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?

We Need a Show!!!

I think back over the years and there had always been an occassional performance of interest that I could recommend to my kung fu students. There used to be more excitement and energy around promotion of kung fu within our community. Some interesting shows from over the years have been:

• Performances by the Shaolin Monks (first few times)
• Jackie Chan fundraiser
• Masters of Kung Fu Performance
  
• Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu
• Friendship Tournament - Local students competing against monks!!!!
  
• Don't remember the name but it was a weapons demo with performances from around the world
  

It seems that we have gone a long time without something like this. There are always performances that you can attend but they are usually 1 or 2 schools doing some free performances to promote their schools. I think it is about time for one of the kung fu federations to get motivated and put on a large performance that is properly promoted in a significant venue. The community seems to be in need of something other than a few annual tournaments and a bunch of schools doing demos. We need a show!!!

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.