For disbelievers here’s the kind of **** I’m talking about:
Making a Form-Centric School Work
Part One
by Pablo Zamora
I have been running traditional Kung-Fu schools since 1984. I teach a very traditional Chinese Kung-Fu system known as Wah Lum Tam-Tui Northern Praying Mantis System. It has a rich history going back to Northern China. My Sifu is very well known and has created a name for the system all over the world. He is a 6th generation lineage of this system and that makes me 7th. I don’t say this to impress you, but to impress upon you that traditional schools that teach in the traditional way can be successful.
I hear many Kung-Fu school owners complain that they can’t become very successful because they teach a traditional style. That saddens me because I know it can work. The style that you teach has very little to do with your schools success, it’s how you teach it and how you run your school that makes the difference.
My schools focus is on forms training. The curriculum, like many traditional Chinese styles, revolves around forms. Teaching forms is challenging and it is not the easiest way to run a martial arts school.
The way I see it is, If I am going to teach the art that I love, I will do it the way it was meant to be taught and I will make it work. There are some changes that you want to make. You might have to soften up the curriculum at the start. Forms can be broken down into smaller forms. We have five short forms that are called the Five Basic Exercises. These range from 15-25 moves. They are easy to learn and exciting to practice.
We have three different levels–Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Basic class is a class to teach structure. We teach a student how to be a Kung Fu student. We focus more on preparing them to become a good Kung-Fu student. It’s more a probationary class and sometimes we will refer to it as that.
Once you are recommended to become part of the Black Sash or Masters Club program, then you are out of probation and into the inner core of the student body. No forms are taught in basic. We teach them the basic stances, blocks, punches and kicks. Focus is placed on the respect and discipline that we expect from a Kung-Fu student.
Our Intermediate and advanced classes are reserved to Black Sash Club and Master Club members. These classes do revolve around forms training. The Wah Lum forms are challenging and require a high level of flexibility, stamina, strength and overall fitness. This puts great importance into the warm up segment of the class. We do use many traditional ways of preparing the body. The exercises are the traditional exercises of our system. We do modify them for safety and the conditioning level of the student.
I have used the rotating curriculum in the past. However, it didn’t work well for our school. Why? If you rotate the forms, it’s tough to drill all the forms of that level in every class.
Let me break it down; Lets talk about Intermediate class. There will be three sash levels in this class (blue, purple and green). They will all be training together. After a 20-minute warm up, we begin forms. There are three short sets that cover eight stances, eight punches and eight kicks. Then, five short sets of 15-20 moves. Then we have three longer forms. This pretty much covers the forms in that class.
As a student gets to a form or section of class that he has not been taught yet, he steps off the floor into a designated area and practices his last form until and an assistant instructor checks his last form and, if ok, will teach three-five more moves. The goal of the students is to complete the entire forms class without having to step off the main floor.
The same forms are covered every single class so it’s important to be able to keep the excitement level high. Once a student has reached the last form and has shown proficiency in it (usually six months). They are invited to the Advanced class.
The advanced class is run the same way as the Intermediate, but we add four more forms to the training and intensity goes up. Weapon forms are also introduced in this level. Weapons in Wah Lum are challenging and must be taught on a one on one. For this reason we have created 10-18 move weapons forms which are taught in seminars. If a student wants to learn the traditional weapon forms of our system, we do sell private lesson packages for each weapon. The same goes for the more advanced empty hand forms.
The focus of the class and the schools is not necessarily which color of sash one is wearing, but which form a student is in or working on. The goal of each student is to stay in the training floor for the entire segment. This shows great accomplishment.
We do have 10 minutes at the end of every class called the High Energy segment. Here we use kick shields, focus pads and other striking equipment to sharpen the picks and punches and to get the students lo leave the class on a high note.
We do not focus on self-defense on the regular class. We have a special class called FIST that teaches the students effective, easy to learn self-defense and street survival skills. We realize that traditional Kung-fu is not the best road to learning self-defense. It requires time and patience, along with hard training. But, we also realize that it is our duty to prepare students for violence if it ever occurs.
You could say our schools mix tradition and modern training, but in a separate class. Israeli Self-Defense worked well for us. They are easy to learn and to apply, and prepare the student for the fight and flight response that occurs in all violent situations. It’s not the techniques that are taught in these programs, it’s the kind of training to prepare the student for the real situation.
I hope this article has opened up your mind and has gotten you to have more faith in your traditional forms.
Hey! Traditional forms has survived the ravages of time in creating warriors and masters. Why shouldn’t it work now? Faith and a bit of common sense, along with some fundamental business like MATA offers will make all the difference in the world.
