Lesson #1 from the Dean Chin Rule Book (Attendance)

3 03 2013

Well, it’s a little more than just attendance.

I don’t have the list of rules anymore. Some years have gone by that my box of Jow Ga memorabilia is in an attic in either my aunt’s or father’s house–basement or something. But I do remember possibly one of the first three rules, and hopefully one of my Si Hing can help me out with this:

Students must attend a minimum of 8 classes per month to remain in good standing and continue membership.

In other words, Sifu Chin wasn’t begging anyone to be a student here. See, one of the dark clouds that hovered overhead for the Jow Ga student under Sifu Chin was the possibility that he might ask you to leave his school. We were ordered to practice, clean the school, attend enough classes to make Jow Ga look good, abstain from alcohol use, show courage and reject cowardice… Yeah, other schools said that stuff too, good grades, show respect, blah blah blah. But in the Jow Ga school, it was a reality, and you would be hard pressed even in the 1980s to find a teacher more demanding. This was the kind of school where the students who cut out right after class (despite that they showed up to attend every week) were considered “un-dedicated”, and the REAL kung fu training started about an hour after the last of them left. Few people know what I’m talking about, because most people in those days despised Sifu Chin’s classes and did not hang around long after classes to see what went on in the school.

There were several full instructors in the school who taught classes and had their own followers during the 80s, and very few learned directly from Sifu by that time. Those who did were part of a sort of “Secret Society”, a fraternity of Jow Ga people who were a school within the school, long after Sifu Chin taught his last scheduled class. It was here, that Sifu’s requirement of “Attend 8 classes” was enforced. There are four weekends in a month, and Dean Chin was present nearly every weekend day, after class. You were not really expected to attend the regularly scheduled class in the morning that most students took. But attendance to the 2 hour sparring taught by Tehran Brighthapt and Lemuel Talley was strongly encouraged, and after that was when you got to learn from Sifu. Sometimes it was technique. Sometimes it was form. And it was always lecture.

But what’s your point, Mo?

Sifu did not treat the Kung Fu education like a class. He looked at Kung Fu as a calling. This is not just something you are taking and paying for. It is a total lifestyle change, and only few people who dared walk through those doors and actually sign up are of the caliber he was looking for. Anyone with $35 could join the school. But once inside those walls, only a few of them would become the kind of person he actually taught himself. Most people wouldn’t like it. People actually got mad at Sifu because of how he taught or how he talked to you, and then wanted to post websites decades later about how they were his students. (excuse the personal feelings)

Back to the article.

So if you truly want to understand what separates the men from the boys in Jow Ga, what makes some people proud of their skills versus proud of their alliances, or what makes some people Kung Fu teachers versus Kung Fu men–you must look at the lifestyle one leads as a Kung Fu practitioner. Some people are lucky to find a way to make a good living doing what we do. Most will not, but still practice this art, well beyond the days where they are no longer physically able to do it, broke or not, until the day they die. How they live the art as a Sifu at large depends on how they treated it as students. Your martial arts training should not depend on class availability, finances, or what you’ve got going on in your personal life/the job. If you miss Kung Fu training because “things are crazy”, you’re not a Kung Fu Man–as Sifu Chin would describe it–you’re just a Kung Fu student. And therefore, if you cannot commit to 8 measly classes out of a 30 day month–he didn’t want you as a student.

I could say more, but due to my promise to my Si Hings that this blog would be a happy, happy, joy, joy, positive blog–pull me up next time I’m in DC. I’ll tell you exactly how I feel.

The path to Kung Fu excellence, not just Jow Ga excellence, is how you treat your art. This is a vocation, a life purpose, an identity. It is NOT a class. Nothing should get in the way of your Jow Ga. As Sifu once put it, there are tons of schools in Washington DC. This training is for serious students only.

Amen.

Thank you for visiting DC Jow Ga Federation.


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Categories : Kung Fu Philosophy

Build the Horse First

3 01 2013

One of the teaching philosophies used in Dean Chin’s Jow Ga is “Build the Horse First”.

Often in battle, the winner is not determined by who has the sharpest spear–but who has the strongest horse. The legs, in Kung Fu, are referred to as one’s “horse” because what gets the soldier around during skirmishes are his legs if he’s on foot–or his horse if he is on horseback. For those who fight atop horses, just as much training is given to the horse who carries the soldier as to the combat training of the soldier himself. The fighter who is able to outmaneuver his opponent will find combat and self-defense to be much easier and less risky. When one has developed his footwork to evade and opponent who cannot catch him, and to outrun an opponent who cannot escape him–fighting demands less energy and fewer chances of getting hurt from the combatant.

In Jow Ga training, you will learn to move efficiently and explosively before learning to strike an opponent; this is an indication of how important this oft-overlooked skill is. We accomplish by spending a large amount of time holding postures in our six basic stances:

  1. Sei Ping Ma – Four corners horse stance
  2. Jee Um Ma – Bow and Arrow stance
  3. Gum Gai Dok Lop Ma – Golden Rooster Standing on One Leg stance
  4. Kay Lun Ma – Cross Stance
  5. Breaking the Broom Stance
  6. Pak Tui – Drop Leg Stance

You will also learn and practice our “Stance Training Form”–a routine of attack and defensive footwork maneuvers. The first half of the routine teaches basic footwork and the second half combines hand attacks with that footwork and includes our famous “Wheel Punch Technique” which is the Jow Ga fighter’s first “super-technique”. (Super Technique refers to a powerful technique that is difficult for opponents to counter)

It takes about 6 to 9 months for students to properly learn Horse Training. During this time, you will find your upper body strength increase at least threefold. Your leg strength and flexibility will multiply itself at least four or five times. This is not an exaggeration.

Remember, our mission in Jow Ga is to build dominant fighters. This is an ambitious goal, and you will have to put a lot of energy towards meeting it. Building the horse is the first step towards achieving it.

Thank you for visiting DC Jow Ga Federation.


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Categories : Technique and Strategy

What Is a “Grandmaster”, Anyway?

3 01 2013

The term “Grandmaster” is today an overused and meaningless term.

Grandmaster used to mean one who taught your teacher, a form of saying “martial arts grandfather”. The term for one who creates a style is actually “Founder”, or in Chinese we say Si Jo. The title that the Si Jo was called by his students is simply “Sifu”, meaning “teacher”. Not lofty enough of a term for today’s egotistic martial arts teacher.

Today, we have the term used for anyone who claims more than a 5th degree black belt, which would make him a “senior teacher”, or Dai Sifu. Appropriately, the top three or four students of the Master might be referred to as their school’s Dai Sifu–but only to differentiate those students from his other students holding an instructor ranking in the system or school. However, those few students with that denotion would be called by their students, simply, Sifu. Yet most traditional teachers who have instructor level students do not give their students this title. Some would say that the school’s Master would be that school’s Dai Sifu, but again no one would call him that title either. What would that school’s master call himself? Sifu.

And what would his senior students be called? Want to take a guess?

Si Hing. This mean’s “older brother”. The same title a student with 6 months of training would call his classmate with 10 months of training. The same title a student with 3 years of training would call his classmate with 17 years of training. This morning I received a call from my junior classmate who joined Jow Ga Association in 1986. Guess what he calls me? Si Hing.

Why all of these optional titles that no one uses? Because in the Chinese martial arts, respect is often earned three ways:

  1. Stay in the arts long enough and/or simply be older,
  2. Move up in rank,
  3. Possess skill.

While a man can walk around and call himself a Grandmaster, and insist that the community calls him a Grandmaster, we must be careful not to confuse titles with respect. Some will be in awe of a man with a lofty title, an interesting story to tell, or longevity in the art–but again, some may not. Yet when a man is in your presence and everyone around him knows without a doubt that he could kill anyone within 6 feet of him with his bare hands–and no one could do a thing about it–there exists a very rare form of respect that all martial artists understand, and everyone agrees.

Martial artists who do not posses the third category of respect must rely on the first two. In other words, he must be called names and throw around his resume and qualifications in order to receive the kind of respect that is earned the traditional way: years of study, thousands upon thousands of hours of training, a multitude of opponents therefore proving his ability, and finally possessing the skill that even when he says, “just call me ‘teacher’”–everyone knows they are in the presence of a master.

And a grandmaster is only an old man with a title.

Thank you for visiting DC Jow Ga Federation.


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