Training For Life April 1989

By Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

One of the biggest selling points of internal Chinese martial arts are their health and longevity benefits. You know, practice Tai Chi and life becomes better for you.

Well, that’s true. However, people question why several famous Tai Chi and Hsing-I masters have died at relatively young ages. If we who teach tai chi tell the public that internal martial arts promote longevity and health, why did these well-known masters die so soon?

Those people’s early deaths resulted from the lifestyles, not their martial art. Actually, if they didn’t know Tai Chi or another internal martial art, they probably would have died much sooner.

Well-known martial arts masters around the turn of this century had far different lifestyles than the ordinary martial teacher. They often worked for rich families, who exposed them to all of the excesses available to the wealthy – opium, women, alcohol, and gambling. Before long their social habits cut into their Tai Chi practice time. They spent more time gambling, drinking and carousing, and less time practicing Tai Chi. They ate more of the wrong foods, increasing their cholesterol levels and overtaxing their digestive tracts. The best tasting food was not always the healthiest food, especially when they didn’t get enough exercise to digest their extra fat.

They slept fewer hours, stressing themselves with addictive habits. In China, before the People’s Republic, the upper-class fashion was to smoke opium. Of course, only those who could afford it smoked it. Many great masters, whom I will not name, with respect for their martial arts fame and leadership, became wealthy from teaching government officials and rich families. Unfortunately, their opulent lifestyles outweighed their internal training, and they died young.

Not all famous internal martial arts teachers fell prey to temptation. Wu Tu-Nan, a Wu and Yang style Tai Chi expert, lives in Beijing. Wu is almost 105 years old, and he still practices tai chi every day. The author of many outstanding Chinese Tai Chi books, Wu is very healthy. He emphasizes three things for a long life – good nutrition, enough rest, and daily Tai Chi practice.

A well-known Tai Chi master is San Francisco and Taiwan, Kuo Lien-Yin lived into his late 80’s. Kuo also practiced Tai Chi every day, outliving several wives.

Professor Yu Peng-Si, one of the most renown Hsing-I (I-Chuan) masters of modern times, died in 1983 at age 83. He would probably be alive today, except that he suffered from acute diabetes. His demise came from complications caused by restaurant food that triggered a diabetic attack.

Professor Yu was once quoted as saying “If you want a long life get eight hours sleep every night, don’t eat a large meal right before you go to sleep, and don’t let yourself become emotionally upset.”

Professor Yu, also a distinguished medical doctor and full professor at the University of Shanghai, practiced his I-Chuan internal martial art every day until his final illness.

My own teacher, Hu Yuen-Chou (Woo Van-Cheuk in Cantonese), is 85 years old. He is famous in Hong Kong and Taiwan, having been a direct disciple of Yang tai chi’s leader, Yang Cheng-Fu. Hu practices and teaches tai chi every day. He is also a doctor, believing that daily exercise is a must for a long healthy life. Hu refrains from eating greasy foods. They are hard to digest and raise blood cholesterol levels.

These are just a few examples. There are many Tai Chi and other internal masters who have lived well into their 90s. I have observed many external martial arts teachers, younger than them, in the Orient who must use canes to walk and can no longer practice their martial arts.

I believe that the benefits of internal practice, living a long, healthy life, means that you should practice certain principles. Practice your martial art every day, staying relaxed and calm. Don’t overdo your workouts, but do enough. Stay away from other excesses, such as drugs, alcohol, and the wrong kinds of food. Get enough rest every night. Do these things, and you too may be teaching Tai Chi, Hsing-I, or paqua well into your 90s.

Discover the many health benefits of Kung Fu & Tai Chi: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Soft on the Streets

Inside Kung Fu Magazine February 2004

by Adrian Corrales

Tai Chi Push Hands for Self Defense

It seems that everyone has a different idea about what will work in a fight. Ask a thousand martial artists what kind of training is best for self-defense and you are likely to get a thousand different answers. Some say that punching and kicking is the way to go. Others claim that training on the ground is more practical. By dealing with what happens between kickboxing and grappling, tai chi push hands training can help prepare you for whatever comes your way.

No-holds-barred tournaments have shown time and again that it is very difficult to stop an opponent who is determined to take you down. Once things end up on the ground, much of a striker’s power is neutralized. The argument against grappling for self-defense is that it is effective only because no-hold-barred fights occur in a controlled environment. Dropping to the ground is harder to do on the streets when fights aren’t always limited to two people and you don’t know what kind of weapon your opponent might have hidden in his back pocket.

Charging Opponent

Tai chi offers an excellent supplement to any fighter’s routine. A skilled push hands player is an expert at staying on his feet. At the same time, he is capable of controlling an opponent with the expertise of a grappling master.

Sifu Ming Lau, chief instructor of the White Dragon Martial Arts School in Mira Mesa, Calif., is a student of sifu Don Tittle in grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong’s Plum Blossom Federation. A veteran of numerous push hands competitions, Lau maintains that push hands is an effective tool for self-defense.

“Push hands is a great self-defense exercise because it forces you to adapt to oncoming force that is constantly changing,” says Lau. He adds this adaptability is a valuable skill for anyone that wants to learn to fight.

Push hands teaches practitioners to either neutralize or redirect the force. Neutralizing works by applying pressure to an opponent to negate his incoming force. For example, let’s say a force is being applied to your left shoulder. By taking your right hand and placing it on the opponent’s left shoulder, you can easily turn your body and direct his energy back toward him. The force has been neutralized because he cannot push any further without disrupting his own balance. Redirection involves changing the course of an opponent’s attack. Small amounts of pressure are applied to the attacker’s arm or torso so that his force misses your center of balance. Advanced tai chi practitioners can accomplish the same thing merely by turning the body in response to an attacker’s force. This leaves the arms free to counter.

(more…)

Whether you do kung fu, tai chi, kickboxing or grappling, flexibility plays a key role in helping you to maximize your martial arts potential.  A good stretching program should have two primary goals.  The first is to help prevent injuries and the second should be to increase range of motion.  By having a foundational understanding of the different kinds of stretching methods and their correct order of performance, you will be able to achieve both goals.  Here is the breakdown.

1.  Dynamic Stretching: Dynamic stretches are stretches that involve movements like joint rotations and leg lifts.  These exercises are particularly important because they help your body gradually reach the limits of your range of motion while at the same time increasing core body temperature.  Dynamic stretches should be performed as part of you warm up routine before fatigue sets in.  As fatigue sets in, muscles become less pliable and more susceptible to injury.  Dynamic stretches also reset the stretch reflex or the muscle contraction that occurs as a result of stretching.  Dynamic stretches should be performed first.

2.  Isometric Stretching: Isometric stretches (sometimes called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation or PNF) are types of static stretches that involve the contraction (tensing) of muscle groups that are being stretched.  An example would be stretching your calf muscle then contracting the same muscle while it is being stretched. This type of stretching has shown involve a higher amount of muscle fiber than any other kind of stretching technique.  This type of stretching is also very effective because it will develop strength as well as flexibility.  Because of this, Isometric stretching should be performed after the technical part of your workout and should be used similar to other strength building exercises.  Perform isometric stretches toward the end of your training session.

3. Relaxed Stretching: Relaxed stretching is the most common type of stretching and involves stretching a body part to its maximum and holding it for a set amount of time.  This type of stretching has proven to be a very effective and safe method of stretching, but should be performed as part of your cool down.  Relaxed stretching can impair muscular performance because it reduces muscular strength temporarily.  It is for this reason that relaxed stretching should be avoided as part of your warm up routine.  Most studies have found that relaxed stretching does little to prepare the body for active movement because it does not elevate core body temperature or heart rate.

So here’s a breakdown on how a typical workout might look.  First start with a warm up that includes different kinds of dynamic stretching.  The goal of the warm up is to elevate core body temperature and increase the heart rate.  After a thorough warm up, move into the technical or skill building portion of your workout.  This part of your workout will involve movements that require fine motor skills.  After the skill building portion of the workout is complete, the next step will be to move into the conditioning phase which will include endurance and strength building movements like combat conditioning or functional fitness exercises.  It is here that you want to perform your isometric stretching movements.  After completing your warm up, fine motor skill building, and conditioning move into a proper cool down which will include relaxed stretches.

White Dragon Martial Arts, Train Hard-Live Better!

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The big secret of life is that there is no secret.  Whatever your goal, you can get there if you are willing to work.

-Oprah Winfrey

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at the goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

-Arnold Toynbee

White Dragon Martial Arts, Train Hard-Live Better!

Everything we ever wanted is waiting for us outside of our comfort zone.

-Author Unknown

Always bear in mind that our resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

-Abraham Lincoln

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

-Henry David Thoureau

Get inspired and learn Motivation Hacks

THE ancient art of tai chi may help in controlling or lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes, two small studies in Taiwan and Australia suggest.

In one study, Taiwanese researchers found that tai chi helped lower long-term blood sugar levels in 30 middle-aged adults with type 2 diabetes. In the second, an Australian team found that a combination of tai chi and qigong benefited 11 adults at risk of type 2 diabetes.

Both tai chi and qigong (pronounced “chee-kung”) are ancient Chinese practices designed to promote good health. Qigong combines gentle movements, meditation and breathing techniques; tai chi involves slow, fluid movements combined with mental imagery and deep breathing.

Both are moderate, low-impact activities, and recent studies suggest that older adults could reap a number of health benefits from tai chi, such as lower blood pressure, a reduced fall risk and improved arthritis symptoms.

The new studies, both published online by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggest that tai chi might aid in managing type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome - a collection of risk factors for diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

For the first study, Dr Kuender Yang and colleagues at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital followed 30 middle-aged and older adults with type 2 diabetes, each of whom was matched with a diabetes-free “control” of the same age and sex. For 12 weeks, participants attended an hour-long tai chi class three times per week.

At the end of the study, Dr Yang’s team found that the diabetes’ patients showed a reduction in their average HbA1c level - a measure of long-term blood sugar control.

In the second study, Dr Xin Liu and colleagues at the University of Queensland looked at the effects of a specially designed tai chi/qigong program among 11 middle-aged to older adults with elevated blood sugar.

Seven of them also had metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and impaired blood sugar control.

The researchers found that, after 12 weeks, participants showed a dip in both their average blood pressure level and waist size. There was also a small improvement in blood sugar control.

The findings are “very promising,” Dr Liu said.

The researcher said, however, that this was only a small pilot study.

What is needed, Dr Liu said, are randomised controlled clinical trials, where participants are randomly assigned to either perform tai chi/qigong or serve as a comparison group. Liu’s team has just completed such a study, but the results are not available yet.

To discover the many benefits of Tai Chi in San Diego County visit: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Nov 2003

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan (standard spelling, using pinyin Romanization, in China is “tai ji quan”) originally had only one form with 108 moves. This is the form that the great Yang Cheng Fu performed for a photographer in the early 20th century and is still a valuable reference. Today most people call this the “long form.”

In China, this form is known as the “88 form,” because some long sequences are counted as only one move. In my schools, throughout the Plum Blossom International Federation around the world, we refer to this form as the “108 form.” This is the original tai chi form practiced by Yang stylists in the old days. However, in the Yang family system, there is another, even-longer sequence form called the “long form,” which is infrequently taught, therefore we don’t call our “108 form” the long form.

In 1949, China turned to Communism. Most of the martial arts systems were not allowed to practice anymore. But tai chi was proven good for health, therefore the government decided to put out a shorter sequence form for the people to practice. In the early 1950s, citizens were encouraged to learn the “24 form.” This form can be completed in four-to-six minutes and has both left- and right-hand movements. The 24 form is not like the original 108 form with its complicated repetitions and the 15-to-20 minutes required to finish. The new shorter form was easier to learn and easier to remember. It had the added advantage for the government of getting tai chi enthusiasts to work quicker!

When a person practiced it three times in a row, it was almost equivalent to the old form. Since the “leftist” Communist government in China developed the “24 form,” people were required to start to the left instead of the right, as was the case with the original Yang form!

Over time more and more people began to practice tai chi in China. This meant many styles of tai chi chuan re-emerged to be practiced there. The Chinese government in the 1960s created a combination form and put the four major styles of tai chi together to become the “48 form.” This 48 form includes the Yang, Chen, Wu and Sun styles of tai chi chuan movements. The 24 form, 88 form and the 48 form have been practiced widely in China for years.

Wushu has almost become a national sport of China. Since tai chi chuan is one system of martial arts, it is included in the forms competition. In the late 1980s, the Chinese government came out with a competition form called the “42 form.” This competition form has the four major styles of tai chi like the 48 form. The 42 form balances the numbers of movements of each style of tai chi. In com- petition the tai chi player is required to accurately demonstrate the movements of each style. No matter what style of tai chi chuan you practice, if you want to compete in tai chi in the national tournament, you must do this 42 form. The tai chi competitor must complete the 42 form in five minutes or less.

Most traditional tai chi practitioners don’t like the 42 form. Each style of traditional tai chi wanted its own division. In the early 1990s, each of the four major styles of tai chi chuan was finally given its own five-minute competition. To fit this five-minute requirement Yang tai chi has a new competition form called the “40 form.” This form is designed to allow the competitor to apply any of the traditional movements from the different lineages. There are versions of movements from Yang style grandmasters such as, Chen Wei Ming, Dong Ying lie, Fu Zhong Wen, Hu Yuen Chou, Cheng Man Ching and others who had learned from Yang Cheng Fu or his students in China. The “40 form” requires five minutes of competition time. If a player performs under five minutes or over six minutes, the judges will deduct points from the score.

Despite the many forms available to the tai chi player, it should be remembered that doing one form properly under the guidance of a qualifled master is more important than knowing lots of forms. Thanks to the many martial artists who brought their knowledge with them when they emigrated from China, and the acceptance over time by the Chinese government, all these forms have become popular throughout the world.

To learn more about Tai Chi classes in San Diego visit: whitedragonmartialarts.com