DONT BE A DINOSAUR

I want explain my thoughts on Martial Arts in general and also explain what my teachings will be based on. First and foremost, martial arts is about self preservation. The health and fitness aspect is a major part of our training, and more focus is put on that in many schools while lacking solid skills for self defense. I believe that you must learn basic tools that are EASY to apply for self defense. I do believe in Traditional Martial Arts methods, I study and teach Traditional Arts such as Dai Family Xinyi, Cheng Bagua, Che style Xingyi, Wing Chun etc. However I see many people today studying Gong Fu methods blindly and having faith in their art based on belief rather than based on experience. Too many people talk about qi and meridians, and the like, without really understanding what they are talking about.

With all my prior training in Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu , Kali, and Shooto etc, I had a pretty good prespective on combat before studying Internal Martial Arts. In my Gong Fu studies, I had seen a tremendous amount of guys who were skilled at Wing chun vs Wing Chun, or Mantis vs Mantis,however they often fell short when facing a Muay Thai person of BJJ fighter. I always crosstrained because of being open minded and experienced. I realized some of my Traditional Teachers could fight very well using only one art, however they trained that art daily when in their youth and we as Americans go to class only 2-3 x a week and only for an hour or two each class. Traditional teaching was different. After work or school, the Master and students would train, talk, sit and have tea, food and train again, talk some more, train again, etc. Their hands on training and discussions on theory and combat far surpassed what we can do in America. Here everyone needs to work, and work more, and make more money etc, just to survive. We don't have access to what the Asian students did when growing up on Gong Fu. Also many Traditional Gong Fu teachers were farmers and hard workers, they had very good strength from their labor, others were bodyguards and they trained for work all the time. Yet I see traditional Arts practicioners who work sitting at a desk all day and they say you shouldnt lift weights etc, then they wonder why they cant make things work. If you dont do hard labor for your job, your going to have to do hard labor in your training, whether with weights or with body weight, you cant gain strength from just doing forms and sticky hands!

Here in 2010 I still see many people training forms or training sticky hands, training stances,training dantien , all without the proper roadmap, they just do it because their teacher says so. I teach my students Muay Thai, Xingyi Sanda, Jun Fan Kickboxing etc right off the bat, my guys have to be functional. You must have great footwork and power and experience with focus mitts and partners in order to be combat ready against todays fighters. I maintain traditional methods for developing the body and skill sets, and later when the student can handle himself pretty well vs average skilled people, then we move more into developing traditional arts and forms etc. I see many people doing one method or the other, some are so focused on fighting that they do the mitts and sparring, and neglect their traditional training and they become competent fighters but never develope their Art, they lack the power of their art, they lack the sophisticated body method etc. The other group spends so much time on the Traditional skills that they lack fighting experience and common sense. Traditional Arts have great body training, they include Yoga like skillsets, breathing sets, develeopment of smaller muscle groups etc. You must combine all these things to be a well rounded Traditional Arts practicioner.

Every Art I trained was a result of someone else crosstraining, Dai Xinyi included Xinyi methods along with Mantis as well as Taoist dantien methods which develope a powerful core. The family put their own experience into their art to become more functional. Che style Xingyi was the brainstorm of Che Yizhai, Che was smart enough with his teacher to expand upon Dai Family methods and progress even further with agile footwork, combat proven tactical methods and maintain the Dai Methods of body developement . Wing Chun was the collaboration of several Masters looking to make a more functional style, Doce Pares eskrima is again a group of peoples integration of several different systems of Eskrima put together, Inosanto Kali is Dan Inosantos ideas on combining what he learned froms everal different Kali Masters, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu itself has now evolved to include Greco Roman Takedowns, Sombo leglocks etc. I could go on and on, all these great arts are improved by people progressing and experimenting hands on with other practicioners, not by just talking and thinking about Bruce LEE movies and stories of past generations Masters.

I am disciple to Master Li Tailiang and I teach his sytem of Xinyi Dao. What is Xinyi Dao? Xinyi Dao is guess what? YOU GUESSED IT, ANOTHER CROSSTRAINING SYSTEM! Xinyi Dao takes the idea and improvements of Che Yizhai developing Xingyi even a step further. Master Li and his Gong Fu brothers all trained in more modern arts as well as Xinyi/Xingyi, Bagua etc, they grew up on the arts. Mater Li studied Sanda in college, many years in college on a team, training fighting three to four hours a day, he also studied Wushu, and was also trained in Dai Family Xinyi and Che Xingyi since his childhood. Master Li can use his Traditional Arts for fighting, no problem. WHY? Number one he grew up on the stuff, his father still teaches at 80 something years old, its in the family, its their life. Secondly Master li fought in Sanda and competed, even coached Sanda. He didnt hide in a corner and talk about how deadly Gong Fu is, he put it on the line and met people, exchanged and found what he felt were strong points and weakness of each method. So Xinyi Dao is the traditional methods of developing body method and a strong core from Dai Family, along with the combat improvement of Che Yizhai Xingyi, along with the devastating throws and joint locks of Cheng Bagua, and the modern hardcore Sanda training for immediate skills that can easily be measured by putting gloves on and going at it.


So now its my turn to add and improve upon this great system and on my own system,and be a contributor, and not just a follower. I have adopted Master Li's incredible system and addressed the areas that I felt were weakest. For example I added the knife methods of Kali/ Eskrima based on my studies of Inosanto method and Doce Pares, I have also added the ground methods of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Shooto. From my past experiences being an Instructor in other arts, I can see what value each art has, and also which arts are easiest to teach. If some ideas and techniques are so great and so sophisticated that very few can learn when training part time, whats the point in teaching them? I will as mentioned first try to make sure my students can function with basics. Later the serious students and myself can try to gain more skill with Traditional methods, but first we must be FUNCTIONAL!



Traditional Arts have little respect in the overall Martial Arts community these days, and its a shame, and in my opinion its not that the methods are flawed, however I feel most students do not have the time to develope sophisticated body methods and skill sets and they move through a system too quickly and later have nothing but sloppy kickboxing when actually fighting. However their are many people as individuals can apply their traditional arts, so they shouldnt take offense to any of my comments,if they test it against other arts and have sparred with people, I am not referring to them as they have my respect. I just state that kickboxing, Muay Thai, Sanda and the like will by and large produce more competent people in a much shorter time frame, and statistics with fighting matches can easily back this up as fact. Why? because they are easy to test levels of improvement, also their are only a few amount of techniques to learn as opposed to Traditional methods, and for the average person, learning fewer things and becoming competent at them is a much faster road to being functional.

Many Traditional Arts are hundreds of years old, and many Master through time added new ideas, new forms and new methods, etc, so what we have in many systems is an overwhelming amount of forms and ideas and techniques, so I see many people learning way to much volume while actually becoming very good at very little. Take Bagua for example, some people learn a complete Bagua system in under 7 years! They learn all the basic body methods, stance training, 8 basic palms, 8 old palms, the straight line sets, the 64 palms, the chin na, the weapons etc etc! All in such a short time, and then you have a boxer who learns 5 basic punches and learns every way to apply those punches and evade and counter those punches and has serious ring time actually pressure testing these 5 punches, so who sill develope solid skill?

I have taken heat from some people in my own Gong Fu family as well as other Traditionalist for crosstraining, some say I am not being loyal to the system, others have said I am not really dedicated to the system, etc etc, to those Guys I simply ask- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? Have you been through other systems before criticizing them/ Have you rolled on the ground for countles hours putting your ass on the line in order to gain functional experience? Have you gloved up with guys in boxing? Kickboxing? Give me a break, DONT BE A DINOSAUR. I laugh that some people in my own Gong Fu Family have said these things, our own teacher is a crosstraining madman, he tried everything and fought, and he gave me thumbs up for my contributions and experience. My teacher is open enough to have had me teach grappling in his Traditional Class etc. Other Traditional guys have said not to crosstrain because their teacher told them not to, yet their teacher never tried it, so how can he know whats best or not. Many Traditional Artist are living off their forefathers reputations and experiences, quoting fights that happened years ago in distant generations, etc, cmon whos is putting it out their now? Who is being innovators now? I am doing my part and I will continue to do so, and I have all my teacher blessings.

Bottom line on this blog is -Traditional Arts have valid methods, BUT SO DO MODERN METHODS! DONT BE A DINOSAUR! Be a realist, but don't just add anything to your art, you must have a roadmap and goals of exactly what you want to develope and why. Also of course add your health practices from Traditional Arts, as if your not healthy, you cant be functional, but stay away from the talk of Dantien and qi etc, until you first have had a few hundred rounds of sparring with competent people who can show you what your priorities should be in training if you plan on being functional.

Martial arts are very sophisticated and the sky is the limit on how far you can develope, but to first ignore learning the most easily applied tools and attributes is not only ignorant, but just plain stupid if function in a short period of time is the goal. You will not have the timing and speed,power etc to be able to use your close range tactics for your Traditional Arts like Dai Xinyi, Che Xingyi, Wing Chun and Bagua etc, if your getting pummeled by Jabs and round kicks from the outside. Each Art should have a Sanda or kickboxing aspect to it in the beginning.Yes these Traditional Arts can hold up on their own if you train like the old timers did, but my experience is that 99 percent of people do not have that time, or quality partners with the same free time, nor the hands on coach at access at all times to achieve these things. You cannot achieve the Traditional results without training the way they did.

If you plan on training with me, be prepared to work hard, and smart! I teach Traditional skills alongside proven Modern methods to form a complete system! Your base in a group class will be in Sanda or Jun Fan etc, unless you already have prior experience with a modern striking art. In private lesson format, we can work soley on whatever you want. Traditional Arts have self defense methods which will work fine against a drunk in a bar or in a schoolyard fight etc, you do not need to do MMA per se, but you must learn solid striking! The body methods of Traditional Arts takes some time.