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.

Old Fut Gar Article

Thanks to James for sending this to me. I had not seen this in a long time. The Fut Gar article was an article that was posted on the wall in Master Chen's old school. The other interesting thing, I believe I actually have this particular magazine somewhere (from the cover) but was not teaching Fut Gar at the time.



Not sure how the embedding will work but hopefully you can see it.

Hands Up, Hands Down

Today's class spent some time focused on hand positioning during your techniques. In Fut Gar we are always pulling to generate power on our strikes, so as we punch with one hand, we are pulling back with the other hand. One thing to keep in mind as you are engaged in a fight is that you need to properly position your hands. A few notes on this:

1. If you block high with one hand, the other hand should automatically drift lower to protect your ribs and if you block low with one hand, your other hand should automatically drift higher to protect your head. I have often been asked how to block faster but the reality is that you just need to get your hands to locations that make them more effective and cut down the amount of time to get to the block.
2. As you face off with your opponent, keeping one hand directly between you and your opponent forces them to go around it before they can get to you. This also minimizes your required movement to execute a block because a slight move of the hand to one side or the other allows you to deflect the attack.
3. Don't forget that you can block more than once with the same hand. If you have executed a block and that hand is the fasted block for the following attack, use it. There is no rule that you have to alternate hands :)
4. Get yourself back to a set position as soon as possible. This just gets you into the habit of getting your hands ready for an attack whenever there is no activity.

Happy training.

First Picture from Grandmaster Chen's 88th Birthday

Here is a first picture from the birthday dinner with Grandmaster Chen. I will try to get more but unfortunately my memory card on my camera burnt out so I am not sure I can get the other pictures. This picture was taken by Harry who spent the time to organize the event.

5 Points to Defending with your Staff in Fut Gar Kung Fu

As the majority of my students know, I believe staff is the most important weapon we teach. The reasons were outlined one previous blog entry. This is further emphasized by the number of staff forms we teach in the Fut Gar style. Here are 5 points taught in Fut Gar Kung fu that you can keep in mind during training, whether it be visualizing the application of the technique or in practicing fighting techniques:

1. Be sure to shift your stances on blocks. Typically we shift far enough that target area that we are defending is totally moved away from its original position.
2. Defend more than just your block. Using the angle of the staff, you are often able to defend your head while blocking a strike to your legs.
3. Know the body and staff angle required to allow you to counterattack. Work on being precise with your blocking angle to allow quicker attacks.
4. If your staff is underneath your opponent's staff during contact, we call it a "dead staff" which means you do not try to initiate the next technique because it will leave an opening for the opponent to strike quickly.
5. Relax. It may be difficult when you are blocking another staff but relaxing will make your blocks faster and avoid the urge to attack your opponent's staff (trust your technique to deflect the attack and you will see that you don't need much power).

Keeping these things in mind will add some extra focus to your techniques during practice and help improve your forms.

Chinese Story About Filming on Leung Tin Chiu

Thanks to Denny from Michigan who passed this along. Denny has dropped into the school a few times to visit in the last couple of years while in Toronto for other celebrations and holds a great deal of enthusiasm towards Fut Gar Kung Fu.

This link speaks about the filming of a 26 part TV series on Leung Tin Chiu...unfortunately it is only written in Chinese right now but you can certainly get the idea by plugging it into something like Babel Fish. For those that are not familiar with the name, Leung Tin Chiu is the founder of Fut Gar Kung Fu as taught at my school.

Looking for Details

Our school is still awaiting further details on the filiming of a 26 part series on the founder of the Fut Gar Kung Fu Style, Leung Tin Chiu, to be filmed in China. It sounds like it is confirmed to go and Master Chen will connect with them in China when he returns there in late October. The background on this is from last year's visit to the grave of Leung Tin Chiu by a group of Fut Gar students including Master Chen who is a direct disciple of Leung Tin Chiu. It seems that this sparked some interest as people realized that there are living disciples of Leung Tin Chiu who are still practicing the Fut Gar style. The details are not completely clear to me from there but it seems like a great time for our style as Master Chen is excited that his Sifu is finally getting some recognition. This was a person that was very well known as possibly the best martial artist of his time from his performance at a national tournament of over 2000 competitors that were rated on overall skills. There was one person that mentioned that he saw something posted on the future release of this series but I have been unable to find anything. Anybody that sees a link, please do share with us.

Fun With Claws

In Kung Fu there are claw techniques throughout the forms. I personally enjoy mixing claw techniques into my fighting to give some variety. I have a few notes for those that are looking to introduce claw techniques to their fighting.

1. I always say that there are no wrong techniques. If you can visualize an application and then go execute it, who can say it is wrong? There may be reasons that make a technique ill advised but that is not a reason to stop using it until someone proves that they can stop it. Try different angles, different variations and different ways of using your claws to see what works for you.
   
2. A claw can be used as a scratch. You can use the scratch to attack the eyes, face, or exposed tissue.
3. A claw can also be used as a strike where you use your palm as the striking surface.
4. A claw can be used as a grab. You can grab the throat, wrists or muscles/tendons of your opponent.
5. You can combine the techniques above. An example would be striking with your palm to an opponent's nose and in a continuous motion downward scratching the opponent's face until you are under the chin at which point you grab the throat.
6. When executing a claw technique, bend your hands back and grip your fingers tightly to avoid injury from bending a finger or wrist backwards.
   
7. Claws can be used as blocks (or block and grab).
8. Claws can be used as traps such as in the Chum Jaang technique in Fut Gar Kung Fu.
9. Claws can be used to go around a defense as you bend your wrist around it.

All in all claws are a lot of fun to try and incorporate into your training. Of course some of my suggestions should not be used in class unless your class is too large and you need to get rid of some students.

Master Chen is Back in Town

Master Chen Rong En, head of the Fut Gar style of Kung Fu is back in town. The newer students may wonder what to do when he visits the class (which you can expect him to do very regularly) as it can be an intimidating thing to have him watching what you are doing. As one of his closed door students, I have had quite a bit of experience with him watching me as I train and have probably forgotten that I should actually feel some sort nervousness when performing in front of him...of course I never have been one to be nervous performing no matter who is watching. For those that don't know exactly what to do when he is visiting, here are a few tips:

1. Bow to him as he comes in to show your respect.
   
2. Do the best you can without fear that you are not good enough...he loves our class and wants us to be successful in our training.
3. Be prepared to learn as he will stop you if he sees a mistake.
4. If we decide to run additional seminars, participate if at all possible. Master Chen is one of the most respected instructors around and there are few opportunities to learn directly from him. We are very fortunate to be a school that he visits regularly.
5. Enjoy his love of teaching theories. I have never met anyone else who gets so much joy out of discussing techniques, how they work, how to counter them and how to lead into them.
   

The next 6 months should be filled with many chances to do all of these things. Although I have been teaching Kung Fu for over 20 years now you will definitely see that I am still not done learning from the master.

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.
  

2008 in Review

Happy New Year! As we head into 2009 I thought I would take a few moments to recap some of the highlights from 2008 for my school.

• We added a new instructor to the ranks.
• We added a new black sash to the ranks.
• Our advanced class has grown and now is as large as our regular classes.
• I believe that we continue to maintain a base of very dedicated and enthusiastic students.
• I am being forced to dust off previously untaught forms to teach the most advanced students as they reach the end of our regular curriculum.
• We had some new performers during our Chinese New Year demo.
  
• The enthusiasm for free sparring in class has grown.
• The overall quality of the Fut Gar Kung Fu in class has continued to improve.
  

Thanks for a great year and keep training hard in 2009.

Question Your Techniques

Kung Fu practitioners are taught forms that they practice in a particular sequence. Instructors teach these forms to the students and in most schools also teach the proper use of these techniques. After a while the students know enough to make assumptions about the techniques such as the purpose of a punch. What is probably not taught enough is that students should understand more than the end result of a technique. Students should question the techniques further to get full value from their training. I do not mean to flood your instructor with questions (especially if you are one of my students), I mean to ask yourself why certain things happen in your forms. Some examples are:

• Why do I throw a punch from the waist in one part of the form but circle my arms prior to punching in another part of the form?
• Why do I start my block on the outside of my arm when I turn?
• Why do I use different stances for the same technique in different parts of my form?
• How would I get into position to execute this technique in a real encounter?

Whoever created the style put certain elements into the form for a reason. These reasons are now sometimes lost in the teaching of a style if a student is pushed through a system too quickly or if an instructor is only focused on teaching form rather than technique. One thing that Fut Gar practitioners are taught is to consider how techniques can flow together once you understand the reaction caused by the previous technique.

Even if the instructor of a particular school is not focused on teaching to this level of detail, the student is still able to formulate ideas in their own mind. Try questioning yourself the next time you are training. The results can be very interesting.

DVD Set Released in U.S.

The Kin Mon Sil Lum Gung Fu group in the U.S. released a DVD set. Although the school clearly states that they are not a Fut Gar school, they do trace back to Leung Tin Chiu, the founder of Fut Gar Kung Fu as taught at my school. The forms that are practiced at Kin Mon Sil Lum Gung Fu are similar in name and execution to some of the forms I teach. I have not seen the DVD's yet but think that it is great that the school went through the effort to put together a compilation of their forms. Information can be obtained on their site.

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.

The Nervous Kick

I have been training people on their sparring techniques for over 20 years and have been able to get the students of our school to be focused on fighting in a manner that is representative of our style of Kung Fu, Fut Gar Kung Fu. As schools teach free fighting I have often noticed that there is a trend in beginners to kick. Nervous kicks that keep their opponent at a comfortable distance. This is something that is not always the correct way for students to fight as most styles to not focus completely on kicking. I would urge newer martial artists to monitor their fighting to see if they are falling into this habit. Although it feels better to have your opponent at a longer distance, this is not ideal for your future progression. You need to fight in the style that you are learning which probably means you will not throw kicks for your entire fight. Kicking has a purpose as I mentioned in a previous post but sparring in class is the controlled situation that allows you to do the things that are uncomfortable for you. Take advantage of the opportunity to work on perfecting your technique in these conditions.

Visitors

It was almost 2 weeks ago and has taken me some time to get these downloaded from my camera but I finally got it done. On August 10th our class had a visit from Sifu Norman Mandarino and a few of his students. They have a Kung Fu school in Buffalo, NY and asked if they could come visit our class. It is always nice to meet other students that have some connection to the founder of our style of Fut Gar, Leung Tin Chiu in their background. By coincidence we also had a visit from another student from Michigan who also is training in Fut Gar techniques. I had asked Grandmaster Chen Rong En to come meet the students as he is always interested in seeing other people that have a connection to our style. Here are the pictures from that visit.

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.

The Power of Blocking

When learning how to use their martial arts for fighting, students are tempted to find their best method of landing their strikes. To actually disable your opponent, you must eventually throw an offensive technique.

My theory on fighting is to begin by learning how to block effectively. Learn how to defend all angles. Learn how to react to different types of strikes and different types of opponents. Learn how to block so effectively that you do not have to think while doing it. If you are able to hold your position in a fight and block everything your opponent is throwing without panic or thought, you are able to free your mind to look for openings that come up. An offensive technique usually will leave an opening but defenders are so busy worrying about blocking techniques that they often do not have the presence of mind to also look for an opening to reverse the momentum. Imagine how easy fighting could be if you did not have to worry about being attacked but just had to throw an appropriate technique when an opportunity presents itself. This is exactly what good blocking will provide for you.

I would like to encourage students of all forms of Martial Arts to spend time focused on the blocking techniques within their styles and how to execute them properly. I believe it is important to spend time seeing a variety of attacks and identifying which attacks give you a problem Once you know your own weaknesses you are able to work on techniques that will cover up those areas. When your blocking is automatic, I guarantee that you will see openings quicker and feel comfortable attacking them.

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.

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.