Shi-Shong Orlando's Shaolin Diary - 2010 - Part 4

Monday, April 19, 2010
Orlando Cela is an instructor at Wu Dao Kung Fu and Tai Chi

Today started at 6 am with the early class. Luckily enough is only one hour long. Starts with a long run around one of the huge city blocks, goes uphill the mountain then downhill, then flat, then all the way uphill to the school. Pretty grueling! Thank goodness we haven’t had any breakfast yet! Running for me has never been a problem, so I always tried to remain with the leader, which would change – some of the students would walk, others would keep running, then switch roles, etc., but there was always someone running ahead. We made it back to school, and then the fun begin. I was able to keep my own, and even do something unexpected that made some very surprised, and one say “see? ji ben gong! ji ben gong!” (In order to keep the legendary perception of the early class, I shall say no more.) Breakfast, then 9 am class. Jiao Liang (coach) Lily was there after dropping her kid off at school. (FYI: they give ID cards to the parents with their kids photos for them to be able to retrieve them later without taking some other kid!) The class, as usual, started with a run, but this was a race. So we race uphill, and some lag behind, but I manage to keep always ahead of he group, with another student. The last section, which is downhill, was a pretty fast sprint between one student and I. We arrived at the school first together. Then we did the usual warm-ups, and stretching, etc., but we did some new stance work besides the usual ma bu - gong bu: pu bu – ma bu – gong bu, pu bu – pu bu (swinging arms and slapping the floor in between); straight punch, dan tui, straight punch; palm strike, deng tui, palm strike; and then some extraordinary stationary variations on the 18 ji ben gong. Each of them has their own “yibai.” The only ji ben gong we didn’t do stationary, but all single count and together, were xuan feng jiao and wai bai lien. Rest. Coach Lily started me on the form mei hua dao (“you are getting the sword ji ben gong quickly. More practice, but let’s begin the form”). Lunch time. Ever since they found out that I love spicy food, they keep bringing all sort of different homemade concoctions. I consider this as much part of my training as the gong fu itself, so I take all. Nothing has burned me yet. Yet... But this one was close: a reddish paste (in a bottle that once was liquid yogurt) that watered my eyes after smelling it. They put it in my rice. I eat two bowls with the usual side dishes. Not good. After a short nap I had such heartburn I thought I was going to vomit trying the no-handed cartwheels (note: at 2 pm, the students do academics, so it was just Lily and me). And the fact that my muscles were absolutely sore by now didn’t help. I think I did overdid it in the morning because the afternoon was excruciatingly difficult, but it was this morning that told me that I am not so far behind the locals. I should mention that one of the students asked me to go in front of him today during warm ups because he had a cramp! (hee, hee...)

Shi-Shong Orlando's Shaolin Diary - 2010 - Part 3

Sunday, April 18, 2010
Orlando Cela is an instructor at Wu Dao Kung Fu and Tai Chi

Today was a really tough day! Two sessions with Lily all by myself, almost killed me. She really has a way with words, not only she says “kuai!” and”jia you!” but she also says them with that very rough Chinese female voice that could scare anyone. She really can drive you! She wants the forms faster, and faster, no stopping at all. Every time I finish a form, I am virtually spent! So far, we have done a lot of review on Tong Bei Quan (which she has completely taken appart), Xiao Hong Quan, and Zhen Shan Gun. Still working on some very difficult sword ji ben gong. Today, I just didn’t have the juice, especially in the second session. So, at the end of the second session, Lily says: “After dinner, practice more sword ji ben gong; tomorrow morning, you go with the class at 6 am, so you won’t get tired doing your forms. li Xiang will go get you.” I’ll write about the early class tomorrow, if I survive it...

Shi-Shong Orlando's Shaolin Diary - 2010 - Part 2

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Orlando Cela is an instructor at Wu Dao Kung Fu and Tai Chi

I’m awake at 6:45 am, looking for a functional bathroom (the one in the fifth floor doesn’t work) and everything is super quiet, like nobody is in the building. Then at 7 pm I hear a woman screaming “chi fan!” (“eat!”) so I guess breakfast is ready. They have made me a western breakfast: four fried eggs, white sliced bread (the one for toast), milk and some sweets. Class starts at 9 am, and I meet Julien, a French man who has been studying already here for two months. But nobody prepared me for Lily, the coach/teacher. She is a sweetie when she hangs out, but when she is teaching she is tougher than nails. She keeps screaming “kuai, kuai!” (“fast, fast”) for everything we do. She keeps yelling instructions as students go by. There are 10 students all together, and we went through the run, the warm-ups, the stretching, and all the ji ben gong in about an hour and a half. Then rest. Then, Julien had to do his test: he is leaving tomorrow. Not only he performs, but other students are asked to do the same. I was asked to do tong bei quan. After a few students perform, Lily takes Julien and I, and an older man, another coach, remains with the Chinese students – he has been around the whole morning, giving minimal corrections. Julien was asked to go practice, and Lily took apart my tong bei quan, and almost killed me in the process. She pushes very, very hard. After a half hour of misery, lunch, and a nap. After nap, everyone gets the afternoon free... everyone except me! It’s Lily and I. Since it’s just me, we go through warm-ups, run, warm-ups, stretching and all ji ben gong in 45 min. By now I’m exhausted! Rest, then reconvene, and she worked in more Tong Bei Quan, Xiao Hong Quan, Zhen Shan Gun, and we began with the sword Ji Ben Gong. After two hours alone with Lily, I’m pretty much done for. Thank goodness tomorrow is Sunday and everyone gets a free day... Oh, wait! Everyone but me! When not training, I sit around talking to the students, watching Lily’s son play, and just resting, and drinking all the water possible.

Shi-Shong Orlando's Shaolin Diary - 2010 - Part 1

Friday, April 16, 2010
Orlando Cela is an instructor at Wu Dao Kung Fu and Tai Chi

After a 29 hour trip with three planes and one car, I finally arrived at Shifu’s school at about 11 pm. I live in the fifth floor of the school – no elevator, which is going to be interesting after a few days of training – in a very large room. The mattress is a little softer than the floor: it is in fact, mats they use for fall practice (like the ones at Wu Dao, but not the nice soft ones). It’s spring in the mountains, so it is a little cold. A student called Li Xiang picked me up at the airport in Zheng Zhou, and he was the one to tell me about the itinerary: breakfast at 7 am, first class at 9 am, “and I’ll tell you more tomorrow.”

Speculations on Form: A Musculoskeletal Perspective

By Jessica Kern

Jessica is a Certified Neuromuscular Therapist and a Level 2 (Yellow) student at Wu Dao

A few months ago a question came up during a Kung Fu class:

When throwing punches in training, why is it so important to bring the fists all the way back to the waist? As Shi-fu Tim demonstrates, in a sparring or fighting situation you would virtually never bring the fists back that far because it would leave the body open and vulnerable to attack; he shows that it is generally best to keep the fists out in front of the body for protection and availability.

It may seem at first glance that we are looking at a conflicting set of ideas between training and fighting, but things are not always as they seem.

As a person who studies bodies and movement patterns for a living, I was intrigued by the question, and it got me thinking.

Perhaps it would be easiest to think of the body as a slingshot and the muscles as the elastic bands. If you're firing a slingshot, the more tension you put on the elastic band (without breaking it), the more power you get when you let it go. The mechanism for throwing a punch is much the same.

To translate this back to the human body, our muscles are a complex network of elastic bands that work together with the skeleton to create movement. In training, when we bring the fists back to the waist to prepare to throw a punch, we bring the muscles to their end range - pulling them back as far as they can go.

Technically this position activates shoulder and spinal stabilizing muscles (the "sling" of the slingshot), and puts the arm in a position so that when released forward for a punch, gives maximum potential for contraction of Serratus Anterior and Pectoralis Major, and Subscapularis (the "shot" of the slingshot).

The cool thing about the body is that the more we train our maximum range of movement, the more we can affect strength at any range. A muscle becomes strongest and healthiest only when we can take it through its full potential range of movement - because we challenge all the muscles fibers maximally. Strength through the full range means two key things for all muscles: better protection against injury and more power.

Training is about being prepared.

So even though we do not frequently use full range of motion in sparring or fighting situations, we are wise to be equipped with more than we need.

Martial Biking

By Julius Anastasio

Julius is a Level 3 (Orange) student at Wu Dao

Anyone who has navigated the streets of Boston by bike can recount how harrowing an experience it can be. A few days ago I was biking home from Kung Fu class during rush hour. Zipping by the adjacent gridlocked cars, a passenger-side door opened into the bike lane, catching my handlebars and sending me into the air.

The next thing I knew, I found myself kneeling on the ground, about 10 feet in front of my bike. After being thrown from my bike, I had unconsciously tucked into a dive roll, and had landed unscathed, sunglasses still on, the take-home container of leftovers in my backpack unopened.

I got up immediately and brushed myself off. Being the martial arts nerd I am, I was actually disappointed in how I had reacted (hitting the ground in stride would have looked SO much cooler). The passenger who had opened the door asked if I was alright, glancing over at my bent, sorry-looking bike. “I’m fine,” I said as I tried to bang the handlebars of my bike into some ride-able state. A woman who has witnessed the accident from the sidewalk asked me “Are you alright? That was quite a display of acrobatics.”

I replied with another quick “I’m fine, thanks,” as I got back onto my crooked bike seat just in time to catch the next green light. I rode the rest of the way home contemplating the events that had just occurred, particularly how useless the tune-up I had just gotten the day before was at this point.

Reflecting on the accident made me appreciate how lucky I am to have practiced martial arts for the majority of my life. Living in our current society, the chances that I will have to fight for my life aren’t very great. Accidents and falls, however, are much more likely. My years of martial arts training have conditioned me to internalize many movements, allowing my body to react unconsciously and automatically to protect myself in unexpected dangerous situations such as a bicycle accident.

We don’t always consider the beneficial side-effects of our Kung Fu training. We have a tendency to focus on the height of our sidekicks, the deepness of our horse stances, or the fluidity of a form. While Kung Fu does give way to these more concrete accomplishments, it also allows you to internalize those movements and become a part of you. Sometimes it takes real-life situations to make us to understand the true extent of what we are accomplishing in the countless hours we devote to training.

Iron Palm Kung Fu

Retold by Sissi Liu

The following is a folk tale told by Shifu Shi De Cheng during his Summer 2008 trip to Wu Dao. It is stories like these that inspired him to train in Kung Fu as a child.

Long long ago, there was a young man who was weak and thin. He was constantly being picked on by other young men of his village. One day, after hearing stories about the mystical Kung Fu warrior monk in the mountain, he decided to set out to learn Kung Fu from the monk. With few belongings, he hiked far far away and into the mountain where the monks lived.

Upon arriving at the temple, he discovered the old monk. After several days, he got up the courage to approach the monk, and asked, "Shifu, will you accept me as your disciple?" The monk rejected.

The young man did not give up. Over the course of months, he voluntarily performed chores and begged the monk to accept him. The monk finally did.

The young man was ecstatic. He asked the monk, " Shifu, what will you teach me today? The other young men in the village are constantly hassling me. I need skills to protect myself."

The monk replied, "You see that boulder by the tree? Just gently pat it with the front and back of the hands."

The young man was in utter disbelief. However, he accepted Shifu's instructions and began patting the boulder.

The young man persisted day after day to pat the boulder. A month went by, he became impatient, and reasoned to himself, "I came all this way just to pat a boulder?"

He went to the monk and urged, "Shifu, I have been patting the boulder for a month. When are you going to teach me some real Kung Fu?"

Shifu said, "Be patient. You need to pat the boulder."

The young man went back to his boulder.

A year passed, the young man got up the courage to ask Shifu again, "Shifu, don't you think I'm ready to learn Kung Fu?"

Shifu replied, "You have to go pat the boulder some more."

Another two years went by, the young man decided that it was time to press his case again. He pleaded with the monk, "Shifu, please, teach me some Kung Fu."

Shifu turned to him and said, "It's time for you to leave now. You better go."

Confounded by the response, the young man, despaired. He wrapped up his belongings and descended the mountain.

Upon returning to the village, the villagers came to meet the returning "Kung Fu master." They said, "You have returned! We heard you found a great Kung Fu monk as your master. You must show us some of your skills!"

The young man, feeling total embarrassment, replied, "In all honesty, I did find a master but I didn't learn anything."

The villagers were incredulous. "You were gone for years. How can you say that you didn't learn anything? You are just being modest. You must be hiding your Kung Fu skills."

All the villagers became convinced that the young man had acquired Kung Fu secrets. The news spread. More and more people came from near and far to meet this young Kung Fu master whose skills were inconceivably powerful that they certainly could not be demonstrated.

Being hassled by such constant inquiries, the young man became truly frustrated with his utter lack of skills and others' impression of him. One day, he returned home, pursued by a mob of villagers and visitors. He sat down at the dining room table, surrounded by the crowd of people, pressing him to show them his skills. No longer able to contain his frustration, he stood up and exclaimed, "I really didn't learn anything!" and slammed his palms down on the thick solid wood table. There was a loud "crash" as the table broke in half and fell to the floor.

Everyone was silent. The young man had in fact conditioned his palms into iron weapons.