A Sparring Experience

Saturday, Oct 23rd, morning, cloudy, got up late, didn't eat breakfast (finally brought down a bag of apple cinnamon pop-tarts), making calls, getting calls, arranging rides, got a pretty bad start in the morning. However, while on the way there, with some help from 95.1 and metal songs help my mind started to calm down a bit more.

We got to the place around 950ish, just before wushu demonstration began at around 10. Saw Brian Wang, our former social chair -- everytime I saw him I would now and then have the song "Good Morning" by Kanye West. It was a fitful song for that morning actually, very chill and relaxed, with some hidden tides wavering around underneath everyone's thumping hearts. At least it was in mine.

blah blah blah..

Protection doesn't help

While exiting the ring and stepping down to ground level. I felt a tightness in my right shin. I was still able to walk of course, but keep in mind that adrenaline does wonders to hide the pain. I just stopped sparring and it already hurt. What is going on?

Learning To Spar

I opened my eyes this morning recalling the events of last evening. I flexed my quads to tighten my knees. I rotated my ankles. They did not hurt as bad as the night before. Sparring....the act of you and your kung fu brothers hitting each other. It can be rough, but you learn quite a lot.

In the mirror I saw a long rectilinear marking on the side of my ribs. My knees, pink and my shins purple.

Why Train with Traditional Weapons?

Traditional Weapons Training

Very often people are attracted to Chinese Martial Arts because of the absolute array of weapons present in the system. No other ethnic combat system can boast such a plethora of sharp and shiney, blunt and edged, long and stout tools of defense and war. However, aside from being a “marketing” ploy, many others ask, "what is the use of training in such archaic tools for combat?" I will introduce a classification of weapons called the Four Great Weapons. I will then explain why I believe it important to continue training in these weapons despite the fact that the carrying of such items would either be considered illegal or simply a societal oddity.

Part 2 Gung Fu v Techniques [A]

This is the second part of my three part series which began, in the previous post, with a discussion of the Gung Fu Form and its purpose in the art, despite criticisms of its uselessness.

Our second pairing will be that of Gung Fu and Technique. First and foremost, these two are NOT the same. Let me repeat that by saying that they are NOT THE SAME. They are not synonymous save by the most extreme and tenuous stretch of the imagination. The character “Gung” literally translates to “merits and achievements” with the implied undertone of [through hard work]. The character “Fu” literally refers to a male person/figure. So literally the phrase would translate to “A man who has achieved merits through hard work”. More colloquially, Gung Fu would simply be “a hard working man”. The phrase is appropriately used for all skills which require a level of diligence and ability to become adept i.e. cooking, cleaning, building/fixing things, gardening, writing, fighting etc. Thus a person who does Gung Fu does not train in techniques, but simply the skills required to make their techniques viable.

My Kung Fu beginnings

By Derrick Ho

Part 1 Meeting Sifu Meng

Red! Blue! Green! Black!

Pink and Yellow,

they’ve come back!

Is Kung Fu Out Dated?

By Derrick Ho

I used to describe, Kung Fu as a practical means of self-defense. I thought that if you trained long and hard, you would be able to use this Martial Art to defeat many foes. I used to think that Kung Fu would promote you to God of Fighting.

The truth is hard to accept, but Martial arts like Karate and Muay Thai have a better chance at winning. The evidence is online. Just search for Kung Fu VS whatever and you will see three types of videos. The three types are: