Over the course of my experience I’ve bumped into a number of lesser known styles (at least outside China) that have delighted me…
Sep
3
2010
3
2010
Aug
31
2010
31
2010
You Can If You Believe You Can…
Among the topics I investigated was the subject of mastery which proved to be bigger and even more interesting than I had anticipated…
Aug
23
2010
23
2010
When All About You
A quick thought, nothing more. It’s nice in times like these to take stock of things. And when the market is crumbling, the job rate rising, we Americans are embroiled in what some see as the wrong wars, and generally the world is wobbling, it is indeed time to separate the flimsy from the solid. [...]
Aug
17
2010
17
2010
A Rock and a Hard Spot
For Those Times When the Training Seems To Stop
One minute you’re Bruce Incarnate, the next you’re unable to tie your shoes without the danger of a self-inflicted eyeshot.
Aug
1
2010
1
2010
Both sides of the camera…
Making a DVD like our recent Blossoms in the Spring is great; that’s to say it’s great fun and a great amount of work…
Jul
28
2010
28
2010
Clicking
When it happens to you, you know it. That electric dusk-sensitive porch light clicks on…
Jul
26
2010
26
2010
Eenie Meenie Minie Fu
In the introduction to his book, Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, Bill Bryson suggests that “nursery rhymes…are fastidiously resistant to change” and later continues:
Jul
22
2010
22
2010
The Facets of Chin Na
Two young boys engaged in grabbing one another, trying to gain a momentary upper hand, catching and locking each others joints must go back to the time before the pyramids.
Jul
10
2010
10
2010
Why is Push Hands so bad?
To explore this topic we’ll have to assume the basic premise that Push Hands is bad…
Jun
24
2010
24
2010
College Days in Martial Arts
Martial artists have got to stop misrepresenting the very nature of the martial arts.
Jun
22
2010
22
2010
Product: Jing Wu Assocation
Now here’s along overdue piece of the puzzle…
Jun
14
2010
14
2010
BOXING WITH IZZY
I had been practicing how to pronounce “arrondisement”(district) and searching the internet for images of Parisians practicing Tai Chi in the Luxembourg Gardens. Then, a volcano in Iceland erupted…
Jun
12
2010
12
2010
Booby Prize Martial Arts
One of the real mistaken ideas which people get caught up in— especially if they started training young— is that some martial practices are …
Jun
4
2010
4
2010
Animals in Kung Fu
Everyone knows that Kung Fu has animal styles, but the subject is a little more interesting that what people first suspect…
Jun
1
2010
1
2010
Practice SPACE!
Everyone says Kung Fu came from the animals, then they never look at any animals.
May
28
2010
28
2010
Fahrenheit 001
The basic idea was that in the future no one reads (which was pretty prophetic on Bradbury’s part)…
May
22
2010
22
2010
Sifu Staff
The saying goes that the spear is the king of the weapons and the straight sword is the queen. Then what is the staff?
May
13
2010
13
2010
Those Unpredictable Weapons
The steel whip makes a “whirrrrr” as it cuts through the air…
May
11
2010
11
2010
Apr
27
2010
27
2010
Playing the Spear
A good spear man looks somewhat like a belly dancer, torso waving and rotating with every motion of the weapon…
Apr
19
2010
19
2010
Classic Training
I’ve told this story before but I like to repeat it:
Apr
8
2010
8
2010
A Little False Humility, Please
You get tested in the strangest ways, in the most unlikely places…
Apr
1
2010
1
2010
A Lesson from Wing Chun Pai
Like a large family living through Diaspora the individual members rarely possess the whole family story…
Mar
25
2010
25
2010
The Tao of Retreat
Back and forth, advance and retreat. In the early days of freestyle I often thought that most sparring was an excuse to practice dancing…
Mar
17
2010
17
2010
A Useful Analogy
As a traditional martial artist who insists on everything I study passing the test of combat, I spend a lot of time around full-contact fighters who don’t understand the point of the traditional arts.
Mar
12
2010
12
2010
Courtyard, Camp and Village
Now, while the heat of the afternoon has not yet risen and the dust still lies there without tainting the air…
Feb
26
2010
26
2010
Training the Tiger
I just opened my mouth and out it came: I announced last week that in honor of the Year of the Tiger we would train this coming Saturday in Tiger Kung Fu…
Feb
20
2010
20
2010
Differences between the two Green Dragon Forms
This article briefly covers the differences between the two versions of the Green Dragon Form: That offered in my book, and that offered on the Kunlun Four Shapes VCD (VCD#1059). By the way, these VCD’s are very good, and Master Huang Shuangqing really knows his stuff. The applications sections are a little weak, but he [...]
Feb
15
2010
15
2010
Feb
12
2010
12
2010
You Have to See for Yourself
I’m sitting here with a pile of photographs next to my coffee thinking how stupid I was…