Austin Kung Fu Academy Blog

I just wrote an article highlighting 5 differences between Kung-Fu and Taekwondo.

Take a look at it:
http://www.austinkungfuacademy.com/kungfuvstaekwondo.php

My intent was not to talk down about Taekwondo. I respect TKD and the skill and conditioning folks develop from it. It is a viable martial art, that has influenced many in its short history.

My goal was to have a concrete article that highlighted differences so people could reference it. It’s a very common question, and one I thought I’d answer and provide a resource.

Enjoy!

Click here to take the Horse Stance quiz.

Specifically, the visual element and where you place your intent.

You can do the movements as an abstract pattern, and that’s fine, you’ll develop some better coordination, and may experience a Zen quality of meditation in the practice.

That is a very valid practice, and I don’t wish to take away from that.

HOWEVER…

There is a way to guide the mind that will invariably improve your skill. If you think of extending just a little further, reaching out just a little longer with all your techniques, it makes a substantial difference. If you can visualize each of your movements being big and strong enough to crush and hurl boulders, it makes a difference. But don’t go externally hard, intend the hardness, but keep the movements on a softer-but-heavier side. Keep relaxed, with big fluid continuous circles and swings and lunges.

This slight shift in the mental approach and visualization can make an enormous difference to your execution and overall quality of your techniques.

But it takes extra effort, which is why I am happy to share this “secret”. Even if I tell everyone in the world (which I guess I just did), I know that very few people will actually execute this way on a regular basis because it is indeed taxing. It requires more energy to do this. Physical energy is already being expended, and if you add this mental exertion, it multiplies the exertion.

But if you happened to be a very disciplined practitioner, or seek to become one, if you take this advice with all your training, you’ll notice very quick advancement. It is no easy path, but if done regularly, it makes a huge difference.

In a way, this is how a lot of “internal” Kung Fu styles (such as Tai Chi, Bagua, Xing Yi) train – lots of intent training.

If you unify your body, mind, and heart, the synergy you create is something very special and unique.

The more you study and train martial arts, and particularly Kung Fu, the more you understand that it’s all about energy. The energy of moving forward, up, down side to side, pulling back. Hard energy, soft energy. Soft energy with a heaviness. Hard energy with a lightness. Circular. Linear. Angular.

When these energies become more and more apparent to you, you start seeing this energy in anything that has motion. Motion can be in the form of a tree swaying in the wind. Motion can be in the form of a discussion with a person. Motion can be in the form of your visceral response to someone throwing a punch at you. Motion can be in the form of typing on a keyboard. Motion can be in the form of how you prepare for an academic exam. Motion can be in you mood and your lack of motivation. Motion can be found in your reaction to your parents. Motion can be in what you say. Motion can be in what you don’t say.

Energy is everywhere. Kung Fu gives you the lens to see this energy. The more you practice, the more that you find that there is no distinction between Kung Fu and everything you do.

One of the things I like about our Choy Lay Fut style is that because of the full body motion methods of generating your body’s kinetic potential power, lots of standard equipment won’t have a huge lifespan. Our wavemasters get cracked, our hanging bag gets knocked down, our Thai pads split open, our target paddles turn limp, and our reflex bags get their “heads” knocked off.

When you fine tune all the details of correct power generation in Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu, the power you’re able to deliver with your techniques is SICK.

As a school owner, I lament the loss of equipment, but at the same time, I rejoice in the fact that students are understanding how to develop their power.

I just wish there was a specialty shop where they made equipment for Choy Lay Fut practitioners!

The goal I as a teacher have for my students is to keep going with their training and never give up.

There are peaks and valleys in the intensity of our training, but regardless, keep it going.

Sometimes, combat really appeals, so you focus on that. Sometimes, fitness is the call of the hour, so you focus on that. Sometimes, a greater sense of peace, connectivity, and mental engagement is what’s needed so you focus on forms.

I’ve been at this for 25 years. I have met a lot of goals, and sure I have new goals set for myself. But the most important one is to never not be doing it.

Kung Fu training keeps the body fit, the mind sharp, the creativity flowing, and gives you the agility to overcome physical obstacles.

It truly is the fountain of youth.

If you had found the fountain of youth, why would you ever stop drinking from it?

Forms training has an important place in one’s journey in Kung Fu training. Here are the 5 Phases I am taking my students through with their forms training:

1. Memorize the Sequence. This in it of itself can be an arduous process. Without this step, none of the other steps can be accomplished.

2. Learn the Fine Point Detail. The movements in Kung Fu can be very complex and nuanced, so after memorizing the order of the movements, perfection of detail in every step is critical towards developing mastery.

3. Know Exactly Where the Energy and Intent Is. This might seem similar to step 2, but it is a little different. It is one thing to know detail, it is another thing to practice it with true energy and intent.

4. Battlefield Spirited Practice. This is practicing your form with as much vigor as you would have battling multiple opponents, full out. This is not just about memory, detail, or energy. This is about your FIGHTING SPIRIT. Practice with your full speed and power, as if you may not live another second. But there’s a cautionary note with this one, if your memory, detail, and energy aspects haven’t been worked through, and you attempt this phase prematurely, you will develop bad habits and incorrect structure.

5. Meditative Practice. This is practicing your form slowly, smoothly, fluidly, softly-but-with-intent, as a calming, yet uplifting and healing practice. This is the final phase, because you have experienced and discovered the power of the form. Your approach to it is different. You understand soft better because you have understood hard.

It is form practice through these phases that improves ones overall skill. There is a noticeable difference to the students’ structure in the participation of striking pad drills, combat drills, and overall training spirit.

The definition of Kung Fu is Skill through time and effort.

In other words, you can’t develop the skill if you just give some effort. You have to give it time. Some things you’ll understand after 5 years, some after 10, some after 20…I’ve been doing it for 25 years and still learning new things and coming to new understandings of the art.

You also can’t truly develop the skill if you just give time but not with quality effort. I’ve seen practitioners with over 30 years experience under their belt, but their understanding is still at a very base level, because there wasn’t a lot of quality effort with the time spent.

We live in an age of information transparency and access. It is very easy to hop from one martial arts style to another, to another, to another. Especially in this era where cross training is much talked about.

It is critically important to develop a solid foundation. And just to get a foundation of base level understanding for average folks’ training time commitment (which would be 10 or less hours a week), would take about 5 years.

There’s a real dichotomy with this and the consumerist mentality of wanting to have the skill and ability after 2-3 years or less of training.

There is technical skill development, and then there is the understanding of the art. The technical skill development doesn’t necessarily take too long. The understanding of the art through time and effort takes the technical skill development to a new level.

A good analogy is language. Imagine learning German for 2-3 years. You’re pretty decent at it, you can get by relatively well in conversations. Now imagine someone who’s been speaking it for 10 years. Would they not have a mastery and understanding of the language vastly above the level that 2nd-3rd year students reached?

So sure, you can learn a style’s “grammar and punctuation” and be able to show non-speakers that you know that language after a couple years. But if you practice that language/style for 10+ years, you’re going to have a familiarity and comfortability and an execution that is masterful.

If you think about the word Kung Fu and how it is used in casual conversation, it is often times synonymous with skill. For example, people may say, your computer kung fu is strong! Or, your home repair kung fu is very good, or your cooking-Fu is strong, or, my typing-fu is weak, etc.

Basically, any sort of skill is referred to as Kung Fu, which is technically correct, because the literal definition of Kung Fu is skill acquired through time/effort. It doesn’t necessarily refer to martial arts, although these days it has.

But most people don’t know that.

You probably don’t hear people saying, wow, your basket weaving MMA is strong! Or, your programming Taekwondo is awesome! Just doesn’t have the same zing, does it!

The only other martial art that has a metaphorical reference in everday life/conversation is Judo/Jujutsu. It’s generally in reference to a verbal encounter where one person used a passive approach against an aggressive/forceful/tense delivery to get the job done.

But even still, that is in reference to a tactic. The metaphor for Kung Fu is far more powerful in my view, because it is a connotation of expertise level.

Perhaps this evolved from the resurgence in the 90′s of Old School Kung Fu movies, where there were constant themes of developing, challenging, improving, and testing one’s Kung Fu level, where lines were very commonly spoken, such as:

Hey you, think your Kung Fu’s good? Well now, let’s see how good (pause) YOU REALLY ARE! Try my (___insert number or adjective) (___insert animal or natural element) (___insert body part)!!! (eg, 18 Fire Palms)

Perhaps it is because of not just the technical skill, but the artistry and the highly stylized aesthetics on top of it that gives the skill that sense of dramatic grandeur.

It’s not that Kung Fu (ie Chinese martial arts) is any better than other martial arts, but the way it has presented itself onscreen is so powerful that it became part of our lexicon.

I’m still developing my blog-fu. I need to train harder!