Old Promo Clip for Masters Demo

Here is a promotional video for a demo that Bruce and I performed in a few years back. Look for us in the video at around the 18 second mark. We are performing the Flying Dragon Staff 2 Man Form which incorporates the techniques of the Flying Dragon Staff Form.

Bruce Lee vs. Karate Kid

An oldie but a goodie...some of you may remember this Brisk Iced Tea commercial.




Another thing.....I am glad I do Fut Gar......I am not sure how much of this my body could take.

5 Tips to Shoe Shopping

What kind of shoes should we wear during training? This is something I have discussed with some of the students in the past but probably not all. This is some general advice and is not necessarily only for Fut Gar Kung Fu students. This is probably not a discussion that even existed 20-30 years ago because athletic shoes were more generic but now that there is specialization in shoe types and so many choices of styles, it has become more important to choose the correct shoes for training. Here are the things to look for if you are choosing shoes that you will use specifically for training:

1. Do not buy shoes with a hard heel counter. A heel counter is that hard plastic support that wraps around your heel in many athletic shoes. If you throw a proper front kick wearing the wrong shoes, you will notice that the heel counter digs into your achilles tendon.
2. Choose shoes that are flat, not shoes that are higher at the heel so you tilt forward.
3. Gum rubber soles grip the best indoors...choose soft soled shoes. You will notice that shoes designed for martial arts have a soft sole. The soft soles have better grip than a hard sole....unfortunately, they also wear down faster if worn outside.
4. Flexible is good. Do not get shoes that are too stiff because they may restrict your ability to bend your ankle into a proper stance. Shoes that do not bend backwards will not allow your toes to curl backwards when executing a front kick.
   
5. The lighter the better. Whether you are in a kicking style or not, the lighter the shoe the better.

The proper shoes can greatly enhance your Kung Fu training experience.

5 Tips to Learning Kung Fu

As students join Kung Fu and begin their training they will find the amount of information that needs to be picked up to be overwhelming. Not only is there a huge amount of information to remember, there is also a correct way to perform everything. Here are a few pointers to help in your training.

1. Practice, practice, practice. The only way to get better at your techniques is to repeat them until they are natural body movements for you. Not only do you need to practice, you need to practice correctly. Yes, you will often be doing something wrong without realizing it until an instructor corrects you but try your best to do it as you feel is correct. Remember that practice does not have to take place in class.
   
2. Learn the corrections. You will be corrected by instructors. When this happens make sure you execute the corrections as soon as possible and find a way to maintain the corrections moving forward. By not keeping the corrections, you are choosing to waste your time because you will be corrected again in the future.
3. Don't get caught up in the little details....yet. You are just learning a technique and are probably not performing it perfectly yet. Why question the use of the technique or debate the different ways to defend against the technique? Get it down first....ask questions later if needed. Often an answer becomes clear when you move further in your training.
4. Basics such as stances, blocks and strikes need constant work. Don't forget about your basic forms just because you have learned your newer, cooler techniques. Everything begins with strong basics and builds from there.
5. Be patient. Working on a single form or technique even after you have become comfortable with it is a good thing. When you are bored of them, you will probably be able to mentally discover alternate uses for the techniques. The instructors want you to progress just as much as you do but you need to be ready. Resist the urge to ask any question that starts with "When do I get to..."

As you can see, all of these things are within the control of the individual student. The student must find the self discipline to execute.

Another Silly Kung Fu School

I have to start by saying I did not find this article. It was posted on a forum and being discussed. A new type of martial arts for the BVI - Christian Gung-Fu is an article about a school. Of course this forced me to respond.

Here is my response in the forum:
I have nothing against Christian Kung Fu, especially since one of the most active schools in my area is the Christian Wushu Fellowship, a Kung Fu school with a pretty impressive group of students.

I do find it odd that someone studied Judo, TKD and JJ and believes they can create their own Kung Fu style. Not only do they create their own Chinese style out of their training in non-Chinese styles, they also claim that their style is the best: "Sifu Hewlett also explained what makes this new style unique and more effective than any other"....interesting.

My opinion is if this person really is a Sifu, he would have discussed his training in Kung Fu, not the other styles. If he really knows as many styles as he claims to incorporate into his style, he is probably not an expert in any of them and at best probably knows the basics of these styles. If he is a real martial artist he would have some respect for other styles instead of just claiming that his "chop suey" style is the best.

Yes, I am a grouchy dude to begin with but this type of stuff just frustrates the heck out of me. AAARRGH!!!!

The Basis of Fut Gar Kung Fu

As students progress in their Fut Gar Kung Fu training, they will become exposed to a variety of forms and training theories. I previously discussed the 5 Methods of Fut Gar Kung Fu which apply to Leung Tin Chiu Fut Gar's theory during free fighting scenarios. As you learn the forms (empty hand or weapon), you will see that they are based on 2 main theories. These theories are described by Grandmaster Chen Rong En as Fei Loong and Fook Fu.

Fei Loong is the Flying Dragon group of techniques. They include the training of your wrists through circling them and teach things such as reversing a grab (Siu Fei Loong) and breaking a grab followed by a strike (Dai Fei Loong).

Fook Fu is the Tiger Taming group of techniques and include control and strike (Dan Fook Fu) and double downward strikes (Seung Fook Fu).

Along with these are a mixture of of other dragon and tiger techniques such as Seung Loong Chut Hoi. There are also some complete forms that focus on improving these techniques such as Chin Jaang (Whole Elbow) which is known in some places as Loong Jow (Dragon Claw) because of the focus on the dragon techniques.

As Fut Gar students learn staff forms, the focus does not move away from these theories. Students of the style will learn Fook Fu Gwun (Tiger Taming Staff) and later, Fei Lung Gwun (Flying Dragon Staff) which I spoke about in a previous post.

While training in the style, looking for these theories will help understand the basis of Fut Gar Kung Fu.

Why Kick in Kung Fu?

Fut Gar Kung Fu is clearly not a kicking style. In case it is not clear in watching the forms, you definitely can take the hint from the name of the techniques. Within Fut Gar there are a bit over 100 techniques. Kicks in the form are all called Fei Geuk. What does that mean? Flying Foot...the last time I checked, none of the kicks in Fut Gar forms are jumping kicks. The best explanation I have ever gotten is that you foot flies off the ground.

Understanding that Fut Gar is not a kicking style of Kung Fu, we also need to understand why we learn to kick and practice to be proficient at kicking. Here is a list of reasons:

• You could be injured in a fight and lose the ability to use your arm but still need to continue fighting
• Your legs are another weapon that can be used...why not keep the option open?
  
• At certain times in a fight, your legs might be able to reach an open target area that your hands cannot reach
• Learning to kick also allows you to understand the legs as a weapon if you are against an opponent that likes to kick
• Legs are strong - if you train equally in kicking and punching, I believe your kicks would generate more power than your hand strikes
• Kicking training also helps improve your balance
  
• Kicking is cool...the fancier the kick, the cooler you look
  

Chan Tai San at the Temple

This is a clip that originally came from a documentary about Chi Gung/Chi Kung/Hei Gung...depending on your dialect. The video quality is horrible but it is still fun to watch. Grandmaster Chan Tai San is doing his trick where he snaps wires with his chest...I am not sure when this video is shot but he looks to be in his late 30's or early 40's? He shows up about 55 seconds in so be patient.

***** Clarification: Thanks to Michael Parrella in New York!!! He is actually about 60 in this video. Wow, quite bit off in my original guess.******

Leung Tin Chiu in Competition

If you try to find out about Leung Tin Chiu (Chee) you will find a variety of stories about his technique, fighting, form and how good he was. A common story is about his participation in a national Martial Arts tournament set up by the Chinese government. The tournament was set up with the best Kung Fu practitioners from across China competing. There were supposedly over 2000 competitors at the tournament. Competitors were ranked on a variety of categories including fighting, forms, technique and weapons. It is clear that Leung Tin Chiu did very well in the tournament but the final results have been reported in several ways. My understanding of the final results is that the overall winner was not clearly identified (possibly due to political reasons) but that Leung Tin Chiu was one of the top three. Other stories have him listed as 3rd overall, 1st overall, 1st in fighting, etc. What is clear is no matter where he finished, it was a great accomplishment in a tournament of this stature.

Our school is proud to be teaching Leung Tin Chiu's style as taught to his disciple, Chen Rong En. I am one of the original 9 disciples of Chen Rong En and unfortunately the only one of the original disciples that is still teaching Fut Gar Kung Fu. We have a sister school in China now which has been in operation for about 3 years.

The Art of Losing a Fight

In Martial Arts, we train to defend ourselves. We train to win a fight against an untrained fighter. We train harder to win a fight against a trained fighter. We train to defend ourselves against multiple attackers. We train to be the best fighter that we can be so we can win in as many situations as possible. The bad news is no matter how good you are, there is always someone better. There will always be a situation that you cannot win and there is always a chance that you make a mistake during a fight. What then?

Is it a negative approach to believe that you could lose a fight even with years of training? No, I believe it is a naive approach to believe that you will win every fight. My instructors Chan Tai San and Chen Rong En could defeat me even though they were much older than I was. In fact, Grandmaster Chen Rong En still likes to prove it today with myself and other instructors in the city. I am sure he would tell you that his instructor, Leung Tin Chiu could defeat him.

Remembering that you cannot win every fight in every situation will prepare your mind for what to do next:

• The first goal is to survive. Do not give up, keep fighting.
• Do damage. You do not need to win a fight but you do want to make your opponent hesitate to come back again.
• Get out of a losing situation. Find an escape as soon as possible once it is clear you will not win.
• When in doubt, cheat. In a real life fighting situation, there are no referees...do what you are not allowed to do in class....these are the things that will likely be most damaging.
  

The Most Important Weapon in Martial Arts

Martial Arts, especially Chinese Kung Fu contains many types of weapons. There can be much debate over which is the strongest weapon or the most useful weapon but it is clear that one weapon is the most important weapon to be taught in a school. That weapon is the staff or stick.

The main reasons that this is the most important weapon are:

• It is the base weapon for all weapons. This is the reason it is known as the "Father (or Grandfather) of all Weapons" in Chinese Martial Arts. This means that staff techniques are the foundation for forms with other weapons.
• If a school is going to teach weapons, staff is likely the one that is taught. It is unlikely that you would find a school that only teaches one weapon and have it be something other than staff.
• For the above reason, schools can be judged on their staff forms by other schools. Not all schools teach another weapon outside of staff so it would be impossible for those schools to compare with other schools.
• For beginning weapons practitioners, it requires the least amount of precision as they are learning to use the weapon. Although you learn to strike towards the end of the staff, you would still do damage with a proper strike that is further down the shaft. Being round, it also eliminates the need to know where the cutting edge of the weapon is such as when using sword.It is the most accessible weapon in surprise combat situations. You are more likely to find a stick on the ground than a sword.

Staff is one of four weapons that are considered foundation weapons in Kung Fu. These are the foundation weapons because all other weapons techniques can relate back to these four weapons. Although the staff is the base, there are some more specialized techniques taught in the other foundation weapons. The others are:

• Broadsword (Dao) known as the "Marshall or General of all Weapons"
• Straight Sword (Gim) known as the "Gentleman or Prince of all Weapons"
• Spear (Cheung) known as the "King of all Weapons"

To further classify the weapons into weapon types you will often see a generalization of weapon types. The members of my school use the breakdown of Long Weapon, Short Weapon and Flexible Weapon. I have seen other classifications such as medium weapon or special weapon but do not believe these are necessary.

Fut Gar Kung Fu at Kin Mon Sil Lum Gung Fu

I discovered a site for the Kin Mon Sil Lum Gung Fu school and am happy to see another school that was teaching Fut Gar Kung Fu as part of their curriculum. It was interesting to watch their videos - their first form was a version of Siu Lin Wan and their second form was a version of Maang Fu Ha San. A look at their forms also shows that their system included most of the forms in the Fut Gar style. Chen Rong En has mentioned this school in the past and actually visited Sifu Wong in San Francisco (I believe) years ago.

It is very interesting to note that although Grandmaster Chen Rong En is the known as the head of the Fut Gar style of Kung Fu and he actively tries to keep in contact with others from Leung Tin Chiu's lineage, there are probably others that we are not aware of that teach the style as part of their curriculum.

If you watch the videos on this site, please keep in mind that it is clear that the person demonstrating the forms is slowing them down for the video. I just wanted to share the information from this school as I found it.

Karate Bloopers

OK...these really have nothing to do with Kung Fu or anything I do but they made me laugh.

Enjoy...

The Kung Fu Family - Terminology

The Kung Fu school is very much set up like a family. You will be able to find many references to this if you do a search but here are the relevant terms to the members of our school.

The head of the school (Father) is the Sifu. There can only be one Sifu in each school unless it is a school that has different instructors teaching different styles. A female would be Simo (I shudder when schools call their female instructor Sifu) and could also refer to your Sifu's wife even if she did not practice martial arts at all.

The proper way to address a Sifu from another school or style not associated with your style of Kung Fu is (last name) Sifu such as Lee Sifu. You would not refer to me, your own Sifu as Chow Sifu but only as Sifu. In Western civilization we now also sometimes switch it so the last name comes after Sifu such as when I refer to Sifu Lee.

Your Sigung (Grandfather) is your Sifu's instructor, in our case it is Grandmaster Chen Rong En but also includes anyone that was an instructor of your Sifu in the past such as Chan Tai San in our case. Our Jo-Si (founder) is Leung Tin Chiu.

Students that are senior to you within the class should be referred to as Si Hing or Si Jeh in the case of a senior female student. Students that are junior to you are referred to as Si Dai or Si Mui if female. These terms refer to your fellow students as older brother/sister and younger brother/sister. To further clarify who you are referring to, the most senior student is referred to as Dai Si Hing/Jeh (Eldest brother/sister) and could count down from there to Yee Si Hing/Jeh (2nd older brother/sister), etc.

The other terms that may come up in our school would be Si-Bak which refers to your instructor's Si Hing (in our case that would be my brother Chow Wun Dak "Dick") and means older uncle. Si-Sook is the proper way to address your Sifu's Si Dai and refers to a younger uncle...there are quite a few of these that you could meet over time.

Keep in mind that we refer to elder and younger but do not mean by age. The only thing that determines seniority is amount of time as a member of the school. This does not have anything to do with belt/sash level
or the ability level of the students. You cannot surpass another student in seniority no matter how much more knowledge you possess or ability you have. Your Si Hing is always your Si Hing.