “ego” – for someone who trains hard to defend him or herself, walking away from a fight shows great humility.

Single Step Movements

by

Our forms are the dictionary, encyclopedia, and playbook of our martial arts style.  Forms were created and improved upon over hundreds of years and generations upon generations of martial artists who dedicated their lives to learning the best ways to defend themselves and their loved ones from one or more highly skilled attackers.  For this reason, the forms are not to be taken lightly.

Single step movements are a way for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students alike to work on singular movements from forms that need improvement.  Of course, certain single-step movements such as the horse stance punch, forward bow punch, open-hand movement, etc. are the foundations of our training.  These movements are found in most forms and for this reason are some of the first things new students learn at our school and are continually practiced.  Even the kicks practiced in class can be considered a single step movement as they create a foundation to properly execute the movement in sparring.

However, single step movements need not be reserved for beginning students.  Forms have a number of demanding movements that require strength, explosiveness, flexibility and general athleticism.  A great example of a movement that many students struggle with is the first movement in bashu.  It is a fast down movement evading a high attack and following up with a punch to the mid-section.

For those who struggle with this movement (or any movement), simply break it down into a single step movement and practice doing it up and down the mat before or after class.  Sometimes you will do the movement going forward… sometimes it will be done going backward.  Either way, watch yourself in the mirror.  Practice doing it slowly at first.  Is your posture correct?  Are you low enough?  Is your body too tight to make it work properly?  Are your muscles strong enough to do it very slowly?  It may take time to develop the strength, balance, and/or flexibility to get it right.  Learn what you can from this practice and continue until you are satisfied the movement is up to snuff and their is another movement that needs your attention more.

Being Corrected

by

Mastering kung fu is the mastery of the details that make up the system.  Perfection is unobtainable, but the endless pursuit of it is the mantra of most serious martial artists.  With this in place, self-improvement is a way of life.

Throughout your training you will be taught many things.  Shaolin kung fu is a vast art and tung lung (praying mantis) also has a great deal to it (although not as much as shaolin).  Because of this, some of what you’re taught will be grasped somewhat easily at first (at least you think it is), meanwhile, a good deal of it may be difficult to digest and you might find yourself struggling.  At this point, remember that if it was easy anyone could do it and clearly that is not the case.

When you have been taught something new or had something corrected, take the time to practice it after class or when you get home to commit it to memory (both brain and muscle).  Ask a higher rank, preferably the highest rank available, for guidance if needed.  It is important to do your best to learn things properly the first time.  But as it is can sometimes be difficult to get things the first time , it is important to listen and pay attention when you are being corrected.  Do your best to make the correction permanent and not go back to doing it incorrectly again in the next class.  Your instructor can only do so much – the endless pursuit of perfection falls on your shoulders.

The Kung Fu Body

by

One ancillary benefit to developing your martial abilities via kung fu is the high level of physical fitness that comes with it.  Should you never use your kung fu in an altercation, the fitness aspect of the training may in fact be its greatest benefit.  Arduous kicks, punches, stances, push ups, sit ups, forms, sparring, shuai jiao, san shou, and even chin na work your body into a heavy sweat by the end of class and provides a deep sleep at night.  Doing this four or more hours a week with a balanced diet of nutritionally dense foods (vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, seeds, etc.) and eight hours of heavy slumber at night will likely transform your body into a “kung fu body” and keep you healthy, energetic, and strong long after your friends weaken and wilt.  The kung fu body is powerful, yet supple and loose with both explosive quickness and endurance.  Much like the tiger in the picture.

When you begin kung fu training, your body is typically not prepared for what it has in store for it – even if you work out at the local globo-gym or are training for the next 10k or marathon.  Our American culture places an emphasis on upper body strength when judging physical fitness and even ones fighting ability.  Martial cultures in Asia have a different opinion.   Leg strength is considered obligatory in Asian martial arts as strong kicks, explosive movements, and a low, stable center of gravity are essential to their art’s techniques.  For this reason, stance training is paramount in our kung fu and is often the most physically demanding training for new students.

Bodies change gradually as months of hard training go by.  Leg muscles are consistently sore, but getting stronger.  Your joints and muscles occasionally tighten as you learn what they can and can not do, but loosen in time.  Endurance improves – although you may not notice as you’re constantly pressed to learn and do do more in class.  As you continue to push your body and the boundaries of what it can do, you begin to feel more powerful and in control of your body than ever.  However, this feeling can quickly dissipate should you miss training for an extended period of time.  Keep pushing and stay consistent!

As months and years go by, you begin to notice a number of things about your body assuming you have given 100% of yourself in class, consistently slept 7-8 hours a night, and maintained a diet full of nutritionally dense food.  First, your body has found an ideal level of fat and muscle as your muscles become fat burning engines that require high quality fuel to maintain high levels of performance.  These muscles also become “body armor” to be used both in and out of the school.  Take to heart the term, “Your body is your temple” and feed it high quality calories consisting of meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts – and avoid most other nutritionally poor foods.  It will help both your energy in class and your recovery after class.

Second, classes or individual movements that were once very difficult are now quite do-able.  Joints have not only loosened, but have also gotten stronger, particularly for and from chin na.  You are able to comfortably hold positions that were once impossible.  You can kick higher and with more speed, balance, and fluidity than before.  Movements have ceased to use only a few muscles and joints and are now properly utilizing your entire body

Third, and almost most importantly, your endurance has increased dramatically.  High intensity classes are no longer something to fear or scale down – they are something to focus yourself on and charge through.  Your ‘”chi” will bring your energy up to whatever is required of the class, which is usually when your best concentration and skill come out.  As long as you  consistently push yourself year-in and year-out you will find very few people can match your level of health, vitality, and fitness.

Remember, there are few sports or other physical activities that can rival the all-around level of physical fitness offered through kung fu.  The various elements of class require muscle and joint flexibility, fluidity, explosive speed, endurance, and strength.  Those elements are requisite in your sparring, which is the underlying purpose of all the other training in your kung fu classes.  Ten or twenty minutes of continuous sparring will quickly show who has been consistently training and who has not.  The ability to demonstrate your skill through techniques after long bouts of  sparring demonstrates both your internal and external strength.  As expected, the student who takes classes as often and as long as possible will maximize both their physical health and martial skill.

10,000 Hours of Practice

by

There have been a number of studies and books written about groups and individuals who have mastered various disciplines such as singing, musical instruments, chess, various sports, martial arts, sculpture, painting, even mathematics and science.  They addressed the question, “Is world-class skill or “mastery” the result of innate talent or effort?”  The bulk of the studies conclude that natural “talent” matters very little in the long run when evaluating what it takes to master any given discipline.  Another conclusion is that roughly 10,000 hours of focused, deliberate practice is what’s necessary to acquire world class ability – otherwise known as “mastery”.

This theory of 10,000 hours of focused, hard training dedicated to consistent improvement certainly applies to developing mastery in kung fu.  Proper stances, punches, kicks, blocking and countering techniques are new and fun to learn at first and progress in martial arts typically comes quickly in the beginning.  This is when you are introduced to the various fundamental elements of training.  However, plateaus occur as you progress and  begin working on mastering what can be thought of as “small” details of the basics.  After learning what might be considered more advanced techniques, often times these fundamental elements of “basic” training often seem less interesting.  Unfortunately, this is sometimes when students become less enchanted with their training and look for something new to stimulate them.

Not enough can be said regarding the importance of truly mastering the fundamentals of kung fu.  The basics are the building blocks to advanced techniques as much as simple addition and subtraction are the building blocks to algebra.  When you learn new movements, place special attention on the fundamentals that are the basis of the movement.  As an example, a good side kick is required to develop a good hook kick or spinning side kick (both of which can be thought of as more advanced.)  Without a good side kick, it is impossible to develop the other two to a high degree.

As you continue your training, be cognizant of the skills and areas you are weak in – remember, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  Improvement requires extra focus and attention on those skills that you are struggling with and/or are new to you.  Spend time before class starts or after class ends developing those weak portions of your practice.  Even better, spend time training on your own – outside of the school – working on what needs improvement.  Often it’s as simple as lowering your stances or having faster kicks with better form, but sometimes it can be as advanced as envisioning sparring scenarios and “what if’s” that might occur and shadow boxing to those scenarios.  Working on weaknesses can be difficult as our ego want quick fixes to our inadequacies.   However, this struggle for improvement is what breaks us through the inevitable plateaus.  This training is a very important part of the 10,000 hours.

For those wanting to master this art, training 3 hours/day, 6 days/week, for 10 years can roughly get you to mastery at 10,000 hours.  Training 2.5 hours/day, 5 days/week will take roughly 15 years to hit the 10,000 hours.  Training 2 hours/day, 5 days/week will get you to 10,000 hours in around 20 years.  This may sound like an awfully long period of time, but consider two things.  One, you are developing a world class skill and physical ability that can benefit you in a number of ways.  Two, you are hopefully enjoying your training.  Like most disciplines, more fun is had as your skills develop and become more advanced.

Not everyone needs to become a master, but consistent and diligent practice with an excellent instructor over a long period of time can make true mastery in kung fu a possibility for those willing to put in the time and effort.

Internal Training

by

Internal training occurs solely through the practice of the empty hand and weapons forms and moves through three stages.  In the beginning, diligent and thorough practice of the forms with the correct postures and details of the techniques is required.  The second stage progresses beyond technique, as the forms are performed with swift coordination, precise timing, fluid rhythm, flowing momentum, and maximum focus.  Combining these qualities with an understanding of the techniques allows one to practice the forms as if one were encountering an opponent.  The final stage reaches the state of chuan, no chuan (technique, no technique), yi, no yi, (mind, no mind).  The Chinese maxim reads “from no yi shoots out true yi,” meaning that from thoughtlessness comes true meaning.  The internal practice follows the tradition of Zen rather than Taoist methods of consciously or willfully guiding the chi through special routes.  All one needs is a total commitment to the form without any mistakes or artificial feelings for the true unification of mind, body, and action to occur.

The Eight Stances – #8 Rooster

by

The eighth of the eight stances is the Rooster:

  • 100% weight on back leg
  • Front leg knee is parallel to ground, at minimum.  Knee is slightly turned inward to cover groin.  Foot hangs loosely.
  • Shoulders at 45 degree angle to target.  Front arm is parallel to ground and extended in punch with slight bend at elbow.
  • Rear arm is bent at elbow and fist is near elbow pocket of front arm.
  • Body is relaxed – almost sinking.
  • Focus on point above fist to maintain balance.

Rooster - FrontRooster - SideRooster - Back

The Eight Stances – #7 Reverse Bow

by

The seventh of the eight stance is Reverse Bow:

  • Legs and feet are like that of the forward bow stance (#2)
  • Waist and head turn to look in the direction of the back leg
  • Front arm is extended up in a blocking position.  Elbow is mostly pointed down and palm is facing out.
  • Rear arm is guarding arm pit/ribs area and palm is also pointing out
  • Back is perpendicular to ground
  • Front thigh is parallel to ground in low stance

Reverse Bow - FrontReverse Bow - SideReverse Bow - Back

The Eight Stances – #6 50-50 Stance

by

The sixth stance of the eight is the 50-50:

  • Front Leg – 50% – Much like the front leg of the Forward Bow stance (#2)
  • Back Leg – 50% – Much like the back leg of the Horse Stance (#1)
  • Be sure to keep back perpendicular to the ground and head erect
  • Sit in the stance
  • The front fist is face level and palm up.  The rear fist is underneath the elbow of the front arm and palm down.
  • Eyes are in the direction of the front fist

50-50 - Front50-50 - Side50-50 - Back

The Eight Stances – #5 Praying Mantis Stance

by

The fifth stance of the eight is the Praying Mantis:

  • Weight distribution is 70% back leg and 30% front leg
  • Sit on back leg with foot at 45 degree angle.  Front leg is bent with knee turned inward to protect groin.  Front leg weight rests on ball of foot.
  • Shoulders are at 45 degree angle to target.  Arms are bent at elbow and at “fighting ready”.  Elbows are directly above knees.
  • Mantis hands can be thumb touching pointer finger, thumb touching pointer and middle fingers, or thumb touching all fingers.  Wrist is relaxed and bent.
  • Back is straight and slightly rounded.
  • Eyes look over knuckles of front hand

Tang Lang - FrontTang Lang - SideTang Lang - Back

The Eight Stances – #4 Dragon Stance

by

The fourth stance of the eight is the Dragon Stance:

  • Twist to the left or right and sink down in this low stance
  • 70% of weight on front leg – 30% on back leg
  • Back knee gets very close to touching achilles tendon of front leg
  • Front arm bent at elbow and palm is facing outward.
  • Rear arm is protecting armpit/ribs area with fingers facing up
  • Eyes are looking underneath front arm
  • Keep back straight, but slightly rounded
  • Rear foot heal is off the ground and weight is on toes

Dragon - FrontDragon - SideDragon - Back

Chinese Kung Fu Virtues

by

Use Kung Fu ethics to balance personal judgment

Use Kung Fu technique to become fully rooted

Use Kung Fu practice to assist those in need

Kung Fu must not be used for evil purposes

A hero adopts a hero’s ways

Virtuous warriors have their duties

The Shaolin Way

The Eight Stances – #3 Empty Stance

by

The third of the eight stances is the Empty Stance:

  • Virtually all bodyweight rests on the back leg – rear foot is at 45 degree angle 
  • Front foot is on its heal with toes pointing up and slightly inward
  • Front arm is bent, elbow facing down, hands open and eyesight gazed between thumb and fingers
  • Back arm is bent with hand nearby front arm’s elbow
  • Shoulders are at 45 degree angle to front

Empty Stance - FrontEmpty Stance - SideEmpty Stance - back

The Eight Stances – #2 Forward Bow Stance

by

The second stance of the eight is the Forward Bow.

  • Front leg is bent and stance is low enough whereby your knee blocks your eyes from seeing the toes.  Front thigh is parallel to ground in low stance.  Back leg is almost straight.
  • Front knee is directly above the heel – not too far forward, nor too far back
  • Front foot is facing forward, but slighting turned in.  Rear foot is at 45 degree angle from direction of punch.
  • Eyes look over the knuckles of the front fists
  • Arms are bent and relaxed – parallel to the ground and punching out with tight fists.
  • Weight is distributed 60% to the front leg and 40% to the back.
  • Head is held gently upright, as if suspended by a string from above.

Forward Bow - FrontForward Bow - SideForward Bow - Back

Consistency

by

Consistency in Kung Fu training, no matter the style, is an absolute must.  But rather than going on about all the pros and cons of the subject, let me explain it in the form of a story that was often told by Grand Master Cheng:

Once many years in the past, there was a very famous old Kung Fu master who knew his time had come.  So he called his three oldest students to his bedside to tell them the greatest secret of Kung Fu.  He bid the eldest of the three to kneel down close, and with his last ounce of chi, whispered the secret into the student’s ear.  And right after that he died.

The eldest student sat upright with a combined look of amusement at what he’d been told and deep sadness over his good teacher’s passing. The other two student’s had a combined look of sadness and great anticipation over what the greatest secret of Kung Fu was.

“Well!”  they finally blurted out, “tell us, what was Master’s secret?!”

The oldest student looked blindly at them and said, “Keep Training!”

Muscle Memory

by

One of the most important differences between beginning, intermediate, advanced, and expert martial artists is the level of muscle memory that is acquired.  When a movement is repeated over time, long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems.  Examples of muscle memory include riding a bike, typing on a keyboard, even handwriting, walking and talking.

Although the precise mechanism of muscle memory is unknown, what is theorized is that anyone learning a new activity, or practicing an old one has significant brain activity during this time. The walking child is gradually building neural pathways that will give the muscles a sense of muscle memory. In other words, even without thinking, the child is soon able to walk, and the muscles are completely accustomed to this process. The child doesn’t have to tell the body to walk; the body just knows how to do it, largely because neurons communicate with the muscles and say, “walk now.”

Muscle memory thus becomes an unconscious process. The muscles grow accustomed to certain types of movement. This is extremely important in kung fu training and is also why learning to do things right the first time is stressed.  You want your muscle memory to reflect the correct way to do things, not the incorrect way. Your muscle memory can actually play against you if you’ve constantly been practicing something the wrong way.

Teaching kung fu to students who have trained at other martial arts schools is typically more difficult than teaching someone without training.  It’s a lot harder to teach someone who’s learned a different fighting style for a few years because the first step is breaking them of the incorrect or incongruent habits they’ve acquired, which are now part of the muscle memory.  This requires diligence on part of both the teacher and student to focus effort on changing muscle memory.

Most top level athletes and performers in a variety of fields believe that muscle memory is best developed when the same activities are practiced over and over again, with any corrections of form that are needed. Thus, there needs to be a focus on the “quality of the quantity” of training.  This consistent and continual practice is what is required to develop kung fu fluency.

Beginning students are simply learning and internalizing the basic kung fu movements of stances, kicks, punches, etc.  As students improve, they are good enough to apply what they’ve learned in sparring at an intermediate level – although they may appear clumsy and uncoordinated.  At this point, these students typically still lack the muscle memory needed to adequately defend an opponent’s counter to their attack.  After much more practice and development of muscle memory, the student’s abilities become advanced and are then adeptly able to counter their opponent’s counter.  Because muscle memory doesn’t require conscious thought, it is smooth, quick, and powerful.  The final step, to reach an expert level of skill, requires such a massive amount of muscle memory and reflexive skill that very little thought is used when sparring.  The body just does what it has been programmed to do thru repetitive movements and the accumulation of muscle memory.

The Eight Stances – #1 Horse Stance

by

The first stance of the eight is the Horse Stance.

  • Imagine the position of your lower body when riding a horse and that’s how the lower body should sit in the stance.
  • Toes point forward – almost inward – and the kneecaps spread outward somewhat.
  • Eyes look over knuckles of the front fist
  • Weight is spread evenly between the left and right legs (50-50) and the muscles of both the thighs and rump should be used to hold the stance
  • Back is relaxed, mostly straight, and perpendicular to the ground

Horse Stance - FrontHorse Stance - SideIMG_1515

Habit

by

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

Aristotle

Each of us have 24 hours in our day to pursue our goals and enjoy our downtime.  Many of those hours are spent on activities basic to living such as sleeping, eating, bathing, grooming, etc.  Time and thought must be placed when deciding what activities are worthy of your daily (or almost daily) attention.  Hopefully, kung fu is one of those daily habits that has become a big part of your life.

Self-defense, physical strength, endurance, cardiovascular health, flexibility, enjoyment, camaraderie, personal development are just a few positive and enduring results you get from making a habit of your kung fu training.  It’s probably more interesting than going to the gym and doing the same weightlifting routines or grinding it out on an exercise bike.

Once training has become a habit, then one of the keys to kung fu development – consistency – will be in place.  Next, you need to once again employ habit, but this time during your actual training.  Developing the habit of pushing yourself in practice to punch harder, kick higher and faster, lower your stances, block properly, counter-attack sharper, focus your energy, etc. will propel your skill and health to new heights.  As a positive side effect to increased skill and health, you will start to enjoy not only your classes and personal training more, but everything in your life takes a turn for the better.

Positive habits in your life can mean the difference between achieving your life’s goals or not.  Spend some time to actively review what you “repeatedly do” and develop those habits that propel you to “excellence” and eliminate those that don’t.

The Eight Stances – A Brief Summary

by

Dragon Stance

The 8 Stances are a highly important part of your training – particularly the training of tung lung (praying mantis).  The purpose of stance training is to develop leg strength, rooting, relaxation, and the development of chi.  Additional benefits include attention to natural breathing thru the nose and mental focus.  Of course, their will be times when stances seem incredibly difficult.  This is to be expected and one of the reasons why Chinese martial arts took the name of ‘kung fu’, which means “hard work”.

A few things to consider when training the 8 stances.  First, your upper body must remain as vertical (perpendicular to the ground) as possible.  Leaning either forward or backward creates a few problems including unwanted tightness, incorrect body alignment, and  less than perfect balance.  Practicing the stances at home in front of a mirror can help ensure proper posture.

Second, focus your mind on relaxing your muscles.  The upper body muscles are the easiest to  relax during stance training – although for some, all relaxation is difficult when holding low stances.  There should be no tension.  Relaxing the muscles of the lower body requires much more practice and mental focus.  Shaking legs from exhaustion is a common and expected reaction when holding low stances for extended amounts of time.  This does not mean it’s time to break your stance!

You must overcome the desire to break your stance and rise up or lower your stance to alleviate the pain.  Find a stead point to fix your gaze and control your breathing.  Relax your mind and just focus on what you’re gazing at and try not to recognize the exhaustion of your leg muscles.  Eventually, the “burn” will subside and you will feel a combination of incredible body warmth and blood flow.  Martial arts masters thru the ages believe this to be “chi” or the “life force” to be flowing through your body.  This sensation develops explosive power and speed and will accelerate your progress.

Third, pay strict attention to the proper weighting of each stance.  Some require the weight to be equally distributed between the feet, while some require the weight of the stance to be on only one foot.  This also asks the practitioner to be cognizant of where the weight is to rest on the sole of the foot.  It should be evenly distributed on the entire foot when the entire foot is on the ground.  Feel your toes gripping into the ground.

Fourth, sink your weight and lower your stance as low as possible while keeping correct posture and relaxed muscles.  Low stance training is similar to kicking training.  Most kicks used in sparring are waist level and lower, but when practicing kicks we kick as high and hard as possible.  Most stances used in sparring aren’t super low, but when practicing stances and doing forms we keep as low a stance as possible.

Lastly, the 8 Stances are a part of your training that can easily be done at home or anywhere you find time to train.  Start off with 5 seconds per side for each stance.  Continue doing that daily for a few weeks and then bump it up to 10 second per side for each stance.  Continue this kind of progression until you can do each stance for a minute each side.

Kung Fu – A New Language

by

One of my favorite metaphors regarding learning and mastering kung fu is that of learning and becoming fluent in a new language.

Before elaborating on this, I want to be clear that if you can become fluent in a language – which most adults and older children are – then you can become “fluent” in kung fu.  It simply requires consistent, almost daily practice with others for years.  Kung Fu fluency is the ability to spar another practitioner in such a way that your body can naturally and successfully move and respond to various attacks/counter-attacks and your mind has the nimbleness to decide what your body should do in the split second it has to react.  This does not come easily, but it’s definitely proven worthwhile to those who have achieved that level of ability.

When learning a new language, you begin by learning the letters, common words and sentences of that language.   While learning the basics, you are definitely not able to manage a conversation with someone who is fluent.  They would speak quickly and easily and you would have no idea what they were saying.  In fact, they would likely be confused with what you were trying to say to them with what little you know.  An equivalent in kung fu would be a beginner student sparring an advanced practitioner – there would simply be no contest.

In kung fu, the beginning of training includes learning basic kicks, punches, stances, single step movements, escape movements and basic block and counter techniques.  For most, these beginning movements seem awkward and unbalanced.  This is ok and can be expected to last for weeks, months, and even years for some.  However, if you keep pressing yourself to grow and improve, these basic movements won’t feel so strange and you’ll be on your path to martial fluency.

As you progress with a new language, learning and memorizing new words and combining them into grammatically correct sentences becomes a major part of your learning.  While doing this, you continue to utilize and build on the fundamentals taught in the beginning.  You begin putting sentences together both in writing and in speaking.  Memorization and repetition is required to develop speed of thought.

As you progress with kung fu, new striking and blocking techniques, and, most especially, new kung fu forms are learned.  Learning forms is similar to the learning of sentences.  You continue to develop the basic fundamentals that were taught in the very beginning.  You begin to feel more and more comfortable with some of the beginning forms and techniques.  Additionally, sparring skills are developing and some confidence is gained when sparring those close or below your rank and/or ability level.

As years go by, you become more and more comfortable with your not-so-new language, you have acquired a good deal of mastery with hundreds of words and can easily put sentences together both on paper and verbally.  You are working on fine tuning your grammar, but mostly are engrossed with speaking to others who are fluent with the language as this is where you learn you uncover your speaking deficiencies.  You are approaching fluency.

With kung fu, you are an intermediate-to-advanced student.  The basics have been mastered (sort of) and you are consistently working on improving the smaller details of more advanced technique training.  You want your abilities and techniques to be sharper, faster, and more powerful.  Your reflexes and reactive movements are becoming clean and your sparring has become crisp. However, you still have difficulties with various movements and can get stuck from time to time while sparring.

After years of studying your language and practicing speaking to native speakers for some time, you are now fluent.  You are able to hold conversations with most anyone in that language and speaking it is as common and easy to you as walking or eating.  There are still words that you don’t know and a good deal more you can learn about the language, but you are able to speak effortlessly at will.

Among martial arts masters, there is a common theme that once they reached mastery, “form” went away.  Sure, these masters would continue to practice forms and other things they were taught, but their sparring became fluid and their movements to various attacks and counterattacks were able to be performed with controlled intention and precision.  They truly owned their art – this is fluency in kung fu.

When NOT To Train

by

A question that almost everyone encounters during their training at our school is, “When should I not train?”  There are a number of rules of thumb to be followed regarding this:

  1. Don’t train, if whatever illness you have is contagious.  Obviously, you don’t want to get your kung fu brothers and sisters sick.  If you feel well enough to workout, then spend some time training on your own outside of the school and be cognizant of your energy and don’t push yourself too hard.  Alternatively, you can always come and watch class, which is in itself an enlightening experience.
  2. Don’t train, if your body is overly tired and aching (not necessarily muscle soreness from hard workouts).  Your body requires energy to combat whatever is ailing it and hard training takes energy away from your body’s rehabilitation efforts.
  3. Don’t train, if you are finding yourself short of breath.
  4. Don’t train, if your doctor told you not to exercise.

Otherwise… train.  There is certainly no guarantee that a potential threat to you or your loved ones will happen while you are feeling 100%.  Training when you are a little under the weather helps to prepare you for the worst.  Lastly, if you’re injured or sick and still attending class, be sure to inform your instructor (before class) so that accommodations can be made, if necessary.

Self-Study: Push-ups

by

Push-ups are an ideal upper body conditioning exercise for martial arts that are frequently incorporated in class.  Besides the obvious chest, arm, and shoulder muscles push-ups develop, they are also a great exercise for the core of your body including the abdominals and obliques.  Fist push-ups also teach students how to make a proper fist to avoid hand/wrist injury when making contact with something.

Push-up Principles:

  • Must have full range of motion… chest and hips touch ground together on flat push-ups.  If inclined or declined, be sure to gently touch chest to surface.  At top of push-up, arms do not completely lock out  – there continues to be a slight bend at the elbow (exactly like a punch).
  • Speed… as fast as you can go while maintaining full range of motion and complete control of body – slowing is natural as muscles start to give.  All push-ups are done with complete safety in mind so stop before you fail.
  • Straight body (except Chinese push-ups)…. even just holding your body straight at the top of the push-up (plank) is a workout
  • Head is gently lifted up and eyes are looking forward

The Student’s Push-up Evolution

Push-ups are  upper body strengthening and conditioning exercise.  Below is a list of push-up variations and modifications.  There are numerous push-up techniques… too numerous in fact to mention here, but the major ones will be shown.  If you can do 3 sets of 20 of #1 Standing push-ups leaning against a wall or table, then you can move onto then next one  – Standard Push-ups (On Knees).  Once those can be done, then Standard Push Ups (Flat) and so on.  The goal is to be able to go down the entire list and comfortably be able to complete all.  If you can do this, you will have attained a high degree of upper body strength – no weight machines necessary.

1.  Standing push-up leaning against a wall or table

Wall Push Up

Wall Push Up

2.  Standard Push-ups (On Knees, Flat, Declined)

Knee Push Up

Knee Push Up

Regular Push Up

Regular Push Up

Decline Push Up

Decline Push Up

3.  Diamonds (On Knees, Flat, Declined)

Diamond Push Up

Diamond Push Up

4.  Fist Push-ups (On Knees, Flat, Declined)

Fist Push Up

Fist Push Up

5.  Clapping Push-ups (On Knees, Flat, Declined)

Clapping Push Up

Clapping Push Up

6.  Finger Push Ups (On Knees, Flat, Declined)

Finger Push Up

Finger Push Up

7.  Chinese Push Ups

Chinese Push Up

Chinese Push Up

8.  One Arm Push-up (Incline, Flat, Declined)

One-arm Push Up

One-arm Push Up