Pearls of Wisdom

Training For Life

Inside Kung Fu January 2001

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

So you’ve reached black belt level and wonder, “Where do I go from here?” Is it the end or beginning of my formal training?

In most martial arts, black belt or advanced-level students are now ready for the serious training that makes them true martial artists. Advanced students in any martial art have responsibilities far exceeding those of students who have not yet reached the advanced level. And, while they have reached black belt level or its equivalent, they have much more to learn themselves.

Advanced or black belt students have completed basic training for the foundation of their art and are now ready to learn the depth of their martial art. However, they are not yet masters of their arts. Rather, advanced students are the serious students of martial arts.

You can think of beginning and intermediate levels in martial arts as the equivalent of prep school. Advanced training is where you go to college and if you stay long enough, receive your Ph.D. in the martial arts.

Advanced martial art training is going back to the basics and learning how to make those basic techniques effective by understanding every facet. That understanding includes having good power and control. It means each form practiced is done with flowing accuracy and precision. The advanced or black belt student learns how to efficiently and effectively use the art of self-defense.

Advanced students are the ones who should set examples for beginning students in both techniques and how to respect the teacher and the art. They have a positive attitude, gained from study and accomplishment. They demonstrate sportsmanship in competition and respect for other martial arts, teachers and students.

Advanced students learn to teach their martial art correctly and are willing to master the art so they can hand it down to the next generation of students. They easily show their own confidence in their art by doing public exhibitions.

Every time you teach someone else you solidify that knowledge in you own mind. As you explain principles and techniques to lower-belt students you understand those techniques better yourself.

Of course, besides the responsibilities, there are the benefits of reaching black belt or advanced level in your martial art. Advanced students gain more knowledge by learning higher-level hand and weapon forms. There are often special advanced or black belt classes that cater to those who have put the hard work and training necessary to reach advanced levels. Advanced-level students are encouraged to use their minds creatively when understanding self-defense techniques.

Part of the excitement of reaching black belt is the knowledge that now the real training begins. It’s far more than merely being a senior student to the many beginners in your school. It is the time in your training where the principles and philosophies of martial arts become an important part of your everyday life.

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

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

Training For Life

Inside Kung Fu January 2004

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Horse stance training is vital to mastering many Southern Chinese martial arts systems. This practice also is emphasized in northern kung-fu systems. Horse stance training strengthens the muscles of the legs. When the legs are stronger, forms practice will be better balanced and more stable. Forms also become more graceful and beautiful. Plus, the stances give a fighter more power and quicker movements in self-defense or street situations.

There are three main reasons for practicing the horse stance:

To train students to have patience and perseverance. A successful martial artist must have patience when training. Back in ancient times, old masters used to put the students through horse stance training for years to test a student’s patience. This testing also gave the master a chance to observe his student’s loyalty, sincerity and true intention. If students could demonstrate their willingness to endure the rigors of prolonged horse stance training, the master felt better about handing down the secret family fighting system to them. Loyalty, sincerity, patience and good personal character continue to be valued traits.

To master footwork and to strengthen leg muscles - In stance training, you must work on different stances besides the regular horse stance (a.k.a. the square horse). The bow stance, cat stance, kneeling stances and different twist stances are important factors in kung-fu training. The Chinese term ma has several different meanings: it means the word horse or in the southern kung-fu systems it also means stances. Therefore, you don’t just stand in one position for long time doing only doing “the horseback riding stance.” You should practice all the different martial art stances. The choy li fut kung-fu system has a horse stance training form called the “five wheel stance.” In ancient times, students of the system were required to practice this form for three-to-six months before they were taught any hand forms. Each time they worked on the five wheel stance form, students were required to hold the position for three-to-five minutes. While an entire form could take two hours or longer to perform, students developed fast movements with strong, powerful stances.

To develop internal energy - When a student practices the stances for over 15 minutes at a time, his legs will grow weary. It is important to learn how to relax the muscles to hold the stances for longer and longer periods. Thus, he must focus on his breath or breathing. Once he begins to focus on his breathing, he sinks into deeper levels of concentration, his mind gets calmer, and his chi, begins to drop lower into the navel. By practicing the stances for a lengthy time, the student’s chi gets stronger and his mind becomes sharper. One Chinese saying states, “Develop the internal by training the external.” One key is to massage the leg muscles right after stance training to loosen stiff muscles and help improve blood circulation.

Horse stance training can be practiced anytime, anywhere. However, you must train on smooth ground or a level floor. For your health’s sake, it is not good to practice outdoors when a strong wind is blowing on you or under direct sunlight. The best environment for training is practicing indoors. If you are training outdoors, try to remain in the shade. You can practice stances at work or at play. For example when standing to do any kind of work, just bend your legs and do your stances at the same time. You can keep changing the stances according to the different working situations. According to an old Chinese saying, “The more you practice, the better the results of your training.”

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

To learn more about Kung Fu training in San Diego Visit White Dragon Martial Arts

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu July 2005

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Many martial arts instructors these days adopt professional titles, such as master or grandmaster, to improve their credibility or solely to impress their students. Some even invent titles to make themselves appear more accomplished than their competition, or even their own teachers.

However, legitimate martial arts titles have nothing to do with self-promotion. Instead, such titles should be the result of a lifetime spent promoting your system and students.

In China, all martial art instructiors are called sifu or shifu in Mandarin. Some Northern Chinese call their teacher by the term laoshi or losi in Cantonese. Many third-generation students call their teacher’s teacher si-gung or tai-laoshi. The fourth-generation students often refer to the first-generation teacher as tai-sigung or si tai gung.

However, there are not many traditional kung-fu teachers in China with more than four generations of students below them, because a teacher’s students usually have to help teach until the teacher dies. Then the students can begin to teach on their own. In some cases, when highly skilled students move far from their teacher, they are permitted to teach on their own before their teacher’s death. In this case, it is easy to see how a third generation of students can come about. However, a third-generation instructor could only happen if this person’s student were also to move far away and begin teaching on his own.

For a rare fourth-generation instructor to be produced, this process would have to happen yet again. So ay you can see, to arrive at four generations of instructors all living and teaching the same art, at the same time, is quite rare.

All the titles for addressing students and teachers are based on Chinese family titles. For example, sifu means teaching father. The wife of the teacher is called si-mo, even though she usually has no knowledge of her husband’s martial art. If the teacher is a woman, she is still referred to by the masculine term sifu. The lady sifu’s husband is called si-jeong or teaching uncle, even though he may not practice martial arts.

The term for a male senior classmate is si-hing or shi-xiong in Mandarin. A female senior classmate is called si-jie, or in Mandarin shi-jie. A male junior classmate is called si-daih or shi-di, whereas a female junior classmate is called si-moi or shi-mei. Your teacher’s male or female senior classmate is called si-bak or shi-buo. And similarly, your teacher’s male or female junior classmate is called si-suk or shi-shu.

These titles have little to do with formal ranking or learning levels; they are used in China mostly as a way of politely addressing peple you would normally see in and around your teacher’s school. So, how did we arrive at the complicated ranking systems and titles used in today’s martial arts schools?

When American GIs imported Japanese and Korean martial arts into North America after World War II, many of the early teachers began to devise more-extensive ranking systems. The karatedo and tae kwon do organizations in the U.S. and Europe were some of the first schools that used colored belts, degrees and professional titles for ranking purposes. In those organizations, a fifth-degree black belt who taught was qualified to be a master. The ninth- or tenth-degree black belt who headed the organization was usually considered to be a grandmaster.

Yet, despite all these precedents and traditions, there is no shortage of indivduals willing to bestow all manner of exotic titles on themselves. I can understand the kung-fu instructor who uses the “grandmaster” title after developing a sizeable organization, which includes several qualified master and sifu-level instructors.

There are some instructors that have never produced a single master or sifu-level student, but see nothing wrong with using the title of grandmaster. Some of these so-called grandmasters don’t even have many students, let alone a full-time school. Some assume this title just because they have produced a student who is an instructor. Perhaps they confuse the title of grandmaster with grandfather. Yet, as I explained earlier, these titles are not the same.

In my case, my teachers certified me grandmaster so I could pass on their particular systems of martial arts. Today, my Plum Blossom Internation Federation has over 100 schools worldwide and I have produced more than one master-level instructor and dozens of sifu-level instructors encompassing five generations of teachers.

In my Federation, we only award professional titles such as sifu or master to instructors actively involved with teaching in their own school or organization. A certified staff instructor in one of our schools must be at least an advanced-level or black sash-level student. To earn the title of sifu, one must complete the senior-advanced level and must be the head instructor of a full-time school. The master level is reserved for someone who has not only completed the senior-advanced level, but also has produced a couple of sifu-level instructors that run schools.

A grandmaster is promoted by the soon-to-be-retired senior grandmaster, after this individual has produced a couple of master-level instructors. These master-level instructors and sifu are the foundation of a martial arts organization of significant size that promotes a particular system on a full-time basis.

As you can see, the true master or grandmaster is not self-appointed. Holding the title of master or grandmaster carries a significant level of responsibility and represents a lifetime of effort spent building a great martial arts organization. The true grandmaster achieves his title by producing many successful masters and sifus that are hard at work teaching their art to the next generation.

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

To learn more about Kung Fu or Tai Chi, Visit White Dragon Schools Website.