Reading on Martial Arts

I apologize for not having written for a while. As I wrote in one of my previous posts, there is no avoiding the occassional break from things as life gets in the way. I thought I would take a moment today to write about reading. Those who enjoy Martial Arts will often try to gather information and research all styles of Martial Arts. Here are a few points on reading:

1. Do not take everything as the complete rule. What may be the correct method of performing a technique in one style might be completely different in your particular style. I have seen an instructor teaching completely incorrect execution because he learned something flashy in some training he did and decide that the techniques in his style should be performed that way.
   
2. Do not learn different styles from books. Unless you are an expert Martial Artist, you will definitely practice incorrectly or mix up concepts if you try to learn from books. If you are an expert Martial Artist, spend your time working on your own style.
3. Appreciate the history and culture of Martial Arts. I think it is interesting to read about the origins of a style and the traditions around Martial Arts training. I would suggest that you read about these but be careful before incorporating them into your own class. I have seen a Chinese Kung Fu school where the young instructor used Karate terminology and traditions in the class because he thought he was making his class seem more traditional...unfortunately it was just wrong.
   
4. Be careful what you incorporate. There are ideas that may be style independent but there are often variations of theory from style to style which may include different reactions to situations. The example I have used with my students is Bruce Lee's book. I have never read it and probably never will because the theories I teach are from my style and if I have never read his book, nobody can question if any of my teachings come from there. I would be happy to read books about my style.
   
5. Read anything you can about your own style. I really believe that it is a good exercise to research your style and gather as much information you can about it. Not all writing on your style will agree because there may be variations in thought between authors.
   

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.
  

10 Elbows of Fut Gar Kung Fu

Students of Fut Gar Kung Fu will be familiar with the elbow techniques contained in the forms. Elbow techniques are so important to the style that there is even a form that focuses on building these techniques (Chin Jaang/Whole Elbow also known as Loong Jow/Dragon Claw to some). Here is a list of 10 of the elbow techniques contained in the forms:

1. Kai Jaang - Standing Elbow
2. Waang Jaang - Horizontal Elbow
3. Gung Jaang - Forcing Elbow
4. Pow Jaang - Cannon Elbow
5. Cup Jaang - Covering Elbow
6. Bau Jaang - Wrapping Elbow
7. Chum Jaang - Sinking Elbow
8. Tit Jaang - Slicing Elbow
9. Jing Jaang - Center Elbow
10. Hok Jaang - Lifting Elbow

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.

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.

5 Tips to Shoe Shopping

What kind of shoes should we wear during training? This is something I have discussed with some of the students in the past but probably not all. This is some general advice and is not necessarily only for Fut Gar Kung Fu students. This is probably not a discussion that even existed 20-30 years ago because athletic shoes were more generic but now that there is specialization in shoe types and so many choices of styles, it has become more important to choose the correct shoes for training. Here are the things to look for if you are choosing shoes that you will use specifically for training:

1. Do not buy shoes with a hard heel counter. A heel counter is that hard plastic support that wraps around your heel in many athletic shoes. If you throw a proper front kick wearing the wrong shoes, you will notice that the heel counter digs into your achilles tendon.
2. Choose shoes that are flat, not shoes that are higher at the heel so you tilt forward.
3. Gum rubber soles grip the best indoors...choose soft soled shoes. You will notice that shoes designed for martial arts have a soft sole. The soft soles have better grip than a hard sole....unfortunately, they also wear down faster if worn outside.
4. Flexible is good. Do not get shoes that are too stiff because they may restrict your ability to bend your ankle into a proper stance. Shoes that do not bend backwards will not allow your toes to curl backwards when executing a front kick.
   
5. The lighter the better. Whether you are in a kicking style or not, the lighter the shoe the better.

The proper shoes can greatly enhance your Kung Fu training experience.

5 Tips to Learning Kung Fu

As students join Kung Fu and begin their training they will find the amount of information that needs to be picked up to be overwhelming. Not only is there a huge amount of information to remember, there is also a correct way to perform everything. Here are a few pointers to help in your training.

1. Practice, practice, practice. The only way to get better at your techniques is to repeat them until they are natural body movements for you. Not only do you need to practice, you need to practice correctly. Yes, you will often be doing something wrong without realizing it until an instructor corrects you but try your best to do it as you feel is correct. Remember that practice does not have to take place in class.
   
2. Learn the corrections. You will be corrected by instructors. When this happens make sure you execute the corrections as soon as possible and find a way to maintain the corrections moving forward. By not keeping the corrections, you are choosing to waste your time because you will be corrected again in the future.
3. Don't get caught up in the little details....yet. You are just learning a technique and are probably not performing it perfectly yet. Why question the use of the technique or debate the different ways to defend against the technique? Get it down first....ask questions later if needed. Often an answer becomes clear when you move further in your training.
4. Basics such as stances, blocks and strikes need constant work. Don't forget about your basic forms just because you have learned your newer, cooler techniques. Everything begins with strong basics and builds from there.
5. Be patient. Working on a single form or technique even after you have become comfortable with it is a good thing. When you are bored of them, you will probably be able to mentally discover alternate uses for the techniques. The instructors want you to progress just as much as you do but you need to be ready. Resist the urge to ask any question that starts with "When do I get to..."

As you can see, all of these things are within the control of the individual student. The student must find the self discipline to execute.

Another Silly Kung Fu School

I have to start by saying I did not find this article. It was posted on a forum and being discussed. A new type of martial arts for the BVI - Christian Gung-Fu is an article about a school. Of course this forced me to respond.

Here is my response in the forum:
I have nothing against Christian Kung Fu, especially since one of the most active schools in my area is the Christian Wushu Fellowship, a Kung Fu school with a pretty impressive group of students.

I do find it odd that someone studied Judo, TKD and JJ and believes they can create their own Kung Fu style. Not only do they create their own Chinese style out of their training in non-Chinese styles, they also claim that their style is the best: "Sifu Hewlett also explained what makes this new style unique and more effective than any other"....interesting.

My opinion is if this person really is a Sifu, he would have discussed his training in Kung Fu, not the other styles. If he really knows as many styles as he claims to incorporate into his style, he is probably not an expert in any of them and at best probably knows the basics of these styles. If he is a real martial artist he would have some respect for other styles instead of just claiming that his "chop suey" style is the best.

Yes, I am a grouchy dude to begin with but this type of stuff just frustrates the heck out of me. AAARRGH!!!!

The Basis of Fut Gar Kung Fu

As students progress in their Fut Gar Kung Fu training, they will become exposed to a variety of forms and training theories. I previously discussed the 5 Methods of Fut Gar Kung Fu which apply to Leung Tin Chiu Fut Gar's theory during free fighting scenarios. As you learn the forms (empty hand or weapon), you will see that they are based on 2 main theories. These theories are described by Grandmaster Chen Rong En as Fei Loong and Fook Fu.

Fei Loong is the Flying Dragon group of techniques. They include the training of your wrists through circling them and teach things such as reversing a grab (Siu Fei Loong) and breaking a grab followed by a strike (Dai Fei Loong).

Fook Fu is the Tiger Taming group of techniques and include control and strike (Dan Fook Fu) and double downward strikes (Seung Fook Fu).

Along with these are a mixture of of other dragon and tiger techniques such as Seung Loong Chut Hoi. There are also some complete forms that focus on improving these techniques such as Chin Jaang (Whole Elbow) which is known in some places as Loong Jow (Dragon Claw) because of the focus on the dragon techniques.

As Fut Gar students learn staff forms, the focus does not move away from these theories. Students of the style will learn Fook Fu Gwun (Tiger Taming Staff) and later, Fei Lung Gwun (Flying Dragon Staff) which I spoke about in a previous post.

While training in the style, looking for these theories will help understand the basis of Fut Gar Kung Fu.

Why Kick in Kung Fu?

Fut Gar Kung Fu is clearly not a kicking style. In case it is not clear in watching the forms, you definitely can take the hint from the name of the techniques. Within Fut Gar there are a bit over 100 techniques. Kicks in the form are all called Fei Geuk. What does that mean? Flying Foot...the last time I checked, none of the kicks in Fut Gar forms are jumping kicks. The best explanation I have ever gotten is that you foot flies off the ground.

Understanding that Fut Gar is not a kicking style of Kung Fu, we also need to understand why we learn to kick and practice to be proficient at kicking. Here is a list of reasons:

• You could be injured in a fight and lose the ability to use your arm but still need to continue fighting
• Your legs are another weapon that can be used...why not keep the option open?
  
• At certain times in a fight, your legs might be able to reach an open target area that your hands cannot reach
• Learning to kick also allows you to understand the legs as a weapon if you are against an opponent that likes to kick
• Legs are strong - if you train equally in kicking and punching, I believe your kicks would generate more power than your hand strikes
• Kicking training also helps improve your balance
  
• Kicking is cool...the fancier the kick, the cooler you look
  

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.
  

The Most Important Weapon in Martial Arts

Martial Arts, especially Chinese Kung Fu contains many types of weapons. There can be much debate over which is the strongest weapon or the most useful weapon but it is clear that one weapon is the most important weapon to be taught in a school. That weapon is the staff or stick.

The main reasons that this is the most important weapon are:

• It is the base weapon for all weapons. This is the reason it is known as the "Father (or Grandfather) of all Weapons" in Chinese Martial Arts. This means that staff techniques are the foundation for forms with other weapons.
• If a school is going to teach weapons, staff is likely the one that is taught. It is unlikely that you would find a school that only teaches one weapon and have it be something other than staff.
• For the above reason, schools can be judged on their staff forms by other schools. Not all schools teach another weapon outside of staff so it would be impossible for those schools to compare with other schools.
• For beginning weapons practitioners, it requires the least amount of precision as they are learning to use the weapon. Although you learn to strike towards the end of the staff, you would still do damage with a proper strike that is further down the shaft. Being round, it also eliminates the need to know where the cutting edge of the weapon is such as when using sword.It is the most accessible weapon in surprise combat situations. You are more likely to find a stick on the ground than a sword.

Staff is one of four weapons that are considered foundation weapons in Kung Fu. These are the foundation weapons because all other weapons techniques can relate back to these four weapons. Although the staff is the base, there are some more specialized techniques taught in the other foundation weapons. The others are:

• Broadsword (Dao) known as the "Marshall or General of all Weapons"
• Straight Sword (Gim) known as the "Gentleman or Prince of all Weapons"
• Spear (Cheung) known as the "King of all Weapons"

To further classify the weapons into weapon types you will often see a generalization of weapon types. The members of my school use the breakdown of Long Weapon, Short Weapon and Flexible Weapon. I have seen other classifications such as medium weapon or special weapon but do not believe these are necessary.

Get The Facts Straight - Or Don't Try to be a Kung Fu Historian!!!

It's finally time for me to rant about this website in Australia which is magically making up some details about the Fut Gar Style. This guy would have had the same degree of accuracy if he went on YouTube and randomly chose some forms and listed them as forms taught in the Fut Gar style.

Their site says:

There are now ten empty-hand forms starting with a hard, almost karate-like form, all the way to an internal form similar to taiji quan. The forms are:
· Seah Ying Diu Sau (Snake Form)
· Tai Ji Kuen (Prince's Form)
· Bak Mok (White Hair)
· Lohan Kuen (Monk's Fist)
· Dai Lin Wan (Large Connection)
· Dai Gum Gong (Big Solid Body)
· Chut Yup Bo (Out In Step)
· Maang Fu Ha San (Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain)
· Tien Jaang (Complete Elbow)

First of all this guy can't count....he has listed 9 forms when he says there are ten. Secondly there are 11 hand forms in the Fut Gar system but the last form was traditionally only taught to the most senior, loyal students of the style...don't worry, all my students will have the opportunity to learn the form at some time :) Thirdly only 4 of the forms listed were actually Fut Gar forms.

So...why do I care?
Reason #1: As someone that has been asked to continue the lineage of Leung Tin Chiu's Fut Gar Kung Fu, I like to see as much information as possible available to the world but it would be nice if the information were correct.

Reason #2: This person basically scraped my school's website for any mention of form names and included them in his site...it is clear from our website that although we focus on Fut Gar, we also teach Lama and Choy Li Fut at our school so we list some of those forms on our site. The list of forms are all forms that are listed on my site and definitely are not a combination of forms that are taught anywhere else...it is impossible to "acquire" the list from anywhere else.

Reason #3: No attempt was made to contact us for clarification that the information they were quoting was correct. I am happy to help with appropriate information when asked and would definitely have clarified.

How do I know that the information was scraped from my site? Since he linked to my site, I know he has read my site.

So then they talk about weapons:

The nine original weapons were staff, spear, straight sword, broadsword, butterfly swords, kwan do, tiger fork, three-sectional staff, and the monk's spade. Some of Fut Gar weapons’ forms include:
· Hak Loong Dao (Black Dragon Broadsword)
· Fook Fu Gwun (Tiger Taming Staff)
· Ng Ma Quite Show (Five Horses Returning to the Feeding Post Staff)
· Loong Chien Gim (Dragon Well Sword)

Nice try again.....but only 2 of the forms listed are Fut Gar forms. Once again, these forms are taken off of my site and an assumption was made that they are Fut Gar. On top of that, in our branch Fut Gar Kung Fu there were not nine original weapons. Not sure where this information came from....could it be from some pictures on the website? To be clear, Fut Gar focuses on hand forms, staff forms and has one straight sword form....that is it.

To be fair, they did includes some other information that seems correct and I appreciate the attempt by this person/people to create some sort of background on Fut Gar for the benefit of their students but truly believe that they would have been better off telling the truth when it came to some of the things I have mentioned....they just don't know!!!

Fut Gar Flying Dragon Staff - YouTube

Here are a couple of YouTube videos of some people training on Flying Dragon Staff techniques. This is the most famous staff form in the Fut Gar style and was known as the "King of Staff Forms" in China. The person may or may not be a Fut Gar person but those that know the form will see the techniques here.





I encourage my students to view these videos for interest and to see some interesting uses of the staff techniques...I agree with some and disagree with some but remember that I always teach that a technique that is incorrect in theory becomes correct if you can prove/execute it successfully in a fighting situation. They identify the people in the videos but I don't know them. If they were serious Fut Gar practitioners, Sigung will know them so I will try to remember to ask him.

I am not sure if it is for demo/practice purposes but I can't stop wondering why the people are getting knocked down or off balance so easily...am I missing a rock that they keep tripping on? I also wonder why they allow themselves to be locked up by a staff....it is not a joint lock where you have to break out, you can let go of the staff before the opponent has levered you into the ground. Hopefully they were happily playing along with the training and not hanging on to the staff for dear life just because they didn't know what to do.

The 5 Methods of Fut Gar Kung Fu

In Siu Lum (Shaolin) Fut Gar Kung Fu the practitioner is guided by a set of theories on the way to be most successful in combat situations. It is important over time to ensure that these theories become automatic in the practioner's way of practice and eventually automatic in fighting situations.

These guiding principles are known as the 5 Methods of Fut Gar Kung Fu:

1. Keep your heart open
2. Ensure your eyes are clear
3. Hand movements are quick
4. Body movements are quick
5. Keep your foundation moving

Students of The National Fut Gar Kung Fu Training Centre are taught the indepth meaning of the 5 methods over time, the 5 consequences of not integrating the methods into their fighting as well as how these are tied together by 5 theories of engagement. As these are the basic principles behind Fut Gar's fighting theory, all Fut Gar schools in the Leung Tin Chiu Fut Gar system incorporate these into their training.