Martial Arts and Morality

Can you be a martial arts master without first mastering the art of being a decent human being? Any traditional martial art has a code of ethics for its practitioners to follow. Students and Masters followed a code of conduct usually based on humility, respect for others, compassion and integrity. Shaolin monks saw their Gongfu as a way to acheive enlightenment (wu-chan). A way to enhance their spiritual practice of Chan Buddhism. Most if not all traditional martial arts have their practitioners follow a moral code. Morality and martial arts seemed to be intertwined, by practicing the latter you seemed to gain a better understanding of the former. You could not be a martial arts student without being a decent human being. There was so much emphasis on this that students would first be put through a trial to test their integrity before ever being taught a punch or a kick. Masters would make students do chores for several years before judging them worthy to receive their teachings. Today the only requirement to studying an art is the ability to pay the instructor a membership fee. Students will receive lessons of morality when they receive the oral history of their art and learn the traditions from their instructors, but the emphasis is not as strong.


One of our Senior Master's with whom our school was affiliated with was accused of a heinous crime. He was accused of sexual assault and harrassment. My instructor made a decision and wanted to break free from our school's affiliation and even brought this to the attention of our Grandmaster. The Senior Master in question pled guilty to a lesser charge and lied to our Grandmaster about our instructor as retaliation for trying to break away and now our Grandmaster has severed ties with our school. Any diligent investigation would exonerate my instructor but I think it was more about politics and revenue than it was about doing what was right. Most of the students at my school including myself have vowed to continue training with our current instructor as we cannot honestly be affiliated with a Master who obviously would violate the very principles of Shao-lin Kung-Fu. I have studied at my school for almost 7 years and this whole debacle made me want to quit altogether. Shaolin at its root is based on Chan Buddhism. Buddhism preaches the eight-fold path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. This master violated every precept and violated the trust of the students he was supposed to lead as a teacher of the way. Martial training is supposed to bring enlightenment. It is supposed to help us not to combat others, but to uproot that which is not right within ourselves. Any Kung-Fu that is rooted in Shaolin cannot possibly allow its 'Masters', the very people charged with its preservation, to possibly act in a manner that is unbecoming of even the most basic of human decency.

Bottom line, you cannot be a martial arts master without first being a decent human being.

What does meditation have to do with Kung-Fu?

Whatever branch of traditional martial arts you study, chances are you are going to run into meditation. It is at the core of Kung-Fu. It is its lifeblood. One of the legends of the origins of Shaolin states that Bodhidarma (Tamo) taught the monks meditation exercises like the Yijinjing (muscle/tendon change classic) to build their endurance so that they were not falling asleep during seated meditation. The monks took their new found strength and used it to develop their martial arts. Meditation has made a resurgence as of late, with more and more people taking it up either for spiritual or health reasons.

Meditation in Kung-Fu is also used for health and enlightenment. Doctors like Hua-To found meditation and qigong enhanced longevity and so he prescribed his Five animal frolics to patients to improve their health and well being. Chan buddhists and Taoists used it as a way to achieve enlightenment. Most traditional martial arts have meditation as a key component of their practice and use meditation for similar purposes.

I have often asked myself questions about meditation. What is meditation's purpose in the martial arts? Is it possible to be a skilled fighter without being able to meditate? What does sitting still have to do with how hard I can hit. Why is such an emphasis placed on it in traditional martial arts? The further I have explored the different avenues of meditation, I have come to appreciate it more than ever. I believe it is critical to development as a martial artist.

Here are some benefits to meditating when practicing the fighting arts

1. Meditation allows a practitioner to be fully present. You cannot face an opponent and be able to see his vulnerabilities if you are thinking. Thinking of fear, thinking of what you ate for dinner. Thinking about what techniques you should use. In any given day your mind is processing millions of thoughts. meditation teaches you how to separate you from your thoughts. So that you can be able to completely focus.

2. Meditation also allows you to have better awareness over your own body. How to regulate your breathing and control your heart rate in stressful situations will give you a clear advantage over an opponent who is not trained to do so. Better and deeper breathing lets more oxygen flow to your cells when you need it the most (like when you are defending yourself ).

3. Meditation can also improve your overall technique. Strikes are more efficient when the muscles and joints involved are working complementary to each other. Unnecessary tension before delivering strikes can limit their effectiveness. if you are breathing deeply and relaxing, you will be able to deliver strikes more quickly and powerfully than if you were tense.

The P's of practice

There is a common maxim in the school were I train. A new student usually asks the same question when they first start. It is usually something along the lines of "So what is the secret to getting really good at Kung Fu ?" One of the older student usually replies, "The secret to Kung Fu is ...... practice, practice, practice". We usually say it as a running joke but the truth is that consistent practice is the only way to achieve any mastery in any martial art or any endeavor.


We all cannot be like the Shaolin monks and devote hours upon hours a day to martial training. It is hard to find time to train when you have a fulltime job and a family (or whatever life demands are placed upon you). What we can do is apply intelligence to our practice so we can maximize the time that we do spend.

Persistence - persistence is a key component of practice. You have to set aside time that you can practice regularly in order to get the full benefits. It does not have to be huge chunks of your day, the key is consistency.

Precision - Set a few minutes aside to try and come up with a precise goal for your practice session. it could be something you are trying to improve, like getting better at using a particular technique. Having a precise goal in mind and focusing on achieving that goal during practice are a great way at improving as a martial artist.

Progress - You have to continuously seek to modify your practice so that you are progressing. Maximize the intensity of your workouts so that you can gain the most benefit. It is also a good idea to record your workouts so you can note your progress, this will give you a better gauge as to how you are progressing and allow you to tailor your practice if need be.

Patience - realize that true mastery may take years, enjoy the journey and remember that skill takes time to develop. Kung-Fu is mastery through time and effort, you need time to incubate your effort and see it come to fruition.

The secret to Kung-Fu and all other martial arts is there is none. The difference between a great martial artist and the beginner is not "innate natural ability" or being gifted, it is countless hours of practice. I'll end this with another quote from The Art of Peace.

"Progress comes to those who train and train; Reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere." - Morihei Ueshiba

Its not how you fall, it is how you get up

I broke my left arm during class three weeks ago. It was a freak accident that occured during glove sparring while sparring with a fellow student. I spent a week off in a mini pity party of sorts but decided that the rest of my body is not broken so I can still work out. I spent a lot of the time spending extra time focusing on meditation and qigong. I was struck by how much I use my left arm during techniques. I went to class the next week and tried sparring with one arm using my right side forward. Normally it would be considered madness to keep sparring with my broken arm but the other students usually are pretty well controlled so I didn't mind trying it out. It was a good excercise in thinking on your feet and modifying your techniques. I learned some interesting things:

1. Blocking with one hand is not a very good option
If you have only one arm that you can use, you can block some strikes but if your opponent locks up your one good hand with theirs, you can easily get hit in the face with their free hand. I learned this lesson pretty early. It is better to use evasion and yielding. I love this quote from Morihei Ueshiba , the founder of Aikido

"Seeing me before him,
The Enemy attacks,
But by that time,
I am already standing,
Safely behind him"

2. Use deception and odd angles of attack to compensate for any weaknesses

I moved around unpredictably and tried using deception with feints and fakes. Fake strikes with your arms and kick or do the reverse and fake a kick and strike with a punch. I would crouch low using monkey stances to give myself a smaller silhoutte. this way I had less openings and I could disguise my length so my sparring partners would try and get in closer and I could use kicks and sweeps when they were in range.

3. Pay attention but don't be too tentative.

It was hard for me to not stop thinking about my injury and trying to keep my hand the furthest distance away from my sparring partners at first. This made me a bit too tentative as I wasn't seizing openings that became available because I was afraid of hurting myself. I had to force myself to overcome this and it was extremely difficult but I got better at it after my arm started feeling better.

4. Analyze everything and spend more time thinking.

This can be done anytime. You don't have to do it when you get injured. Look at other students when they spar, analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Look at techniques that they do well that you could incorporate into your own repertoire. Look at other matches to see what openings are being missed by other students. Mentally rehearse new combinations that you could try or try to figure out techniques that you could adapt to suit your own needs. The mind I think is an often neglected part of martial arts. Studying theory and concepts is just as important as your practice time. It is the reason why athletes spend so much time studying game film.

5. Defense wins championships for pro teams but is a matter of life or death to a martial artist.

Striking in martial arts is given way more focus than blocking or yielding. It is because we remember the hits but don't really appreciate how much skill is required for a great defense. If I had got my arm broken while being attacked in the street, I would be quickly dispatched if I did not try to block or evade after the initial injury. It is also alot harder to defend attacks with only one good arm. I realized that i have to spend alot more time working on defense and I should try to devise some drills to improve.

Although getting injured sucks, on one hand I am grateful because it forces me to look at things differently.

Breaking through the Plateau

There comes a point in any type of training from the martial arts to body building where you seem to stagnate. You don't make any significant gains and it seems that your skill level never improves. One of the main causes of this is that your training routine hasn't changed. The body has no time to adapt and grow if there are no new challenges. The Plateau seems like a never ending plane where most people get tired of putting in effort where they never see any results. As a result boredom sets in and they abandon their training altogether. I am currently seeing this in my own training and I am taking some steps to try and make some changes:

1. Self Assessment

In order to figure out where you need to go, you need to first figure out where you are. You need to identify your areas of weakness. Here is a sample of mine:

• Cardiovascular conditioning - My cardiovascular fitness needs major improvement. I would like to have greater endurance. I need to include more cardiovascular training into my current regimen.
• Strength - I would like to add 10 pounds of muscle and drop to 10% body fat. My last measurement as of last week was 195 lbs with 20% body fat which was eye opening. Adding 10 lbs of muscle would improve my striking power and overall strength. A sub component of this is going to be improving my Core strength which I think is essential in Shaolin Kung Fu and most martial arts. A good core helps you maintain balance which is essential when trying to rapidly change direction.
• Flexibility - More advanced Kung Fu forms require greater levels of flexibility. Drunken System requires catterpillar rolls, cartwheels into splits and a host of other techniques that if done correctly would require me to be more flexible.
• Timing - I need to improve the ability to deliver strikes and counter attacks as soon as openings present themselves. I also need to be able to deliver techniques from muscle memory without thinking. This way I don't miss opportunities when sparring.
• Knowledge - I would like to increase my overall knowledge of my art and other arts in general. This includes doing more reading on history and philosopy of martial arts.
• Nutrition - I need to eat a lot healthier. One of my goals is to have a Vegetarian diet. Although I realize that most people would say that it is incompatible when trying to build muscle. There are a host of olympic level athletes who are vegetarians like Carl Lewis.

The regimen I devise is going to incorporate each of these areas into my new routine. I will be doing a lot of research in trying to come up with the best plan to achieve my goals. I am also going to have to keep track of my progress on a weekly basis. I plan to start my new regime next week.

Red Belt - Movie Review

I picked up Red Belt after an unplanned trip to my local neighborhood Blockbuster where I spent an extra 30 minutes playing the new Star Wars- The Force Unleashed Video Game. The game was good, not good enough to purchase and make a permanent part of the collection but definitely good enough to rent from Blockbuster and spend a week trying to beat it.

I had heard mixed reviews about Red Belt. I had a friend who watched it and said he didn't like it very much and didn't see the point. I went in with low expectations and finished the movie impressed but not wowed. Now if you are looking for your classic martial arts beat 'em up where your fearless hero goes in from the jump just whoopin' major ass and major choreographed fight scenes then you will sorely be dissapointed. This movie is not so much about the fighting as it is about fighting philosophy. Although I must admit that there were some very large plot holes that really made me scratch my head.

Mike Terry is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor who runs a small dojo. He is an idealist, someone who follows a warrior code or budo. He practices Jiu-Jitsu but does not believing in fighting for competition because as he says, "A competition is not a fight." He believes that a competition has rules and structure that must be followed by the participants. In real life, there are no such rules. A fight to the death does not have limits. Bruce Lee made similar statements in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. So he believes that training for a competition will make him lose his edge. He shuns entering into contests and tries to eek out a living as an instructor.

His wife played by Alicia Braga, doesn't share his idealism and thinks he is too caught up in his ideals to make a living. Although it isn't said, I think she is the daughter of Mike's teacher and grandmaster. She doesn't see why he can't temper his ideals with practicality.

An accident right outside of his school sets a chain of events off that causes him to go back on his original beliefs. A woman crashes into his car outside of his school. She shoots out the school's window by accidentally discharging a gun belonging to one of the student's who happens to be a Police Officer. He goes to his brother in law's bar where he breaks up a bar fight between a movie star and one of the bar patrons. He receives an invitation to dinner and a gift from the movie star and believes that his fortunes are starting to pick up. He is offered a production role on the movie star's new movie. His wife is offered a business partnership with the movie star's wife. Then it all comes crashing down when what appeared to be good fortune is actually misfortune in disguise. Then all at once Mike's life begins to unravel and he is forced to enter an MMA competition that is sponsored by his brother in law to pay off his debts to a loan shark.

The movie highlights some Jiu-Jitsu philosophy and does a pretty good job of it. Chiwetel Ejiofor is probably my favorite actor now. After seeing him in Children of Men, Serenity, Talk to Me and a few other movies, I think he is one of the most underrated actors out there. He is believable as a Martial Arts instructor even with supposedly no martial arts background.

The action scenes are filmed with the same herky-jerky camera angles that most movies employ nowadays to hide fight choreography. The Bourne Identity series employed this technique also and it is really annoying because itis hard to tell what is going on. I guess it is harder to film jiu-jitsu because as a grappling art it does not lend itself very well to fight choreography but I think they did a good job with this movie.

Lyrical Swordsman - The GZA

One of my favorite MCs of all time is the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. I was a teenager when I first heard the Wu-Tang Clan's first album - Enter the 36 Chambers and I loved it. It was everything I ever wanted in an album: Raw, gritty and innovative. Plus they fused hip-hop with kung-fu cinema that I grew up watching as a kid growing up so I was able to combine my two favorite things in one album. Of all the MCs in the Wu-Tang clan, my favorites were the GZA and Ghostface Killah.

The GZA recently put out an album called 'Pro-Tools' which I recently purchased from Amazon's MP3 download site. I had high expectations being that his earlier album , 'Liquid Swords' is one of my all time favorites. The album didn't disappoint me and I think it is one of the best hip-hop albums out right now.

It struck me how the principle of Gong-Fu applies to the art of MCing. Mastery through time and effort. The GZA is one of the most consistent MCs out there. You can tell by listening to his flow and delivery that he obviously hones his craft. I appreciate true skill regardless of the field and the beauty about skill is how effortless it looks when it is applied. Everyone remembers the GZA going off on Soulja Boy at a concert of his recently.




50 cent decided to come to Soulja Boy's defense and made some comments about the GZA. I recently was browsing through the album and stumbled upon a track called 'Paper plates' on his album, which lo and behold seems to go at 50 cent. Normally I think most rap-beefs are just a ploy for publicity *cough* 50 vs. Kanye *cough* but I do enjoy a lyrical dismantling and this is definitely one.



There is a proverb that goes "The match is over the moment the swordsmen touch swords".

How come I don't see the Front Snap kick in MMA that often?

I enjoy watching the UFC fights when they come on cable TV. Most martial artists who study traditional martial arts have poo-pooed MMA since its inception but I enjoy watching it. Most of the fighters are highly conditioned athletes. The UFC has come a long way since its inception. It used to be no rules, no weight classes and no gloves. If you watch mixed martial arts nowadays, it is more akin to boxing in terms of regulations and rules for the fighters.

I have watched many UFC fights and it seems that although mixed martial arts is supposed to be a hybrid of striking (mainly boxing and kick-boxing) and grappling (mainly jiu-jitsu and wrestling), you don't always see all the techniques from kick-boxing and grappling appear in the matches. There are a certain subset of techniques that I see most fighters use in a majority of most fights. The roundhouse kicks, jabs, hooks, elbows, uppercuts and knees seem to encompass about 95 percent of the strikes. Rarely do you see a hammer fist or a back fist thrown although I have seem some fighters use them. Most of the leg techniques I see thrown are round house kicks to the legs or head. I rarely see fighters throw Front Snap kicks which seems like it would work pretty well and could be delivered faster than a round house kick especially to the mid-section.

Next time I see a fighter throwing front snap kicks to the body, he is instantly becoming my favorite fighter.

Trying to use skill in push hands and getting your ass kicked

Once a year in August and we have an entire month dedicated to Tai-Chi push hands in Black belt class. Where you get to try and gain internal skill by facing off against other students. It is essentially trying to put the tai-chi form and other internal arts into practice. We also do this once a week during tai-chi class but

It would seem that when you are moving really slowly and have your eyes closed it shouldn't be that hard to do but whenever I try to do it correctly, I seem to get mauled by other students.

First there is the problem of trying to keep the tai-chi principles when doing push hands: Keeping the posture straight and relaxed, no double weighting, using softness and yielding instead of brute strength. The other problem is trying to use fajing or internal power. Which seems to be the most challenging. The idea is to not use brute strength and push your opponent but to use your internal energy to strike. It is like trying to hit someone while not using your muscles, it seems impossible.

So the variety of students run the gamut, there are tall, short, male and female. It helps because you are not just doing push hands with similar opponents so you have to adjust to each individual. Being fairly tall, I have a hard time with students who are a lot shorter than me. I have to bend my legs more while keeping good posture and I don't really have much of a reach advantage since for push hands you are so close that it is negligible.

I start off fairly well with students who are more skilled at it than I am. We are going at a good pace, not using brute strength , keeping our elbows in and generally having good rounds. Sometimes I get killed because I forget to yield after the first technique is thrown and then comes elbows and other strikes and I end up on the floor.

Generally I enjoy push hands with the female students because they seem to genuinely grasp the principle of softness that is essential to push hands. They don't try to muscle through a technique if they see an opening and just use brute force. The problem for me is when I engage in push hands with someone who is new to push hands or hasn't had much practice. I am trying to use softness but I am not good enough to deflect their attacks because they are using strength while I am trying to yield. Then they end up trying to go really fast, which in turn makes me go faster as I am reacting to the pace they are setting.

I always tell myself to not worry about 'losing' matches as long as I am keeping in line with the principles of push hands. The skill will improve to the point where it will not matter. In the mean time I have to tell myself to let go while I get manhandled a bit. It is a good excercise in controlling the ego because it is extremely frustrating.

Encountering Fear .....

About a week ago, I hear a woman's voice yelling from right outside my apartment. Her voice had hints of fear and frustration. She was yelling at someone saying, "No, leave me alone! You said you would never touch me again. Now your pushing me. Leave me alone." Obviously it sounded like a domestic dispute and I thought about just calling 911 and leaving it at that. I was concerned that it would escalate and I couldn't stomach the thought of the woman getting hurt while I did nothing. I walked out my apartment and headed towards her voice. I see them, a young couple in their early 20s, they are right by the street. The man is close to her leaning towards her aggressively. She is trying to get around him but he is holding her arms.



I ask, "Is everything alright?" but obviously I know it is not. She says everything is fine. He yells "Everything is fine bro!" I tell him, "I am not talking to you,I am asking her. Are you okay". He walks quickly towards me, she holds him back, telling him to stop. I experience a flash of anger and blurt out, "I wish you would, I would crack your #$%^&ing skull!" It has never sat well with me and never will. He tells his girlfriend that he wasn't trying to do anything and walks towards me. He is standing about a foot away from me. I size him up and realize that he has been drinking and I have about 20 - 30 lbs and at least 6 inches. He is within my reach and I could have struck him in the solar plexus, groin or face faster than he would have been able to reach me. He is looking at me and sizing me up as well.

I realized that I was genuinely afraid! My stomach was in knots and my right leg was shaking a little bit. The man didn't really wanted to fight and apologized for the disturbance. I told him that I didn't care that they were making noise but I was concerned for her safety. He was conciliatory and apologized again. Even offered a handshake which I took ( I was still waiting to see if he was going to try anything). I looked at her again and made sure she was okay before leaving. I waited around the corner to make sure that he didn't escalate and then left after a couple of minutes.

I know he didn't really want to fight. He was trying to save face in front of his girlfriend. When he offered an apology, he was able to save face when I accepted. I guess I didn't really want to fight either but I was surprised by my fear. I was very afraid and I was pretty shocked by it. I think I was more afraid of the unknown: I didn't know how everything was going to play out, I didn't know how I or he was going to react. Was he going to have a weapon? Was I truly ready and would I react fast enough? What would I do if he pulled out a knife or worse? What if my training failed me and I couldn't think and defend myself. I realized a few things from the encounter:

1. I should have called the police if I thought she was in real danger. It was pretty dumb to just try and wing it like that.
2. My anger flashed because I can't stand bullies. Ever since I was a kid, I remember getting picked on and feeling helpless to defend myself. Which is one of the reasons I started studying martial arts in the first place. I have never looked too kindly on someone who would fight or abuse someone weaker. I still should have controlled myself a little better and I probably would have been able to diffuse the situation a little easier.
3. I was able to keep relatively composed in spite of being afraid . Although being that afraid was somewhat disconcerting. I need to focus on this in training with visualization.

Being a Dad at Kung Fu

On the rare occasions I take my kids to class, they are usually watching while I train. We usually have a minimum age of 12 years to start classes although exceptions are made for children whose parents join the class also.

My son is 6 years old and has never really expressed an interest in martial arts before. Basketball has been his favorite sport since he could talk. We signed him up in a Preschool/Kindergarten league at the YMCA and since then he was all about basketball. I love hoops too but didn't start playing until I was a freshman in high school. Growing up in Zambia, the sport that every kid played was football(soccer) so I played it too until I started playing basketball.

My son asked if he could start studying Kung Fu and I initially told him to wait until he was 10 so he could have the coordination to do it. Plus we use traditional weapons such as the straight sword, Kwan Dao, Staff and other weapons which would be a little unwieldy for a 6 year old.

We had an offer to sign up family members for a month free and I took the opportunity to sign my son and niece up. My niece is 4 going on 5 and my son talked her into going with him since he didn't want to be the only young child in the class. I wanted to make sure he would have the discipline and attention span to sit through a whole class. I stayed next to him the whole time to keep an eye on him. He loved it, his eyes lit up when going through the techniques and he yelled, punched and kicked with such wide eyed zeal and enthusiasm. I don't think I was ever more proud in my entire life. It was great to see him enjoy it as much as I do. Although I was a little too insistent on giving him pointers on his stancework and form when throwing punches. (His bow and horse stance do need a lot of work but hey, he is only six). But I imagine this was how some of the Masters who passed down their teachings to their children must have felt when their children started training their art. Did Yang Luchan smile inwardly when he was teaching his sons Yang Pan-Hou and Yang Chien-hou tai chi as kids? There is no way he couldn't have. Fatherhood and Kung Fu are both awesome, especially when practiced together.

Life, Consistency and Writer's block

I haven't updated this blog in a long time because I had a frustrating case of writer's block. I didn't have anything to update and upheaval in my personal life made me lose focus on my training. I still attend class regularly but I haven't had the spark to put in the extra practice time I reserve for myself in the mornings.

The Kwoon has always been a place where I can go and recharge my batteries. After some pushups, situps, squats, forms, punches and kicks, I usually feel rejuvenated and ready to take on whatever faces me. Kung Fu has been my refuge since I started studying. Although lately I have started to let things slip. I don't seem to wake up early enough to train and I feel like I am in a general funk. I know that there are times when you have periods in your life that are lows that pick up later. I am hoping that this is one of those things.

Like Hannibal from the A-Team .... I love it when a plan comes together.

There are times when Kung-Fu is frustrating. When you are on what I like to call "The plateau of despair". It is when for some reason you are plodding along in your training and can't really see any improvement. Normally experts say this is when you should switch your workout and try something new like different excercises. I have felt that way about my sparring and my ability to perform techniques instantaneously. As an Engineer and an avowed geek, I analyze my sparring matches. Pouring over them with detail. I keep a log of all the techniques I try.

I have a top 10 list of techniques I know I can throw automatically without thinking. My instructor recommended getting a sparring diary and doing this and I have tried to maintain it to the best of my ability. What frustrates me about my log is I can never seem to log that many successful attempts and I always end up trying to refine a move and the student I am training with is kicking my ass. I always try and usually fail to get all the moves I am working on...usually no more than 3 moves from a form per class work. I don't know how or why but for some reason during the last class, I was in the zone. Everything I threw seemed to land. I had laser like focus, I saw the openings that the people I was sparring with gave me. I pulled off every sweep I have been working on in the same round. Iron broom, Drop kicks and scissor take downs. I pulled off combinations and followed through. I completely landed a cart-wheel kick without telegraphing it. I usually telegraph my sweeps but for some reason, I didn't that day.



The junior students I was sparring with were asking me what I threw and how I landed it. I was able to explain my reactions even though I wasn't consciously thinking about it. It felt good to make progress and see the one glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. I guess because I always have people in my school whose skills I admire. My instructor especially, he makes complex moves look easy. When he performs forms it is graceful and powerful. Sometimes it is good to see that I indeed have made progress and the hours that I put in the Kwoon have indeed been paying off.

The Scholar Warrior....the ultimate badass

In the west, we prefer our fighters to be short on words and long on ass kicking. We appreciate a guy who will dismiss the chit chat and civility and get right to the face smashing. Look at most action movies, the protagonist says one line before he starts unleashing holy hell on a lot of bad guys. Stallone, Seagal, Schwarzenegger, Eastwood and many others have all played that role.

In traditional eastern martial arts the exact opposite is true. A fighter who only fight is considered a brute. Most martial arts masters were men and women of meny talents. They wrote books, practiced medicine, wrote poetry, created art and studied philosophy. Shaolin monks and nuns didn't just learn how to fight. They studied zen buddhism, art, science and medicine. A Shaolin monastery was like an institute of higher learning and martial arts was but one part of it. Throughout history there have been many masters who were as talented in other areas as they were in martial arts. Wong fei hong, Sun LuTang, Chen Man Ching, Bruce Lee, and many other martial artists had great intellects that matched their fighting abilities. It is something I have always admired. I'll examine some of these masters in future detail and make it a series.

Nothing like pain to make you humble....

Today I spent the day in the park trying to learn a form from the drunken system. Lan Tsai He - one of the Eight Drunken Immortals and it kicked my ass. I am sore everywhere, my back , legs and muscles that I never thought useful. The drunken system is taught in our system right before disciples become masters and I am pretty far off. It was good to see how hard it was, catterpillar rolls, sinking one legged squats and many other physically challenging moves, some of which I couldn't do. It was good because I realized I have a very long way to go before I get there. It gave me a goal to strive for: When I test over it, I will perform all the moves in it. I also realized how much harder I have to train in order to get there.

Someone needs to turn this book into a movie....

Chronicles of the Tao

With some of the Chinese classics that already become turned into TV series' or movies; Journey to the West and The Three Kingdoms. I am surprised that no one has turned this book into a movie. It has got everything you would want in an epic martial arts film. Philosophy, martial arts, war, drama and intrigue. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was based off the Iron pentalogy. This story in my opinion is just as good.

It is the tale of Kwan Sai Hung who is born at the beginning of the 20th century in china. He is born into a wealthy aristocratic family. At the age of 11 he joins a Taoist hermitage on Huashan mountain. He learns many different aspects of taoism in the monastery: Meditation, Astral Projection, Philosophy and Martial arts. While Kwan Saihung is growing up in the Monastery, China experiences a lot of upheaval. He decides to leave the monastery to fight with the nationalists in a war against Japan. He later returns to the monastery when he realizes that war only causes more death and destruction.

There are many interesting subplots throughout the book that are in classic Kung Fu movies. There is the 'Our secret kung fu manuals that would give someone unbeatable techniques were stolen and we need to get them back' subplot. There is the 'renegade student who used to be the prize pupil leaves the monastery and causes all types of havoc' subplot. There is the 'student who is disillusioned with his studies and decides to go see the world but realizes the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side' subplot. The ' encountering supernatural phenomena while entering uncharted areas during meditation' subplot. Add in a mix of philosophy, encounters with the martial underworld (jiang hu) and some epic martial arts battles and you have a great novel.

He is forced to leave the monastery when the communists take over the country and crack down on religious organizations. He comes to america where he tries to adapt to american culture. He goes to New York, gets a job in a kitchen, learns western boxing and eventually ends up in San Francisco. He eventually ends up teaching some students of his own which is where the book ends.

There are martial arts battles sprinkled throughout the book that are awesome. Some of the epic battles are between the Grand Master of Hua Shan and a Dwarf, between Kwan Sai Hung and 'the Tigress'. There is a lot of insight into life in a taoist monastery, the history and philosophies of taoism and martial arts.

I say if it does end up as a movie, Zhang Zhiyi plays the tigress. Gordon Liu or Chao Yun Fat play the Grand Master and you get Tony Leung to play Kwan Sai Hung and Donny Chen to play butterfly. I will accept casting credit and maybe an extra or consulting role if any producers are thinking about making this. That or a date with Zhang Zhiyi, whichever works.

Politics in the Training Hall ......

When I picture the ideal martial arts school in my mind, I see a montage of images. The opening scene starts with students sitting in meditation postures looking serene. Then it cuts to them all training in unison, doing forms and kicks in unison. No talking, just training with the instructor giving an intense stare. My montage comes from all the martial arts movies I watched over the years.

A real martial arts school is a little different. Martial arts school are simply groups of people who study martial arts. As with all things that involve people, you are eventually going to come across the negative aspects of human behavior in groups. Human beings are communal creatures and so individuals will always be influenced by their group. This can be both positive and negative depending on the group that an individual belongs to. Clicks within the school, backbiting, dissension between students can quickly poison the atmosphere in a school. All it takes is a click of a few students to give off this negative energy and they begin to attract like minded negative people until slowly but surely the attitudes of a majority of students are negative.

It can be something as simple as not liking they way your instructor teaches certain things. Or not liking a fellow student. Whatever it is, if left unchecked it can undermine an instructor's ability to teach effectively. Usually the students who cause this kind of problem never stay in their prospective art very long. Eventually, their own ego gets the better of them and they leave but not before trying to take a few students with them.

The point that we have to remember as students is that we chose to study martial arts. No one is forcing us to study and practice. It is always about choice. You can choose to study a different art, or not study at all. At some time you have to divorce the martial art from the students who study it. Students will come and go, but the art is a living catalogue of techniques created by individuals over many generations. The art will continue in some form long after we all are dead and buried. We as students are part of this legacy, we continuously contribute by practicing and in some cases teaching it to new students so that it continues to thrive.

Focusing on the art and why you study it will always help you when you feel like your negative feelings overwhelm your positive ones when belonging to a particular school. I am not saying to ignore those feelings altogether. Examine them and really see if the way you feel is due to internal school politics or because the reasons you began studying the art no longer apply. If the atmosphere in a school is so intolerable to the point you feel it makes you want to quit then maybe finding a different school may be your best option. Usually though all the discord can be traced back to a few individuals and by helping them adjust their attitude will definitely improve the overall attitude in the school.

Losing Focus .. And trying to find it again

I haven' t updated this blog in a while and I have hit a patch where I am in a funk. Due to craziness going on in my personal life. My training time has taken a hit. I am not as focused as I used to be. I haven't worked out consistently in about a few months. Chaos and disorder has consumed me right about now and I am having a hard time making sense of everything.

I have a list of things I would like to accomplish before I croak, ala the 'Bucket List'. I try to read the list daily, I haven't opened in a few weeks and I realize that is the time I kind of fell off my training regimen. Goal # 7 on my list - "Be a Kung Fu Master and a Martial Arts Scholar" seems like a far off dream right now. I look at the progress I have made in 6 years of study and look at the progress I would have to make in order to get to my goal and it seems almost impossible. I always have to remind myself that the journey is the key. I have to take baby steps to get there. Training hasn't got to the point where it seems more like a chore than anything else and I enjoy it, even when my muscles are screaming in agony and I feel like a masochist because I am still having fun. Yet lately my motivation is lacking, I haven't stuck to my regular training schedule and I feel like I am losing my timing and conditioning. I am so caught up in the other stuff going on with me that my training is going on the back burner. Every time I think of training, I come up with excuses why I can't.

Well, it is time to get re-dedicated to my goals. Focus on the big picture and try to acheive the small victories, sticking to a training schedule, trying to get past plateaus and times when I feel like I want to quit.

The say those who can't do......

Teaching sometimes gets a bad rep as being filled with people who were never quite good enough at their chosen field who forgo trying to work in their field and instead try to teach it to others. In Kung Fu and other martial arts it is different, usually teachers are people who have attained an extremely high level of skill and are imparting their knowledge to their students.


The teacher or Sifu in Kung-Fu is a position of high regard. Only the best disciples who have shown patience, commitment and humility are allowed to instruct other students. In most cases the Sifu or teacher is himself a student, albeit a senior student. Most traditional martial arts take a lifetime to master so it is not uncommon for most teachers to be students themselves. In most disciplines the classroom is a place of theory and most students assume their teachers knowledge is highly theoretical but not always practical. In martial arts the teachers knowledge is theoretical as well as practical. The teacher has theoretical knowledge and practical application. She has refined her application by persistent practice and has gained an understanding of the technique. He has gained the ability to digest the technique, make it a part of him and is able to pass it on in a way that other students can understand.

Lam Sai Wang - Hung Gar Master

This is not to say that all it takes is skill in the martial arts to become a teacher or that all teachers who teach the martial arts are the best martial artists. Teaching requires an exceptional amount of patience. It also requires the ability to relate to others. Not all people have the patience or the personality to teach. Not all martial arts teachers are ethical and some open martial arts schools just to turn a profit and offer very little genuine instruction. Though I would say they are generally the exception and not the rule. For example if your teacher is anything like the one in the video below, who rules by intimidation and fear, then exit and run for the hills immediately!



Teaching benefits the teacher as much as it does the student. You can only say you truly understand something if you can explain it to someone. I have tried as an assistant to show a brand new student a new form and it always amazes me how difficult it is to perform the action and teach someone at the same time. Eventually I got better at it and I was amazed at how much better I understood my material after teaching it. I had a deeper appreciation for my instructor and how easy he makes it look! If a student asks me to show them a technique or explain something to them, they thank me and I always smile inwardly knowing it is I who should thank them for allowing me to teach and improve.

Flowery Arms and Embroidered Legs

The phrase "Flowery Arms and Embroidered Legs" in Chinese Martial Arts refers to someone whose techniques have no real power behind them. The moves look really good, like a flower or embroidery but lack any true substance or power. It is being pretty without having the ability to do any real damage.

There is always the tendency to want to be visually stimulating when doing forms or applying technique. After all it is not called "Martial Arts" for nothing. But there is a danger in getting caught up trying to look "pretty" without keeping in mind the true intent of all martial-arts: Self-Defense

"Some martial arts are very popular, real crowd pleasers, because they look good, have smooth techniques. But beware. They are like a wine that has been watered. A diluted wine is not a real wine, not a good wind, hardly the genuine technique.

Some martial arts don't look so good, but you know they have a kick, a tang, a genuine taste. They are like olives. The taste may be strong and bitter-sweet. The flavor lasts. You cultivate a taste for them. No one ever developed a taste for diluted wine. "

Bruce Lee - Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Conditioning the body with stances and exercises is one of the best ways to make sure that you don't succumb to having flowery arms and embroidered legs. Stance training, Qigong and Conditioning aren't that glamorous, no-one wants to spend hours holding a horse stance or cat stance. Nobody wants to spend hours perfecting a straight punch or a simple groin kick. We definitely don't want to spend hours doing conditioning exercises to hone the body so that we will be able to instantaneously deliver techniques with power and speed. There is a tendency to want to 'get to the good stuff'. The flashy moves that will dazzle, the crowd pleasers. Without developing the body, all techniques will simply be flowery arms and embroidered legs.

Mystical forgeries in the Martial Arts

"Just as yellow leaves may be gold coins to stop the crying children, thus, the so-called secret moves and contorted postures appease the unknowledgeable martial artists."

Bruce Lee - Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Martial Arts is filled with legends of people who were able to achieve superhuman feats: Being able to move objects with their minds and cause injury and death to opponents without touching them. Being able to leap and levitate in the air. There are plenty of demonstrations of hard Qigong where practitioners will have scalding water poured on them without being burned. Laying on beds of nails and having concrete slabs smashed over their bodies. Taking sword cuts to the body without any visible marks remaining.

While there may be people with such mastery it is extremely rare. You are more likely to encounter the charlatans and fakes who display magician like parlor tricks. There are plenty of snake-oil salespeople in the martial arts with promises of god-like powers. Techniques so rare and so deadly that they would give the person who knew them an aura of invincibility. The ability to knock people out without touching them. They even have students who are so brainwashed and believe in the forgery that they go along with it. Falling to the ground when their master waves his hand over them to simulate a knockout. Here is a video of one such "master" who boasted a 200-0 fight record and specialized in no touch knockouts. There was a challenge with a prize of whoever could beat him.



As expected, he got his ass kicked! Imagine his students with years of practice confident in their teachers and their own abilities watch their teacher get the stuff knocked out of him. They spent all those years learning how to move chi balls when they should have learned how to block. You can see after the first punch connects, he wipes at his nose and cannot believe that he is really bleeding. He really believed his own bullshit.

What do I believe? I believe that the human body and mind has almost unlimited potential when subjected to lengthy rigorous training. Kung-Fu has metaphysical concepts such as Qi (Chi) which is essentially the unseen life force that is part of every living thing. I guess the easiest way for me to conceptualize Qi has been as an invisible bio-energy field. It would take many posts before I could accurately describe Qi and there are numerous definitions of what it is exactly. Internal (Nei Chia) arts focus on developing a practitioners internal Qi and allowing him to harness and manipulate it. This is also the basis of pressure point striking and acupuncture - striking or manipulating vital points or meridians for combat or healing. Skillful manipulation of Qi takes years, decades of study. You can't master the meta-physical without first mastering the physical: Punches, kicks, joint-locks, blocks, parries, evasion, offense, defense, rooting, strength, flexibility, speed, coordination, power and timing. Strengthening and mastering the body must come before you are able to manipulate and channel the energy within it. Simply put, learn to block.

Fanboyism in the Martial Arts

Fanboy –noun

a person willing to defend and promote the object of his affection regardless of fact and objectivity. This encompasses everything from technological items like PC's and game consoles to gearheads and fishing fanatics.

definition courtesy of urbandictionary.com

I used to be an avid gamer growing up. I've been into video games since the Nintendo NES came out. I grew up playing video games and owned many different platforms. Although I don't play as much as I used to (kids and a job will do that to you), I still enjoy playing now and again. I haven't gotten hold of a Wii yet (you have much better chance finding plutonium in the mall than finding a Wii) but I enjoy playing when I get a chance. I've owned numerous platforms and I love how far the graphics and gameplay have progressed. Each system had its loyal fans who swore allegiance to their brand. They would criticize any other system which was not theirs. Heated debates come pretty close to fist fights over who made the best consoles (or as close to fistfights as geeks would ever come): Nintendo or Sony. Sega was in the mix briefly and I came as close as I'll ever be to being a Dreamcast fanboy (It sucks that t hey had to kill it). Now you have Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo with Microsoft and Nintendo in the front right now. The console wars still rage on in gaming website forums, each side with their loyal enthusiasts.

You see the same phenomenon in the Martial Arts. Practitioners will swear that their style alone is the best and that all other systems are inferior. Kung Fu vs. Karate. MMA vs. Traditional. Internal (Nei Chia) vs. External (Wai Chia). Tae Kwon Do vs. Hwarang Do. Muay Thai vs. Silat. Traditional Kung Fu vs. Modern Wushu. Western boxing vs. Eastern martial arts. Each practitioner believes his art is the absolute best system devised.

All martial arts have a primary purpose: self-defense. Humans are equipped with 4 limbs a head and a torso so there is a finite number of movements to all martial arts. Many arts incorporate the same movements that were refined over centuries. Many borrow from each other and add new pieces. Each martial art has a specific emphasis that was designed to serve a purpose. They incorporate the cultural and spiritual philosophies of the people that devise them and also incorporate a host of other factors such as the physical characteristics of the founders, geographical characteristics of the land they were created in and any other historical factors that may have spawned a need to create them.

Each art is simply one unique branch on the same tree. No better or worse than all the others, just different. There are no good or bad martial arts, just good or bad martial artists. If you aren't very skilled at your chosen art you will probably lose to someone from a different art who is, even if his/her art has less techniques. As the Shaolin saying goes "I do not fear someone who studied ten thousand techniques in one day, I fear the person who has studied one technique for ten thousand days".

Whatever art you pick should align with your own personal philosophies. Some people like the grace and acrobatics of Wushu. Others like the gentleness of Tai Chi. Some arts emphasize tournaments and competition, others favor more combat training. Sometimes examining the principles and philosophies behind a different art can greatly enhance your own martial understanding. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from masters of the various arts. Whether it is Morihei Ueshiba, Mas Oyama, Gichin Funakoshi, Bruce Lee, Sun Lutang, Chen Man-Ch'ing or any other master, by examining each art, you begin to see the whole tree and its vastness from your branch. You may also find training or technique that you may find useful and adopt it into your own training regimen.

Stereotypes and Racism in Kung Fu aka 'Is your master chinese?'

There are many times I have been asked by different people about Kung-Fu and their questions are usually the same. There martial arts knowledge is filled with stereotypes that they see on Television. They are usually disappointed when you or your answers don't fit their preconceived notion of a martial artist looks or acts like.

The questions I usually get are:
Person: Can you do a back flip?
Me: No I can't do a back flip. They only do back flips in the movies. You wouldn't want to do a back flip before you got in a real fight.
Person: Oh. (The disappointment in their voice and on their face is palpable)
Person: Show me a move.
Me: Sorry I can't. ( I know they are expecting me to perform some super-secret death strike. )
Person:Is your instructor/master Chinese?
To which I reply , "My instructor is not Chinese, he is Caucasian. My grand master is Chinese."

The person will usually look at me with a skeptical look and say, "It can't really be real if your Instructor isn't Chinese". My first thought is, "I bet if I kicked you in the groin, or did a crushing fist strike from Xingyi, your pain would seem pretty real". Unfortunately, I wouldn't be much of a martial artist if I committed random acts of violence on people who didn't know any better. I usually tell the person that skill is not usually dependent on race, only time and effort. You wouldn't question the credentials of an English teacher if they were not from England. All that would matter was their depth of knowledge in the subject matter that they were teaching. There are people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds at my school and other martial arts schools who are skilled practitioners of their respective arts. My instructor happens to be an extremely skilled martial artist. The skill he possesses were hard earned and are not any less valid because he isn't Chinese.

The beauty of Kung-Fu is that at its heart it is egalitarian. Time, Effort, Sincerity and Humility are all that are required to succeed. I am an African-American who studies Chinese martial arts. Somewhere on the other side of the world, there is a Chinese rapper who knows more about hip-hop than I do. The beauty of it is that ideas and beliefs can spread far beyond the countries that gave birth to them and become universal. We must always respect the origins, cultural context and history of whatever we study but not let ignorance and cultural bias deter us from seeking our path to true knowledge.

The Gift of Failure

Holiday time usually means frantic shopping and gift giving for some people. Other people take it as a chance to refocus their efforts on trying to help others. I like most people will procrastinate until the very last minute to get gifts for people and I will be doing my best Bagua stepping and evading trying to beat out the other holiday shoppers for gifts.

The best gifts are those that will stay with you long after you have received them from the giver. As a Kung-Fu student there is no better gift than that of failure. It is at the point you fail that you can come face to face with your limitations and work towards overcoming them.

One of our school's Elder Masters has a saying, "Invest in Loss". I took this to mean that you shouldn't be afraid to lose. I later understood that you should be able to invest your time even amidst continuous failure to one day achieve success. Try a technique hundreds or thousands of times before gaining insight into its true application. It sounds so simple but it is one of the hardest things to do in life. To persevere after continuous failure and setback. Most people give up at the first sight of failure. Our egos can't handle not achieving success after the first few tries. Rarely do we persevere and refuse to quit until we have reached our goals. It is closest to the point of success that most people give up.

We live in a society where it is not okay to fail. We try to soften the blow and remove obstacles for people whenever they encounter the risk of failure. This robs people of the ability to learn their strengths and weaknesses and try their best to push past them. Martial Arts teachers and senior students should allow students to fail and encourage them to keep trying. We do our fellow students a great disservice when we do not allow them to fail and are not honest with them when they do.

I have tried incorporating techniques I have learned in sparring. I usually have gotten bruised body parts and a bruised ego trying to apply them. I record my observations and try them until I get them to work in sparring and I can perform the technique automatically. Then I can move on to trying something new and failing again. I am going to keep investing in loss because so far the immediate returns may have not been great but in the long run it pays dividends.

The world is your training hall (Kung fu outside the kwoon)

If you are like me and most people who do martial arts, you have a regular 9 - 5 and train several times a week. During the weekdays I work as a Software Developer, other students at my school have jobs in a wide variety of fields. There are software developers, students, artists, cooks, film-makers, nurses, security guards, Engineers and a host of other different jobs. I try to include a training regimen outside my regular class time by doing Qigong and practicing forms but I never feel like it is enough. I always feel like there is room for improvement and I can do more.

We each compartmentalize our lives and we have jobs, family and a host of other responsibilities that we each have to deal with on a daily basis. We may perform and train with maximum effort in the kwoon but rarely do we display the patience and focus in all other areas of our lives. How many times do we focus on our different jobs and responsibilities as if our very lives depend on it. Kung Fu simply means "Time and Effort" or "Accomplished person", Kung Fu is a metaphor for all of life. Only by applying maximum effort over a period of time will you acquire mastery of whatever endeavor you choose.

Picasso was a Kung Fu master of art, Einstein and Stephen Hawking are Kung Fu masters of physics , Stevie Wonder is a Kung Fu master of music, Oprah is a Kung Fu master of talk shows. We should apply the same focus and excellence that we demonstrate time after time in the Kwoon in all our areas of life.