Why Snake Form?

Most people in the local Kung Fu community know me for performing Snake Form in tournaments (before I stopped competing) and performances.  People that did not know me in the early days of teaching probably are not aware of why this started.  I know so many amazing forms from Chan Tai San that could have been the form of choice but that is the one that ended up being my signature form.  Here is the quick story behind it.

The year was 1989 and I had been teaching my class for about a year.  We were happy to perform and promote our classes to the public whenever the opportunity arose.  One request that year was for a Kung Fu demo during a Chinese New Year celebration.    Of course we were happy to perform at the celebration.  The follow up request was to see if we would be able to include a Snake Form to celebrate the Year of the Snake.  Sifu had taught me a Snake Form and there was enough time to fine tune it to an acceptable level for performance so I agreed.  The performance went off as planned and I felt very comfortable with the form.

The following weekend there was a tournament that the class decided to attend so I pulled out the Snake Form again because it was the one I was focused on during my most recent training.  I did well in the tournament and with a healthy schedule of other tournaments coming up in the following weeks, I just decided to ride it for the stretch.  That stretch became a year and the next thing I know it became my form of choice.  I did throw in other forms on occasion just for the change but always returned to Snake.

There were a few things that I think caused me to keep using the form:

• It felt like it suited my body type
• It became a bit of a challenge to prove that softer forms can still do well
• A few instructors that saw me at tournaments encouraged me to keep going with it because it was a nice break from seeing the same old forms all the time
• A very nice compliment from a person in one city that told me that the main reason they came to the tournament the second year was to see me perform again
• Biggest reason - when Sifu came for a visit, my brother's students and I thought it would be nice to do a show for him...when I performed Snake Form, Sifu jumped up from his seat and was clapping and yelling that it was Snake Form!!  After the performance he told me how happy/surprised he was with the improvement in the form since teaching it to me.  With that kind of reaction, how could I not continue?

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.

Grandmaster Chan Tai San and the Tough Guy

I was passing on this story to one of the students tonight and remembered that it is actually a very funny story about Grandmaster Chan Tai San that should be told.

I was practicing a form in my normal spot, the park across the street from the apartment where Sifu was staying. It was convenient because he could watch me from the kitchen and if needed yell instructions at me from the window. I remember that I was practicing a broadsword form. This was back in the days when people carried around ghetto blasters on their shoulders. This guy was walking down the street and decided to stop and watch me. As usual when people stopped to watch me, I just kept on practicing and ignored the guy. He turned up his music on his ghetto blaster....I continued to ignore him. He started saying something but being the bright guy he was, didn't realize that I couldn't hear him over his music so I kept ignoring him. By that time Sifu had noticed him and come down to the park. Mr. tough guy looked at Sifu and said something like "what do you want, old man?" Sifu smiles at him and waves him closer. The guy walks up to Sifu and Sifu does a series of actions to his arm....really innocent looking stuff like pull his arm, squeeze a few spots, pat his shoulder, etc. Then Sifu walks away. The guy is confused and goes away and I return to my form....about 5-10 minutes later the guy comes back and starts yelling at me...."What did he do to my arm? He better tell me or else!!!" Trying not to laugh, I asked what was wrong. He said his arm was in a lot of pain and the old man better fix it. I yelled for Sifu to come down and told him that the guy wants his arm fixed. This is where it gets really funny....

Sifu goes through a series of interesting motions....poking the guy, touching the guy's nose, pulling his ears, rubbing his head, rubbing his shoulders...all of it with a big grin on his face. Then he walks away. The guy says tell him that it still hurts....all of that did nothing!!! I translated and Sifu says tell him it will feel better later. The guy goes away and returns about half an hour later. Still trying to be a tough guy, he explains to me that the old man was lucky because his arm feels better now.

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.******

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 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.

Chan Tai San and Chen Rong En - What Is the Connection?

Students of my school are aware that the curriculum taught in the school came from two sources, Grandmaster Chan Tai San and Grandmaster Chen Rong En. Students are extremely fortunate when they are able to train under a Sifu with great knowledge but to have the opportunity twice is unheard of. To be clear, I am not the luckiest person in the Martial Arts world...there was actually a connection between my Sifus (is that the proper pluralization?....Steve, Jackie help me out here). My time training with Chan Tai San was extremely important to my development and I was happy to spend the rest of my time training in Choy Li Fut (the style in which Chan Tai San named me an instructor) and Lama (the style that was taught to my brother Chow Wun Dak...for my students that is your Si Bak). Then one day in 1992 or 1993 my brother called me and said that Sifu has asked us to take up the Fut Gar style of Kung Fu with his friend Chen Rong En. Sifu had officially introduced Wun Dak (see picture above) and myself as good students that would be excellent candidates to carry on his style.

So how did they know each other? My Sifus were instructors in the same region of China at one point and happened to become friends. Below is a photo taken of instructors in the region...not sure how or why the instructors were brought together for a photo but you will see Chan Tai San (bottom row 2nd from the right) and Chen Rong En (middle row, middle). When Grandmaster Chen Rong En moved to Canada, he mentioned to Grandmaster Chan Tai San that he is looking for a few students to carry on the Fut Gar style and was promptly directed to my brother and I. I feel fortunate that Sifu would recommend me as a person that he felt highly of and with good character to carry on a style. I have done my best to ensure that the style survives as a whole style instead of in pieces as it is taught in many schools worldwide. My Sifus continued to stay in touch over the years and actually participated in an event together in 1995 (see photo below).