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I work with a lot of teenagers, and many times fights amongst
teenagers start from some form of disrespect. Often, this disrespect
comes in the form of a stare down (a.k.a. mad-dogging, dogging). Most
of us have experienced this in one form another. This is when one
person stares at another, directly in the eyes with a mean or
aggressive expression in their face. Basically, the aggressor is
trying to get his target to look down or look away in order to–in his
mind–assert his dominance. I’m sure you know the situation to which
I’m referring. I often teach my kids about the technique I use to
avoid a fight arising from this situation.

Now, I could tell them to look the other way, but that would not
fulfill their understandable desire to not be considered weak or
inferior. My technique, helps them “win” in the situation AND avoid a
fight. Here’s how it goes:

A person is staring you down, you respond with a huge smile, a festive
laugh and greeting, and ask the person how they’re doing. Here is the
trick, you need to be sincere. You need to look like you really mean
it. The smile needs to be the same smile and greeting you would offer
a close friend whom you hadn’t seen in years.
Your body language has to be non-aggressive. In short, you need to act
in all facets to convey good will. I have tried this in my life many
times and it has ALWAYS worked. Even a person with real mal intent
will be completely confused by this reaction, which they never
expect. Of course, I imagine this wouldn’t work against psychopaths,
sociopaths etc. But if we’re talking about a regular person, who is
just out trying to show how tough he is, this’ll work.

One central precept in most martial arts involves disrupting your
opponents balance. This technique accomplishes just that. Very few
people are expecting such a reaction to naked aggression; they are not
prepared to deal with it, thus they revert to the default reaction to
such a greeting. That is to say, they respond in kind, asking how you
are doing, or exchanging some other mundane pleasantry. Here’s an
example of how off balance people get as a result of this technique. I
do a roll playing exercise with kids, where I ask one of them to be
that real tough jerk who wants to pick a fight no matter what. And I
just lean against the wall and ask them to walk past me “staring me
down.” Before asking them to do this, I tell them exactly how I’m
going to react. When they play their part, and I react with the smile,
the happy greeting, the non aggressive body language and the sincere
inquiry as to how they are doing, they get confused and just ask me
how I’m doing. Even though they knew what I was going to do, they are
still unable to respond to it aggressively!

I tell the kids, that by doing this, you come out on top. The person
generally ends up feeling ashamed of themselves for trying to pick a
fight with a person who was so kind.

Now let’s say it doesn’t work, you should still be ready to defend
yourself and smiling will give you a second or two, when your opponent
is off balance to figure out what you want to do.

I even extend my right hand to shake when doing this, that way I have
the right side of their face and lower torso completely open to
attacks from my left hand, and I’ve got a hold of their primary
defense for that side of their body–their right hand.

Give it a shot. It works every time!

Mr. Ara Arzumanian
Los Angeles, CA

9 – Great Briton

8 – Japan

7 – Spain

6 – Czech Republic

5 – Australia

4 – European Union

3 – Canada

2 – Unknown

1 – United States

]]> http://martialarts.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/02/07/januarys-top-10-list-of-countries-with-the-most-maex-viewers/feed/ Scot Combs It%26#8217;s fun for us to see all the people from different countries who regularly watch Martial Arts Explorer.  So, in honor of our loyal viewers around the world, here is our first Top 10 List of the countries with the most downloads of MAEx. 10 - C It's fun for us to see all the people from different countries who regularly watch Martial Arts Explorer.  So, in honor of our loyal viewers around the world, here is our first Top 10 List of the countries with the most downloads of MAEx. 10 - China 9 – Great Briton 8 – Japan 7 – Spain 6 – Czech Republic 5 – Australia 4 – European Union 3 – Canada 2 – Unknown 1 – United States No No http://martialarts.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/01/31/a-note-from-dan-regarding-his-meeting-with-master-thomas/ http://martialarts.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/01/31/a-note-from-dan-regarding-his-meeting-with-master-thomas/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:25:28 +0000 Explorer General http://martialarts.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/01/31/a-note-from-dan-regarding-his-meeting-with-master-thomas/ Scott,Your are totally INSANE !!! ROFLMAO ;-)

I literally fell of my chair laughing at the intro to this week’s podcast. You da’ Man! And yes, Master Thomas spoke highly of Mike and you, it was ‘…flattering and positive’.

And you’re correct, I am an avid viewer and look forward to the weekly installment. Hope you guys get the new Website up soon. I’m looking forward to it and passing the word about the Podcasts.

Good luck and keep up the great work!

Dan

Scot Replies:

Glad you liked it Dan.  You gave us the response we were looking for!

Progress on the website is slow (thanks for mentioning it) but we are getting somewhere.  Just today I spoke with a partner that will contribute heavily to the success of the website and Martial Arts Explorer in general.  We will also offer custom weapons for those practitioners who are serious about their weapons practice.  Hand made, first quality weapons tailored to the individual martial artist; sounds good doesn’t it?

Best Wishes,

Scot

In my opinion the best martial art is the best martial art for you. It is like saying what is the best car, ice cream flavour, or website (hopefully for martial artists it will be www.martialartsexplorer.tv :). [EDITORS NOTE:  Thanks Howard! We continue working on the project which is taking much longer than we anticipated.]

To give you some background on me,

• I did Judo in Montreal when I was in grade six, did it for one year and hated it, I was trying to use strength and was too young to understand leverage.
• Started Karate (Shorijiryu Kenkokan Karatedo) in grade nine, liked it but had a great deal of difficulty
• Three years later got my green belt and had to learn throwing forms, did ok but didn’t like it
• Four years later was a shodan candidate, and was told I had to teach throwing forms to the green belts at the university dojo.  I had an odd number of students, so the odd man out when they paired up was a large bodybuilder and I had to demo with him. Using pure strength, he was able to throw me like a rag doll (I was only 130 lbs at the time), until one time I got tired of him not listening to me and when he tried to throw me again I reversed it and throw him. I will never forget the look on his face when he landed, it was a cross between utter shock and sudden enlightenment. I loved throwing forms.
• A year later I went for my shodan and passed. I loved karate and swear that I would do it the rest of my life.
• A year later I quit. We call it the “Black Belt blues”, after getting your shodan you lose a focal point ( nine out of ten shodans quit before sandan). What do you call it? or is this a phenomenon unique to us?
• I tried Aikido my last year of university, liked it but always came home exhausted. Did not pursue it after that.
• I move to Toronto
• Two years later took up tae kwon do, got into a big argument with my instructor at my yellow belt exam and quit
• Two years later started to do JKD, loved it, and did it for three years. I found out that the part I liked best was from Wing Chun.
• Quit JKD and joined Wing Chun, did this for two years.
• Met the woman of my dreams, married her, and had children.
• Quit Wing Chun
• We move to Ottawa
• Nine years later, my oldest daughter decides she wants to do Karate. I research schools in  Ottawa and find out there is a dojo teaching my original style. So we decide to go there.
• I watched her classes for a year, and get bitten by the bug again, and returned to training.
• In the course of the last two year, I have come to realize that everything I was looking for, was always there in my original karate; the locks from Aikido and JKD, the principles from Wing Chun, and our Judo-like breakfalls are evolving to more like Aikido’s.
• I am now a nidan candidate and Karate is the bet martial art for me

My answer to Tommy is: you are both right

Cheers
Howard Rosenblum

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Thanks,
Scot & Michael

Thanks,

Michael & Scot

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Cambodian Bokator Elbow Strikes

Elbow strikes are the money shots in fighting. They can cut, knockout, or knock down your opponent. By Antonio Graceffo Cambodian Bokator was the origin of Muay Thai and Bradal Serei (Khmer boxing). The modern sports art of kick boxing is a watered down version of the ancient Bokator fighting. Where kick boxing contains less than 20 techniques, Bokator contains thousands. Many of these ancient techniques are excellent for modern fighting. Whether you are doing kick boxing, Muay Thai, or Mixed Martial Arts, learning to strike with your elbows is invaluable. Kicks are your longest range weapons in unarmed combat. Punches are medium range, and elbows are for extremely close range. (Leaps and shoots may be used from even further out than kicks, but they require a lot of specialized training, and not everyone can use them.) Bokator punches and elbows are designed to travel a distance of only three inches, for maximum power. But, a skilled Bokator fighter can kick, punch, or elbow from any position. There are more than twenty elbow techniques in Bokator. If you are proficient in elbows, you can use them the same way you use punches in boxing. You can train on a bag doing elbow combinations, just as you would with your fists. There are hooks, upper cuts, jabs, down ward strikes and many more. The advantages of the elbow, over a punch, is that the elbows are much harder, making it easier to get a knock out. Elbows are sharper, making it much easier to cut a man, especially since you are never required to wear boxing gloves on your elbows. Elbows can come from more directions than punches, including spinning elbows, upward, downward, and leaping. The first elbow is the straight elbows. Start with the right side. Standing in fighting position, the arm is extended in front of the body with the elbow bent at about 70 degrees. The tricep is facing the ground, the hand is up, almost the same as a normal fighting position. The forearms should be like the prow of a ship cutting through the air. The hand will be over the target. The strike starts with the hips and ends with the shoulder popping forward. The elbow will hit the opponent in the face, and the hand will be over his head. Lead with the hand. It is important to remember to twist your hip into the strike and at the last second push with the shoulder. The elbow goes straight from start to the finish. The hand must lead, it must not be angling back towards you when you strike. It must be pointing forward, over the target. The left side is the same as the right. Twist your hip, turn and push your shoulder. The straight elbow is the jab in boxing. If you hit without pushing the shoulder you can still hurt someone, him but the real strength comes from that last second, pushing the shoulder into it. You can stand at the bag and practice: one, one-two, again and again. In Bokator we can have the left hand in front or right hand in front, and do the same techniques. So, you can do one round on the bag, leading with your left side and one round leading with your right side The second elbow is the hook. The elbow swings around, hitting the opponent in the knock out zones. You turn your hip and twist into the hook. Don’t let the forearm drop or rise. Keep it at the same shoulder height. The forearm must be perfectly even, parallel to the ground, moving in a smooth path from your body, to the target. Keep it straight and even or you will lose power, and also you could hurt your shoulder. Important keep your body soft and relaxed. Don’t use muscle power, use speed. Let your body be soft during the movement. Then, right before you hit, use power. All the punches and elbows of Bokator are close, in-fighting techniques, which should only travel three inches. The power comes form the speed and the air. You breath in before you hit, and when you hit, you release the air and the power comes. If you are holding your breath when you hit you will lose power and you could damage your lungs. It is extremely important to twist the hips, twist the knee and ankle, and rotate on the ball of the foot as the elbow comes around. If you fail to twist your knee you will injure it. The master becomes subtle, relaxed his elbow shoots out and snaps like a whip and strikes the bag. Grand Master San Kim Saen demonstrates the elbow technique on the bag. He says, “feel my muscle before and after the strike.” Both times, it is completely relaxed. After I practiced the elbow several times, the master told me again about the young rice. He said that I had too much tension in my shoulders and this is holding me back and reducing my power when I strike. Weighing more than 95 kgs, I am much bigger and stronger than most of the Khmer students. My additional size is actually a disadvantage in much of the Bokator training, since the secret to Bokaor is whip like speed and flexibility. My muscles and body weight actually acted against my power. The hook elbow can be used on the temple, the hinge of the jaw, the point of the jaw, the abdomen, or the ribs. If you hit the jaw and turn the shoulder into it, you will shatter bone or get a knock out. If you do not push with the shoulder you will not get a knock out, but the elbow will act like a knife, slicing the face open. So, the exact technique you use depends on the outcome that you want. The first combination to work on is the one-two. This means hitting the bag with the jab, the straight elbow first left, the right. A combination should be extremely fast, with no break in between the two hits. It should sound like pop-pop. Not pop———pop. The strikes should be quick. After each strike, the hands must come immediately back to fighting position to protect your face and head. After the second hit, don’t just stand there, staring at your opponent, get out. Hit twice and move out. Next, work on the one-two hook. In Bokator, the master said, the first strike should not be very powerful. The second one, however, is the money shot, which could end the fight. Start your hook series by dropping, as if ducking a punch. The first elbow hits in the center of the abdomen, the second one is a bone shattering strike to the floating ribs. Strike once, then just slide the foot in and to the side of your opponent, to set yourself up for the second strike to the floating ribs. If you really step into that second strike, pushing your shoulder, you will knock the man down. In Bokator it is always important not just to hit the man and cut him or break bones but also to knock him down. In a ring fight, judges will give you a higher score of you knock the man down. In a street fight, there is always a chance the man will crack his head on the pavement when you knock him down. You could also take advantage of him while he is on his back and use a stop, a leap or a soccer kick. If nothing else, knocking him down will demoralize him and take away his will to fight. Fighters feel humiliated when they get knocked down. They will come back their feet looking for blood. They won’t be thinking at this point, just swinging wild. The fighter who is cool, collected, and calm will always have the advantage over the fighter who is angry. Just sit back, relax, circle, and strike at will. You can practice a four elbow combination of one-two jabs, followed by one-two hooks as you back out. Eventually you can build up to a six elbow combination of one-two jabs, one-two hooks, followed by one-two jab, as you are backing out. The advantage of Bokator fighting is that the fighter can move in three dimensions, up down, and side to side, and attack from anywhere. Never reach back to get more power, just use your three inches rule and really pop your hip and shoulder into it. The difference between say a karate stance and a Bokator stance is that a karate stance is strong, but it is burning energy the whole time. A Bokator stance, on the other hand, is relaxed. It burns no energy. The same goes for the blocks and punches. Karate blocks and punches use muscle power; before, during and after striking. In Bokator, however, you go from relaxed, soft to, striking, and back to soft. Bokator uses less energy. A karate guy will get tired after ten punches. A Bokator student can go all day without getting fatigued. The relaxed Bokator stance and striking techniques also have long-term health benefits. Using all that muscle power all the time in other martial arts can be quite damaging. In the Bokator club, in Phnom Penh, Grand Master San kim Saen doesn’t use ring timers. But, if you are learning Bokator so you can fight in competition, you will need to time your work out. Set your ring timer for three minutes on and one minute rest. If you don’t have a ring timer, just use your stereo. Hit the bag for the length of the first song. Rest for one minute (either by counting backwards from 100 or looking at a clock). Then hit the bag till the end of the next song. Rest for one minute, hit the bag till the end of the next song. This method isn’t perfect, but it is pretty good. Most pop songs are about 3-4 minutes. So, your first round might be a little long and the others a little short, but it is close enough. Begin practice by standing in front of your punching bag in your relaxed fighting stance. Remember to be soft, completely lose, until the exact moment you strike. Practice combinations 2 rounds of one-two jab, move out 2 rounds of one-two hook, move out 1 round of one-two jab, slide the foot in, one-two hook, move out 1 round of one-two jab, slide the foot in, one-two hook, followed by one two jab, move out For more practice, reverse your stance, right foot in front, and do it all again. It could take months to build up to this level of cardio fitness. But don’t worry, that is why it is called training. Remember, the more you sweat in the gym, the less you bleed in the fight.

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is a professional fighter and the author of four books available on amazon.com Antonio was the first foreign student of Bokator, in Cambodia. Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

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Scot / Michael

Scot Combs / Michael Klinepier

We are also going to change our nomenclature a bit to help us fix another issue that crops up from time to time.  From now on the shows will be numbered by volume and program number.  For example:  Martial Arts Explorer - Volume 2 Program 4 (V2P4).

Thanks for watching and for your patience.

Scot Combs / Michael  Klinepier

KATA MAXIMS

1. Technique is not determined by kata; it is determined by circumstance. As circumstances change, technique must also.
2. An interpretation of kata that will not work for the karateka must be set aside and the search must continue for a technique that will work for the karateka.
3. Learning a technique requires skill derived from adequate practice. No technique should be set aside until a full examination has been completed. (Try the technique on various body sizes and types. Consider your posture, breathing and the smallest detail in trying to understand the technique. If someone else of your size and body type can reliably perform the technique, you can too.)
4. All things being equal; the simplest interpretation of kata will probably be the correct one to use in self-defense. (adapted from Occam’s Razor)
5. Kata remains the same; regardless of variation(s). Kata interpretations (bunkai, oyo, shorthand) change constantly with new understanding and insight.
6. Kata is a mnemonic device that helps us remember individual techniques.
7. Kata is a language that must be interpreted by each karateka on an individual basis.
8. Kata is a moving encyclopedia of techniques. Each karateka must test all techniques to find those suitable for inclusion into their personal set.
9. Even though the moves in kata are linked, techniques can be lifted out of context for purposes of effective self-defense.
10. Performing kata by yourself is only half the exercise. The other half is performing the interpretation with a partner.
11. Each kata interpretation should take into account most likely attack scenarios, worst case attack scenarios, timing, balance, likely responses, joint manipulation, unbalancing of the opponent, pressure point strikes, blunt trauma strikes and throws.

You can read this article and see some of Antonio’s pictures at www.fullcirclemartialarts.org and click on the ARTICLES button.

The Road to the Shaolin Temple - The Brooklyn Monk’s advice on studying in the Shaolin Temple
By Antonio Graceffo

“A Shaolin priest can walk through walls. Looked for, he cannot be seen. felt, he cannot be touched. This rice paper is the test, clean as the cocoon of the silk worm, fragile as the wings of the dragon fly. When you can walk its length and leave no trace, you will have learned.” - Kung Fu the original TV series.

I was being raised by my maternal grandmother in New York City. One day, when I was about six years old, she was very upset. She told me someone very important had died, but as a child, I didn’t understand who Bruce Lee was. Later, she took me to an all day film festival, commemorating him: four full length feature films, two documentaries and at least two low-budget Hong Kong movies where Bruce Lee was played by a cardboard cutout.

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Never had I seen or even imagined that people could jump and kick like that. “EEEEEiiiiiiiaaaa!” even the language of the Bruce Lee films appealed to me. And best of all, I knew that if I could learn all of those special Kung Fu skills, I wouldn’t have to back down to the bullies on the playground.
Shortly after, my uncle introduced me to the TV show, Kung Fu, and this became my new religion.

Like every other martial artist of my generation I had dreamed of studying kung fu at the Shaolin Temple. No one dreams of studying Kung Fu at a strip mall, but this is what many of us do. My first, and most important Kung Fu teacher, H. David Collins, talked constantly about the Shaolin Temple and the wisdom that originated from there. We all talked about the temple as if it were some Nirvana that we could never attain.

When I was going to school in Germany I saw a documentary about a fourteen year old German boy who was the first foreign child to study at the Shaolin Temple. According to the film, his parents flew with him to China, took a train to Henan, and more or less dumped him on the temple’s doorstep. That documentary changed my life, because suddenly, I realized studying at the Temple was a real possibility.

It would still be a number of years before I made the decision to go to China. I decided first to learn Chinese and to study more kung fu in Taiwan. Eventually I went to study in Shaolin Temple, near Deng Feng Village, in Henan Province of North Central China. Since then, I have spent more than five years training in various countries in Asia.

I published my Shaolin experience in a book entitled “The Monk from Brooklyn” (available at amazon.com). As far as I know this is the only book ever written by a foreigner who studied at the Shaolin temple. Since the book came out, I have been getting email from people all over the world, asking how they can study at the Shaolin Temple.

Advice: How you can study at the Shaolin Temple

Learn Chinese – I have trained all over Asia, and often in places where I didn’t speak the language. Not only does this hinder your learning, but if you lived at Shaolin for a period of months without being able to talk to people, you would go insane. Also, don’t kid yourself that you will just “pick up” Chinese while you are living there. Chinese is one of the hardest languages in the world, no one just “picks it up.”

Taiwan is a brilliant place to start. It is easy for Americans to get a visa. It is different enough from America that it will seem like a big adventure, but not so different that it would crush your spirit. Living in Taiwan, if you get homesick you can hang out with the more than 60,000 other Americans living there. And when you need some familiar food, you can go to McDonalds or Starbucks.

MONEY – If you have a BA degree you can get a job teaching English in Taiwan. You can actually do the whole application procedure online at ESL websites such as Daves ESL Café. Teaching jobs in Taiwan usually pay about $1,800 US a month, and many include an apartment and a contract bonus equivalent to one month’s salary. They even reimburse you for your plane ticket. Most foreigners will find that they can save 50% of their salary in Taiwan. So, in Taiwan you can save up for Shaolin much better than you can at home.

Working in Taiwan - You only work about 25 hours a week, so you have plenty of time to study Chinese and to learn more kung fu. (Some jobs require an ESL certificate, but you can earn one in an online course, very cheaply.)
Culture – Living conditions at Shaolin temple are terrible. It is dirty, smelly, and the food is bad. But this is the cost of getting great Kung Fu training. Living in Taiwan first will help you acclimate to the Chinese culture, and of course prepare your language skills. Also studying Kung Fu in Taiwan will give you an idea of what to expect when you get to China.

Visas – The Chinese government is constantly changing the visa regulations. When I studied at Shaolin you could get a 3 month tourist visa and renew it twice without leaving China. Last year the best visa you could get was only one month. Don’t worry too much about visa rules. The travel agent will know the latest info and can help you. You will enter China on a tourist visa. Once you get to the temple, if you want to stay longer, the temple can help you get a six month or one year student visa.

Where is the temple? – The actual (original) Shaolin Temple is near Deng Feng Village, in Henan Province of China. (Don’t confuse this with Yunan province.) There are about 60 monks at the temple. A good number of them are primarily religious monks. Many of them are Kung Fu monks. But they have all studied both Kung Fu and Buddhism. The Kung Fu monks often are associated with schools of students living outside of the temple. When I studied at Shaolin there were nearly 25,000 Kung Fu students at 65 schools around Deng Feng. Many of those schools have been forcibly evicted. They have reopened but are no longer within walking distance of the temple.

BE CAREFUL – The Shaolin Temple in Henan has always been called The Shaolin Temple, and it is the one you have heard about and seen in movies. The Southern Shaolin Temple, in Fujien, was reopened about three years ago. Now that there is a Southern Shaolin Temple again, some people refer to the original temple as The Northern Shaolin Temple. The problem is that the Chinese government opened a fake temple in Northern China, which charges about $600 a month and only caters to foreign students. The official name of the fake temple is The Northern Shaolin Temple. The Northern Shaolin Temple has a website and you can even book by email. So, if you are doing research be sure to look only at the Shaolin Temple in Deng Feng, Henan.

Where to study – China is still a developing country, where English and computer literacy is limited. So, if you find a website online, written in English, this is not authentic. The programs advertised online are designed for foreigners. They cost a lot of money. Many of them have students living in three star hotels and training only two or four hours per day. If you want a real experience, go to Deng Feng on your own. Get a taxi driver to take you to a number of schools, and chose one that appeals to you.

What it costs – The programs advertised online are expensive. Some charge $40 a day. I met a foreigner who paid $1,500 for a week. I paid $200 a month, including food, room, and training. The average monthly salary in China is about $40 a month. Chinese students pay about this much per month to study at the Temple schools. So, there is no reason why you should pay as much per day as they pay per month. Stick to your guns, be firm, and negotiate. Don’t overpay.

IMPORTANT: If you are planning to stay several months, only pay monthly. Don’t hand someone thousands of dollars the first day. Negotiate as if you were staying ix months and then just pay monthly.

The Training – Conditions and training will vary from school to school. Most schools are focused on Wu Su because of the Beijing Olympics. There are schools which focus on Tai Chi, San Da (kick boxing) and other Chinese arts. Larger schools even have Tai Kwan Do and kick boxing. Some schools go to competitions outside of the temple. I didn’t see judo but wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they had judo programs, since many of the students at Shaolin were dreaming of the Olympics.

As a rule, you can expect to sleep in a military style dorm. In some schools they have as many as thirty students in bunk-beds, sharing a room. And since there is no running water and most students only have two uniforms, you can imagine what it smells like. In winter it is bloody cold in Henan, and buildings are not heated at all. And of course, you will be training outdoors. There is nothing worse than training in the bitter cold, sweating up your clothes, freezing your face and hands, and then coming inside and discovering you are too wet and cold to sleep.

You will be woken up by a whistle at around 5:00 AM. You will fall out into a military style formation and count off. Next, you will go running. After running you will have a training session which will focus primarily on stretching but also include some exercises.

You will eat breakfast around 7:00 and train until lunch. Breakfast will probably be shi fan (rice water) and maybe parched shredded potatoes, maybe you will also have manto (bread rolls) and rice. Don’t expect tea in China. In rural, poorer areas like Shaolin, you will drink boiled water. Morning training is normally forms or kung fu techniques, and will most likely include another session of exercises and stretching.

Lunch will be rice and parched shredded potatoes. After lunch you will sleep for about two hours. When you wake, you will do kung fu until dinner. After dinner there is another training session of one or two hours. Lights out is at 9:00 PM.

What you can get out of the experience – many people have criticized the modern Shaolin Temple, saying that they are no longer teaching the classical arts, they are artificial, and that they are teaching a watered down, Disneyland version of Kung Fu. That may or may not be true. I don’t care.

What you will get out of your time at Shaolin is a phenomenal cultural experience that you could never get anywhere else. Aside from the fact that you will be fulfilling a childhood dream, you will be completely immersed in a foreign culture and language. Even living in Taiwan, teaching English, it is hard to be immersed in the culture because you are fulfilling a role which is not naturally a part of Chinese society. You are a foreign English teacher. That is not a very Chinese experience. But in Shaolin you are a Shaolin student. That is very Chinese. In fact you are having a Chinese experience which most Chinese have never had.

As for your training, many people have read my other articles and books and saw that I was disappointed with the level of fighting in Shaolin Temple. And it is true, they aren’t fighters. I am a fighter. So, I had to look elsewhere, Thailand and Cambodia, for real fighting training. But the Shaolin Temple is nearly the only place where you can get 8-10 hours of training per day, seven days a week. I have seen articles on the internet by schools in the USA who claim they will teach you the real Shaolin, and thus you don’t need to go to China. Ask those schools if you will live there and train full time. One day at Shaolin is equivalent to one or two weeks of the training most people do at home.
Shaolin will definitely increase your flexibility. We sometimes held a split for a half hour three times a day. It will improve your stances. When I left, I could hold horse stance for a full hour with students hanging on my arms. Of course you will learn the Shaolin forms and kicks.

For me, the Shaolin Temple was a life-changing experience, which predicated who I am and who I would become. But most importantly, I walked where David Caradine did not.
Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure writer, living in Asia. See his website speakingadventure.com “The monk from Brooklyn” and all of his books are available at amazon.com

Checkout Antonio’s website http://speakingadventure.com/

Another look at the oh, so useful middle counter

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As a youngster, Ford had a volatile temper.  His, ever wise, mother required him to memorize and then recite Rudyard Kipling’s “If” whenever he would lash out.  Ford credited this tactic with helping him curb his temper and stay calm under extreme pressure.  It’s been, like, 30 years or more since I read “If”, so I looked it up and found sage advice for martial artsists … or anybody for that matter.

Kipling’s work speaks to the humility required to be a true master of martial arts and reminds me of fudo shin; the ability to see what must be done and the persistence to follow through.  It’s worth reading over and over.  It’s worth posting in the dojo.  It’s worth memorizing.

IF

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream