What Can A Kung Fu Student Do?

Every single student in a class progresses and improves...I guarantee that as long as you go to classes and put in some effort, you will improve.  The more important thing is how to maximize your training.  Each person learns at a different pace so here are some tips to help do your best.

1. Learn something every class - This does not mean that you need to learn a new technique or a new part of your form every class.  What I mean is that you need to listen to corrections from your instructor, discover a more effective way to execute a technique that you know, remember that move that you always get stuck on, etc.
2. Retain what you learn - Once you learn something in class, you need to ensure that you remember that for next class.  To progress you need to be able to retain your past learning and execute on them so you can focus on learning more instead of relearning something.
3. Find your capacity - How much can you learn and retain?  This is different in every person.  Some people can learn and retain one thing each class while others might be able to learn and retain more things.  Kung Fu is not a contest so don't worry about someone else's pace.  
4. Repeat - Repetition is the thing that will give your body the muscle memory to execute a technique or form.  Ensure that you are spending your time repeating what you learn.
5. Question yourself - Ask yourself if you are actually doing this correctly as you practice.  Ask yourself if you understand why you are doing something.  Ask yourself what you can work on to make your techniques better.
6. Listen - So many lessons are taught in our classes.  Instructors are teaching students, senior students are teaching junior students, fellow students are discussing techniques with each other, etc.  Listen to what is being taught and hopefully you will catch a few pieces of information that you may not have known before.
7. Show up physically - During my career as an instructor I have been fortunate enough to be in situations where I could almost always be available for classes.  The harder part is being in the habit of going to class on days when you are tired or would prefer to be doing something else.  
8. Show up mentally - Once you have arrived in class it is now time to prepare to focus.  Get yourself prepared to pay attention to the instructors and focus on the techniques you are working on.
9. Be proud of yourself - You work hard and continue to improve.  Martial arts training is a journey that can last a lifetime so be sure that you remind yourself that you have continued when hundreds, thousands or millions of others did not continue after starting.   

Reverse Engineering Your Form

The students that have been at class the past few weeks have had an opportunity to participate in the painful exercise which could be called reverse engineering your form. We all enjoyed the exercise of figuring out what caused your form to move in a certain way and what caused the combinations to fit together. What started as an exercise turned into something that took an entire class. This shows how much thought can go into defining a form. We will continue to do this in class in the future but keep thinking about it at home. Remember to keep asking why and trying to figure out the answer.

Remembering Forms

I have mentioned in class that there is no shortcut to remembering your forms. The only way to train your body to perform the techniques correctly and memorize the forms is through constant repetition. This is the reason that I recommend practicing your forms even after you have learned them and moved on to your next form. It takes about 200 repetitions to remember the form and about 500 before you are completely fluent with it. The end result is that you will be able to perform it without constant practice. Being able to perform a form that you have not practiced in a few months should be possible with the right amount of practice up front during your training. This practice is not exciting as you are just repeating something over and over but it will make you much better over time.

The Origin of the Dreaded Chow Butt Attack

Many of the students of my class have seen it in action and the lucky ones have experienced it live. Of course I am speaking of my butt attack. The attack of throwing my behind into my opponent's solar plexus. How does something like this happen? As silly as the technique is, it comes from sound martial arts fighting theory. The following are the things that lead to the development of this technique:

• Feel the fight and flow with it. To maximize the speed of your techniques you need to stop thinking and just execute. Too much thinking adds brain processing to the technique before executing and every slight hesitation can cost you a fight. Fut Gar Kung Fu as taught to me by Grandmaster Chen clearly defines what to do in specific situations to eliminate the necessity of deciding which technique to use.
  
• Don't resist pressure. This theory is the reason I originally spun around to attack with my backside. Having a technique blocked gave me momentum to spin in the opposite direction.
  
• Always look for opportunities to attack. Just because you are in a disadvantaged position does not mean that you should stop looking for an opportunity to attack. Very successful attacks often are executed at the time when the opponent least expects it.
  
• All body parts can and should be used as a weapon. Although the butt attack is taking it to the extreme, I have always been taught that you can use anything as a weapon.
  
• It worked. When a technique works it is natural (and encouraged) to continue to use it until it no longer works.
  
• Have fun when you practice. OK, this is my own theory but those in my class have seen that we have always run the class this way.
  

Correct Posture for Kung Fu

In response to Kai's question regarding proper posture while practicing Kung Fu I would have to say that the ideal posture varies from style to style. In Fut Gar Kung Fu our goal is to always maintain an upright posture as if your spine were a straight stick that is perpendicular to the ground. As you strike or block in Fut Gar you will pivot but not lean. This is the ideal posture for this particular style. Other styles may generate power in a different manner and therefore lean forward as they strike. This is incorrect in Fut Gar as this allows you to be pulled off balance during your strike. Power generation in Fut Gar is through turning of the waist and pulling of the non-striking arm into an elbow.

Building Basics To Help Learn Advanced Techniques

James commented on a previous post about building into fancy techniques instead of trying to learn them upon starting your training. This is very much the case in good martial arts training. All techniques build from the basics and development usually happens in stages.

The Kung Fu practitioner always starts their training by building their stances. This is not done as a punishment, there is a point to it. Strong stances will allow the practitioner to maintain balance upon impact, drive from the legs to generate power and maneuver while staying solid on the ground. From solid stances, the practitioner is able to execute a powerful kick while someone with weak stances may lose balance when kicking because they are on one leg.

An example of the importance of stances came during a Kung Fu demo for the Hainan Association members. I was performing Black Dragon Sword when I stepped on a quarter of an orange that their lion dance team had left on the floor. Instead of slipping and falling, I slid across the floor standing on one leg as the technique required a crane stance. As I stopped sliding, I continued the form. The members of the Hainan Association did not realize anything had happened but one of the lion dance team members ran out and picked up the orange as I continued the form.

To continue on the along the road of progression mentioned earlier, once the person has learned how to kick properly and spent the appropriate time to be solid while kicking, they can easily move on to jumping kicks. The actual kicking technique is the same but the practitioner is now in the air. From here, the practitioner can build into spinning kicks, jumping spinning kicks and aerial kicking combinations. This is one example using kicking as the progression but the same can be done with hand techniques as well.

To illustrate how knowing basics can help with learning forms we can look at the components that make up the techniques. As a person learns a new form they will be entering into some unfamiliar ground. It is difficult enough to figure out how to move their hands without worrying if their feet are in the proper position in the stance. Add to that the proper speed of execution, transitioning between stances and intricate smaller motions to get to the next move and the forms can become very confusing. Knowing all the basics allows the practitioner to focus completely on transitions between the techniques and remembering the sequence of techniques.

A Day in the Life of a Kung Fu Student

This was an article that was written back in the late 1980's that described my time training with Grandmaster Chan Tai San. This was taken from a Chinese/English newspaper called the Connection.