The Story of Real Kung Fu Training (as Told to the Author)

[I:https://healthclub90.com/storage/2011/07/AlCase0.jpg]If you aren’t willing to work, then you might just as well skip this bit of writing. Correction, if you don’t absolutely love good, hard work, then head on down the road. Real Kung Fu Training, you see, will exhaust the muscles and show you the bruises.

People want the quick fix, you see, and the quick fix don’t work. There is no magic pill. To understand this you need merely look at the definition for the word Kung Fu. A skill attained through hard work over time.

When I learned Shaolin kung fu I had to stand in the horse stance (mabu) for an hour. The instructor used a stick of incense that took an hour to burn. We were expected to stand in the horse stance and let the incense burn down, and at the end of the hour training would begin.

After we made it through the first hour (it wasn’t hard after you got used to it), we got to do basics training. We wouldn’t do twenty or thirty kicks, we would do hundreds of them. And hundreds of another style kick, and hundreds of…you get the idea.

After doing basics for the second hour, we would finally get to do kung fu forms. This would consist of the ancient forms practiced at the Shaolin Temple, Mok, and Choy & Lee, and the Tiger & Crane and those kinds of patterns. Interestingly, teacher would let up on us then, and actually talk about some of the things we were learning.

He would tell us how to translate the moves into real self defense. We would learn every possible thing you could do in a self defense situation. Sometimes we would break into pairs and do a few applications, but then we were back into the forms.

Our real training was in the two man kung fu patterns. This was where we stood face to face and bashed arms until they were numb and desperately in need of some good, old Dit Dah Jow healing juice. We didn’t get that martial arts herbal juice until after class though; we had to earn it first with our hard work and bruises.

To be honest, all through my kung fu training I wondered if what I was learning worked, then, one day I was attacked. I sunk my weight and raised my arm, and my attacker’s arm collided with my arm, and a look of pain cut across his features. He actually turned around and walked away, bent over and holding his arm.

Now, having suffered through it, having endured the pain and the agony, would I recommend it? I would if you want real martial arts. Remember this article when you decide you want, and when you go out and find some good, old fashioned Real Kung Fu Training.

This story of Real Kung Fu Training was related to me by a fellow who taught me Shaolin. If you want to see what I did with this training, head to Monster Martial Arts and take a look at the Shaolin Butterfly.