Excerpts from                   Official Retirement From     Professional Gongfu             Teaching Notice

JULY 1984

  by Michael Alan Brown            President -  CYKFA

Edited by W Kraig Stephens CYKFA Black Belt #68

PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION OF THE CHING YI KUNG FU ASSOCIATION

Some Training Advice

Everyone has different reasons for choosing Gong Fu as their Way.  Some just want a unique form of recreation, others like the blend of physical, mental and spiritual training, and others just practice for health.  But the most common reason, though often not admitted, is the desire to be capable of defending oneself in a fight.  This is as it should be, and represents the original purpose of Gong Fu.

It is my belief that virtually unbeatable combat ability can only come from totally unconscious spontaneity.  The way to this is by practicing form after form, technique upon technique, strengthening the body and developing "grooves in the neural pathways"  (i.e., making the body parts move in a specific manner until it becomes as natural a physical response as breathing) with absolutely NO thought of fighting or imaginary opponents during training.  This, combined with complete concentration only on the Dan Tian region when entering combat, will result in miraculous feats of fighting skill.  BUT.....we're talking a lot of time -- years of uncompromising practice -- all the while, of course, reaping the many other benefits of Gong Fu.

In the interim, though, there are ways to quickly make yourself invulnerable to the attacks of ordinary fighters.  Two ways that I recommend are: 1)  to select a few individual techniques (perhaps 2 kicks, 2 or 3 strikes, a couple of throws or locks, 3 or 4 blocks or parries) that you feel are your best or are easiest to learn, and practice them over and over again -- outside your forms practice -- with a training partner and/or against an imaginary opponent, bag, etc., and 2) to develop a specialty technique.

Specialty techniques have a strong historical precedence in both ancient and modern martial arts.  Kuo Yun Shen's "Divine Crushing" right fist, Tu Xin Wu's over the shoulder kick, C .C. Chen's chopstick throwing skill, my friend Ko's devastating "tree palm" strike, Chuck Norris' spinning back kick, Kah Wah Lee's vibrating palm, Peter Ralston's famous high "stomp kick", etc., are all examples of men selecting a single technique that fit their body and personality type and developing it to an extraordinary level.

The main thing to realize is that few, if any, of these men were taught these techniques.  They uses creative thinking and built something special to supplement the classical style they were studying from their teacher.  Often, they kept this skill a secret until it was required in combat.

I recommend these two methods to bolster confidence and make the path to undefeatable spontaneous fighting ability a relaxed and enjoyable one, completely free of fear.