Lama Training In Class

We are at an interesting time in our class where a group of the students are learning Lama forms. We do this for fun and as a break from the core training in Fut Gar. For those that are not familiar with how I ended up learning from multiple instructors, I wrote about it in a past post.

I thought I would take some time to point out some differences from Fut Gar that should be kept in mind during the training:

1. There are points in Lama forms where you will be leaning. In Fut Gar we are always keeping our body straight with no lean.
2. You need to be in a Gung Bo for many moves. Although this is not used in Fut Gar hand forms for reasons we have discussed in class, there are reasons to use the stance in Lama.
3. Your back hand will be extended during many techniques in Lama. In Fut Gar, we are typically pulling back to an elbow directly opposite of the attack.
4. In Fut Gar we generate power mainly from the turning of the waist but in Lama you will notice that we will discuss other methods.
5. We will be using a wider Ma Bo in Lama than we do in Fut Gar.
6. You will likely find that you are burning out of energy. This is common whenever you try to do a different style because your body has not adjusted to the new way of moving.

There are some things that don't change:

1. You should be looking at your opponent during the techniques. Of course I mean at their shoulders and head, not at their feet.
2. You should continue to think of why you are executing techniques.
3. Your striking and blocking surfaces will remain the same.
4. You will still be told to lower your stances.
5. Have fun with the training.

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.

Visualization of Form

In response to JP's comment on my past post, I do have ideas on maintaining your training while injured or unable to train for other health reasons. I am a believer in visualization as a training aid in a student's progression.

When you are unable to train properly due to health issues or even lack of space, I recommend visualizing yourself performing your forms and techniques properly. This will help remember the sequences so you are still able to do these things when you are able to train regularly again. The visualization must include the reminder of what is proper because this will help you remember what points are important to do your form correctly. Remember all details such as how your feet should be positioned, where your hands should be, posture, correct stance, how power should be generated in the technique, etc.

If you are not feeling that visualization is enough, there is the hybrid of visualization of your proper steps and stances while performing the hand techniques. This allows you to still move your upper body while not requiring you to move your legs. If your health issue is with your upper body, you can reverse this and only perform the lower body parts of your form while visualizing the upper body.

Pushing the Limit

As you start to progress in your training you should feel good about how much you have learned since you joined and how much you have improved since you started trying to execute your first techniques. You may now feel ease when performing that previously impossible technique or no longer panic when facing off against an opponent or have no problem remembering that long form that gave you so many problems when you were learning it. This is a time to celebrate your success so far but remember that there is still a lot to learn and many corrections still to be made. Getting to this point is a great start but now is the time to really focus on moving towards perfection. Push the limits of your endurance, flexibility, strength and concentration by adding some challenge to your training. This could be something such as lowering your stances in your forms or trying to strike harder throughout your form or just making sure that you retain any corrections that the instructors are giving you instead of regressing back to old habits after the class is finished. In fighting you should always start by trying to improve your control while later challenging yourself to find different ways to attack or defend (getting away from the habits that are comfortable to you).

The instructors can assign these types of exercises to you but I think it is important to find your own areas that you would like to improve. This will allow you to steer towards the result that you are really striving for in your training.

Where is Your Next Technique?

As the students continue their progression in their Kung Fu training, it is important to also progress in fighting. Those in my class know that I place a heavy emphasis on forms and believe that fighting will follow.

When you are sparring, you will start to get comfortable with techniques that work. Hopefully by training in forms and constant repetition of techniques, you will automatically start to add techniques to your fighting. If you have practiced a 4 move combination hundreds of times during your form, your body should naturally execute that same combination if you get into a situation where you throw the first technique in that combination. Look for this the next time you are fighting.

Pushing Yourself in Training

During your Martial Arts training you will learn many techniques, spend time perfecting them and practice proper execution of combinations. You will practice using your techniques in fighting situations, get comfortable executing at full speed in free fighting situations and figure out when specific techniques work for you. The one thing that is important to remember is that it is easy to just rely on your instructor to train you and tell you when to use the techniques. A few things to keep in mind if you want to excel:

1. Try new things. Do not stick with the same old techniques time after time in your free sparring.
2. It is OK to be uncomfortable. You are uncomfortable when you are not doing what you are used to so you should feel uncomfortable if you are pushing yourself.
3. Physically push yourself. If the training is not tiring you, there is probably more effort you can put in as far as using more power, lowering your stances, increasing your speed etc.
   
4. Class is designed as a general workout that caters to the entire class. Some things will be difficult for you so keep trying but other things will be easy for you. When things are easy, work on perfecting while adding a bit to the exercise.
5. Mentally push yourself to think of different ways to successfully execute techniques and to have a theory on how a technique is applied before asking others.
6. Think of how to do something that will separate you from other Martial Arts practitioners whether it be the spirit of your forms, the perfection of a technique in fighting, the practice of advanced techniques until they seem effortless to those that are watching, etc.
   

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.

10 New Year Training Tips

So you have had a great holiday. You have partied hard, eaten excessively and forgotten what training means. It's time to get back at it. Here are a list of tips to help get you back into the swing of things.

1. Do not think that you will jump back in and immediately be back into the swing of things.
2. Stretch a bit more than you normally would.
   
3. Make sure that you build into the workout by making sure you build the intensity gradually over the course of the class.
4. Try your best but do not get frustrated or discouraged if you are not up to your regular level of performance.
5. Catch up with your classmates but stay focused on training.
6. Spend time remembering your forms and proper execution rather than trying to speed through your forms.
7. Your stances are probably not as low as they feel so go lower.
8. Since everybody is getting back into the swing of things, pay extra attention to other students, especially if you are practicing weapons techniques.
9. Remember to have fun...this is the reason you do this.
10. Most importantly...remember it is bad luck to kill your instructor, even if by accident (this might be a bit of a selfish tip on my part)

Want to Move On? Demonstrate the Technique.

I thought I would share a discussion I had with an old traditional kung fu practitioner. We were discussing the attitudes we encounter here in Canada from eager students who want to progress through the ranks. This particular person spoke about the school where he trained in Asia. In traditional schools, it was not acceptable to demand progression from your instructors. It is understood that when you are ready to move on, you will move on. In the school we discussed, the students were taught at a slow pace to ensure that each technique or combination was correct before being allowed to move on. If a student every had the nerve to state that they were ready to learn more, the instructor would put them up on a stage with one of the senior students. The test was to show that you can execute the techniques you learned so far in a fighting situation. If you failed, the consequence was to start your training over from the beginning of the form. Of course it was almost impossible to be good enough to win with a short seriese of techniques so this was a very discouraging proposition. Although this may be the extreme, I do believe the basic lesson is correct. Your instructors are the judge of when you are "ready" to move ahead. It is great to have passion towards your training and natural to want to progress quickly but kung fu has no short cuts.

Flashy Forms vs. Regular Forms

As I teach Fut Gar Kung Fu I am often reminded that there are much flashier forms in other styles than the ones we use. Even with that disadvantage our students continue to command attention and be complimented as we perform or compete. How is this possible? The answer is simple. We look for precision of execution which can be a thing of beauty to the eyes of the trained martial artist. Yes, I teach some flashier forms but encourage the students to use the true forms of our style when competing. I believe that achieving a good result with a normal traditional form is a true measure of a student's kung fu skills. Those that have taken Fut Gar Kung Fu and complained about how it looks compared to some other styles have simply not studied the style long enough to perform the techniques in a manner that looks good. I have unfortunately seen schools that seem compelled to add some flashy forms to help their performers/competitors and have even seen schools that have fabricated forms to give their students a flashier look. I think it is ridiculous that schools create forms instead of perfecting the ones they know to the point of looking great. I would like to encourage the traditional schools to stick with your forms and train harder to perfect them.

Announce Yourself

As a judge in tournaments for many years, I have seen many students come up to perform. I have seen many ways of announcing their forms and have formed some preferences. Here are some tips for those that intend to compete in forms/kata competition:

1. Always bow - show your respect for the judges.
   
2. Speak in a loud clear voice. If I can't hear you, there is no point to speaking to me. Remember the tournament is a noisy place.
3. Announce your name
4. Announce your school and/or instructor
5. Announce your form

Open Martial Arts Tournaments - Should We Care?

When I was competing, Kung Fu tournaments were not easily found in the area. If you wanted to compete the only option was to find an open tournament. These were normally tournaments run by Karate practitioners and if we were lucky, we would have a separate division for non-karate styles which was normally called a soft style division...which didn't really make sense because Tai Kwon Do was thrown in there. The competitors were normally judged by Karate judges who normally gave the best scores to the people that looked most like what they were used to seeing.

What are my thoughts on open tournaments? I believe that these tournaments can provide some value if you go in with the correct attitude. Understand that the judges do not know the techniques that you are executing and will not necessarily see the value of your forms. Understand that fighting will be limited by the rules of the tournament and often will eliminate (for good reason) the more effective and dangerous techniques of your style. My recommendation for tournaments is generally to not care if you win or lose. The purpose of the tournament is to give you experience performing in a stressful situation (in front of a crowd) to train your mind and to continue to perform in these types of situations. Fighting in open tournaments is also a good experience because it allows you to see how it feels to fight people with different styles and techniques from your own school.

In the end, real life combat situations are full of uncertainty and stress. Gaining exposure to these feelings through competing decreases the chances that you will freeze when confronted in a real situation.

Short Notice

I have seen a definite trend over the 20+ years that I have been teaching Kung Fu. Almost every time I am asked to put together some people for a show or demo, it seems like it comes with very short notice. It makes me laugh every time I receive a call about a show that is taking place the day after tomorrow followed by the inevitable question - "How many of your students can make it?" This seemed like disorganization when it was my brother seemingly calling me the day before every event that he needed help on but as my brother became less involved in Martial Arts events, I have come to realize that it is just the way things are. I am not running a commercial school so it is less important for me to attend when invited but find it fun to get out on occasion. As a student, I think it is a good teaching tool because you are required to keep something at performance level at all times. As I have told most of my students over the years, there should always be something that you can perform well without notice because you never know when you are going to be asked to perform. Although the short notice I always get is frustrating, I think it has helped reinforce the importance of being prepared at all times.

Weapons Forms of Fut Gar Kung Fu

In Leung Tin Chiu's branch of Fut Gar Kung Fu there is a heavy focus on staff work. This agrees with the theory form my previous blog entry about the most important weapon in Martial Arts. Here is a list of the weapons forms as I was taught by Grandmaster Chen Rong En.

• Double-ended Staff
• Shooting Star Chasing the Moon Staff
• Tiger Taming Staff
• Left Handed Staff
• Flying Dragon Staff
• 2-Person Flying Dragon Staff
  
• Dragon Well Sword
  

There have been other forms that Grandmaster Chen has taught but they were not from this style. Years can be spent just training in the proper techniques and applications of these forms.

Combinations in Forms

As students of Kung Fu learn forms they must understand that it is very important to eventually understand where the combinations are in their forms. This goes back to the stages of learning a form:

1. Learning and executing the moves/techniques of the form - Every student begins learning a form by just trying to remember what the sequence of techniques are and how to properly execute these techniques.
   
2. Learning the combinations within the form - Once you know the individual techniques it is time to understand which techniques belong together because they are a combination. These need to flow together in the form.
   
3. Learning large sections of the form - For the sake of being able to practice your longer forms, it is often difficult to repeatedly perform the entire form as a method of practice. The forms can be broken up into sections of 1/3 or 1/4 of the form allowing the student to practice at full power/speed without burning out after a few runs through the form. This allows you to work on transitions between combinations.
   
4. Putting it all together to generate an entire form - This is the combination of all sections into one form that looks correct. The student must be able to maintain their flow, power and speed throughout the entire form.
   

The most difficult transition of all these stages may be going from executing individual techniques to combining techniques into a 3-5 move sequence that looks like there is purpose and belongs together. It should be clear when you have "finished the attack" on one opponent in your form and are moving to the next opponent.

Remembering to Pull Your Elbow Back

With the return of Grandmaster Chen to Canada, there is always the chance that he will pop in to visit our school without any prior notice. This is a great opportunity to have the head of our style critique our forms and techniques. Although students are understandably nervous when he is watching, the biggest thing to remember is that he is looking for precision. As mentioned in one of my previous blog entries, there is a heavy focus on pulling back your elbow to generate power when you are practicing Fut Gar Kung Fu. You must pull your elbow back as hard as possible to help generate power in your striking arm. This can be visualized as throwing a defensive elbow to the back at the same time as throwing an offensive strike to the front. Of course the end point of the elbow depends on the technique you are executing but keeping this in mind will make a big difference as you are performing.

The Hand Forms of Fut Gar Kung Fu

Leung Tin Chiu's Fut Gar Kung Fu is still taught in its entirety by his disciple Chen Rong En. I was fortunate enough to become a disciple of Grandmaster Chen Rong En and learn all the forms in the style. Here is a list of the empty hand forms in the Fut Gar Kung Fu style that are designed to teach all the techniques of the style.

• Sup Bat Lohan - 18 Arhats
• Siu Bat Sin - Small 8 Immortals
• Dai Bat Sin - Large 8 Immortals
• Siu Lin Wan - Small Connection
• Dai Lin Wan - Large Connection
• Maang Fu Ha San - Fierce Tiger Descending Mountain
• Say Hung Fook Fu - 4 Heroes Taming Tiger
  
• Chin Jaang - Entire Elbow
• Loong Fu Seung Voy - Dragon Tiger Meeting (in Conference)
• Tai Gee Kuen - Prince's Form
• Gee Mo Kiu - Son and Mother Bridge

Some of these forms also have other name (nicknames) such as Dragon Claws (Loong Jow) for Chin Jaang but they are definitely the same forms. Although not all are contained in the curriculum for our school, all these forms will be taught to students over time. It is likely some time after the students become instructors that they would learn the forms not taught in the core curriculum.

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.

Large Eight Immortals Form

By request of the performer, I am posting this vid of the Large Eight Immortals Form (Dai Bat Sin). Enjoy.

Chinese New Year Demo

Our school performed at the Hainan Association's Chinese New Year dinner this past Saturday. Unfortunately, due to video camera difficulties, we were unable to get the first 2 performances in our demo. It is too bad because it is always nice to have some footage of the newer members of our demo group. Here is a video with a a mix of the forms we were able to capture on video. Unfortunately, the video quality was not great because it was with our backup camera.



For those that were not filmed, here are a couple of pics that at least prove that you were on stage.



Here is a nice picture at the end of our part of the show.



Thanks again for everyone that helped out and Michael for his guest appearance. You all did a great job!!!