ATTENTION EARTH DRAGON:

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Northern Praying Mantis
1

Hey kung fu cousin. Since were both 8 Step Sifus, this would be a good place to discuss training and techniques. Especially since we have all the same terminology.

I guess I’ll start out with a basic questionaire. I’ll answer first to save you from reasking.

  1. What is your specialty range? Kicking, Throwing, punching, joint locks?

personally I’m more of an all around kinda sifu. I like throwing, but I can’t do all 40 of them consistantly. Everyone has their preferences, but by drilling long forms for throwing, tossing the bag and teaching I am getting better at it. I still have some sweat throws though and I can get beng tiao pretty much anytime I want to. I usually use “In” or “Pak Sau” to get the arms crossed and then just take it.

  1. What is YOUR training like. I pretty much just work out as I teach. I bought some thai pads and a heavy bag, so I’m working out on that lately. I also have this long body shield for football that I use to have a moving punching bag. I find that its quite like a tournament fight.

  2. Do you practice for a sport IE san shou, NHB or are you strictly into the traditional streetfighting aspects?

I like san shou and NHB and I try to gear my students to train for both. I’m not the kinda guy that gets into fights, and if I had trouble I would probably just block or lock them up. I deal mostly with teens and young adults so a competition focus is better for me.

  1. When you teaching the 8ths or body coordinations, do you go strictly by the cirriculum or do you take them apart and have your students look at the different parts. Like how they might integrate sickle hands into sparring. Do you do this or have them wait for silver mantis?

I always want my studends curious, asking questings and thinking about their material and I take it apart every so often to cultivate that curiosity. I also have them do a lot of sensetivity sparring.

  1. What is your approach to sifu students? Do you let them wear shorts? I do, it gets hot and they work out pretty hard.

  2. Whats your favorite set? Favorite application from the set? Mine is the uppercut/high knee to lowfist in show fan shr.

  3. Are you in Napma? What is your teaching style like? Are you the auster almighty sifu? Do you joke with students? Do you ever work out with them durring class.

  4. Do you have one of those new Sifu suits and if you do, how often do you wash it? I find that since I need it everyday, its hard to get washed. Its also hot in the summer, So I either wear a T-shirt or shorts and a school shirt.

  5. Did you do endurances? What was your physical training like in the gold mantis program? Probably when you did it,there wasn’t a gold mantis program yet, but how was your training like?

Take the world lightly, and your spirit will not be burdened. Consider everything minor, and your mind will not be confused. Regard death and life as equal, and your heart will not be afraid.

2

atten: 8 step sifu

wow so many questions so little space well ill guess ill start with master feng hui yi eagle claw joint locking chinnafa locks are one of my favorite tecniques suai chiao is good to but many of the 40 taught to us only work if a joint lock is applied first second :many throws only work on certain body types sobei is great on a tall or large man however ma bou ti or bung tiao is difficult on a heavy guy however joint locks work no matter how big or strong the opp is i tried several throws on one of my 6’4 250 lbs stundents and could not execute them properly but locking up their elbow wrist or finger worked like a charm . as for shifu to students relationships i teach every class i am easy going however very strict and traditional when need be i had a very seroius and old fashion karate teacher who was from the old school of hard knocks who drilled me many many times sternfully and phisically but in todays world teaching is about sharing rather than commanding u can lose many students if you are expecting them to learn the same way you have everyone comes to a scholl for a different reason many have never been in a fight so fighting stratagies is not what you should be teaching them … to better themselves is! finally the most important aspect of training is internal for with out it we are mearly shawdows in a forest empty with out substance train your chi your body will follow , i stongly suggest qi gong and tai chi chuan training for it is a much higher level than any external movement . while living in sanfransico i met a chinese qigong master who’s skill go beyong imagination i became her first american TuDi she moved back to buffalo and lived with me her teachings lie extremly deep with in me . i am practicing jin gon tzu li gung and shooting chi into other people to rebalance thier energy very high level chi manipulation making people shake and move with out touching them definatly work on internal for your external the benifites are endless hope to hear from you soon my student is builing a web site for our school please check it out and pass it along i would appreciate it thanx you for for being you www.kungfuusa.net

3

Oh your a disciple of Angela’s? That sounds like some cool stuff. I’m also a big fan of joint locks, but they are hard it the other guy is strong or just really sweaty.

I’ve found that pushing the canoe into the lake works very well against people shooting in on you. YOu can redirect and push them into the ground. also after ma bo ti, I usually follow it up with a cross body arm lock.

I also have a laid back teaching style. They all call me Sifu, but outside of class, were all equals. Its not the most traditional way, but I find that it’s the healthiest for me. In the end, were all dirt, my primary aim is to make kung fu class have a good feel to it and to create an invironment where my students can improve themselves.

BTW- Did you do those throwing/kicking endurances? What was your training like? How do you train your students

Take the world lightly, and your spirit will not be burdened. Consider everything minor, and your mind will not be confused. Regard death and life as equal, and your heart will not be afraid.

4

8stepsifu

how do you know what I named her “angela” that is, her name is yen chu fang but we decided to give her an english last name but how would you know that? who r u and who did you train under? who was your sifu ? I am part of the old school noriega street in san fran! how long have you been in the system How old r u . to answer your question the endurance stances are a must fai yen (flying sparrow) and wan yau (buddah looks at the moon) i find to be benifical when one works up to a decend amount of time starting about 5 minutes and working up to 20 -30 minutes.as far as only being called sifu in the class room i believe that sifu is not a title but a figure of higher knowledge so know matter where you are your students should acknowlegde you as such for you will always be their teacher , but as sifu sun told me never become to close with your students on a personal level for they will veiw you in a different way if they know you personaly ,more teaching experience will show you differnt things at differnt times but he is right! please respond i enjoy talking to you though i dont know who you are yet p.l.u.rpeace, love,unity, respect a wise man told me the more you learn the less you know!!!

http://www.kungfu.net

Located in Buffalo, NY.

Teaching 8 Step Praying Mantis Kung FU, Shyun style Tai Chi Chuan, Jin Gon Tzu Li Gung, Qi-Gong

5

I’ve probably met you and eaten with you. My Sifu is Sifu Loftus. He told me about Angela and her abilities. When you talked about effecting people without touching them I knew it must have been her. I really like chi kung too, especially as it applies to shiatsu. I am very very far from using it in combat, but I’m trying to open up as I do in meditation when I’m doing mantis stuff. When I do sets slowly I can retain the spine tapping chi sensation.

The most I’ve done the endurances for was 10 minutes each for 5th gold mantis testing. To do that, I had to be acutely aware of the interal. I’m working up a little at a time. I have never told them that they must call me Sifu one way or the other. They call me by my name outside of class and I can’t really enforce it. Its getting easier though. This has been my first year with my own school, so discipline and class spirit are all in the foundation process and overall I had a successfull year as a sifu. I teach in New Hampshire. BTW Im Sifu Andy, You probably last saw me when I was a pup sifu student.

I like those endurances too…as much as you can like an endurance. I also try to do horse stance chi kung to increase vitality and lower my kwa. Its funny because as a result of doing those endurances its very hard for others to throw me. I can even let them take a big chop with the leg like in tan ning and it stays put. I also learned counters to the gold mantis levels at my first sifu camp, so I like waiting for them to commit and then doing a counter so that they don’t know whats going on.

Besides chi kung, what things are you working on? From what I remember, you seemed to be in pretty good shape. I am too, but my physical abilities went to the side after I became a sifu. As finesse, body mechanics and chi kung started to take over, I paid less attention to doing all my push ups. then I got a shoulder injury that postponed things quite a bit.

However the other day I did 600 big jumping frog jumps, So things are coming back. Out of curiousity, so you spar with students? If so, do you go the grappling glove route or the boxing glove? I do both. Its one of the few things that keeps me in shape. I don’t work out with my students unless were doing focus pad drills or sensetivity sparring, and I can’t sweat too much in my suit so I pretty much give orders and get soft in class, while they work out. I still have weekends and mornings though.

Do you practice long forms? I’m almost to 1,000 of all of em. I was told that you have to do at least that much to understand the movements. At first they were very taxing, but as I have gotten better at them I can work out much longer.

Take the world lightly, and your spirit will not be burdened. Consider everything minor, and your mind will not be confused. Regard death and life as equal, and your heart will not be afraid.

6

8stepsifu

well its nice to finally know who im talking to , kevin is my kung fu brother but i did not attend the sifu camp in S.D i have spoken to kevin when i relocated my school and adressed some issues with him but have not heard from him in a while i moved to san fransico with sifu dean to train directly under sifu sun and lived at the school for about a year then moved back to buffalo to open my own school. sifu sun has came to my school 3 times to do seminars their , i to have had my problems with him but i keep my mouth shut on all topics we became very close when i lived there but problems have arised since then but its not anybodies business so i do not hang my dirty laundry on the forum for all to see , i am a much bigger person than that, and way to humble well thats all for now keep up the good work and dont get into a pissing match with people opions for they are like ******* every one has them and they all stink he he

http://www.kungfu.net

Located in Buffalo, NY.

Teaching 8 Step Praying Mantis Kung FU, Shyun style Tai Chi Chuan, Jin Gon Tzu Li Gung, Qi-Gong

7

Barf Dragon

Andy and Mike, you two make me sick. I trained under Keven leftass too. But have no respect for the man and his ways. Maybe you two have learned more of what the system is about. Myself, I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth. Mike I think maybe I will pay you a vist, can you get cinamino to come up to? I went through you like a hot knife in butter last time we met. So this will be fun, Love ya!!! :cool:

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6HRMANTIS

I AM SORRY YOU FEEL SO BAD ABOUT YOUR TRAINING HOWEVER YOU DO NOT KNOW ME NOR HAVE YOU MET ME! I DID NOT TRIAN UNDER KEVIN, I LIVED WITH MASTER SUN, WE HAVE NEVER MET SO IM NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY THE HOT BUTTER / KNIFE THING BUT I REALIZE YOU ARE BITTER ABOUT SOMETHINGS BUT PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ME WHEN YOU SPEAK OF THINGS , I AM NO ONE’S ENMEY I TEACH A GOOD BUNCH STUDENTS AND THEY HAVE MUCH RESPECT FOR ME AS I SHIFU AND I PERSON!!! I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND YOU IN ANY WAY! PLEASE REPLY WITH A POSITIVE MESSAGE ONLY THANK YOU P.S ONLY MET MIKE CIMINO 2 TIMES WE ARE NOT AS YOU SAY FREINDS I DONT KNOW THE MAN

http://www.kungfu.net

Located in Buffalo, NY.

Teaching 8 Step Praying Mantis Kung FU, Shyun style Tai Chi Chuan, Jin Gon Tzu Li Gung, Qi-Gong

9

hey 6secmantis you little ****** you talk **** about my sifu and good freind mike! Im comming down to hamburg and waiting for you outside your office real soon! Im gonna break your fuckin fingers so you wont be able to type any more lies about anyone you inbread ******!who the hell do you think you are? and as for talking about his wife, Im sure you wife would love to hear that! if you can get her to stop sleeping around on the reservation long enough! watch your back Im dead serious

10

WHO ARE YOU THEN!!! YOU INSIST YOU ARENT GEORGE BUT YOUR TO MUCH OF A ***** TO ADMIT WHO YOU ARE!!! REAL TOUGH GUY YOU CANT EVEN TELL ME WHO YOU ARE SO WE CAN HANDLE THIS THE RIGHT WAY

http://www.kungfuUSA.net