Pearls of Wisdom

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu Magazine October 1989

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Everybody has run into the situation where they just don’t have enough time to practice.  Maybe there’s enough time to go to the school and do your forms, but not enough to put any serious thought and work into your martial art.

The good news is, no matter how busy you are, there is a way to creatively put serious workout time into your work.

Remember, there’s a difference between work and workout.  Work is something you must do to earn a living.  Sometimes it’s pleasant, sometimes it’s one of life’s necessities.  A martial art workout is usually pleasure.  So why not combine the two, converting your job into a pleasant productive way to improve your marital arts expertise.  It will make your job more interesting , the time at work go faster, and help your martial arts progress.

Here’s how to combine your workout with your work.  Let’s say you are a laborer, using your body to carry heavy objects.  Make it a personal challenge to pick up each object and put it in the right place with the precision and accuracy you would use doing a form.  Keep your body positioned correctly, using your waist and legs for support.  Time your breathing to make the best use of your energy while lifting and carrying those heavy objects.

When I was a teenager, I paid for my kung fu lessons by working as a busboy in a restaurant.  At a certain hour I had to move quickly, cleaning tables, loading and unloading dishes from the dishwasher, and stacking the clean plates.  Although I would rather have been practicing in the kung fu school than settting up clean tables without breaking anything.  I used my best martial arts footwork (balanced and light footed) while I did my job.  Before long my job became my kung fu practice.

For those who work in offices, be creative while you type and file.  When standing at the files, bend your knees and get some stance training.  Try to be quick and accurate with each file, with the same efficiencey and focus as a well done form.

No matter how much your workload, work efficiently, staying relaxed and calm.  Concentrate on the job, but don’t hold your breath.  These are all martial art principles that you might practice in your school while doing a form or sparring.

Typists who sit most of the time should be erect, with their bodies relaxed and legs positioned solidly on the floor.  As you type, think of each finger movement as a special martial arts finger exercise.  Be aware of each hand an finger movement when you git the keys.  Concentrate your power and energy into your fingertips with each downward stroke.

It doesn’t matter what kind of job you do.  Try to be good at it, exhibiting accuracy and efficiency.  Take the opportunity to make it part of your martial arts training.  The same principles that make you a better martial artist are all present in our job - timing, speed, accuracy, focus, balance, relaxation and a calm mind.  Practice them everyday, then if you’re ever drawn into self-defense or when you spar, you’ll find the right reflexes already present.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu

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.

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu Magazine

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Unlike the average Karate or Tae kwon Do school, many traditional Chinese martial art (kung fu) schools don’t ask or even encourage their students to compete in tournaments.  A fear of looking bad or disgracing the school in front of the competitor schools’ students keeps many Chinese martial art teachers and their students away from tournament competition.

I say “traditional” Chinese martial arts because today’s contemporary wushu from Mainland China places some emphasis on tournament competition. Wushu itself is a competitive sport in China and much of its training revolves around performing skills. However, traditional schools and instructors have a more closed-door attitude toward tournaments.  Part of that attitude comes from not having much exposure to tournament competitions.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong won two Gold Medals at the 1st Traditional Wushu Festival, Zhengzou China 2004.

When I was a teenager, we didn’t have an open tournament every weekend and several Chinese tournaments a year to attend like we do today in the San Francisco area.  Then the only tournaments in our area were limited to Japanese stylists.  Now, even the smallest cities in the United States are close to tournament action.  Most people like to be recognized for their special accomplishments, and we were no different.  However, in those days, we had to be content with a once-a-year event, such as Chinese New Year, where we performed in a big public demonstration.  That single event was the highlight of our training year.  Since we could show the world our kung-fu accomplishments, we worked hard on our best forms for that one day a year.

Until recently there were few tournaments in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for traditional stylists who might want to test their forms or sparring skills.  In the old days, if you learned something well, the only way to test your skills was to go to another school and look for trouble by picking a fight. Naturally, honorable teachers discouraged their students from this practice; consequently, most of their skills were kept within the training hall’s four walls.

Now, the offshoot of traditional Chinese training is that when people go to tournaments, they believe they should compete only if they are among the best.  Unfortunately, that attitude misses the real purpose of tournament competition.  While it is true that you must be good to win, you don’t have to be good at your art to improve your skills.  Preparing for tournament competition makes you practice hard, put more effort into your training and get more constructive feedback from your instructor.  This will make you better at your chosen martial art.  Even if you don’t win right away, you benefit greatly from the preparation that goes into your effort.

If you’re lucky enough to start young in tournament competitions, you will grow up with a lot of friends who started with you. Even if you don’t at first win trophies, you will still have fun with other competitors from your school and other schools.

Sometimes when people go to a few tournaments and don’t win, they get discouraged and give up.  I emphasize to my own students that it’s good to gradually work their way up the ladder, although it may take a while before they start winning.  That way they develop an improvement habit.

A good example are those talented individuals who win big at their first few tournaments and think they’ve reached the top.  Not seeing any more achievement challenges and fearing eventual defeat from another competitor, they retire after a year or so.  Unfortunately, their martial art ability often stops improving about the same time they retire from the limelight.  Working your way to the top often makes you appreciate it enough to keep on improving your skills.

It’s true that winning is fun.  However, you shouldn’t attach too much importance to winning. The real importance of tournament competition is using it as a vehicle to push yourself into working harder at your martial art.

Don’t get discouraged or depressed if you don’t win.  If you keep trying, you will eventually be a winner.  Remember, some of America’s greatest people stumbled many times on the road to success. What made them great was that they learned from their experiences and never gave up.

Wong Gong was born in 1928 and has been practicing and teaching Choy Li Fut Kung Fu for nearly 70 years.  Not only is Wong Gong an expert in traditional Southern Chinese Lion Dancing, he has also learned all of Choy Li Fut’s rare animal forms, and the founder’s special weapon the Nine Dragon Trident.  Wong Gong is also a highly respected Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist: he has practiced Chinese medicine as a full time profession since 1997.

With 6 generations underneath him and over 50,000 students worldwide, the Jiangmen Branch of Choy Li Fut under Wong Gong has become one of the most successful branches of Choy Li Fut in the world.

Here are Grandmaster Wong Gong’s principles for leading a long and productive life (with a little bit of modern science to go along with the ancient wisdom).

1.  Laugh a Lot Recent scientific studies show that laughter has the ability to increase blood supply to the brain.  Laughter also has shown to decrease the levels of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine and increase the level of immune boosting hormones beta-endorphins and human growth hormone.

2.  Practice Your Marital Arts Regularly The benefits of being engaged in a regular exercise regimen are well documented.  Exercise helps with weight management and the prevention of chronic disease like diabetes, improves cardiovascular function and even elevates mood.

3.  Avoid Alcohol and Tobacco Alcohol and tobacco abuse leads to a wide variety of chronic illness that include cancer, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis.

4.  Eat a Healthy Diet A healthy diet that includes lots of fresh vegetables reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and cancer.  A healthy diet has many, many other benefits too.

5.  Get Plenty of Rest Your body produces more protein while you sleep.  This helps to mend the body at the cellular level.  Getting plenty of sleep will also reduce stress levels and improve memory.  A good night’s rest can also help to control body weight!  That’s right, sleep helps to regulate hormones that are associated with appetite control.

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