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.

Old Fut Gar Article

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



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

Frustrating But Funny

Just an fyi for any of the students who have tried to email me recently. Someone (not one of our students) sent through a couple of huge files to me and completely locked up my email account. It should be fixed soon but you probably got bounced messages if you tried to reach me in the last week or so.

How is this funny? I can only laugh because my first thought was "this is what happens when you give old Kung Fu Instructors an email address"

Be back in touch soon!!!

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.

Fun Reminder Slideshow

I was digging through old pictures and was reminded of a slideshow from one of my old posts. Some of the newer students may not have seen this - October 2008

The 21st Annual Canadian Kung Fu Championship 2010

October 16th will be the date for this year's CCKSF tournament. Information can be viewed at www.wushu.ca

A Few More Pictures from Grandmaster Chen's 88th Birthday