What Can A Kung Fu Student Do?

Every single student in a class progresses and improves...I guarantee that as long as you go to classes and put in some effort, you will improve.  The more important thing is how to maximize your training.  Each person learns at a different pace so here are some tips to help do your best.

1. Learn something every class - This does not mean that you need to learn a new technique or a new part of your form every class.  What I mean is that you need to listen to corrections from your instructor, discover a more effective way to execute a technique that you know, remember that move that you always get stuck on, etc.
2. Retain what you learn - Once you learn something in class, you need to ensure that you remember that for next class.  To progress you need to be able to retain your past learning and execute on them so you can focus on learning more instead of relearning something.
3. Find your capacity - How much can you learn and retain?  This is different in every person.  Some people can learn and retain one thing each class while others might be able to learn and retain more things.  Kung Fu is not a contest so don't worry about someone else's pace.  
4. Repeat - Repetition is the thing that will give your body the muscle memory to execute a technique or form.  Ensure that you are spending your time repeating what you learn.
5. Question yourself - Ask yourself if you are actually doing this correctly as you practice.  Ask yourself if you understand why you are doing something.  Ask yourself what you can work on to make your techniques better.
6. Listen - So many lessons are taught in our classes.  Instructors are teaching students, senior students are teaching junior students, fellow students are discussing techniques with each other, etc.  Listen to what is being taught and hopefully you will catch a few pieces of information that you may not have known before.
7. Show up physically - During my career as an instructor I have been fortunate enough to be in situations where I could almost always be available for classes.  The harder part is being in the habit of going to class on days when you are tired or would prefer to be doing something else.  
8. Show up mentally - Once you have arrived in class it is now time to prepare to focus.  Get yourself prepared to pay attention to the instructors and focus on the techniques you are working on.
9. Be proud of yourself - You work hard and continue to improve.  Martial arts training is a journey that can last a lifetime so be sure that you remind yourself that you have continued when hundreds, thousands or millions of others did not continue after starting.   

Learn A Bit At A Time

Learning Kung Fu is not an exact science.  Each student learns at a different pace and has different levels of natural ability, coordination, learning aptitude, focus and self motivation.  Everybody loves learning new techniques and forms but it is important to remember to take your tome to allow your body and mind to absorb the new material.  It is natural to think that you can absorb more than you were taught but it is best to channel that energy into repetitions of the things you learned in the current and past classes.  It is almost impossible to be correct without repeated execution.  Remember to take as much joy in improving as you do in learning new.  This will greatly increase your overall result over time.

Tournament Training

The next CCKSF Kung Fu tournament is being planned for October this year. Students that are interested in competing should start thinking about it and slowly begin to prepare.

Although it isn't necessary to do any kind of special training, it is a way to increase your chances. For anybody that is interested in trying, here are some tips on preparing.

Forms:

1. Decide which form(s) you will be performing and make sure that it gets some exposure during your workout even on days that you are focused on other things. Just running throught the forms a couple of times continues to build on your muscle memory.


2. Clarify any confusion you have on the techniques of your form now. This prevents trying to make late stage changes the week before a tournament.


3. Self regulate - look at your stances, look at your body positioning, look at your techniques. The less time we spend on correcting your form, the more time we have to work on improving your form.


4. As we get close to tournament time, shift your focus to the forms you will be using for competition. Since there are other forms with the same or similar moves in the style, it is best to avoid confusion.


5. Prior to tournament day, make sure you are comfortable with the routine of the tournament - introduction, procedures, etc. If you are not sure, ask.

Fighting:

1. Fighting is much more difficult to prepare for because your opponents are unknown. Start by making sure you get a bit of practice in whenever possible, even if it is just working on specific techniques instead of free sparring.


2. Make sure to practice against various opponents instead of just one regular sparring partner. This will give you some work with different fighting personalities, different favourite moves, different sizes and different levels of aggressiveness.


3. Vary your fighting style between aggressive and passive to give you options depending on situations that may arise during the tournament fights.


4. As you get closer to tournament time, make sure you take some time to fight in more aggressive situations. Make sure your partner agrees and have some of the instructors watching...this will simulate some of the more aggressive tendancies that come out during the tournaments.


5. Well before tournament day you should review the rules to make sure there are no surprises.


6. Make sure that you are prepared to have fun and learn from the tournament whether you win or lose.

I want to be clear that this preparation is optional. The main idea is to compete to experience the atmosphere, push yourself out of your comfortable setting of your school, see what other styles do and make a few new friends so those students that choose to go without preparing can still have a valuable experience. As you gain more experience in martial arts, you will find that you can be asked to perform without much notice so it is much better to be prepared all the time.

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.

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.

Respect Your Weapons

Kung fu practitioners will learn weapons at some point in their training. This is always an exciting and fun time in a student's training, especially the first weapon. Something to keep in mind is the respect for your weapon. This is something that has become forgotten in some schools. A few hints when you are training:

• Always be aware of your surroundings - this helps avoid hitting your weapon on something (or someone)
• Don't throw your weapon around - when not using your weapon, put it down slowly
• A lesser known one for you that only more traditional Sifus would know - when standing holding your staff, don't place it on the ground but instead you should be resting it on your foot
• Respect also goes to other students' weapons - do not touch someone's weapon without asking for permission

It is important to have your own weapon because each weapon will feel a little bit different. Getting used to your weapon and the feel of it will improve your performance. For this reason, it is even more important to take care of your weapon.

5 Staff Hints

I would like to begin this post by reiterating the importance of staff in Kung Fu which I wrote about in a previous post. It is further reinforced when you look at the list of weapons forms taught in Fut Gar Kung Fu. I previously also wrote about defending with your staff. There are a few other hints in using a staff that will help you in your training.

1. In my post about defending with your staff, I mentioned a dead staff. The other side of it is the live staff which is the staff that is on top when there is contact. If you are in this situation during an exchange, you can choose to attack if you see an opening or wait to see if the opponent moves. When you are in the live staff position, almost any move by the opponent will create an opening which you can attack.
2. During your execution of techniques, keep your staff close to your body. An experienced opponent will be able to separate you from your staff if they can get their staff between your staff and your body.
3. Be very aware of where the end of your staff is. This applies to other weapons as well and basically is getting to know your weapon length so you can control it properly. You will also learn to be aware of your surroundings and which techniques will work given the space and environment restrictions.
4. Keep your hands at the end of your staff. When blocking or striking, your back hand should be at the end of the staff to fully use the length of your weapon. There are some techniques that would be exceptions to this hint but in general this is true.
5. Slide your front hand for power. Gripping your weapon too hard to allow movement in your hand will limit the power of your strikes and blocks. As you strike or block, allow the staff to slide through your hands for additional power.

Happy Training.

The Mistake With Lower Stances

A note that I brought up in a few of my recent classes is the mistake that students often make when trying to lower your stances. This directly relates to my last blog entry about improving the look of your forms. The mistake that is made is to lower the stances by widening them. This is not the correct way of lowering most stances. The lowering of stances should be done by further bending of the knees instead of widening the distance between your feet. Of course this all has to be done without allowing yourself to bend over (another habit that I notice in students trying to lower stances). This will help in further improving the look of your forms.

1 Quick Change to Improve the Look of Your Form

There is one very easy way to improve the look of your form. As you perform, your body gets used to executing the techniques at a particular height. One very quick way to impact the look of your form is to lower the stances slightly from your normal height. Practice at the new height and over time your form will sink to that height. When showing the form, it is easier to remember to stay low than to remember all the little points that you need to fix in the form so this is one of the quickest changes you can make for immediate results.

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.

Why Are You Here?

This is more of a curious entry but I thought I would throw it out anyway.

I have had some discussions with students on why they joined my class and have always loved hearing the reasons. What might be even more interesting is why you stayed with the class as some of the students have been with me for over 20 years. I would welcome any comments on this either here or during class. I am also always curious if the reasons you joined Kung Fu held up or if you train for different reasons now. If it was a movie, I would like to hear that you joined Kung Fu to get revenge on some evil martial artist only to decide that you no longer need revenge but decided to stick around anyway because the Sifu was soooooo cool :)

One more question....if you changed your reason for training, was it because you achieved your initial goal?

Summer Training Tips

A few tips to my students as we hit summer training.

1. Bring water and make sure you drink it. The room will get warm as we train so make sure you are prepared.
2. Be motivated to come to class no matter how uncomfortably hot it is outside. This is a great time to challenge yourself to stick to your training schedule even when there are other summer distractions.
3. Remember my notes from last summer.
4. The warmer temperatures are a better time to improve your stretching as your muscles are looser. Keep working on your stretching between classes to capitalize on the heat.
5. Sweat is not icky...it is your proof that you are working hard :)

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.

When Should Kids Learn Kung Fu?

Although I don't teach a regular children's class at this time, I have often been asked what age is ideal for kids to begin Kung Fu training. The real answer is as soon as they are able to focus for an entire class and understand instructions.

My recommended earliest age for children to begin training is around age 5. Some kids are able to start younger if they show the maturity to stay mentally engaged throughout the class. The best situation is to have them training in a class designed specifically for kids instead of having them in with a group of adults but sometimes there is no choice.

The 1 Question To Ask Yourself

How do you motivate yourself to go to class or train when there are so many reasons not to. Whether you are thinking to yourself; I'm tired, I don't feel good, I had a bad day, I forgot a change of clothes, I am not mentally up to it today, I am busy, I would rather be shopping, I am sore from last class, I don't feel like driving to class, I don't want to go out in the rain or any other reason that can prevent you from training, there is one question that will remind you of the importance of pushing yourself to train.

That question is "On the street, would an attacker care that [insert excuse here]?" The answer to this question is no. An attacker does not care that you are tired or did not stretch yet or are in your dress clothes or that you wear glasses or any other reason that you can think of. I am not saying that we do not need an occasional break from training. My students know that I believe we all need short breaks during our lifetime of training but there are times where there is a decision on whether or not to train when it is time to leave for class (instead of staying on the couch) on a given night. Those are the nights that you need to ask yourself the one question.

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)

Horse Stance Training

All styles of Kung Fu stress the importance of stances. Regardless of which stances are most important to your particular style, you are probably still asked to do some sort of horse stance training. I have often been asked by students about how to practice/train stances.

The base stance for practice is the horse stance. Once again, depending on the style the proper technique can differ. I recommend the student take the time to understand the proper way to do a horse stance in their particular style. Understanding this is important to ensure that the student practices properly on their own.

The next question is normally how to practice, high stances or low stances. The answer is both. I recommend higher stances for long periods of time while doing something else such as watching TV to take your mind off of shaky legs. I also think it is important to practice proper stances in the lowest possible position to train your legs to hold your weight at that height. You will never fight in your lowest stance but training your legs to be comfortable in a low position will help when you need to be in a lower than possible position.

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.

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.

Kung Fu and Natural Response to Stress

Your body's natural stress response is divided into three stages. These are alarm, resistance and exhaustion. The stages of a confrontation can also be divided into these same stages.

Alarm is the initial stage. This is the initial confrontation where a decision on fight or flight must be made. In Kung Fu it is always preferable to avoid confrontation but there are times when a fight is necessary. Each person must quickly be able to assess the situation and make a determination on whether or not a fight is necessary. If a fight is necessary, the next assessment should be how to quickly end the fight or escape the situation. In a physical confrontation this is an important as the wrong decision can be disastrous.

Resistance is your natural attempt to store things to normal by eliminating the cause of stress. In a fight this is the desire to return yourself to a safe state. This is a result of disabling your opponent, fleeing the fight, or fighting until the opportunity arises to escape. Once you have returned things to a normal state your body will slowly return to its pre-alarm state as well (heart rate, adrenaline, blood flow, etc.)

In a case where you cannot return things to normal through resistance, your body will become exhausted and start to show strain through the onset of minor health issues and later more serious issues. In a physical confrontation, the results can unfortunately be much more drastic as this is the point where you would be unsuccessful in the fight.

Through training in Kung Fu we are developing some moderators that can influence how we deal with these situations. We learn to remain calmer during confrontations, be more confident in a positive outcome, be physically prepared to absorb some damage if necessary, how to properly execute techniques that would end the confrontation and how to defend against physical attacks. Your personality is the other factor that will play into the outcome as each individual has different ways of dealing with confrontation.