Kung Fu Training

By far the biggest secret weapon in your Kung Fu Training is Chi Kung.  It is not widely known or explained what impact this has on kung fu.  Here I write a brief explanation on how it is at the heart of ANY kung fu or martial art.

Chi Kung is closely connected with Chinese martial arts. Before 1950, when Chi Kung  was taught exclusively  the disciples only, it was common for the general public to think of it as some sort of advanced internal kung fu training, whereby the expert would injure his opponent without leaving any external mark, or take punches and even attacks with weapons without sustaining any injury. Since the 1980s, however when the health aspect of Chi Kung began to be taught many people have begun to think that it has nothing to do with martial arts!

Which of these two views is correct?  They are in fact both right and wrong.  Some types of  chi kung allow the practitioner to  break bricks with their hands and head,  are specifically for fighting and maybe detrimental to their health if the training is not done properly. On the other hand, most medical Chi Kung exercises are specifically meant for curing illness and promoting health and appeared to have no connection with martial arts. Hence the view that martial arts and chi kung are mutually exclusive.

But if we understand them more deeply, we understand  it they can be complementary, helping each other to achieve a special purpose. A training program of martial arts and chi kung usually includes exercises to promote health. For example for going 10 days or jabbing their hands into sand to strengthen their hands and punches, trainees must first practice Chi Kung exercises that make them healthy and fit and protect their hands (and rest of their body) by covering themselves with  Chi as well as clearing away any  injury that is  sustained during training.

So you see se Chi Kung and  Kung Fu are intertwined and have elements that both complement and enhance the other. 

Technorati Tags: Chi Kung, horse stance, Kung fu, kung fu fight, Kung Fu Style, Kung Fu Training

In previous posts I mentioned the role tournament training & fighting has in your kung fu training development.

Now so we are clear this is quite different from sparring.  Sparring is mainly for training- learning and being experimental with new techniques.

Where in a Tournament the sole purpose is Competition, Competition competition.!!  Its on like donkey kong.

Your first tournament is going to be your hardest so here a re a few tips to get over that first hurdle.

There’s a saying.. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall??.. The answer Practice!!”

To be successful in your first tournament the number one piece of advice I can give is to practice.  This is the role sparring plays.  Your foundation is your fitness. You will learn that just holding your arms up after a period of time and nothing else is tiring in of itself.  So you must have your conditioning and stamina u to speed.  I was stupid enough to think I wouldn’t get past my fist round fight, so I didn’t need to be too fit.. I was wrong .. I Won!  and was out of breath for my next fight and go beaten.

This practice lets you test different techniques you can use during your competition.

When sparring its important ht you focus on your opponent and block out everything.  Condition your yourself to focus on your opponents’ movements.  This should be your mindset going in and during the fight.  

This way when you are ,actually fighting you  have blocked out all other distractions: ..the crowd, the judges, referee other competitors  and just focusing on your opponent  You have blocked everything out.

This may sound a little out there  but the habits you develop in training will transfer to into the ring.  

Finally the biggest obstacle to overcome is your mindset.  It is common to be nervous before a competition- however it’s not OK for it to control your ability to perform,. Here is what I did to overcome those pre fighting nerves.

Visualisation: yes ..may sound hokey but I visualised what it would be like.  But just imagination is not good enough. You need to put emotion into it.  Visualise you are with your opponent let that fear enter your body ..Just gently.. feel those nerves ..feel what it would feel like, see what you would see hear what you would hear…try and make it as real as possible.

Then imagine that fear reducing, like an imaginary dial imagine it just reduces and feel more confident and confident.. remember this is an exercise in imagination and visualisation.  Continue to feel more confident.  If you are stuck on this,  imagine a  time where you felt really confident,  a time where you overcame a difficulty and use that feeling to regain confidence.

Do this often and you will associate your fighting with a confident positive demeanour.

Well those are the basics to it.  But nothing can replace a bit if work and plenty of fun. You will see your confidence in your kung fu training soar and your learning grow and develop to a whole new level.

Technorati Tags: horse stance, Kung fu, kung fu fight, Kung Fu Style, Kung Fu Training

Best way to stop any attacker!!!

 When confronted with an attacker the first thing to be aware of is not to panic. Easier said than done. Right.  The best thing you can do is as you become aware of a dangerous situation is to keep your distance from the danger.  If it’s a person, weapons whatever it may be.

However if that person is hell bent on causing you trouble. You are going to have to defend yourself. 

 In this situation the best thing you can do is use the   your opponents strength against them.  Don’t try and match their force and get into a wrestling match with them, you will want to back away and strike at your opponent.

You can see from this example that the fundamental principle s not o use force against force. You are using the momentum of your opponent to put them off balance, weakening their position and exploiting this.

You should always assume that your attacker is bigger, stronger uglier and even better than you in a fight, that way you don’t take anything for granted and never under estimate your opponent.  In this video you see the use of weapons being defended against.  I leave with this last tid bit and advanced super secret technique to defend against knives, sticks and most weapons.  If you your attacker has them ….run!  

You don not get bonus points for disarming an attacker—there is little ups and all down. If you have the opportunity do a Usain Bolt. However if you are boxed in a situation where it is unavoidable – then you will need to focus and put your training to use.  That is why practice is so important. You can stuff up many time in a class..indeed its encouraged for learning…however you only get it wrong once on the streets.

Technorati Tags: horse stance, Kung fu, kung fu fight, Kung Fu Style, Kung Fu Trainin

One of the keys to success with wing chun is sharpening your skills. here is a great way to improve your chi sao

 

 

 

10 ways to improve your chisao

via Wing Chun Island by noreply@blogger.com (Will) on 7/15/10

1. Intentionally lose. Let the other person win but keep your attention on the other person. W

atch how they win. Concentrate on your balance and staying relaxed while they do whatever they want.

2. Make sure you aren’t leaning at all. All your weight should be balanced in the middle of the foot. You should conceive of your arms and your body as being in front of you. Move the whole body forward from the bottom, not from the top by leaning. Don’t lean ever… at all. Well ok, once you totally understand how balance works, then lean all you want. I promise I won’t say anything.

3. Don’t move until you are connected. Move the body forward until you can feel your partner’s core down to the ground. At that point, (if your arms are relaxed) you should feel where to move almost as though your arms are moving themselves. Work on improving connection rather than your arms’ position in relation to your partners’. Also, don’t pull away from your partner to get a move off.

4. Don’t speed up or do series of moves. Stay in the moment and do what you are doing at that moment. Don’t speed up in order to get a move to work. Don’t practice a series of moves to do something fancy. Just do what the system created by the connection between you and your opponent tells you to do.

5. Don’t look down until you don’t have any urge to look down at what is going on with the hands. Even then, nothing special to see.

6. Concentrate on your opponent as a whole body, not on his moves.

7. Don’t look for openings or ways to “get” or hit your opponent. Keep connected and take ground. The good stuff will happen naturally.

8. Try chisaoing with only one foot touching the ground at any given moment. Make sure you are relaxed and “seated” on the leg. Change legs at any time as often as you like.

9. What attitude or emotion or mental state do you decide to have when you chisao. Try answering this question and changing it up frequently.

10. Treat chisao as an experiment. Decide how you will change your approach each time you do it before you begin. Try relaxed, stiff, fast, slow, hard, soft, intentionally bad, leaning, moving forward, stationary, aggressive….try anything and everything you can think of. Do things no one else would ever try. See how it works. Change it up even more based on what you learn from your experiments. Most people just try their hardest each time. Trying is for people who haven’t decided what to do.

Ok, here is a bonus point.

Don’t stop when you manage to hit or push your partner or get hit yourself. Continue working. If you are much better than your opponent, you can see openings but not take them and just work to deepen the connection. Keep the connection and flow going as long as possible.

Technorati Tags: horse stance, Kung fu, kung fu fight, Kung Fu Style, Kung Fu Training

For those of us who have started out kung fu training we are taught the self-discipline as this is the key to self mastery.  We have different motives to start kung fu , perhaps it was the first time you saw a Bruce lee movie, or maybe to get fit or perhaps for self esteem.  In any case the mystique of kung fu and its history are long and the training hard.  There are infinite ranges of styles of kung fu with their origins tracing back to mimicking animals striking and fighting in their native habitats.  It has been said that Shaolin monks observed the movements of these animals attacks and this lay the foundation for them to develop their own fighting styles.  The monkey fighting style, the 5 animal kung fu style and tiger claw kung fu style can observe this. Indeed many of the forms and styles of kung fu training stems from these ancient origins.  As part of the tradition of kung Fu training these practices are still part of today’s training routine.

A classic example of this is the posture of the Chinese horse stance.  Any kung fu trainee will have spent many times practicing this posture.  It is both simple and very effective. It is the cornerstone of beginning you  Your training is more than learning the forms and actions- your training should be a test of endurance, stamina and focus.  This is embodied in the horse stance.  It gets its name by position you see someone who is sitting on a horse.  The Chinese did love their animal analogies. Essentially the posture is as follows.:

By the way it is not recommended that you try this the Jacki Chan way as above.  He is a bit of a masochist.  If you have seen the out takes of his movies you will know what I mean

Your legs are just more than shoulder width apart, you should be squatting down with your knees and toes pointed forward -thighs parallel to the ground.

Your back is straight- looking forward.   Your arms can have different positions.  The most popular (how I was trained) was with your arms forward shoulder width apart with palms facing out fingers pointing up.

The goal here is to hold this position for 5 minutes.  To achieve this I would suggest breaking it up into 30 second stints and build up to 5 minutes.  To be honest 3 minutes is an achievement in itself.  You will learn much from this posture.  It will create greater flexibility in you legs and all over, in particular your leg strength will grow and grow.  It will burn it will sting-you may be staggering around after your initial practices—but this is kung fu training ..if you saw what Uma Thurman went through in Kill Bill 2  you are getting of light..  But you will reap immediate rewards from this simple yet complex exercise.

Technorati Tags: horse stance, kung fu fight, Kung Fu Style, Kung Fu Training, kung fu video, marshal arts, Wing Chun Training