Pearls of Wisdom

Some call it a sport. Some call it a martial art. Some call it Chinese Kickboxing.  What exactly is San Da?

The term “San Da”, also known as San Shou, translates to “free fighting” and is a modern hand-to-hand self-defense system and combative sport. San Da includes kicks, punches, throws, locks, grappling, and submission techniques. It is seen as a component of traditional Chinese martial arts systems and is usually taught alongside other kung fu fighting techniques.

The early forms of San Da were usually bare-knuckle brawls on a raised platform called a Lei Tai Mat. San Da would then be adopted by the Chinese military as a way to practice empty handed martial arts skills, techniques, and ability. Later on the use of rules and protective equipment were incorporated and San Da became a more formalized combative sport.

The modern versions of San Da can be seen at various tournaments alongside forms competitions. In amateur San Da matches, competitors wear the full array of safety equipment including gloves, headgear, mouthpieces, cups and shin guards. Referees supervise the matches and strictly enforce the rules. Competitors score points for clean kicks and punches, takedowns, and for forcing the opposing fighter out of the ring. Today, it is not uncommon to see San Da fighters participate in a variety of modern day combative arts competitions including kickboxing, Muay Thai and mixed martial arts (MMA) tournaments.

Weather you call San Da a sport, a martial art, or just plain Chinese Kickboxing, San Da always places an importance on real world fighting ability and is seen as a way to practice Kung Fu theory, application and training methods.

Learn more about San Da, Kickboxing, MMA or Grappling in San Diego: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu March 2001

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

There’s more to qigong (chi kung) than what you do. Whether or not your qigong practice improves your health and well-being also depends on where you practice. Your qigong environment is critical to the success of your qigong practice.

My own qigong teacher, professor Peng Si Yu , emphasized the importance of practice in the right environment. He believed that where and how you practice is as important as your practice technique. Here are a few tips toward better qigong practice.

Do not practice either meditation or qigong exercises in a room that contains mirrors or large metal objects, such as a furnace. Your qi (chi) energy can bounce back to you from a mirror or metal object, causing a disruption in your body’s energy flow. This may cause energy blockages that can make you dizzy, disoriented or even ill. Do not stand directly in front of a mirror or metal object. Instead face something non-reflective, such as a regular wall.

Do not practice deep meditation outside or in a drafty room. When you are in a deep meditation your pores open. Open pores can absorb drafts, causing you to become ill. If you sweat when you practice standing meditation, change to a clean, dry shirt immediately after standing.

For those who like to practice outside, only do qigong moving exercises or exercises that require your eyes be open. Moving exercises absorb yang energy produced by the many plants outside. Since qigong moving exercises are designed to teach you to move your qi within or outside your body, extra yang energy helps keep qi flowing smoothly.

The best direction to face when practicing qigong is south. Other directions, except north, are acceptable, however south is best. Because north represents a strong magnetic force, it pulls body cells just enough out of their correct alignment to disturb qi flow. South, being the opposite of north, allows the body to relax and qi flow to move smoothly throughout the body.

Do not practice qigong, especially meditation, with either a full or empry stomach. If your stomach is either too full or too empty it draws blood from the skin to the abdominal area. When you practice qigong you need to have a balanced blood flow throughout your body, providing even qi flow.

When you practice standing meditation take your shoes off to let your feet spread naturally. Then stand on thick, soft carpet to prevent the feet from getting cold. If any part of your body is too cold, your muscles will contract and restrict qi flow to that part of your body.

Do not wear any restrictive or tight clothing for qigong practice. This includes a tight belt or jewelry, especially an elastic band watch. Tight clothing or jewelry restricts qi flow.

If you pay attention to these practice tips you’ll find your qigong practice noticeably improved and your qi development accelerated.

Doc Fai Wong writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung-Fu.

To learn more about the many benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Throughout man’s long history of unarmed combat, you would think there would be one standardized fighting style. With the fighting experience and background that fills each country’s history books, man should have found the best method of dealing with assailants and made is popular throughout the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Not all fighting systems use the same self-defense techniques, with some radically different from others—employing techniques that imitate fighting animals or believing that the best defense is to directly withstand the blow, rather than block it. There are those who prefer long, circular hand movements, while others claim that only straight, direct, short hand techniques are truly effective.

Chinese martial arts are a perfect example of differences in successful fighting styles. Southern Chinese kung fu systems typically use many short hand movements, with straight punches predominating. At the other extreme, Northern styles prefer long hand actions along with relaxed flowing circular power.

One of the best-known theories about the difference between southern and northern Chinese martial arts describes Southern Chinese as mostly farmers who worked with their hands and squatted in the fields in low stances. Supposedly, they were more muscular than Northerners, unable to kick high and using short explosive power when they punched.

Northerners, on the other hand, were considered more scholarly, with primarily military men engaged in martial arts, riding horseback and developing strong, flexible legs for high kicks. Since they did not perform manual labor with their hands, Northern Chinese fighters had less muscle mass, using long distance arm techniques with active footwork. Of course, remembering that this is a general theory and not a definite fact, there are exceptions.

One of the exceptions is the Southern Chinese martial art Choy Li Fut, a long range, circular hand fighting style with quick, active footwork—the opposite of what Southern Chinese kung fu is supposed to look like. Choy li fut is one of the most popular kung fu styles in the Orient, having a great number of practitioners and tournament fighting competitors. It is equally popular in the United States’ West Coast, with almost every major city containing at least one Choy Li Fut school.

Choy li fut’s founder, Chan Heung, had three different teachers, two were Southerners who had studied at China’s southern Shaolin temple in Fukien, and the other, a northern Shaolin monk.

The fighting techniques employed by monks of the northern Shaolin temple showed strong influences from one of China’s oldest kung fu systems, Chang Chuan (long fist). Chang chuan is characterized by smooth flowing, long circular hand techniques. As Chan Heung combined the teachings of his three instructors, he developed a unique fighting style utilizing long range circular blitz-like strokes that drew their power from strong active stances and footwork.

Choy Li Fut is unique because it does not really resemble either Southern or Northern kung fu systems, combining both types into one fighting style. Although Choy Li Fut and most northern Chinese martial art systems use long-distance hand tactics, Choy Li Fut’s power comes from explosive waist, shoulder, and hip movements. Northern styles, such as northern shaolin, utilize quick snapping power produced from quick footwork.

Much of Choy Li Fut’s footwork resembles that or northern Chinese kung fu rather than the almost stationary stances of popular southern styles such as Wing Chun or Hung Gar. While Wing Chun and Hung Gar often stay in one position, only advancing one foot at a time, Choy L Ft uses the running horse stances of northern kung fu, giving Choy Li Fut quick active footwork.

Southern Chinese martial arts like Wing Chun and Hung Gar are famous for their short, straight punches. Wing Chun uses a rapid-fire attack to the opponent’s centerline, disabling him, while hung gar proponents like to overwhelm their opposition with sheer strength of muscles developed through isometric exercises called won kiu.

Choy Li Fut has its own characteristic long-range circular hand techniques. They are the basics for most types of circular hand techniques and are not broken down into offensive and defensive, since at the advanced level offensive hands are simultaneously defensive and offensive.

Do not get the idea that Choy Li Fut is restricted only to empty hand techniques. This fast moving southern Chinese martial art also contains a vast array of kung fu weapon forms. The two standard weapons in Choy Li fut are the staff and broadsword, reflecting long and short weapon techniques. Long weapons like the Kwan-Do (General Kwan’s knife), spear, and gold coin spade also make appearances in Choy Li Fut. Of course, short weapons are not limited to the broadsword. The straight double-edged sword is another Choy Li Fut short weapon.

Other weapons may fall into the double weapon category, such as butterfly knives, double axes, and hook swords, or flexible weapons, represented by the chain whip, three section staff and two section staff. There’s even a special category for typically southern implement weapons, such as the tiger fork (trident), horse bench and fan. These are only a few of Choy Li Fut’s many weapons.

Not only is Choy Li Fut one of the most popular fighting styles in the Orient, it also contains one of the widest varieties. Aside from hand and weapon forms, there are also a number of wooden dummies to train on. Choy Li Fut is truly a martial art with something for everyone.

To learn more about Choy Li Fut Kung Fu log onto:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu March 1993

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Within Chinese martial arts, every school and teacher has their way of teaching etiquette. Some are more traditional and others more casual.

If you visit another school, you should know a few things that will not offend the other instructor. If the other school has an altar honoring the system’s past masters, make sure you bow or salute toward the altar as a sign of respect for those who led that style. Do not touch or handle another school’s weapons or training equipment without permission from the instructor or senior students.

When observing a class or workout, do not carry on a conversation with someone sitting next to you. Although you might have something to talk about that doesn’t related to the class, people who don’t know you may ting you are making joke or criticizing them. So, talk later. Remember, those people working out have no idea what you are saying and may react defensively to your laugh or smile.

Now, what about your own school? If your entire school has a dinner out, with more than one table, arrange with the waiter to serve food to the instructor or VIP table first. Since they usually sit at round tables, Chinese table manners dictate that you don’t have to pass the food around by picking up plates. Most large round tables in Chinese restaurants have lazy Susan turning wheels. Just rotate the wheel to bring food to you. Again, make sure your teacher or seniors get first choice as you rotate the Susan. If the table doesn’t have a lazy Susan and there are three or four courses on the table, it’s all right to stand up and reach over to the other side of the table to get the food. If someone reaches for the same plate, don’t clash chopsticks; let the other person go first.

When eating in a Chinese restaurant, it’s appropriate to hold the bowl in one hand and the chopsticks in the other hand. Scooping the rice directly from bowl to mouth with the chopsticks is also acceptable. Use the serving spoon to pick up food from its plate and place it directly into your bowl only one course at a time. The plate in front of you normally is used only for bones and leftovers. It is not good Chinese table manners to take a little of everything to put on a plate in advance, Western style.

When taking pictures with instructors and senior students, always let the master sit down in the front row, with you standing behind. If the occasion is a big get-together, always invite you teacher or the highest seniority person to sit in the middle of the front row. Other VIPs with high seniority can sit on either side of the middle.

Although you might be the event’s host, you should still stand in the second row in the middle, behind your teacher. Even if there are celebrities or movie stars present, if they are very young or lower seniority martial artists than your teacher and other instructors, invite them to stand next to you in the second row-not sit in the front row.

Never sit in the front row with your teacher for photos, unless your teacher wants you to. If that happens, your teacher should be directly in the center, with you at his side. Never let your teacher or someone higher ranked than you stand behind the front row.

Some instructors might like you to call them by their first name; in that case you may do it in the school, but outside the school address your teacher and other instructors by their title and last name only. Remember, not all teachers want to be called by the first name. In general, most Chinese do not like to be called by their first name, unless you are the same generation, level or ranking - and then still not in public.

I see people at tournaments, not knowing correct martial art etiquette, salute with the right fist while their left hand holds a weapon. The correct salute is with the right hand in a palm position, rather than a fist. Although the normal bow is left palm over a right fist, since in this case the left hand is holding something (the weapon), there is nothing to cover your fist. The fist is covered only because it is the punching weapon.

Remember these etiquette tips and you won’t offend your own or a visiting instructor.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Kung Fu and Tai Chi visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu 1982

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Today’s Kung-Fu is not like 10 or 20 years ago. Now more people understand Chinese martial arts. Although there are plenty of unqualified teachers around, Americans try their best to learn real Kung-Fu and promote and promote their systems.

If Chinese martial arts have a failing in the Untied States, it’s because we need more qualified instructors, teaching full-time as professionals. So far pure Kung-Fu schools are few and far between. When you open Yellow Pages, you don’t find too many kung-fu schools. There are plenty of schools that advertise Kung-Fu, along with Karate, Ninjitsu, and anything else that you want to learn. Those are what we call “chop-suey” martial arts, taught by people who have mixed everything together, trying to sell whatever they think the public wants. They aren’t pure Kung-Fu systems.

There is a problem with these mixed-up styles. Many of the instructors learned a little here and a little there, but not enough for a full understanding of what they are trying to teach. They may teach fancy movements without knowing the applications, leaving their students seriously compromised in real fighting situations. They may also cause their students internal and external injuries through incorrect training practices, such as improper breathing methods, or dangerous techniques.

There are also a lot of Chinese teaching kung-fu from Hong Kong or Taiwan who once learned a little Kung-Fu. Then they come to this country maybe as a restaurant cook and tart teaching kung-fu or tai chi as a sideline business after working hours. Later, because these instructors were only part-time students, then part-time teachers, their schools close, leaving many students without a teacher. Unable to find a good instructor those students try learning from a book or a videotape, and the quality of their Kung-Fu drops even lower.

However, Americans have a great appetite for Kung-Fu. A large number of non-Chinese instructors make frequent trips to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China to learn directly from the Chinese martial arts experts. They do it because they know that we have a need for qualified teachers here. They can recognize the difference between true traditional Chinese martial arts and the “chop-suey” systems.

I don’t believe that today’s Kung-Fu has reached maturity. The few good teachers are located mostly on the East and West coasts, leaving the nation’s Midwest Kung-Fu starved. Many of this nation’s “chop-suey” schools spring up in areas where there are few good teachers.

There are more and more Chinese teachers coming here for temporary visits, teaching and spreading their martial arts. Many of them are Wushu (China’s new acrobatic martial art) coaches from Mainland China who teach only Wushu gymnastic exercises.

Occasionally traditional Kung-Fu experts from China visit the United States for short periods of time, teaching only pure tai chi or Kung-Fu. The only problem with visiting instructors or with the people that make only one trip abroad for a few weeks or a month is that there‘s not enough time to learn. It’s long enough to learn a Wushu form, but not enough to understand higher training levels like fighting applications or internal strengths. Only those Americans who stay in Asia for a long period or make frequent serious study trips should be called qualified Kung-Fu teachers.

In another ten years, things here will have changed. More Americans will have learned good Chinese martial arts from instructors here and abroad. Their knowledge will be at a higher level. At this moment, the quality of American Kung-Fu depends on us, American-based instructors, both Chinese and non-Chinese. We have to develop future experts from our own students. Our responsibility is to give them our best knowledge and help them become teachers. If our best students don’t become teachers, we won’t have enough people to promote our traditional systems.

The future starts now. I want to pass on my kung-fu and tai chi systems, not only to Chinese, but to anyone who wants to study and promote the martial arts they way they were intended to be practiced..

Americans are human beings like everybody else. Some people may say they aren’t built right physically, or they don’t understand Chinese philosophies, but the Chinese even say that about other Chinese. Northerners say that Southern Chinese aren’t built right for northern kung-fu. I see a lot of Southern Chinese do Northern Kung-Fu as well as Northern people, so why would Americans not be as good as Chinese? I have also seen Caucasian and Black Wushu stylists who do their forms just as well as Wushu people from Mainland China.

Actually, Americans have the potential to be better than Chinese at kung-fu and Tai Chi. They have more leisure time, more expense money and better nutrition. Americans consider martial arts a treasure, so they put more effort into learning and understanding Kung-Fu than do many people in the Orient. Americans have more time for diligent practice. They have more money and freedom to travel to whatever teacher they choose. For example, the average Chinese from Guangzhou can’t go to Beijing to learn from a high-level, because they don’t have they don’t have the time or money for travel and study. Even if they did have the resources, what would they do with it? They can’t make a living teaching martial arts in China today. At least here, people can use what they learn as a profession, giving them more incentive to research and study every facet of their martial arts, rather than just give it up after a few years. There’s no reason American martial artists can’t be better than their Asian cousins.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about martial arts training in San Diego visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training For Life

Inside Kung Fu February 1987

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Yang style Tai Chi chuan is the most popular internal form practiced in the world. Although the current rage in China and the United States is Chen Tai Chi, recently organized as the origin of today’s tai chi styles. Yang style still remains the leader among internal styles.

Why is that? Yang Tai Chi is popular with its slow even tempo and can be practiced by everyone. However, the Chen style, which bases it’s form on hard and soft and fast and slow movements combined with low balanced stances is strictly for more limber, athletic people.

Many Chen stylists believe Yang Tai Chi Chuan is no longer a fighting style. They say it’s too soft, contains no “ging” (external power) and its good only for exercise. However, there are knowledgeable masters of the Yang style who develop ging through special exercises and practice the tai chi form in a martial manner.

People in China today practice a form of Yang Tai Chi called the short form, which consist of 24 movements and takes four to six minutes to complete. The short form is not a part of original Yang Tai Chi. The one legitimate form of Yang Tai Chi Chuan has over 100 movements and is referred to as the long form.

Today, there is confusion over how much time it should take to complete the long form. Accounts of Yang Tai Chi legendary master, Yang Cheng Fu talk of a long form taking about 15 minutes to complete. Other stories return to forms lasting more than an hour.

Who is right? Both are right and wrong. As a martial art (the primary reason it was practiced by its originators), tai chi is an exciting style that requires pinpoint timing and the complete connection of the practitioner’s body into a unit of relaxed power. The only way to achieve those goals is to practice the form slowly and carefully, making sure all body movements fit together into a fluid pattern of soft power.

However, the form is practiced with intention and focus. Remember that tai chi chuan was originally designed as a martial art. Even as a health form it is more beneficial to promoting good health if some focus and intention are added to each movement.

For all indications, tai chi’s greatest masters took up to an hour to complete their forms. However, this way was not an hour of slow, even movement: it was 60 minutes of moving into one position checking and correcting the form, moving at regular speed into another position and repeating the procedure. The old masters also needed practice time to correct themselves.

The idea that the form should be slowed to last an hour is wrong. Performing the movements that slow will break the timing and natural flow of energy so necessary to tai chi chuan. When the Yang Long Form is practiced in this manner, it looses its martial art aspect.

In days past, practitioners were ready to move on to the martial form of Yang tai chi chuan only after spending years on the Long Form. As a rule, no matter how forceful or soft a fighter’s techniques are, they will all exhale after each strike. Their breathing patterns will naturally adjust to a one-breath, one-move rhythm, both to emit maximum power and conserve energy. Tai chi chuan is no different.

The Yang Long Form fits well into a pattern of one-breath, one-move actions, collecting and releasing strong connected power from relaxed movements. Remember, although this one-breath, one-move concept sounds easy, it will just be a jumble of unconnected, powerless moves without years of slow and smooth practice.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan’s only form should first be practiced slowly to develop timing and coordination. At the higher level, the same form, with the same connected movements is blended with breath control to produce a ten-minute fighting form.

I have been discussing tai chi chuan as a martial art. There are many who are only interested in its health benefits. There is nothing wrong with that, but as long as you intend to derive its health benefits, why not, at the same time, receive everything tai chi chuan has to offer.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi Chuan visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com