Newsletter 1128 (sign up on the top of the column on the left)
How I Learned Kung Fu the Hard Way!
Great song by Carl Douglas, it was popular when I received my Black Belt. I’d be driving from Redwood City to San Jose for my lessons, and that song came on, and stayed in my head. It stayed in everybody’s head. The only problem was that I didn’t know any kung fu, I was studying Karate!
A few years later I was teaching Karate in Santa Rosa, and I looked out the window of my dojo and some guy (name of Alan) was doing Kung Fu. I went out and talked to him, and he ended up teaching me an art called Ton Toi. Ton Toi is a northern style of kung fu which means ‘springy legs.’ It was a series of ten techniques done in a line. There was appropriate mythology behind it. Monks in the hallways of castles, prisoners in a long, narrow prison yard. The techniques weren’t very good, but the lines were phenomenal for developing leg strength. It was a northern style of Kung Fu, and they always say, ‘Legs in the north, arms in the south.’ I practiced those lines for quite some time, got quite good at them, but there was a problem with them. As I said, the techniques weren’t too good, but being a basic sort of style Ton Toi was supposed to prepare you for the Southern Style, but Alan didn’t want to teach me the southern style.
A few years pass and I’m teaching Karate in Tujunga, Ca. A fellow walks in, he was fresh out of the big house, didn’t have a job, but he said he would teach me southern style if I would teach him Karate. Normally, I wouldn’t have, but this guy, Richard Armington, was different. He had studied the real stuff, Fut Ga (Five families style) with Arther Lee in Hawaii. I spent a lot of time learning a variety of forms, and it was great stuff. There was a problem. The techniques were sound, but they were based on a circular motion, and they weren’t as efficient as the more linear motion techniques of Karate.
A few years pass, and I develop Matrixing. Matrixing was not an instant thing, it developed in me over several decades. Anyway, I matrixed Karate, worked out like a champ, and then I started looking at my Kung Fu. The Kung Fu forms were arm swinging things that covered a lot of territory with random stepping. And the techniques could be made more efficient if I put them on a matrix, fixed up some of the blocks, and tightened the circles.
I fixed the footwork by putting them on the Nine Square pattern. This was the first time I used the Nine Square, and I was very pleased with how that pattern made forms more logical, easier to remember, and the techniques easier to apply. Also, fixing Kung Fu like I did was a very important step between karate, and the more pure fighting forms of styles such as Monkey Boxing and Nine Square Diagram Boxing.
My intention, with Kung Fu, which I call Shaolin Butterfly Kung Fu, was to apply matrixing to make a more efficient type of Shaolin Kung Fu, and to take advantage of the body building properties of kung fu, and, most of all, to make it easier for anybody to learn, and to apply.
If you’ve already done the Matrix Karate course, and you want to see first hand how to apply matrixing to other arts, Shaolin Butterfly is an excellent way to go. And if you don’t care about matrixing, but are just more interested in powerful, super smooth Kung Fu, click on the link below.
Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.
Have a great work out!
Al
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Have you read Insanica?
BTW ~ I only do video testing if you have prior experience and have a partner to demonstrate techniques on.
