Displaying posts tagged with

“Kung Fu basics”

Jul
2
2020

Chang Gong

Whether you are the ancient hermit of the Dark Forest or a week-in week-out practitioner, martial training always rewards perseverance with increased skills you have gathered and accumulated like rain. Skills like these come mostly from just hanging in there and that’s the reason they stay in the shadows, unnoticed. The results of CHANG GONG, […]

Apr
28
2020

Why I Like Bagua

Everything is spinning crazily. The fact that facts are scarce does not prevent them from flying at us, relentlessly.  We spend our hours looping and diving, just to keep upright. In times like this, Bagua sounds just about right. It is no wonder that people recognize that Bagua is the truth-speaker of a relatively untruthful […]

Apr
24
2020

Kung Fu Training: You Always Hurt The One You Love

Over my years of teaching martial arts, I’ve had quite a good time explaining some of the more obscure switches of Kung Fu’s winding pathway: the splits, front and side; gyrating and rolling children, long past their bedtimes; and the fine art of setting things on small altar stacks, then crushing them. And that is […]

Jan
9
2020

Book Review: Adam Hsu’s “Life Is Too Short For Bad Kung Fu”

Traditional Chinese Kung Fu is dying. When it dies it won’t be a homicide but a suicide. Shifus are peddling tricks to kids. Shifus that are preserving Kung Fu can’t find students to undergo the hardship of practice. Students that are willing to undergo the traditional training can’t find a Shifu to train them. Kung […]

Jan
2
2020

Six Harmony Praying Mantis (Liu He Tang Lang)

Several months ago, Plum published Sifu Adam Hsu’s significant book, “Life Is Too Short For Bad Kung Fu,” in which he outlined some crucial methods to save traditional Wushu from extinction. He might have had Sifu Tsai Yong Huang’s new DVD on Liu He Tang Lang (Six Harmony Praying Mantis) in mind when he reiterated […]

Oct
22
2019

Life is Too Short For Bad Kung Fu

Yes, it’s true! A new book in English by Adam Hsu. If this were Hollywood, Sifu Adam Hsu’s new book, “Life Is Too Short For Bad Kung Fu,” would be the tell-all on everyone’s reading list; not because it is gossipy—he names no names—but because it fulfills its promise to reveal the good, the bad, […]

Mar
24
2019

How to Make Friends With 60:40 Stance

We have been practicing and discussing how to make friends with 60:40 stance in our recent community classes. This is where 60% of the weight is on the back leg, and 40% is on the front leg. Often the most uncomfortable or difficult to understand stance, where many students are just bearing it until they […]

Mar
18
2019

Teach Your Students Well

As we previously mentioned, we are working on the production of Sifu Adam Hsu’s newest book in English—we hope to have it out by mid-year. Since Hsu Shifu is in Taipei and we are in California, a lot of our communication over the fine details happens through email, so we were particularly happy to get […]

May
26
2018

Look Who’s Back!

Just a quick note to let you know that three books have returned to Plum. The first two–Paul Eng’s Kung Fu Basics, and Brian Kennedy’s Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals–can be found in our wildly popular (and ever-changing) “hurt books” section, where you can pick up some real gems in near new condition for whopping […]

Nov
20
2015

“If I could just interject one thought here…”

For the umpteenth time I am re-designing the basics practiced at my school. This may come as a surprise to people for a couple for reasons. I know that there are styles which have probably taught the same basics for decades, even centuries. I used to study at a school that taught two distinct and […]

Aug
26
2014

Kung Fu’s Back and Forth Problem

There are two kinds of people, as Robert Benchley wrote, “Those who divide everyone into two kinds of people and those who don’t.” When we are talking about Kung Fu styles—good ones only, please—we often encounter another two-way path. Before I even go into this, let me tell you that this causes a lot of […]

Jun
5
2012

What is jibengong? What would be a good DVD for some examples?

Dear Ted, Recently in the online community RumSoaked Fist, Dr. Kenneth Fish has expressed a lament in the lack of jibengong being taught to new students. Dr. Fish then goes on to elaborate that there needs to be more leg lifts, goblet and pistol squats, crescent kicks and so forth for any martial arts foundation. […]

Dec
31
2011

Training: Arms like Banners

This may sound like I am a candidate for the Wrong Way Corrigan Award but I sort of like that about Kung Fu practice. It reinforces that very true statement that the direct route is always nice, if you can get it. But there is no guarantee.

Jul
19
2011

What Makes a Kung Fu Style Good?

The crippled grammar aside, I changed it because I realized that with the right type of training the style doesn’t need to be a winner to start.

Jan
19
2010

Excerpt: Don’t Compare Yourself…

It’s difficult to find realy good books on the basics of Kung Fu…