All,

I’ve recently finished reading the book, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. I have to say that it was an interesting read. While the book focuses on what to expect physiologically and phychologically in a high stress ‘life or death’ situation, I found that it still applied to any highly stressed experience we may have.

One of the things that I loved about this book is that it took the ’movie mask’ off of combat and explained it as it is. Lt. Col. Grossman covers such things as the effects of adrenilan in combat, perceptual distortions (auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, slow motion time, temporary paralysis, etc) and the Universal human phobia.

I believe this a a great book because it doesn’t glorify or condemn war, combat, or peace keeping, it just makes it clear what to expect.  But one of the most important sections in the book covers the ‘Evolution of Combat and Domestic Violent Crime’, and how current media (movies, tv, video games, etc) help condition our children towards a more agressive and sometimes violent lifestyle.

Also included in this book is an entire session dedicated towards the ‘Price of Combat’, covering such things as PTSD, Survivor Guilt, Self-Blame, emotional healing from combat and the importance of Tactical Breathing and the debriefing.

This is definately a book that I would recommend to instructors (martial arts, Defensive Tactics, security, etc). But more importantly I would recommend it to anyone who is or has a loved one in law enforcement or the military.
 

Hey All,

I’ve seen some people just practice the Pak Sau drill or Bong Sau/Lap Sau drill over and over without realizing the awesome tool that they have for learning and functionalizing their Wing Chun.

Let’s look at the Pak Sau Cycle (or Drill):

Person A: does Chair Lum Keun (Chain punching) while in Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma.

Person B: Does pak sau while in Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma (YGKYM).

For some reason, this is where many people stop, or they only have 1 or 2 drills that they do.

But From here, so many things can happen. Here’s just a couple of options:

1) Pak Sau, Lap Sau: The person doing pak sau can every once and a while do a lap sau. This helps with developing timing and understanding angling.

2) Pak Sau, Inside Pak Sau

3) Pak sau, Tan Sau, Bong Sau

All of these help with developing Flow, timing and angling. But the best is if you look at either Pak Sau cycle or Bong Sau cycle as a ‘Container’ in which you are only limited to your creativity. The Bong Sau cycle and Pak Sau cycle should be looked at the same way that Luk Sau (Rolling hands) is to Chi sau. Rolling hands isn’t chi sau, but it is the container for chi sau.

Hey All,

While I was teaching and also doing my own training I noticed several students practicing their forms (Sil Lim Tao, Chum Kiu, Biu Jee). But what amazed me the most, was that they were doing the forms in a passe way. Just going through the motions, and not minding what they were doing or how they were doing it.

I understand that there are times when we just aren’t into training our forms, but that should be the exception, not the rule. Most of us don’t put our mind and spirit into our forms. But if you want to excell in your chosen martial art, and what to get the biggest bang for your training time here are a few tips to help you through it.

1. Become One: Connect your Mind with every motion of your body. Think and feel every motion, your body should have a unity that can generate ‘effortless power’, but look graceful.
2. 10 to 1 Rule: For everytime you do your form at ‘Normal’ or ’Fast’ speed, do it 10 times slow. Now I know some of you are thinking, ‘But traditionally my form isn’t done that way!’, well, that may be true, but if you really want to get the mechanics down, and KNOW where your body is during every motion, do it slow. By slowing down the form, it is like doing it 10,000 times.
3. Feel the Power: Focus on where your body should be generating power during any given movement. There are several ways to do this, but one of the ways it to put a ‘Mind of Pressure’ in each move. Meaning pretend there is some pressure that is giving you some resistance trying to prevent you from doing the action.
4. Body Bump: Get a partner to push or ‘bump’ you after every move. This will help you know if you are balanced and rooted properly. Now Don’t have your partner give you so much force that you can’t stay rooted.

Well I hope it helps. And remember:

Keep Training, Keep Praying, Keep Learning!

All,

In a world that is increasingly busy, and our need to have instant response, many things have suffered. Not to mention the martial arts. While the ‘traditional’ martial arts have kept much of its history, even they are suffering from ‘instant results’. With the advent of such wonderful things as ‘Reality Martial Arts’, ‘Mixed Martial Arts’, etc, we have removed the martial virtues, as an ‘unnecessary’ part of training, and focused solely on the fighting portion of the systems.

When we take the martial arts, and remove the martial virtues of ‘Honour, Loyalty, self-discipline, courage, Humility, family, etc.’ We have removed the ‘art’ from the ‘martial’. The martial arts regardless of system, style, origin, have always held the budo (warrior way), WuDut (Martial Virtues), as key to their training. The lessons learned in Budo/WuDut are sometimes more important than the fighting art itself. These martial virtues help to motivate, mold, and encourage a martial artist to a higher ideal. To develop skills outside the physical, to learn to use his mind, and his heart in every situation.

As a martial arts instructor, I try and provide both the practical function of the art we are learning, but also the martial virtues. If as instructors, we only pass on the fighting portion of the art, it would be like giving a student only half the knowledge, and asking them to write an exam, knowing that their chance of success if at best is a 50%. Sometimes as instructors, we maybe the only stable and reliable source to many of our students. If that is true, don’t we want to give those students the best? Letting them know there is more to life than just the physical portion. Encouraging them to seek improving themselves not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well? If we truly follow the concepts of Yin and Yang (positive and negative), everything on this planet has it’s polar opposite. The same should be with our martial training. We should not only teach the tangible (physical), but also the intangible (mental/emotional/spiritual) as well. To have one out of balance is not good. There must be a balance between all that is taught.

Hey Guys,

I was doing a little training at Sifu Chan’s kwoon (school) in Toronto, and during our time, we sat down and discussed some interesting things. The one I want to share with you is about “Traditional” Martial arts.

While we were discussing what is ‘Traditional’ Chinese Martial arts, Chan Sifu said, ‘Do you know what real Traditional Chinese Martial Arts are? I will tell you. Traditional Martial arts is not if you can follow your martial arts family line all the way back to the Shaolin temple, though it is an important part of your heritage. It’s not if you follow old traditions, like bowing to your ancestors, or wearing ‘kung fu suits’. Real traditional Chinese martial arts is about the relationship you hold with your sifu.

The relationship between Sifu (Teacher) and todai (student/disciple), should be one of respect and fellowship, not competition. The closest Western idea is that of a healthy relationship of a father and son. While a son may not always agree with his father (especially during the teenage years), he must understand that from his father’s perspective, he is trying to help and guide his son the best way he knows. As the son grows, the father doesn’t compete against the son, but encourages and tries to inspire the son to go further than the father. Now this doesn’t mean they won’t have some friendly competition from time to time (like a father and son playing golf together), but who wins is unimportant, what is important is the time spent, and the relationship that is forged.

Chan Sifu when on to say, that many martial arts teachers now forget this, and try to keep their todai from growing and exploring their martial art. Why? Who knows, it could be fear, pride, competition, etc. But while a martial arts school is still a business, it is also a ‘home’ to its students and instructors. A place where it is safe to try ideas, and experiment, and train. It shouldn’t be a place of fear, of oppression, but a place of respect, discipline, openness, knowledge and kindness.