Secrets to Successful Faking

I thought it would be a good idea to recap one of the topics from tonight's class for the students that were in attendance. We worked on successful faking techniques during fighting. A few points to keep in mind:

1. The fake is not effective if it is not within a range that is believable. Throw the technique at a range that looks like it would actually successfully land.
2. The fake is not effective if your opponent cannot see it and react to it. Use techniques that are generally easier to see.
   
3. Sell it with your eyes.
4. Use the same motions as if you were throwing a full power strike including shoulder turns, hip turns and stances.
   

Remember what you are trying to accomplish. The technique is designed to generate an opportunity for a follow-up technique. Of course successful execution like everything else in Kung Fu cannot come without practice.

Does Martial Arts Build Character?

I received a question on my views on whether or not the claim by some that Martial Arts builds character outside the class is true. My answer is a definite yes and no...it depends on a variety of factors including the student, the instructor and the school.

My belief is training in Martial Arts will build something in everyone beginning with a person's weaknesses but this is not necessarily anything to do with character. It could be completely physical or mental. For example, if a person has a bad memory, this will be the limiting factor in their training and all other areas of training cannot progress until the memory improves. If another student has limited endurance, they may not have the opportunity to test their memory because they are exhausted before they get to that point.

So what areas are built through Martial Arts? These include:

• Humility - during training a student will discover that there are many better Martial Artists in the world and even a frail old man may be able to defeat them in a fighting situation
• Patience - Martial Arts is all about repetition and a typical Martial Arts school will force a student to pass certain gates before progressing to their next level of learning
  
• Persistence - nobody will be able to do everything without failure but with persistence everyone is able to succeed in learning and performing techniques taught by their instructor
  
• Self discipline - certain points in a student's training will require their own discipline which was covered in my previous blog entry Fighting Through Monotony
• Respect - for tradition, for other students, for instructors
• Confidence or courage - students that have learned how to defend themselves will be much more confident walking down the street at night, students that have performed in front of a crowd will be less likely to be intimidated by speaking in front of a crowd and students that have seen a punch coming straight for their face is less likely to be scared in a non-physical, confrontational discussion
  

Given this information it would seem that I believe that the absolute answer is yes, Martial Arts will build character. My qualifiers are the attitudes of the student and the instructor as well as the school itself.

• Does the student want to learn with an open mind or are they at the school with the attitude that they pay their money and therefore are entitled to certain things?
  
• Does the instructor treat the class like his/her Martial Arts family or is this a business to them?
• Does the school push students through their program so they can sell a franchise to that student or does the school recognize based on actual level of the student?
• Does the instructor believe in tradition or is it purely fighting that is important such as in boxing or Mixed Martial Arts? Furthermore, does the school have a tradition and lineage that is discussed?
• Why is the student there? Is it because their Mom signed them up or did they truly want to learn Martial Arts for their own reasons?
  

Generally, the students will build character when they join and attend a Martial Arts class regularly but signing up only gives the opportunity to learn and build character. The student still needs to make sure that they work hard and listen while they are in class.

Grandmaster Chen Rong En and the Knife

Some of my students will remember this story if they were around 7 or 8 years ago. Back at that time Grandmaster Chen Rong En still had his own school and I brought my students there once a week to practice and get direct exposure to my Sifu. I thought it was important for the students to get as much time as possible with Sifu since he was always happy to help me by correcting techniques and explaining theories. In exchange for his help, I allowed any of his students that were interested to join our class without paying an extra fee. This was before I formed The National Fut Gar Kung Fu Training Centre as it exists today.

One night I was teaching a regular class at Sifu's school. There was a group of people that had asked Sifu to borrow the back room of his school to get together to play cards. Sifu was talking to me as the students trained when suddenly we heard yelling coming from the back room. We looked over and one older gentleman came running out and said someone pulled out a knife due to an argument. We all knew that there was no back door so everyone could only come through us. Sifu told me to close the door behind him...when I tried to argue, he told me not to worry and just to make sure that my students were OK. I quickly asked the younger students and female student (I believe there was only one present at that class) to go in the change room and close the door until we told them it was OK. Sifu had already gone into the back room and closed the door. I instinctively grabbed my sword and my senior students grabbed their staves. Here is the funny part....we looked over and the older gentleman that had come out of the back room was holding a mop!!! We all waited....silence. We continued to wait.....still nothing. Finally Sifu came out of the back room and said don't worry, everything is OK. We watched the guy that was holding the knife leave...without his knife. Once everything seemed OK we got the students back and finished the class.

I later asked Grandmaster Chen if he had to fight the guy. He said no. I clarified...so he just put down his knife? Yes. Finally Sifu explained to me what happened. He walked in and the guy was very angry. He had pulled his knife because he had gotten into a dispute with one of the people in the room. Apparently he was not a person that knew them very well but was brought by one of them. When he walked in the room and closed the door, he asked the guy if he realized where he was. He said "you are pulling a weapon on my friends inside my Kung Fu school. You are giving me no choice but to kill you." The guy put down his knife and apologized. Sifu told him he should leave. That was the end of the conflict and we never saw the guy again.