Wow...My Opponent is....

When observing students working on their fighting, I often see students intimidated by level or seniority of the other student that they are going to fight with.  I was also there at one point but quickly learned that there is no reason to worry and eventually preferred to work with people who were more senior and usually better than I was for some good reasons:

• Nobody actually wants to hurt you in class because we are all there to learn and get better
• More senior students typically have better control of their techniques and are actually less likely to accidentally hurt you
• Fighting with someone better than you forces you to elevate your fighting to match with your opponent's skill level
• Senior students will often be able to see things in your fighting and be able to give you some pointers on improving your fighting
• With mutual respect and control there is also an opportunity to learn because neither fighter is afraid to get hurt, therefore allowing you to try new techniques
• We are all friends in class

I do recommend being more careful in tournament settings as adrenaline seems to contribute to lack of control.  I also believe that tournament fighters care less because they actually don't know you and will not have to see you in the next class.  I am not suggesting that people will try to hurt you but I have seen some things that you would not see in class.

Even with tournaments, I would encourage competitors to forget about the size or level of their opponent and look for ways to penetrate the opponent's defences that are within your own abilities.  

Control Your Emotions During Fighting

Each Kung Fu student will be different when they fight and each individual will react differently when they are fighting. It's natural and completely acceptable to experience a mix of emotions when practicing fighting. It is not OK to lose control of emotions when fighting.

Newer students are often scared, anxious, apprehensive and timid when they fight. This is because fighting is probably an unknown to them. Most people have not been in many fights in their lives. Overcoming this is the first mental battle you must go through to become a decent fighter. Once you are more comfortable, you will not hesitate when executing techniques and you will become much more successful in sparring.

Depending on the student, another emotion that comes into play is pride. As we practice fighting in our class, we try to remind the students that we are all there to learn. It is not necessary to win the fight and therefore don't worry about getting hit. Learn ways to avoid getting hit the same way next time. This ties in with frustration for the same reason. Don't get frustrated because you are getting hit by your opponent during sparring...you are there to learn and find ways to get better at what you are doing.

Anger unfortunately is an emotion sometimes that creeps into Martial Arts. Accidents happen when practicing fighting and on occasion someone will get hit harder than they should during a practice session. At this point it is important to step back and remember that the class is trying to learn together and the action was not on purpose. Anger combined with competitiveness can unfortunately lead to escalation in power during fighting and lead to students getting hurt.

One last hint is to avoid being intimidated by your opponent for any reason. They may be more senior than you or stronger than you or faster than you but they are still a Martial Arts student just like you. Fighting a superior opponent is definitely a great way to improve your own fighting if you focus on the lessons learned during the fight.

Control of Techniques

With the smaller classes in the colder weather, we have had a couple of chances to focus classes on control of techniques during fighting. The students that have been in the advanced classes have had a chance to start working on this and hopefully picked up some interesting learning. I hope to continue with this over the next few weeks.

The main point of these exercises are:

• If you can do something with control, you can add power later.
• It is much easier to learn in the safer environment.
• It will help you develop because you are less afraid to try new techniques when there is no danger of being knocked on your butt.
• There is less escalation of strength during the fights when students know the goal is to control.
• You will start to learn to feel the attacks that you are blocking.
• Speed of the fight increases allowing the students to learn how to read techniques.
• Less hesitation to throw combinations.

Some of the points we should keep in mind:

• Stay loose.
• Try to learn how much power is needed in your blocks to be more efficient with your energy.
• Concede strikes - if you know that a controlled strike would have hurt you, your reaction should be appropriate (do not try to jump back at your opponent right away as this is not what would actually happen).
• Control your emotions - getting excited will escalate the power of your strikes and ultimately the power of the fight.
• Have fun.

Power vs. Control

A recent discussion I had prompted me to write about training for increased power vs. training of control. I believe that martial arts in general trains people to strike with power, focuses on how to increase your power, focus to drive through your targets, etc. I agree that it is important to execute your techniques properly to generate power including how to set your stance, how to use your entire body, how to turn your waist, how to set your fist or foot, when to tense your muscles etc. All of these things come together to allow you to generate power in your strikes.

I believe it is more of an art to put all of these things together but stop your technique just at the point of impact each and every time. Total control of your techniques to the point of always being able to do damage but never doing damage is much more impressive. Of course you may face a time that you need to defend yourself and need to follow through but if you can control it, you can un-control it. On the surface this may seem straight forward but in sparring, nothing is standing still. You are controlling strikes where your opponent is advancing or you are advancing or the opponent changes direction, etc. All of these things add further complication to controlling the technique. With experience, it is ideal to be able to adjust in mid-strike and further shorten or adjust the point of impact of your strike. The final challenge to this is controlling all of the techniques without slowing down and leaving yourself open during the strike.

Happy sparring.

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.

Independent Body Control

During your training you are taught to be relaxed during a strike and tighten up at the point of impact. The same suggestion goes for blocking. What is next after you are able to do this?

Those that have begun fighting realize that it is not as easy to do during a fight as it is to do during practice of forms. First of all, students seem to tighten up during sparring because it is an uncertain situation. The real interesting trick comes from independent control of the different body parts. Can you be tight with a hand/arm that has just blocked but at the same time continue to be loose with the other hand or leg that is trying to throw your counter attack? Try to separate your different body parts during your fighting and you will gain a bit of a speed advantage over those that are not developed the same way. An interesting exercise may be to hold yourself in a push up position with one hand while using your other hand to try and block strikes thrown by a partner.

Sparring Videos From Last Tournament

Here are some videos that one of the CCKSF group posted on Youtube from the last tournament. Those in my class will notice a few familiar people in here.

Praise from the Pres

For those of you that were not in class when I spoke about it, we got some great praise from the President of the CCKSF recently. He had video taped all of the fighting in the most recent tournament and after watching it was very impressed with one of our competitors (J.P.) In fact, he said he has been waiting for 10 years to see this type of progression in the fighting division. For years there has been the hope that fighting would progress away from standard exchange of punches and street fighting to a more refined style of fighting. To finally see effective use of counterattacks and resistance of the urge to just throw fast punches even when the opponents are doing it was very enjoyable for him to watch. We have discussed this in class over the years and we definitely see that fighting properly is not the ideal in these fighting situations but I have a strong belief that the ones that stick to it will eventually be the better Martial Artists.

We seem to have the attention of the President and have him thinking of ways to get the rest of the competitors going in the same direction. Way to go JP and the rest of the competitors that have tried to fight the way we teach in class.

The Best Time to Block

As students start to practice fighting techniques and possibly free sparring, they will be in situations where they will need to block strikes. As students become more comfortable, it becomes easier and easier to see strikes coming from the opponent. This is where I see errors starting to occur with many students in all Martial Arts. I often see blocks executed way before the strike will connect.

The best time to block a strike is not early in the strike but as late as possible in the strike. By waiting until the last moment to execute the block you will have the best opportunity for counter strike. If you block early in the strike, the opponent has an opportunity to pull back to a defensive position or react to the block and throw another technique. By waiting until later in the strike, you lead the opponent to believe that the strike is successful and will cause them to continue the follow through which in turn will open them up to counter attack. Waiting until the last moment will allow you to put an opponent off balance if you can execute a pull with your block.

Although waiting takes some courage, the benefits are undeniable. I encourage students to try this during the controlled sparring of a class and find their comfort level on how long to wait.

The Right Time to Exchange Punches

While watching students fight as part of their training, instructors often break up the fighting to explain that it is incorrect to rush in and exchange punches with your opponent as this shows a lack of technique and seems to not serve a purpose. Generally, Kung Fu training teaches you to block and counter, grab and counter or avoid and counter. This is definitely ideal if you are able to fully disarm a strike while executing a strike of your own. Of course this is generally not the case for most students. I believe there is a correct time to exchange punches as long as you take into account a few things:

1. What are you exchanging? Are you taking a light jab to the cheek while executing strong hook punch to the temple? I would be happy to take this exchange which would likely end the fight. This is an easy decision to make if you are able to make it at full speed.
   
2. What will be the result of your strike as far as body positioning? By this I mean that throwing your strike turns the opponents strike into a glancing blow therefore reducing its effectiveness even if your strike is not a knockout punch.
   
3. When are you making the exchange? This is the point that is normally forgotten. Each combination by an opponent has a main (knockout?) strike. If they throw a jab followed by an uppercut, the uppercut is the punch intended to do the main damage. This can be followed by other techniques. Assuming you can make your first strike the knockout strike, I would suggest that your hard strike be executed right after the opponent's knockout strike. If someone is throwing a 4 strike combination with the first strike being a hard strike, each following strike is a bit weaker than the previous. Take your best strike in exchange for one of the opponent's weaker strikes. This timing will not only give you the upper hand in the exchange but also surprise your opponent as they are expecting you to continue blocking. This assumes you do not believe that you will have the opportunity to execute a clean technique on this particular opponent because as previously stated, it is ideal to execute a clean strike.

These theories take some practice but with experience, you will be able to feel for the right timing during the fight.

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.

Fighting During Grading - What Are You Testing?

Many Martial Arts schools employ some sort of grading system to promote students up their rankings. These gradings can lead to a new belt/sash, promotion in title or simply a level or increase within the system. Often the grading process includes fighting to determine that the student is able to fight at an adequate level for promotion. I have seen gradings where there does not seem to be a purpose to them. What are we testing in our gradings? Within my school we actually have a few things that we are testing during the fighting portion of the grading:

• We try to determine that the student is able to defend themselves in a pressure situation.
• We try to press the student to ensure that they are able to control their emotions (fear, anger, doubt, etc.)
• We test to see how the student is able to control their techniques in full speed, pressure situations where emotions are trying to take over.
• We try to ensure that the students get a small taste of how things are in a real fight whether they are winning or losing.
• We test how students adjust and think through the different scenarios that are presented in the grading.
• We ensure that the student is able to use legitimate techniques in the fights.
• We make sure that the student has a very good chance of succeeding in a confrontation.
  

Our team of instructors all went through this to get to where they are today. All of us have these goals in mind as we train the next set of instructors.

The Traditional Way to Learn Fighting in Kung Fu?

In today's Kung Fu schools, you will often see free sparring as part of the training. This is the way that many classes practice fighting. Although this is not ideal, it is a way to simulate having an attacker who has some level of Martial Arts ability. I once had an old instructor watching classes who commented that in his day they would never do free sparring. In his school they trained on individual techniques from their forms and followed that up with 2 person set exercises that simulated a specific attack. Through constant repetition they were able to train their bodies to react in a certain way to an attack. I prefer free-sparring as a training method but do have some thoughts about the differences.

• Free sparring does not necessarily teach your style. Unfortunately, I have seen too many schools that teach free sparring as more of a kick-boxing style that incorporates none of the techniques in their forms. Free sparring without use of your style's techniques is useless.
  
• Free sparring does not allow for practice of all techniques, especially dangerous techniques such as throat punches.
• Free sparring is easier to use today due to the availability of good protective equipment. Years ago there may not have been the same equipment available and therefore some of the practice could not be done safely.
• Practice of individual techniques is a great way to train your body to react to specific attacks. I think it is great practice but does not involve different ways that lead to that situation. More is needed if you do not use free sparring (longer 2 person sequences or 2 person forms).
• In Fut Gar Kung Fu and our school we do have 2 person sequences that are quite complex that incorporate some of the more important techniques. These are fun and interesting but do not cover all techniques. Other training is necessary to complete the training.
• Free sparring taught properly will allow students to incorporate the techniques of your style. Unfortunately, there is work needed in many schools to train students not to hesitate to try new things. Most students are afraid to try new techniques because they are afraid to embarrass themselves or get hit while trying the techniques. Sparring should be done in most cases as a no winner situation so the fear is eliminated.

How Good Is Your Fighting?

While training in Kung Fu it is natural to wonder how good your fighting is. How do we know how good we are? Who should we compare to? How do we measure? We train initially in basic techniques, then learn forms, then learn how to apply the techniques and combinations, then practice applying them in set exercises and finally try to use the techniques in free fighting practice. It is difficult to know how good you really are.

One way to measure is to compare yourself to the other students in your school. This gives you a good idea of how your fighting ranks but this is not perfect. You could be the best fighter in the class but later realize that nobody in your class can fight or you could be frustrated about being the worst fighter in your class only to find out that it is because your class is the best group of fighters around. Since this does not work, you then need to attend tournaments to test yourself against other schools or in some cases, other countries. Does this guarantee that you can measure yourself? It is better but still not perfect because the best fighters might choose not to compete. In the end, it doesn't really matter. What matters is you are good enough to survive a life and death fighting situation.

Since I started training with Grandmaster Chen Rong En I found that he has an interesting way of rating how well people fight. He generally wins in free fighting situations, even at his advanced age so he measures by counting how many times you block him before he hits you. We have had discussions about people he has tested. He will say this person is not able to block me at all but this guy is pretty good because he blocked my first 4 attacks before I hit him. This is him speaking about instructors that he has met over time.

Why is he able to fight the way he does? It goes back to one of the fundamental theories about fighting in Fut Gar Kung Fu. The theory is that every technique has a counter and in turn that counter also has a counter. The person that wins the fight is the person that knows (and is able to execute) the most counters. So Grandmaster Chen started by learning the entire Fut Gar style but followed up by dedicating the next 3 years working with his Sifu, Leung Tin Chiu perfecting the execution, setting up of techniques and the theories behind the fighting of Fut Gar Kung Fu. This is the reason why he automatically executes a technique when someone attacks and unloads a barrage of attacks in return without effort or thinking. He has an answer for any fighting theory question including the very annoying what if questions that students often ask :)

So how good is my fighting? 4-5 blocks before getting hit by my Sifu, Grandmaster Chen. This rates quite high on his scale.

Most Annoying Kung Fu Phone Calls

I often get people calling me about trying classes. I am happy to offer a free trial class to anyone that is interested regardless of their level of experience. I am also often in a position where I am accepting new students. Personally, I find these phone calls to be painful, especially as the person tries in some way to prove they know something. This is the main reason I prefer e-mail contact with a short list of questions on location, cost, training times etc.

Here are some of the most frustrating discussion points that I run into regularly:

• The prospective student for some reason feels that I need to have a very detailed breakdown of all of their previous Martial Arts experience. I really don't care what someone was years ago...if they are joining my school, they need to learn my basic techniques. I don't need a 10 minute Martial Arts biography.
• Come try the class and experience it when invited. Don't ask questions about what exactly will be done in class....if I explain everything that is going to happen then why would a trial class be necessary?
  
• Why do people that don't understand ask to compare our style to another style. I often get asked if we are similar to Wing Chun and when I try to clarify, the person actually knows nothing about Wing Chun so I could say anything and it would not make a difference.
• Is this the right class for me? I don't know....you just called me up out of the blue...I have never met you. Try some different schools and choose one that you like.
• What is the best Martial Art style? For these people, the answer is any style but mine....please go find one of those schools. Actually, I think I spoke about the school that claimed to be the best style in one of my previous entries...here's the link.
  
• When do I get to fight? Any time you like....go to a bar and punch someone in the head...congratulations, you get to fight.
• Then there are the people who have asked some good questions but instead of hanging up, start asking dumb questions just to continue the conversation....
• The people that describe their health issues and ask me if the style will help them. I don't know....I am not a doctor!!!! I can definitely assure you that it is better for you than sitting on a couch eating a bag of Doritos.
• How fast can I reach your highest rank? How should I know? Try showing up to class and giving us an idea of how quickly you learn, how well you correct mistakes and how diligent you are at showing up to every class for the next few years. At that point, I can give you an educated guess.

This is a list of some of the discussions I have with people that call in. I'm sure there are other things that I am missing that I will think of over time.

Watch and Feel in Fighting

As we train ourselves to fight, we need to understand what to do with our eyes...where to look, what to watch. In general it is good to watch the upper body while separated from your opponent. Some people say watch the eyes as you will be able to see the intent of your opponents while others say watch the shoulders.

I believe there is more than one answer to this. If you are always watching the eyes, I believe you can be faked out but I also believe that watching the shoulders will put you in danger of falling for shoulder fakes. I recommend a combination. I watch eyes to look for intent of the opponent and watch the entire upper body for an indication of my opponent closing distance. While at a distance, I recommend using your peripheral vision to look for strikes coming from different angles. Your peripheral vision should allow you to monitor both arms and both legs of your opponent.

Once engaged in the fight, meaning a strike has been thrown (and hopefully you have blocked successfully) you should use the feel built during your sensitivity training. As long as you have contact with your opponent's hand (assuming the strike was a hand strike of some sort) you will be able to feel any moves he tries with that hand. In this case, you now focus your eyes on the hand that is not engaged and allow your peripheral vision watch the kicks. In many cases you will be able to feel your opponent move to kick as they shift their weight.

Leung Tin Chiu in Competition

If you try to find out about Leung Tin Chiu (Chee) you will find a variety of stories about his technique, fighting, form and how good he was. A common story is about his participation in a national Martial Arts tournament set up by the Chinese government. The tournament was set up with the best Kung Fu practitioners from across China competing. There were supposedly over 2000 competitors at the tournament. Competitors were ranked on a variety of categories including fighting, forms, technique and weapons. It is clear that Leung Tin Chiu did very well in the tournament but the final results have been reported in several ways. My understanding of the final results is that the overall winner was not clearly identified (possibly due to political reasons) but that Leung Tin Chiu was one of the top three. Other stories have him listed as 3rd overall, 1st overall, 1st in fighting, etc. What is clear is no matter where he finished, it was a great accomplishment in a tournament of this stature.

Our school is proud to be teaching Leung Tin Chiu's style as taught to his disciple, Chen Rong En. I am one of the original 9 disciples of Chen Rong En and unfortunately the only one of the original disciples that is still teaching Fut Gar Kung Fu. We have a sister school in China now which has been in operation for about 3 years.

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.
  

Premature Celebrations

As students are permitted to begin sparring/fighting in martial arts classes it is good to keep in mind that you are there to learn as is the person you are paired with. The best way to do this is by checking your ego at the door and walking in with a clear mind. Too often during my 20 years of teaching have I seen someone land a strike during a fight and completely stop the fight with their celebration. This premature celebration is unnecessary and unproductive with negative results.

What you accomplish with this celebration is:

1. Embarrass your training partner...not a nice thing to do to a friend.
2. Escalate the fight as the opponent now would like to have his/her own celebration.
3. Potentially hinder the training of your opponent as well as yourself because your opponent becomes overcautious to avoid another embarrassment.
4. As an experienced student, make yourself look silly...come on, act like you have done it before!!!! Yes, I am giving the OK to celebrate a bit if you have never landed a strike in sparring in the past.
   
5. Show that you assume that you are so powerful that your strike would actually end the fight...what are the chances that your jab to the chest would actually knock the person out?

I do not believe in point fighting as it assumes that all fights end once someone is hit. I believe sparring should be continuous and if you are cornered, you should find a way to get out of the corner. Since I do not teach full contact fighting, the next point is very important - acknowledge when someone's technique is so clean that it would knock you down...congratulate your opponent for a good technique and figure out how to prevent it in the future.

A few other pointers for eager sparring participants. If you successfully land a technique, make sure to keep your guard up and continue the fight...stay in the habit of being on guard. No premature celebrations that assume that the fight is over. Respect your opponent...martial arts has no place for those that enjoy hurting someone. Aim to learn...don't worry about how many times you hit or got hit, worry about improving your precision and proficiency.