Pearls of Wisdom

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Martial arts has long been touted as a great activity for both kids and adults.  Here are three reasons why training in martial arts is especially great for kids, adolescents and teenagers.

1.  Physical exercise. In the days of the XBox and the Playstation, and with most PE programs in the public school system being drastically cut or eliminated all together, it is even more necessary for kids to have an outlet for physical exercise.  According to a study conducted by the CDC in 2006, children and adolescents are at higher risk for being overweight or obese than previous generations.  One of the main causes the study points out is a sedentary lifestyle.  Training in martial arts can be a very good source of exercise.  Engaging in a martial arts program 3 times a week can build the exercise habit in children that can last the rest of their lives.

2.  Values, values, values! Kids who learn martial arts at a good school rarely abuse their skill.  In fact, training in martial arts leads to respect for self and others.  It will also build confidence, discipline and a positive attitude.  The structured learning environment in most martial arts schools also helps kids get better grades because children who study martial arts learn to focus and achieve goals.

3.  Self Defense. While training at a good martial arts school, children and adolescents will learn practical self-defense as well as safety strategies that will teach them to avoid unsafe situations.  In national surveys, most kids and teens say that bullying happens at school.  The confidence that comes from learning martial arts can be an effective tool to teaching kids and adolescents how to avoid a confrontation all together.

Training in martial arts can be great activity for kids, adolescents and teenagers.  For more information about the kung fu program for kids at White Dragon Martial Arts visit:

http://www.whitedragonmartialarts.com/groups/kids.php

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Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu Magazine November 1990

If you know much karate history, you know the martial art came to Okinawa by way of traders from China’s Fukien province.  You will also know that, until recently, Japanese and Okinawan karate styles contained only two or three types of kicks: front kick, side kick and sometimes a cross between the two similar to a roundhouse kick.  All the jumping, spinning and hooking kicks seen in present day Korean and Japanese systems didn’t exist.  I mention this because traditional southern Chinese martial arts still have only a few kicks (Fukien is considered southern China).  Even some northern Chinese systems that do have a few more types of kicks do not have the Tae Kwon Do style of roundhouse or jumping and spinning kicks.  Today’s karate and Mainland China’s wushu styles have borrowed those kicks from their Korean neighbors.

The old saying that northern kung-fu styles kick high and southern kung-fu systems kick low is not always true.  We kick just as high in Choy Li Fut as do practitioners of northern shaolin styles.  The real truth is that if you can kick high, you can easily kick low.  However, just because you can administer devastating low kicks doesn’t mean you can successfully kick high.  You don’t need to be flexible to kick well. But you must be flexible to kick high.

Actually many northern kung-fu styles apply their kicks to the lower parts of an opponent’s body. The highest Tai Chi kicks are to the point of an opponent’s hip. Hsing-I and praying mantis also direct their kicks low. It’s just common practice to kick as high as possible in the forms for maximum flexibility and strength development.

There are four basic kicks in the Choy Li Fut Kung-Fu system.  These are versions of the same kicks employed by most traditional Chinese martial arts styles.  The four techniques are front kick, side kick, a kick called ding guek that looks like a short roundhouse kick done with the toe making contact, and a cross between a side and front kick that some call a slant thrust kick.  They are all low kicks, aimed below waist level.

Kung-fu front kicks use the toe for kicks to the opponent’s groin, the ball of the foot for stomach targets, and the heel against the opposition’s hip joint. There are two types of front kicks. One is a straight thrust kick, using the ball of the foot or heel as a striking surface. The other is a lifting kick, such as a groin strike where the toe or top of the foot lifts upwards into the target.

Low side kicks target a sensitive pressure point in the thigh, the opponent’s knee or shin.  Side kicks where the body turns 90 degrees or more become back kicks.  In Choy Li Fut, we call them fu mei guek or tiger tall kicks. These are still basically side kicks.

The semi-roundhouse or ding guek is usually a toe kick to pressure points on the inner thigh or back of the knee.

The slant thrush kick is a kick made with the side of the foot, angling across and in front of the kicker’s stationary foot.  It is a downward kick, aimed at the lower leg.

Although the applications of most traditional Chinese martial art kicks are low, for training purposes we do them as high as possible, while still maintaining maximum power.  Kung-fu tournament competitors and wushu artists often add jumping techniques to their kicks for flashier performances.  There’s nothing wrong with this as long as you realize that it is no longer a kick from the original kung-fu style.

Unlike Tae Kwon Do that relies on kicking techniques before hands, southern Chinese systems only use kicks against an opponent’s lower body when in a grappling situation where the hands are occupied defensively.

Of course, you might ask why not use more kicks, since legs are stronger than hands?

It is true, there is a Chinese martial art saying that translates to, “Hands give 30 percent of your power the legs give you 70 percent.”  However, the saying continues, “The leg gives 70 percent chance of danger.”  This means you have a 70 percent chance of losing your balance while standing on one leg and kicking.  With those odds, most Chinese martial arts choose to kick only as a last resort.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu Magazine.

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

From time to time, students with backgrounds in the gi arts (those who wear a gi to train) ask the equivalent terms for dojo, kata and gi in Chinese. This is a recurring question.

The most popular term is dojo. “Do” in Chinese is dao, which means the Way. This “way” is the spiritual way, which is spoken of in Chinese religions. “Jo” in Chinese is chang, which means the place. Dojo is the same as daochang in Chinese character writing. It means the place to practice the “way”, “do” or dao.

Let’s take a look at the gi arts. Karate-do means the “way of empty hand.” Judo means the “way of soft art” and tae kwon do means the “way of the foot and the fist.” Aikido means the way of combining or harmonizing the qi. The term dojo is the place to practice the martial arts mentioned above and doesn’t mean school or academy.

Dojo or daochang originally came from Taoist and Buddhist terminology. It’s a place to practice or cultivate the spiritual way, “do” or dao. It can also be the place to teach the “do” or dao. Today, the term daochang in China refers to the place that performs ceremonies for the dead. While the term dojo uses the same Chinese characters as “daochang,” today it has nothing to do with martial arts. Some people use the term “guan” or Cantonese “goon” or “kwoon.”

“Kwan” means the same thing in Korean. The word “guan” is used for more than martial arts. It can be chan guan, the restaurant; lu guan, the hotel; tushu guan, the library; shu guan, the old term for the regular schools; yi guan, the clinic; cha guan, the tea shop; shuhua guan, the art gallery; yan guan, the smoke shop; and many more beside just kung fu studio or wu guan. Most Chinese in the West use the English term “studio” instead of the Chinese term guan or koon, because the word guan has too many meanings. In other words, there is no equivalent term in kung fu for the term dojo.

Kata is the next popular term students are always asking about. Kata is tao or taolu in Chinese. When speaking in the Chinese language with another Chinese person, the correct way to say hand kata is kuen too for Cantonese and guan tao in Mandarin. The weapons kata is bingqi taolu, which is a general way of using this phrase. When breaking this term down into different weapons we use these terms: long weapon kata is chang bingqi taolu and short weapon kata is duan bingqi taolu. The double weapon kata is shuang bingqi taolu. The flexible weapon kata is ruan bingqi taolu. Let’s break it down to the individual weapons. Staff kata is gun tao; spear kata is qiang tao; straight sword kata is jian tao; and broadsword is dao tao. Just keep adding the Chinese weapon term in front of “tao” for all other weapons.

The above terms are most likely used by non-Chinese instructors. I use the term non-Chinese, because the Chinese would not use taolu as the placement term for kata when speaking to their English-speaking students. Chinese instructors would use English terms such as set, pattern or form. For example, for hand kata they would say “the hand set” instead of the hand taolu or quan tao.

Gi is another word for robe. It originated from judo practitioners and is made with a heavy cotton-like canvas for grabbing and throwing. When karate masters began teaching their students, they adapted the gi from judo and made it into a lighter-weight uniform for student training.

Kung-fu schools in China don’t have a particular training outfit. You often see wushu performers wear a nice exhibition Chinese outfit when they perform. Each performer is wearing a different color as well as a different outfit. Therefore, it’s not even a uniform. To call it a uniform, everybody must wear the same outfit. In the 1970s when kung-fu was becoming more well known in the Western world, some kung-fu schools had their students wear Chinese-style clothing when training. Some people called it a kung-fu gi. However, the Chinese don’t know what a gi is, because gi doesn’t mean uniform, nor does it mean robe.

Bio: Doc-Fai Wong writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung Fu and is the founder of the Plumblossom International Federation.