My sifu, Richard Cunningham, satisfied all those aspects of the sifu.  I can remember back those twenty-seven years ago when I first started.  I tried my best to understand all he tried to teach me, but sometimes it seemed as though he spoke in riddles.  There was a day, many years ago, when I had been complaining that I did not seem to be making very much progress, to which he looked me straight in the eye with a fiery glance and said, “First there is a mountain; then there is no mountain.  Then there is.”  To which I answered, “Yes, Sifu.  Right, Sifu.”  That being the only adequate and appropriate answer there was to give.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I wouldn’t for another ten years.

I was the only one working out in the club one night with him.  After ten years, I had come to learn many techniques, but it seemed to me, I told him, that I was just beginning to learn the art.  And then he said, “First there is a mountain…etc.” –you know.  And it suddenly became clear and I understood.  There is no doubt that my sifu taught me a great many things– about kung fu, and about life.

One day, after a visit to Arizona, where I had met another kung fu teacher in the Hung Gar system, I remarked to Sifu what a nice guy the teacher was.  Sifu said, “How do you know?”  I answered that he had seemed nice enough to me.  Sifu said, “Don’t trust anyone you haven’t known for ten years!” Everything Sifu said seemed to end with an exclamation point.  I wasn’t going to argue with him, but that seemed a little harsh to me.  Of course, at the time, there weren’t that many people I had known for ten years, other than a couple of friends and family.  As I gained in years, I learned he was right.  Time has taught me that the hard way.

Probably the most important thing that my sifu taught me was that there were only three things in life that really matter, just three words, and to this day, I keep them in my wallet—love, humility, and moderation.  And those three words mean more than all the stances, all the martial techniques he ever taught me.

Sifu taught me the ten rules of kung fu, among those to honor our parents and teachers, and to always protect the weak.  I will remember those rules as long as I live.  Another rule is to always remember from where and from whom you learned the art.  I will remember that as well.

My Sifu passed away last night.  He had a good life.  He had a strong life.  He brought a tradition to us  over a thousand years old in an unbroken line.  Now he rests with the masters.  According to our club’s brochure, written by my sifu, in words his sifu gave him, “Not only a teacher of martial arts, the Sifu is also responsible for providing guidance and acting as a prime example to students. A common saying in kung-fu is that the student ‘starts in a dark room while the master stands in the sunlight.’”   The sifu stands in the light, as it is given him, guiding his students to join him.  I shall always walk in the light of my Sifu, Richard Cunningham  

Lesson 10: Walking in horse—Short Step:

Step 1: Stand in horse, facing the front.

Step 2: Turn your head towards the right—look fierce.

Step 3: Bring your left leg forward so that your heel is in line with the toe of your right leg.
(a) As you move your left leg, make a little crescent move about 9 inches in diameter, as though you were stepping around something. In other words, don’t just move straight forward with your foot.

Step 4: Now turn your head to the left—continue looking fierce.

Step 5: Repeat step 3 with your right leg.

Step 6: Turn your head to the right—continue looking fierce.

Step 7: Step BACK with the right leg with that little circular step.

Step 8: Turn your head to the left—snarl a little.

Step 9: Step back with the left leg.

Step 10: Repeat and rinse.

Lesson 11: Walking in horse—long step.

Step 1: Stand in horse facing front.

Step 2: Bring your right leg forward, pivoting on your left foot until your body is facing the left, your right toe even with the left heel, keeping your eyes straight ahead. Your shoulder is now facing front, your chest facing left, your back facing right.

Step 3: Now bring your left leg straight forward, pivoting on your right foot, until your left toe is even with your right heel, keeping your eyes fixed front. Now your chest is facing right and your back is facing left.

Step 4: Bring your left leg straight back, pivoting on your right foot, keeping your eyes fixed straight ahead.

Step 5: Bring your right leg straight back, pivoting on your left foot, keeping your eyes fixed straight ahead. Sneer.

Step 6: You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out—JUST KIDDING! That’s not what it’s all about.

Lesson 12: Cat stance—Stand straight up with your feet shoulder distance apart. Bend both your knees. Now put your right foot out and point your front toe to the ground. You should have NO weight on your right foot. All your weight is on your left foot. Your back is straight. Your fists are at your sides. Your forward knee is pointed ever so slightly in. This photo should help, but these folks’ fists are too high. Your fists should be at your waist. Moreover, there is no need to get that low. These folks are just ridiculous, but don’t they look impressive?

cat stance

Now to walk like this, just put your right foot down and transfer your body weight to your right foot. Bring your left foot forward and point that toe down. This is good to practice some place you have those 12 inch floor tiles, keeping one foot in one tile and the other in the adjacent tile. Remember, no weight on the front leg! When you move backwards, step back with the forward leg to just behind where you are, dragging the toe of your back leg back until that leg is the forward leg. In other words, you step further back than your stepped going forwards.

This is also the on guard position, as in the second photo, with one hand in a fan sao block position, and the other in front of your chest. If you stand in this position, you’re like a star ship with its shields up. There is no opening for attack. Keep your hands in this position and there is no way to attack.

Let me know how all this works for you. Are you getting a good sweat up? Remember to breathe deeply throughout all of this. Keep your mouth closed with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth. Now go watch a Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Movie. I recommend “The 36 Chambers”.

This web link shows a real Chinese Hung Gar master performing a part of Fu Hok, another seminal form in the Hung Gar tiger crane system. You can tell by his studio that’s he’s the real deal. The entire form takes about five minutes to do.

Fu Hok

Lesson 7: Ping Chui—You will see in the first photo a sample of ping chui, a basic punch. We make our fist slightly differently, but it doesn’t really matter (sorry slohand). Make sure your fist is tight. The striking point is the first two knuckles of your hand and you use them as you would a gun sight, but you’re not going to be hitting anybody, are you? If you were, you would take proper kung fu lessons.

ping chui

Now, as you recall, your fists are at your side at your hip with the top of your hand facing down. To punch, rotate your hand out, like a screw, until it is out in front of you at chest height with the palm facing down. Try doing this slowly at first to get the movement. This is really three punches, depending on how far away you are from the target. Within the first 8 to 10 inches, the palm is facing up. From 10 to 20 inches, it is a vertical fist. Fully extended (with elbows slightly bent—never straight), the palm is pointed down, as in the photo. Practice these punches alternating right and left. When you strike, say “DIT!” for the first punch, and “DA!” for the second punch. It may sound funny, but the sounds create certain vibrations that actually exercise your internal organs and make you stronger on the inside, too.

We also practice these punches by making them isometric. That is, we bring out each arm slowly imagining that we are pushing a thousand pounds as we move our arms out, breathing out slowly along the length of the punch. We do a lot of isometrics in our style.

When you feel ready, try combining the blocks with the ping chui. Make a mok sau, then punch. As you punch, bring the blocking hand back to your side immediately. After you punch, bring back your punching arm to your chest and bring out your blocking hand. Make sure your arms cross in the middle. Your forearm should brush against the top of your forearm going back. Don’t try alternating these yet. Do about twelve punches with right side mok sau. Then do twelve left side mok sau-ping chui. Go ahead. I said do it. Done? Good. Now to the next strike.

Lesson 8: Ya Chi Chui—This is a vertical punch. The second photo shows a good example. It also shows the target—the ribs. This punch is not as powerful because it doesn’t rotate out completely. Ribs are delicate and break easily. We usually practice this as the second part of a combination. This is a very good exercise. Try to do it. Really.

Step 1: Get in horse stance with your right foot one foot length behind your left, your right toe in a line with your left heel.

Step 2: Turn your head towards the right. Make a right side Mok Sau.

Step 3: Punch out with Ping Chui with your left arm, turning your hip as you punch, and turning into right side gung gi ma—bow and arrow stance. The turning of your hips gives the punch great power. Shout “Dit!” Bring the mok sao back to your side as you punch.

Step 4: Punch out with your right hand (which you brought back to your side in step 3) with ya chi chui, rotating your hips BACK to the horse stance (se pi ma). Bring your ping chui hand back to guard your right ribs with the hand open, palm facing out. Shout “Da!” as you strike the air, imagining your attacker’s ribs shattering due to the power of your might punch.

Practice this right and left side.

yat chi chui

Lesson Nine: Fu Jow—This is the tiger claw, one of the definitive strikes of the hung gar system. This photo is a good example of one. Don’t worry about the one back at the hip. That’s advanced. But the outstretched one is good. You don’t shout “dit” or “da” when you hit with this strike. You shout “W-HA!” with that little aspirated sound of the “H” after the “W”.

Practice this one just as above, steps one through four, except, instead of ya chi chui, you make a fu jow, tiger claw. And the hand that covers your ribs becomes a fu jow also, not just an open hand. So you punch ping chui (Dit!) and then fu jow (Wha!). Is this bringing back unpleasant memories, Patrick?

fu jow

I have included a web link to a one of the signature forms of our system, called gung gee fuk fu kuen—subduing the tiger in an “I” pattern. Don’t even think of trying to do this (as if you could—but I feel duty bound to warn you). Notice the punches, blocks, stances, etc. I have described for you. This form channels a lot of internal energy (chi). I break out in a heavy sweat almost immediately whenever I do it.

Gung gee fuk fu kuen

Lesson ten will have to do walking in stances. Keep practicing. Ask me questions, if you want. I am really curious is any of you are able to do any of this from my explanations, or if they are too confusing. It’s a challenge to write about this with limited ability to provide images. Leave your comments.

Lesson 3: Mok Sau– Okay, get in horse stance. Make sure your hands are made into fists and at your side. You should be trying to touch elbows in back (you won’t, of course, but this exercises your chest). Now, bring your right fist down kind of along that groove between your abdomen and your upper thigh—you know, where your belly hangs down if you have a little pot like so many folks do, or where one would be if you are blessed enough not to have one. Bring your fist down until your arm is almost straight and then rotate your forearm up towards the right until your fist is about shoulder height and you are looking at the palm of your fist (as if there were a mirror there). Imagine windshield wipers .

As a block, imagine someone trying to punch you in the chest. You bring your fist up in this way, in this circular motion, and that pushes the fist out of the way so it doesn’t hit you. Get it? It’s sort of like Mr. Miyagi’s “was on-wax off” thing, except your forearm in pointed towards you instead of away from you. This is right side Mok Sau. Do it with the left hand and you’ve got left side Mok Sau. Now here’s how you practice them.

(In horse stance) Make a right side mok sau. Now bring your right arm to your chest, as though you were saluting Caesar or some alien planetary ambassador and leave it there. Now bring up your left arm for left side mok sao. At one point your arms will be crossed momentarily. At that point start bringing your right arm back to a fist at your right side WHILE your left arm continues to arc up into left side mok sau. Then bring your left arm to your chest just as you did before with the right arm and start bringing the right arm up. Follow the movement of your arms with your eyes–without moving your head. Practice by alternating left and right mok saus for at least a minute. This way you practice your blocks and exercise your eyeballs!

I have scoured the internet for a picture of this block, but to no avail. You have no idea how difficult this is to describe. Try it out and see if it makes sense to you.

Lesson 4: Long sau—Start out in horse stance (as always), with your hands in fists at your hips as above. Bring your right hand down as above, but when it is almost straight, open your fist. Now bring up your palm as if you were going to take a drink of water from your hand. As your palm reaches your mouth, start rotating your palm outward and continue your arm in that upward movement. When your thumb gets to eyebrow level, your hand should be just finishing its rotation outward. The movement finishes with your palm pointing upward at about a 45 degree angle, arm and hand making a straight line. In the picture, Jackie Chan is doing a long sau with his left hand.

As with mok sau, you practice it just the same way. Start with the right arm. As you start to bring the right arm down from the block, start bringing the left arm up. They will cross in the middle. Your forearms should brush against each other as they pass in the night.

Long Sau

Lesson Five: Fan Sau– This is just like Mok Sau, except the hand is open instead of in a fist. Open your fist as soon as you start bringing your arm up to block. It is practiced differently, however.

To practice this block, in horst stance, bring up your right arm to Fan Sau (read above). As you bring up the right arm up, lower your right arm down, opening the fist along the way until your hand is palm down, blocking a kick to you know where. Then bring your right arm down to block you know where as the hand that WAS you know where comes up to make a fan sao. As the arms cross, the one coming up should be on the inside and the one going down on the outside. This can be confusing and takes some practice. This is the only block you practice without bringing your arms back to fists at your sides.

Fan Sao

Lesson Six: So Sao—(these are all approximate spellings, of course) Bring your right arm up (in horse stance, of course) as in fan sao above, but right after your palm reaches the top of the arc and is facing your wonderful face, rotate it to the left and point it down, so it looks a little like a bird wing. For this block, imagine someone has tried to punch you. You’ve blocked the punch and deflected the arm. And now your hand is getting ready to grab the forearm of your attacker.

Practice this block just as you would mok sao or long sao, alternating right and left arms, bringing your hands back to your hips in fists, crossing over each other as you go back and forth between left and right.

Conclusion of Lessons 3-6

Now as you practice these blocks, you are standing in horse stance. So, if you stand in horse stance for one minute, fists at your sides, then spend one minute practicing each of these four blocks, you have five minutes in horse right there. Then, switch to bow and arrow stances right and left and practice the blocks, five minutes in each stance, and you have a total of fifteen minutes in stance. You would be amazed at how strong your legs will get and how quickly they will get that way.

I haven’t received any comments cussing me out, so I assume that nobody out there reading these lessons has tried them out. Because if you have, your legs should be hurting. Go ahead. Give them a try. Feel free to ask questions. You could be paying hundreds of dollars for this instruction. Imagine getting a total workout, every muscle in your little body, in about a half an hour, and with no equipment needed. You’re getting it for free.

I had practiced kung fu for a good many years before, but an injury has forced me to stop for a time.  I started to focus my attention in other pursuits, such as music and writing, and gotten very, very fat.  I won’t say exactly how fat I was, but the post office was considering giving me my own zip code.  Marlon Brando would have said, “Dude, you need to lose a few pounds!”  I was that kind of fat.

Anyway, I started the Weightwatchers “ TEE-EMM” program, dropped about a hundred pounds, and then, as I say, I started thinking about working out again.  So when I saw the guy giving away free karate lessons, I jumped at it.  Besides, I got a free gi (karate suit), and who couldn’t use a good karate gi?  So I went to my four free private classes.  The guy said that I moved perfectly.  He said my stances were spot on.  On the second lesson, he had me spar with him.  He could not hit me.  I hit him.  He asked if I always blocked and hit at the same time.  I said that was the way I had been trained.  I did okay, in other words.

I had wanted to return to my kung fu club, but I was embarrassed.  I had forgotten all my forms, even the beginner’s forms.  It would be kind of humiliating to go back, having to learn everything all over, and seeing the same guys who were my junior while I was there before.  But the karate lessons gave me courage.  I hadn’t lost everything.  So I called an old friend and he worked with me and helped me relearn my forms.  After a few months, I knew enough to  not be so embarrassed coming to the regular classes.

So here is my one year progress report.  I’m doing great.  I’ve lost a little more weight, for a total of 130 pounds from my heaviest.  To be honest, I haven’t tried that hard to lose more weight because I feel good and I don’t want to have to replace my wardrobe.  We can’t afford to be buying a bunch of new clothes right now.  And since I’m uproariously happily married, I don’t need to be attracting any cute women other than my wife, so I’m good about where I am.  I could drop another thirty pounds or so, but then, who couldn’t?  I mean, other than Keira Knightly?

I have managed to re-learn all the empty-hand forms (and that’s a bunch—about 11).  I have finished the form I had only just started before, the most advanced form.  I have re-learned all the weapons forms but two.  And I’m working on those two.  I’m not so motivated by the weapons forms anymore.  I’m here for different reasons.

Before, when I first joined the club, I was enthralled with the idea of learning kung fu.  I fell into that trap that a lot of martial arts enthusiasts fall into.  I became Chinese.  My house was full of Asian pottery and scrolls.  I put on my uniform (patterned after typical street garb of 17^th century China) when I practiced at home…in private.  I put on kung fu like a jacket.  I was play-acting.  I may as well have been at a renaissance faire.

But now, kung fu is part of who I am.  Now I practice to be healthy, and whole.  I am strong again, and I mean to stay that way, at least, as long as I can.  I have learned to breathe again.  I’m not a westerner doing kung fu.  I’m just a guy doing kung fu.  I’m not Chinese.  I never could be.  I’m not trying to be a master; I’m just trying to be healthy.  I work out in sweats now.  I don’t care so much about the weapons anymore, because you don’t always have room to be swinging a spear around, but I can do an empty-hand form anywhere I have about nine square feet.

I know I’m strong again.  I see guys at the kung fu club who are twenty years my junior and they don’t have the stamina that I have.  They’re always having to stop and rest and I just keep on going.  This is not meant to be boastful.  I practice kung fu for a very long time, and in those years I wasn’t practicing, I didn’t lose the benefits.

I found, once I had returned, that my arms got very hard again very quickly.  I was a little nervous about that.  But it wasn’t very long at all before the newer students complained about how hard my arms were.  I found that I hadn’t forgotten how to breathe.  I found that, as that karate teacher had said, I did still have all my stances.  I could still move well.  I just needed to practice.

More important than being strong, however, is the other benefit from my return to kung fu.  I am more at peace.  I tend to be an anxious kind of guy.  I guess I get that from my mother.  Of course, the world is sort of an anxious place, and with all the talk about how teachers are the reason for our broken kids, and the downturn in the economy, and the destruction of our environment, and, and and…well, you get the idea.  The world pretty much sucks a lot of the time.  But when I practice kung fu, it calms my mind.  I focus on my forms and the world sort of melts away, at least for a time.  And when you spar (playing, we call it), you have to be right there.  Your mind can’t be a thousand miles away.  You have to be there.  When you play, you are there, right there, alive, totally, in that moment.  There is no feeling quite like it.

Of kung fu isn’t about working out.  It is a way of life.  I never lost that.  Kung fu is a way of living your life.  It’s about being there.  It’s about doing what you’re doing, paying attention to every detail, being aware of everything, seeing everything.  Kung fu involves you in life.  Practice kung fu and you are no longer a spectator, you are a participant.

So that’s where we are, one year later.  I’m stronger.  I’m more at peace.  I still have aches and pains, but that just means I’m still alive.  I don’t move they way I did when I was thirty, but I don’t expect to.  I’m glad to be back.  I still have a couple of forms to re-learn before I have everything back, but I’m in no hurry.  I’ll learn them as I learn them.  They are very advanced forms and I’m not likely to be asked about them by anybody any time soon.  Some folks think martial arts is about achieving goals, such as a black belt or something.  But I think that kung fu isn’t about the destination, it is about the journey.

I remember well being called to my counselor’s office back when I was a senior in high school.  I thought I was in trouble.  I couldn’t imagine being in trouble with Mr. Milling.  Mr. Milling looked rather like a tall, thin walrus.  He had a great mustache.  Anyway, Mr. Milling never got angry with anybody.  So I couldn’t imagine what I might have done.  It was with great relief then, when I sat in his office and he told me he wanted to go over my tests.  I don’t even remember taking any tests.  However, he assured me I had, and he was going to tell me what were my best choices for a path through life.

He told me—and I quote here, because I remember exactly what he said, that, “God had created me to be a teacher.”  That’s what he said.  They used to talk about God in school back in those days.  Actually, they still do, but that’s another story.  Anyway, he said my purpose in life was to be a teacher.  Well, back in 1973, I was fairly sure there was no way in hell that I was ever going to be a teacher.  I had nothing against teachers.  Some of my favorite people were teachers.  Of course, your average teenager has a limited pool of people from whom to choose, so that was not so very unlikely.

I thought to myself, “Oh, you silly man.  Why would I want to be a teacher?”   But I didn’t say that.  I simply told him that I had plans to make it big in the theater, or in music, so teaching would not be in the cards for me, thank you very much and have a nice day.  It was a short discussion.  I went back to my music class and promptly put the whole interview out of my mind.

Fast forward about six years.  Time and circumstances bring you to interesting places.  As it turned out, I didn’t become a teacher.  I didn’t become a famous actor or musician either—but then you know that.  No, along the way I got married, had a couple of sons, got a regular J-O-B, working as a store manager for a variety store, otherwise known as a dime store.  I was miserable.  I worked 60 to 84 hours per week for miserable pay.  We were always broke.  I had dropped out of college after a year because I was being offered such a “good” job.  And, after all, I did have responsibilities.  ‘

But then I hurt my back on the job.  I herniated a couple of discs.  I had to take off work for six weeks.  So while I was off work, they fired me.  I was not surprised.  This was the unwritten company policy.  People with injuries only ever cost the company more money over time.  So people who were hurt were fired, for one reason or another.  Now this is a long and interesting story in and of itself, but not for here and not for now.  Suffice it to say that I was off work due to my injury for a little over a year.  During that time, I went back to college.

At first, I just started taking courses to satisfy my general education requirements.  By the time I was ready to declare my major, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a poet.  That’s because the want ads are full of good full-time positions for poets.  Yeah, right.  Hey, I never said I got any smarter.  Anyway, I spent a lot of time studying literature.  It wasn’t long before I figured out that I would have to get a job teaching at a university if I wanted to write poetry seriously.  And my sister, a dean, told me that the best way to do that was to get my degree in linguistics since I could always get a job teaching English as a second language.  There was always a demand for ESL teachers.  The college that hired me would no doubt have me teach literature also.

So that’s what I did.  I majored in linguistics, while taking an equal number of units in literature.  In addition, I took an equal number of units in Spanish, because Bank of America (for whom I worked at the time) would pay for my college as long as I took Spanish classes.  This seemed good to me, since I had no other life at the time.  I finally graduated from college in 1985, and soon afterwards, saw an ad in the paper for Los Angeles Unified School District.  They needed elementary school teachers.

I thought, why not?  The pay was better than Bank of America—and there were fewer hours (all you teachers reading this can stop laughing any time now).  So I got a job teaching first grade in Wilmington.  It only took a year for me to figure out that this was what I was meant to do.  I felt with all my being that this was my place in the universe.  Maybe I could make the world a little better, one kid at a time, by helping kids make their dreams come true.  I gave up a fellowship at UCLA, got my clear teaching credential, and never looked back.  And I’m glad I did.  So I’m a teacher.  And I’ve been doing it a little while.  So let me tell you something about teaching.

A teacher is only worth a damn if that teacher knows and listens to his or her students.  They used to teach us in teacher school that all children want to learn.  Well, that’s a load of crap.  You remember school.  Did YOU want to learn long division?  It’s not completely untrue.  Children do want to learn.  They just don’t want to learn what we’re teaching.  In order to be a good teacher you have to get to know your students.  You have to learn what it is the student wants.  Then you have to help that student get it.

My wife used to take mandolin lessons.  She took lessons for a good two years.  And she never really got anywhere with it.  She did learn to play a little.  But she never made any progress.  And she always sounded like a beginner.  This is because her teacher (whom I admire very much, by the way) never listened to what she wanted.  What she wanted was to be able to play along with me when I played guitar.  She wanted to be able to chord along with me and sing.  What he gave her were mandolin solos written out for her in notation (standard TAB, for those who know).  Of course, she didn’t play the mandolin, so she thought he was doing the right thing.  But the solos didn’t really speak to what she wanted to do.  She practiced a little.  But she never made any progress.  She made little progress because she wasn’t moved to practice with all her heart.  It wasn’t fun.  So she didn’t put her heart in it.

Eventually, she gave up practicing.  She knew she wasn’t making any progress.  But she thought the problem was hers.  She didn’t know any better.  She didn’t know there was any other way to learn.  If she wasn’t learning, it had to be her fault.  And it wasn’t.

Now, had he given her some simple chord charts for songs she already knew and loved and showed her how to strum along, she would have gotten more excited about the whole thing, I’m sure.  And in time, no doubt, she would have asked to learn some of those mandolin solos he was pushing at her in the beginning.    The point is, there can be no set curriculum in any subject.  You have to see where the student is and what the student wants.

This brings me to kung fu.  It took a while, didn’t it?  I started to practice kung fu about the same time I started teaching for the school district.  And after about ten years, I became an instructor.  Back around 2001 or 2002, I injured myself again and had to take some time off from kung fu, but I’m back to teaching now.  And in those years I was away from the kung fu club, I learned that great secret about teaching.  Now I know why so many people who start kung fu, quit.

Most guys will tell you that it’s because kung fu is too hard, that most people can’t hack it.  That is not true.  People want to believe that because it means that if you’re still doing it, you must be some kind of elite superior person or something.  Nonsense.  If I can do it, anybody can do it.  That’s the simple truth.  The reason most people quit is because we, the kung fu teachers, are not listening to them.

For example, some really just want a form of exercise that isn’t boring.  Exercise bikes and elliptical machines just don’t do it for them.  And they hate jogging.  So they take kung fu.  They don’t really want to learn how to beat anybody up.  They are not expecting to have to defend themselves.  That’s why God made guns.  They just want to come into the club a few times a week and get a good workout.  So those teachers who spend their time trying to make sure these people do every movement absolutely perfectly are wasting their time and annoying the students.  They don’t care if they do the movements perfectly.  They don’t really care if they make any progress.  They just want to sweat.  The good teacher will leave those students alone and let them do their thing.

And then there are other students who really want to learn to fight.  They don’t want to learn any of the weapons, because nobody walks around with a spear or a broadsword anymore.  These folks want to learn self defense.  They don’t want to learn mysterious channeling of internal energy.  They don’t want to learn a lot of advanced forms or katas.  They just want to learn what to do if somebody tries to hurt them.

And then you have the students who, like  good catholics, love the art and tradition of the martial arts style.  They don’t plan on getting in any fights.  But they love the beauty of the movements.  They want to learn every form, every weapon, every technique, and they want to do it right.   These people could just as easily be civil war re-enactors.  They pay attention to every detail.

There are a few students who want to learn because they want to have power over others.  They study hard and try to be very good at what they do.  They want to become masters.  They want to become teachers.  I believe it is important to recognize these students and WEED THEM OUT.  No one who wants to have power over others should be taught a martial art.

I have always said that nobody who wants to be a leader should be allowed to be one.  Those people are only interested in power, and that’s not good for anybody.  All our leaders should be like Cincinattus.  They should step in, do their job and lead, and then get the hell out and go back to their farms.  The only people worth being leaders are the people who don’t want to lead.  And maybe it’s the same with teachers.

I never wanted to be a teacher.  It just happened.  I certainly don’t go into work every day planning on teaching the kids.  No.  I go into work.  And it just so happens that there are some kids in front of me who don’t know what nouns are.  So I show them.  And they learn.  And the ones who want more, I give it to them.  And the others, I give what they need.  And in the meantime, we try to have as much fun as we can.  I never wanted to be a teacher.  It’s a difficult job.  But somebody has to do it.

For those of you who don’t know California, Big Sur is an area in the Ventana Wilderness about thirty miles south of Monterrey.  Monterrey is the setting for one of John Steinbeck’s most wonderful books, CANNERY ROW.    At one time Monterrey was the capital of California, back when we used to belong to México.  Now, the capital is Sacramento.  And for some reason, the Spaniards never really used much of the land in Big Sur.  It was just known as El Gran Pais del Sur (The Big Country of the South).    It’s incredibly beautiful.  Think of the mountains with towering redwoods, then put them right on the beach.

We always rent a little cabin down on the Big Sur River.  It has a kitchen.   There are no televisions.  There is not internet access.  There is no cell phone reception.  There is just the sound of the river and the squawking of Stellar’s Jays.  We read.  We listen to music.  We drink Irish Whiskey.  I play my various instruments down by the river.  It’s wonderful.

Every year we go out to eat one evening at a restaurant called Nepenthe’s.  Nepenthe’s sits on a hit overlooking the Pacific coastline.  The view is incomparable.  You can see it here at the Nepenthe’s web site:  http://www.nepenthebigsur.com.  They have an hamburger to die for.  It’s called the Ambrosia Burger.  It is aptly named.  It can be a little pricey to eat there, so we only go there once while we’re there.

But this is not about Big Sur, nor is it about Nepenthe’s.  It’s about kung fu.  What?  Keep reading.  To get to Nepenthe’s, you have to climb several flights of stairs from the parking lot.  For the past few years, I always dreaded making that climb.  There were times in the last few years that I actually stopped to rest on the way up.  This was really depressing for a guy who used to run marathons.  But I had put on so much weight.  I won’t say how much I weighed, but I weigh 130 pounds less now so that should tell you something.  Let’s just say that when I hear Valerie Bertinelli brag about losing 40 pounds with Jenny Craig, I laugh and say, “I got your forty pounds right here!  Forty pounds!  I could do forty pounds in my sleep!”  But enough of that.  I digress.

This year, those flights of stairs felt like nothing.  I just popped right up those stairs.  I felt like I sort of floated up those stairs.  And this has nothing to do with losing weight.  The truth is, LAST year we went to Nepenthe’s and I was not much heavier than I am now.  And last year those stairs still were killers.  So what’s different this year?  Last May, I started practicing martial arts again.  And last June, I started working out at my kung fu club again in earnest.  Now, nearly a year later, I’m back to teaching at the classes.  I have regained my previous fitness level.  I’m strong again.  I’m not just thinner, I’m stronger.  I start every day with 50 pushups.  I practice my kung fu each and every day.  I feel better for it.

And I know some people will say, “Well, it’s the exercise.”  But it’s not just the exercise.  During those years that I was fat, I spent many hours working out at the local Bally’s.  I spent plenty of time on treadmills and elliptical machines.  I worked out with weights.  I didn’t feel as strong.  So I’m here to say that there is something special about kung fu.  It’s the air.

Kung fu is based on circulating your “chi”.  Chi is life energy.  The Japanese call it Ki.  In Yoga, it’s called prajna.  The “science” behind kung fu is precisely the same as that of yoga, karate, and of acupuncture.  There is some evidence that chi is electromagnetic energy.  Whatever it is, I have seen its power.  I have seen people do some amazing things, things usually filed away under “mind over matter”.  But it isn’t mind, it’s chi.

It is chi that allows the martial artist to break a board with a fist.  Stop action photography has shown that for many practitioners, the board breaks a split second BEFORE the hand hits it.  It isn’t the fist that breaks the board, it’s the chi.

All of us have chi.  We couldn’t live without it.  We just don’t all know how to circulate it though our bodies.  Learning to circulate the chi through your body helps to keep your internal organs healthy.  Learning to circulate chi through your body makes your bones stronger.  Of course, you can circulate chi through meditation.  But meditation doesn’t make your muscles supple.  Kung fu (and it’s various incarnations, karate, tai chi, etc.) is sort of like moving meditation.

Moving your chi requires more than moving around, however.  You can practice a martial art and never learn how to move your chi.  It’s quite possible to go through all the movements of kung fu (or tai chi, or yoga, or etc.) without ever moving your chi at all.  It is all about learning how to breathe.

Now you say, “I know how to breathe.  I’ve been doing it all my life.”  That’s true.  But you’ve probably been doing it wrong.  We all know how to breathe as infants.  Then we forget how.  Most people think you breathe with your lungs, but really, you breathe with your stomach.  Singers know this.  When you breathe in, your abdomen should go out.  Your body should fill up with air.  The key to moving your chi is in coordinating your movements with your breath.  The Chinese say that a child breathes with his/her belly.  The adult breathes with his/her chest.  The dying one breathes with his/her lips.  Okay, they don’t say the “his/her” part.  That’s just me being politically correct.  Regardless, the deeper you breathe, the more your chi circulates.

Try this little exercise.  First, you need to stand in what is called a horse stance.  I explained how to do this once before.  Stand straight with your feet together and you hands at your side.  Move your heels out with your toes together.  Now move your toes out at forty-five degree angles, leaving your heels where they were.  Now move your heels out again, leaving your toes where they were.  Now move your toes out again.  Now move your heels out.  Now straighten you toes so they point forward (a total of five movements in all).  Now bend your knees.  You should look like your riding a horse.  This is your horse.  Everybody has a different horse.  Make sure your back is straight and your hips tilted forward—that is, your pelvis tucked under.

Now, bring your hands up, and keeping your elbows slightly bent, place your palms out in front of you as if you were pushing against a wall.  Keeping your index fingers pointed up, bend the rest of your fingers at the first joint up from the knuckle (so it looks like your indicating a number one).  Now, take a deeeeeeeep breath, while you bring your hands back, keeping your elbows pointed down towards the floor, all the way to your chest.

Now, exhaling slowly, push (and I mean really push, as if you were pushing a thousand pounds) your hands back out to their starting position, timing your breath so that you finish breathing out as your hands reach the end of the movement.  Breathe deeply in with each inward movement, all the way down to your stomach.  Visualize the air coming into your body down to a point about three fingers below your navel.  This is called the tan tien.  Inhale through your nose.  Exhale through your mouth.  Do this twelve times.

You will find this difficult at first (if you’re doing it right).  Once you can do it without much effort, try a similar movement moving your hands out to your side, as if you were pushing two walls apart.  Use the same breathing techniques.  Do this outside, and you’ll get even better results.  If you do this enough, you will start to develop something called “live hand”.  It’s also called “live foot” (when speaking about your legs, that is).  That is, you will begin to feel your arms and legs.  They will be alive.  And you will realize that they haven’t  been, and you’ve just  noticed that they are now.  And when you move now, you will do so with intent.  You won’t just be throwing yourself around.  It is a most singular feeling.

Of course, it will take several months before you begin to feel any real results.  But that’s okay.  You’ve got time.  Just remember to breathe deep.  Breathe with your whole body.  Take in the air.  It’s good for you.

But then I got fat—very, very fat.  Imagine as fat as you can imagine.  I was fatter than that.  So I went on a diet.  I used the Weightwatchers plan.  It works.  I can say nothing but good things about it.  I lost 120 pounds (so far).  Doctors would tell me to exercise.  My foot was better, so I could now, but being so fat, I was afraid to exercise.  After losing 120 pounds, though, I felt that I could exercise again safely.  But I didn’t want to run or walk or life weights or bike because, quite frankly, I find them boring.  But I enjoy working out.

I found the idea of going back to my kung fu club and having to relearn all I had forgotten to be intimidating and somewhat embarrassing.  So when I had the opportunity to take those four free karate lessons, I jumped at it.  This would be a new system.  The workouts would be much less than the typical three hour classes at my old club.  I wouldn’t have to teach.  Just show up and work out.  No responsibilities.  It was perfect.  Unfortunately, it turned out that to continue would also be expensive, over $250 per month.

Well, I don’t have that kind of money.  Besides, after the second lesson, during which I sparred with the black belt instructor with great success, I knew I could go back to my old club.  I hadn’t forgotten everything.  So I called my old friend, Lee, and asked him to help me get back up to speed.  That’s what I’ve been doing this summer.  I’ve been going into the club three to four times per week since the end of June.  Now we’re coming up on Labor Day, the end of summer.  So here’s my progress report.

I can now get through an extended class without any trouble.  The first time back with extended exercises, I thought I was going to pass out.  Now, I won’t say it’s easy.  But I can do it without hearing the angels calling out to me.  I have managed to re-learn all but three of the empty hand forms.  I have re-learned the broadsword, and the long handled broadsword.  I have re-learned one of the two spear forms.  I have practiced the tiger fork and the butterfly swords, but I don’t have those forms down yet.  I have even re-learned the super duper double secret secret exercises that we don’t show hardly anybody.

I have also found myself helping some of the younger students with their forms and movements.  So, it’s all coming back.  I don’t move the way I did back when I was twenty-nine, but I’m doing okay.  The other day, my friend, Lee, reminded me that there were men that were forty who couldn’t do what I’d been doing.  I know I feel strong.

Kung Fu really does give a full body workout.  After a kung fu workout, you discover there are muscles you didn’t know you had.  This is because they hurt.  Seriously, a martial arts workout is perfect for people who have limited time to exercise.  It is aerobic, yet it also has the same effect as lifting weights.  Studying a martial art will make you fit and strong.  You learn to breathe.  You learn to pay attention.  You get to kick stuff.  It’s a lot more fun that walking on a treadmill.

So if I see that guy giving away karate lessons at the Labor Day Street fair here in the beach cities, I will be sure to thank him.  Those four free lessons gave me the little push I needed to go back to the South Bay Kung Fu Club.  I am living proof that there’s room for everybody at that club and in the martial world.  If I can learn this stuff, anybody can.  If I can come back, at the age of 54, and jump around the floor swinging a sword around, then there’s hope for anyone.  You can be insane too.

Lesson 1—Basic Horse Stance

You can’t fight if you can’t stand. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Of course it does. So the first thing you learn to do is to make your legs strong. To do that, you stand in what is called horse riding stance. It makes your legs very, very strong. It’s not easy to do, but it is easy to practice. You can do it while washing the dishes. You can do it while watching television. But you have to do it right. Here’s how to stand in horse stance:

Step one: Stand with your back straight. It’s good to do this next to a wall the first time. Have your feet together.

Step two: Turn you heels outward at about a 45 degree angle. Leave them there. You are now pigeon-toed.

Step three: Turn your toes out at a 45 degree angle. Leave them there.

Step Four: Turn your heels out again at a 45 degree angle so you’re pigeon-toed again.

Step Five: Turn your toes out again at 45 degree angles.

Step six: Now turn your heels straight. Your toes are pointing forward.

Step seven: Now bend your knees as if you were riding a horse. The goal here is to stand with your thighs nearly parallel to the floor. This is not easy to do and will hurt like hell. There is an example in the image on the page.

Try to stand this way for a minute. It will hurt. You won’t want to do this. Do it anyway.

Try to work up your time to as long as possible. Shaolin monks used to start out standing this way while a stick of incense burned (about three hours). You should get as low as you can, but you can also practice a “high horse” while just standing around for whatever reason you’re standing around. Again, imagine you are riding a horse. Push your thighs out.

This stance aligns your chakras. It is important you keep your back straight. DON’T lean over. You will want to, but don’t. Standing this way makes you very strong because it causes your “chi” (vital life energy) to flow. You should feel a warmth begin to flow through your body after a few minutes.

Lesson Two: The Bow and Arrow Stance (Gung Gee Ma)

Related to the horse stance is the bow and arrow stance. If you have a tile floor, it’s good to practice the stance there for the first time. You can practice it anywhere, however.

Step One: Get in a good horse stance.

Step Two: Take your right foot and move it straight back so that the toe of your right foot is in a line with the heel of your left foot. So, in other words, your right foot is about one foot-size back from where it was.

Step Three: Turn your upper torso so it is pointed toward the right and straighten your left leg. Your shoulders are straight and face the right wall. Your right foot and left foot will be pointed about 45 degrees towards the right. Your shin rises up straight, making a 90 degree angle with the floor.

Make sure to keep your feet in the same place they were for the horse stance. Every person has their own horse stance width. Your legs shouldn’t be too wide or too narrow. Make your back leg straight and lock your knee joint. In our club, the leader will sometimes stand on the students’ back legs to make sure they are locked. You will see this stance in the image on the page also, so click on the image. Try to stand in this stance for a minute and work your way up to as long as possible. Practice this stance to the right and to the left, meaning with the right leg bent and the left leg bent.

Conclusion: In the classes offered at our club, students stand in these stances for about a half-hour. They also walk in the horse stance. Yes, you CAN walk in that stance. In the next lessons, I will teach you the basic punch (ping chui) and the two basic blocks, mok sao and long sao. This will make practicing in stance easier, believe it or not. Doing something with your hands takes your mind off how much your legs hurt. Let me know how you’re doing with these and feel free to ask questions.

One kind of martial arts school is “the business”. This school is supposed to make money. This is an elusive martial arts dream. Hardly any martial arts schools make money. We all knew martial arts schools were notorious for bouncing checks when I worked for the bank. This is usually because most martial arts teachers are not good at running a business. Nevertheless, some schools do make money. Here’s how to tell if a school is a school or a business.

Martial arts schools that make money are the ones that offer short classes, about one hour. They also offer classes for each level, kids and adult, beginner and advanced. The schools are attractive, clean, and organized. There are big mirrors on the wall and trophies in the windows. People advance quickly from one belt to another. This is what people want. That’s how you run a business. You provide what people want. These places are usually costly, too. The last one I priced wanted $600 for ten private lessons and $250 per month for classes. Now that’s an expensive way to get your “kicks”.

On the other hand, my kung fu teacher, my sifu, says that he has an expensive “hobby”. This is because our school is always broke. He almost never brings in enough money to pay expenses. At one time, he covered the expenses himself. Now, the senior students do it. He has never tried very hard to retain students. There are no belts. The classes last around three hours. You have to be there six months before you ever spar with anybody. Most people quit after the first few workouts.

To be honest, I went to that karate school because I wanted that one hour workout. I didn’t want to spend three hours in class. At 54, my old joints aren’t that forgiving anymore. I like being able to walk the day after working out. I’m funny that way. But there was no way I was going to pay $600 for the private lessons, or even $250 for classes. I just don’t have that kind of cash. So I called my old pal and asked him if he would help me relearn some of what I forgot.

What I forgot were what we in the kung fu world call “forms”. Forms are choreographed fighting sequences in which you practice various techniques. Some forms are short and some are long. Most are over a couple hundred movements. So each forms lasts from three to five minutes. Think of them as songs with movements instead of lyrics. In karate, they are called kata. We have many forms in our school.

We start with Moi Fa Kuen (plum flower fist), Lau Gar Kuen (Lau family fist), and Choi Gar Kuen (Choi family fist). Then you learn the first two person form, Sook Kuen Chut. This takes about eighteen months. Then, you get to learn the first serious form, Gung Gee Fook Fu Kuen. This means subduing the tiger in the shape of an “I”. This is a very long form and requires months to learn. Then you get to learn one of the other definitive forms of the system, Fu Hok Kuen (Tiger Crane fist). Along the way, there is a little form called Fum Gum (I have no idea what this means), Bam Bo (Preying Mantis), Kuen Chut (the other two person form—the long version), and finally Ng Hai Ng Hay (Five animal five element).

Then you get to start learning the weapons. We have the spear, the broadsword, the long handled broadsword (around six feet long), the tiger fork (it looks like a big pitchfork), the butterfly swords, and the chain whip. Some of those are more advanced than others. You don’t learn them one after the other. So, as you can see, there are a lot of these forms. To learn them all requires at least ten years, usually more. Doing these forms is a great way to exercise. Do all the forms and it gives you a good hour long workout. Let me tell you, you sweat—a lot. I knew them all before my foot injury. And after seven years, I had forgotten them all.

I mean, I remembered the individual movements in the forms. I just couldn’t remember what form the movement came from or what order it came in. Now, since each form has a couple hundred movements in it, you can see that relearning them might be quite a task. It is. Believe it or not, however, it’s not as hard as you might think. Muscles have memory. So once you do one movement, the next several movements come back on their own. But it still requires a lot of work.

Truth be told, I would be happy just doing a couple of these forms a couple times per day. I would get a great workout just from that. I mean, who really needs to use a broadsword or spear? But here’s the rub: as a senior student/teacher, I have certain responsibilities. On my second Sunday workout I found out that one of the other senior student/teachers was moving away. The club was going to need someone to take over the class. My pal, Lee, simply gave me a glance. I knew what that meant. Come back to the club and I would have to once again shoulder that responsibility. I really didn’t want that. But it comes with the territory.

So now, I feel the need to relearn everything, not out of choice, but out of duty. After these three weeks, I have already regained the basic forms plus the major form, Gung Gee, the one created by the system’s founder, Hung Hei Kwan (Hung Gar means Hung family fist). I am about halfway through relearning Fu Hok (Tiger Crane). I am most of the way through the broadsword and spear. This is more than enough for me. I will specialize in knowing these forms well.

I’m not really interested in teaching the system anymore. I have done the kung fu master thing. I don’t need to do that anymore. I have no need to teach the more advanced students. But I will have to help the beginner and intermediate student, so I will bring myself up to speed on those forms.

Now that you know what I have to learn, I will keep you all posted on my progress. You might find it a little interesting to see how an old man does in practicing this young man’s art. In the next posting, I will let you know what goes on during one of those classes I attend. I might even give you a little instruction along the way. So bring out the sweat pants and get ready to work, Reverbia. The master is coming back.