Diary of a gung fu man, is something different from your standard articles at Windy City. This section will be my own personal entries that will update on a somewhat regular basis. So definitely check updates to see whether or not changes have been made. Diaries of a gung fu man is a personal look, at things that I've experienced through my years of wing chun, the only difference is that I've left it open to the public to see what I have to say.

4/20/2001

Man there's nothing like a center line punch.  We had our 2nd class at Depaul, and I like the progress that we had this week. I think the class in general is getting a grasp of why were so focused on the punch. Prior to class starting we did a little intro, and I stressed how a centerline punch is just so damn important. And, while stance training and punch may seem so basic and boring, mastering the basics of this in 8 weeks is the goal that we want these students to walk away with.

For the most part, as expected, the women are grasping the concepts quicker than the guys. From my experience this is normally the case, guys always have more ego and want to use muscle, when everything regarding the punch is based on relaxing and structure.

Anyway, the highlight of the night, was having one of the students really understand the power. I was watching the progress of everyone, and I noticed Becka had probably the best mechanics of the punch out of everyone there.  So, I asked her to stay a pinch after class, since I wanted her to punch the phone book which I brought. Anyway, you could see it in her eyes, when she started to hit the phone book effortlessly and at the same time generate power out of no where. As a teacher you take pride in moments like this. Its easy to say, relax and trust the structure and you'll have power.  But when you finally do it, everything becomes so much clearer.

4/10/2001

Well the demo at Depaul is finally over, and for the most part I believe it ended up being a success.  I've watched the demo tape over 20 times, and there's still tons of room for improvement.  Thus, I guess this diary entry will be about talking about the demo.

I felt a pinch of the butterflies prior to the demo, which I guess is good.   I wanted to get the point across to all those watching, what Wing Chun is about.  And, I wanted this to be a starting point, to further yell out the name of Windy City Wing Chun.  So, I guess the nerves was basically my desire that everything move along perfectly and smoothly.  I think what I was really worried about was that no one would show to the demo.  But by the end of the demo, it was jammed packed with spectators.

For the most part, I don't really enjoy doing demo's.  To me, if I could reduce the demo's to everyone holding a phone book and me giving 1 inch punches, that's how I'd have it. But I do enjoy speaking in front of the crowd. I've watched guys like Anthony Robbins control a group, and I aspire to get that good. Even last week, when I watched Cooperfield on TV, there's something about these guys that are mesmerizing, or basically something charismatic about them.

I gathered in the end, that the crowd really enjoyed, demo's of the 1 inch punch, the attacks, as well as the pure defense demo. To me, this doesn't show the essence of what wing chun is all about. On the other hand, I doubt everyone would've believed that while doing chi sao, I could freeze Ken's hands totally so he couldn't move, so I guess there's a give and take regarding these things.

Interestingly enough, after the demo, Ken taught several of his students who attended the demo afterwards. So we hung till around 10:00 at the Ray Meyer center.  Anyway, there was a group of guys there, between 5 to 6 who wanted to see the demo but missed it. I think I gave about 10 or so 1 inch punches to would be students. In the end, I believe everyone I gave a 1 inch punch to joined the class. Most people have no idea of the impact of such a punch, and I'm literally only giving 5%.  If your wondering how this story ends, we literally sold out the class. Demo's, flyers, and 1 inch punches....oh my!

2/22/2001

It was a tough weekend last Saturday, I had planned to meet, Ken to help teach that day around 3:00, but prior to that I had to drop my car off for repair on its brakes. Well, I found out that this repair job was going to cost me $600 bucks, so that pretty much soured me for the day. Thus, you could say I wasn't in the best moods to teach at all. Anyway, when Ken picked me up to teach that day, I finally met up with the students. They were working on the basics like first form and the punch. Ken had informed me earlier that one of the students was close to getting the way of the punch. I believe his name was Joel.

Anyway, I spent the next 1/2 hour making minor adjustments here and there. By the end of that time, Joel had gotten the mechanics of the punch, and was starting to crack the air a little with it. I could see in his face that he understood what I wanted him to do, and a little light bulb clicked in his head regarding the punch. I think its moments like that, which I believe are priceless to a teacher.  While, I'm still short $600 bucks from the car repair, that hour of teaching had totally cheered me up.

2/8/2001

Well, we just came back from seminar that we did at Northwestern for women's self defense. For the most part, I felt it went well, but at the same time I'm reminded about the responsibility that I have as a Sifu, to teach people the art, and not to sell out. Now, I remember the very first thing my Sifu taught me, was not to speak bad about other arts. Little did I know this is actually a very difficult thing to do, but for the most part I try to follow his guidance. Anyway, as I said the seminar brought back memories, as far as the number of women that I have seen in martial arts.

Through the years, I have gone to many schools, just to see what's out there. And, I'm definitely not naming names, however were taking some of the top schools here in Illinois, those ranked by magazines, newspapers, etc as being a great place to learn. However, if memory servers me right, what I've seen are basically schools selling a false sense of confidence, just to earn a buck. That's my opinion of course.

All to often, I've seen women, with "Black belts" performing simple things like punch and kicks, with zero power and zero effectiveness. And, the problem is what there doing, just won't work. What they've learned, in my opinion is just bull. And, the reality is, if they think they can use what they know in the streets, the sad fact is they'll end up a statistic.

You see, I have no problem if they're taking the martial arts for simply a form of exercise. However, if they believe what they've been taught can be used to defend themselves, that's where I have a problem.  That's what causes me to grind my teeth when I see this. Confidence is a good thing, a false sense of confidence is extremely bad. And, in the case of self defense, thinking you can actually protect yourself when you really can't, can be deadly.

I remember at the seminar, I made a comment, "be honest with yourself, do you really believe what you know, will work against someone whose bigger/stronger than you?" I think that is the true test of an art.

I know today's martial arts is a business. You need students to make money, to keep the business open. You need students to be happy. However, we live in a politically correct kind of world. I found out from my friend, that his daughters in a basketball league, and they have a no blow out rule. If your teams winning too much, they change the score so its not a blow out, and they make it so the other team can catch up. In other words, the end result is that they don't want to hurt peoples feelings. Believe me, martial arts for the most part works this way. If you have a student and he fails a test, or doesn't get his next belt, he'll more than likely quit. And, if he quits you'll lose money.

In the end, I love this art, with all my heart. And, I think if a student has instilled his trust in me, its my duty to make sure I teach him the best that I can.  

If you have any questions or comments you can direct them to ed@windycitywingchun.com