Sigung David Moylan, Owner, WKFA

Sigung’s Corner

This November, after exactly 34 years, to get more floor space, an old wooden wardrobe style cabinet was removed from the kwoon. This cabinet’s time at the Academy pre-dates even Sibok Lloyd and Eric’s time. Last newsletter, we enclosed Memoir of an Armoire: Part I. Here is Part Two of a Memoir of an Armoire:

Shortly after settling into my purpose in this new building, I was housing more things for Sifu. Pads that people would hold and strike with each other and fat gloves they would wear to strike each other (mostly to the body, but sometimes to the head, which would often anger Sifu). Hooks were drilled into my side that held white vests the people would sometimes wear when they engaged in this controlled partner striking, they called sparring.

Hmmm, I just had a flashback and recall that a few months before the move, Sifu held one of those semi-regular performance days they called a “grading”, but this one was different. It was much longer and many more were in attendance, including a very large and imposing man that the students, like Sifu and Master Pan, held in great reverence. This man they called “Master Day” or sometimes “Si Tai Gung”. While others also performed on this day, the main focus was on one person in particular; someone they called “Sihing”. He had to do much more than the others, for longer, with a lot more intensity. Master Day even brought two large guys with long hair that I had never seen before. Sihing had to spar them. Near the end of this lengthy day, he used his hand to smash through layers of concrete! He was very strong.

At the end of the day, Sihing received a black piece of cloth. This was the first time Sifu ever presented one of these and the people now started referring to Sihing as Sifu. While this was the first time I saw this happen, there would be many more days like it. Many more people would be called “Sihing” and “Sije”, many more became “Sifu somebody”. But only the one there every day, that instructed everyone, would they just call “Sifu”. Many years later, those without the black cloth on their waist would start calling him “Sigung”.

Sigung would train and teach with such consistency. I watched him get stronger and wiser, more efficient in his movement and more effective in his instruction. The number of people coming in to learn from him grew. Many would stay for several years and then never be seen again. Some would return many years later and this made Sigung smile. Three that I remember from the days at the old building remained; two of these three, the others would start to call “Sibok”.

During my time in the place they called “kwoon”, I would see these Siboks several times every week, without fail. I think they were close friends of Sifu, as they met with him often to talk and train. The one they call Eric, was the only one I ever saw spar with Sifu. The one they called Lloyd would help Sigung give the students several sheets of paper each month they called Fu for You (he did this at the old building too). I watched these Siboks train hard, but also lead classes. I watched their own families train and grow up. They almost never missed helping Sifu with the gradings.

The third person I remember from the old building, unlike the Siboks, started as a young boy. Under Sifu’s guidance, I watched him change from a shy and weak lad into a confident and fit man that eventually would start to spend almost every day with me in the kwoon. I’ll save that story for another day.

 

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Sibok Lloyd Fridenburg

Editorial

by Sibok Lloyd Fridenburg

Throughout my Kung Fu teaching career, I have held a firm belief in one mantra; when one person teaches, two people learn.  Teaching is not about having all the answers, it’s about accepting the things you don’t know and then finding the answers.  Throughout the years my best instructors were the ones that were never afraid to say I don’t know, but then qualified their answer with “but I’ll find out.”

Another item of importance for students to remember is that instructors have an obligation to teach.  They are required to stay current with the entire curriculum and to pass that knowledge on to those of a lower rank. There is no crown of knowledge that is bestowed upon those earning their Black Sash, it takes constant training, questioning, and practice to maintain a high level of instructional skill.

Earning a Black sash is truly a major milestone in your Kung Fu, and life, journey, but equate it to graduating from college or university.  You have the tools, you have the knowledge, you’ve passed the tests, and now you must learn how to apply them on your own, and to teach them to others.  When we don’t have the answers it’s up to us as instructors to find the answers, even if those answers lie outside of our traditional curriculum.

On the other hand, instruction isn’t a one-way street.  Perhaps even more important is that students have an obligation to learn.  Coming to several classes per week, without the element of independent practice, equates to a student that attends all their lectures, takes careful notes, asks questions, but does little of their own research, and seldom does homework.  Attending a lot of classes does not exempt students from the need for independent practice.

When you practice on your own, outside of scheduled classes you can focus on those areas of our curriculum that you find most challenging, and perhaps things that you don’t get a chance to do regularly in classes.  You will make some mistakes; but don’t let that discourage you.  It is easier for an instructor to help students fix things that were practiced incorrectly than to work with a student that has simply forgotten what they learned in class because they didn’t practice at all.

If an instructor were to give a verbal instruction to go to a left ¾ stance, do a lead vertical back-fist to the nose, followed by a spin crescent kick, followed by a lead leopard paw to the infra-orbital nose point, followed by a reverse right hook to the TMJ, could you figure out what you need to do without a demonstration.  Or would you know the questions to ask that would allow you to perform the combination (some of these are more advanced techniques, but you get the idea)?  Do you know where the targets are?  Do you know the correct hand and foot formations?  Do you know the expected direction of the spin?

At each rank students are given requirement sheets showing the things that must be accomplished at your new rank. They aren’t suggestions; they are requirements!  If you can’t tick off each box with confidence and tick all the boxes in your previous requirement sheets, you are not ready to advance.  That doesn’t mean that you have to deliver each technique with perfection, it means that you know what the technique is and how it should be delivered, and to what targets.

I get particularly annoyed when someone is on the grading list, we are getting close to grading day, I give an instruction and they say, “I was never taught that technique.”  The reality is that they failed to ensure that they learned the technique.  Treat your requirement sheets as a set of basic instructions to attain your next rank.  If you don’t know something, ask an instructor, but learning, and being able to proficiently demonstrate, all of the forms, techniques, and self-defense for your rank is your responsibility!

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Sifu Sarah Gawley

Youth Student’s Corner

by Sifu Sarah Gawley

What’s the best way to improve your Kung Fu?  Practice, of course! Doing a motion over and over and over again makes your muscles remember how to do it, which can be the difference between smoothly snapping a board with your sidekick or falling over.

But even Sifus don’t always find it fun to repeat the same Kung Fu moves all the time. Repetition is a great tool to teach your muscles Kung Fu, but it doesn’t have to be your only tool! Here are some other ways you can practice.

1. Close Your Eyes

Is what you’re practicing so easy you could do it with your eyes closed? Prove it! Your body uses vision to help with coordination and balance, so give it an extra challenge by asking it to do your form without that help. Safety tip – make sure you have a big clear space to try this or ask your adult to make sure you don’t kick the walls down!

2. Use Props

Lots of household objects can be fun to train with! Get an adult to hold a pillow for you to punch and kick. See if you can punch or snap kick a bean bag dropping from mid-air. Can you still do your form when you’re using a household ‘weapon’, like a backpack or foam sword or skipping rope?

3. Mix It Up

Build your own combos by putting all the techniques you know into a hat, shaking them up and drawing 3 at random. See if you can complete that combo! For an extra challenge, put all the stances you know into a different hat and pick 3 sets of technique + stance to use.

4. Train with a Buddy

Training’s always more fun with a friend! Set up a practice time with someone you like training with. Even if you don’t always practice the same thing, having someone working alongside you is motivating. Video calls can be useful tools because they can connect you quickly. Taking half an hour a week with a buddy to work on Kung Fu could help both of you out a lot!

5. Try It Backwards

This is one of the trickier challenges – if you think you know a form or sequence perfectly, try it backwards! You can either start at the last move and work towards the first or try it going to the left when it normally goes to the right. Using this trick means you can’t rely on muscle memory, you have to think through each move, so it’s a great brain exercise.

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Sifu Jeremy Norris

Junior Student’s Corner

by Sifu Jeremy Norris

A new year communicates a fresh start; a way to begin doing things differently. The stress and fatigue over the past two years is more evident than ever before, causing many people to question their priorities in every aspect of their lives.

Within Kung Fu it is important to understand what to prioritize in order stay focused on our goals and our personal journey. So, what is the best path forward and how can Kung Fu students ensure they keep well, despite the many challenges we are living with?

Here are three aspects you can use as a martial artist to ensure you are disciplined and focused on improving:

Prioritize Mental Health

When examining our everyday lives and looking at what role Kung Fu plays, a key aspect of this is mental health. Kung Fu can be seen as that one place we can go to solely focus on only one aspect of our lives. This is a powerful tool, and it is important to understand how to use this to our advantage. When attending a class make sure to use the meditation at the start to act as a time to tune in and focus on only the task at hand. Using Kung Fu as a place of respite, to simply focus on bettering ourselves through martial arts can positively impact our mental health and overall well-being.

Committing and Putting the Time In

To invest time and passion toward improving your Kung Fu is one of the most positive aspects that can impact your overall productivity and well-being. Taking time to do something that you are passionate about can lower stress and contribute to overall greater happiness. While this is evident when we are at the kwoon, it is important to understand the benefits of additional training at home. One way to extend that passion to your at home training could be to work on a form or technique that you love most. Layering in exciting moves with your basics can prove to be a strong tool when looking to improve on your Kung Fu.

Understanding the Benefits of Physical Health

Kung Fu benefits us in many ways, but one of the top impacts that it has on our everyday lives is our physical health. One of the biggest struggles for people is finding the time or right activity to stay active, and for us Kung Fu is that activity. Kung Fu can be interlaced very easily into our everyday tasks to ensure that we are staying physically active outside of the Academy. One example that is used often is to hold a stance while watching TV or reading a book, this simple activity is just one example of how you can use Kung Fu to positively add elements of physical activity into your everyday lives.

Overall, the aspects examined above all have the same goal in mind, to understand how using different elements of Kung Fu to positively impact your overall productivity and well-being.

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by Sifu D’arcy Langois

It was a cold and blustery evening in December. Snow was falling, but it was a perfect night for indoor volleyball. He was ready for a nice, relaxing game that night, after all it was just a recreational league. Everything was going swell until that one step. Just. One. Step. He hit the ground and looked around to see who had taken his leg out only to find… it was no one.

That was the night I ruptured my Achilles tendon. I felt I was in the best shape of my life. I felt that I had been doing a good job of staying loose, and flexible, but it still happened. That one single step has led to a very tough three months and, it galls me to say, it hasn’t stopped being tough, even today. But life happens… whether you are ready for it or not, life finds a way to be…life.

The bright side of the story is that throughout it all, the Kung Fu community has been there when I needed them. From talking to Sigung (who has been through this injury), to Zoom classes allowing me to be a part of the action (even when I couldn’t really walk) and the friends I’ve been able to connect with, and just chat like it’s the old times. It’s important to remember that, even when life happens (be it a change to your work schedule, or an Achilles tendon tear) the Kung Fu community is always there.

Footnote: by Sibok Lloyd

Don’t forget to use Kung Fu skills in other physical aspects of your life; especially stretching!  We spend a great deal of time stretching at the start of every Kung Fu class so that our muscles and tendons are loose and ready to perform the tasks ahead.

What do we do when we are playing other sports, laying sod, shoveling dirt, going on a strenuous hike, shoveling snow, or moving furniture?  Most of us probably don’t think about stretching at all, or at best take about a minute to do a few quick stretches.  Stretching is very important prior to any strenuous activity, especially one that we don’t do on a regular basis.  It helps the ligaments become more pliable, makes tendons more elastic, and elongates the muscles so they are more relaxed.

I have seen a lot of injuries throughout my years at WKFA, but the most serious injuries that I have seen students incur come from activities outside of Kung Fu, and most were avoidable.  Incorporate a proper stretching regimen into your day-to-day life whenever you confront a strenuous, unique, or new activity.  It will help prevent a long-term Kung Fu layoff.

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by Sifu Laurent Bernardin

One of the pillars of our Kung Fu curriculum is forms; sequences of prescribed techniques that the student memorizes and learns to execute from start to finish. Each belt and sash level introduces one or more new forms with increasing levels of difficulty. The first form, which is introduced at the Youth and Junior Novice level is the Single Step Form, consisting of 17 moves (plus a bow at the beginning and end). The Little Ninja program also contains its own set of introductory forms. By the time a student reaches an advanced level, they may have learned up to sixteen distinct forms.

Forms help the student understand both offensive and defensive Kung Fu techniques and how to string them together into a series of fluid movements. They are sometimes described as “mini-battles” where you defend yourself against an imaginary opponent. Forms teach power and fluidity but also require focus and concentration to memorize and execute.

Typically, a student will learn just a few moves of a form at a time in class. They are then expected to practice these moves independently at home. At the next class, the instructor may check their progress and, provided the instructor feels that they know those moves and have practiced them, they may teach additional moves until the entire form has been learned.

Forms represent a major part of earning a new rank. Towards that end, forms are frequently assessed in class and the student will earn a “Form Stripe” once they have attained sufficient proficiency in the form (or forms) at their current rank level. Such a stripe does not mean that the form is “perfect” but it represents a significant learning milestone and should be celebrated as such. The form stripe is also a requirement towards qualifying for a grading to earn the next belt or sash level. In the Youth program, the form stripe is followed by a “Grading Stripe” which signifies readiness for that next grading.

Learning a form can be a source of anxiety for students. On one hand, a form must be completed before moving on and thus carries a lot of weight. On the other hand, learning a form to completion can take time. While forms are taught regularly, given the richness of our curriculum, classes may go for a week without touching on them at all. Instructors also only teach a few moves at a time and, especially in larger classes, and may not always get to every student. In addition, when the instructor feels that the existing moves are not sufficiently consolidated, they may choose to review previous parts of a form instead of teaching any new moves. Learning a form is a process that will take effort, time and patience. But students can get frustrated with their progress and a little encouragement and a reminder that they will get there in their own time, can go a long way.

Kung Fu is a journey that everybody experiences differently.

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by Sifu (Dr.) Rikin Patel MD

Discipline is a concept that is often difficult for our minds to accept, however in any area of life it is a character trait that is required for any of us to maximize our potential. If we want to be a disciple within any system of knowledge, discipline is a prerequisite, hence the linking of these two terms. For all of us training as martial artists, we are taught to embrace discipline as a cornerstone for good character and attitude. If approached properly, discipline can give us more freedom rather than restrict us.

This article will explore principles of how we as instructors and parents can approach discipline and behaviour change in a positive way through the lens of western medicine. The purpose of positive discipline is to foster independence and communication skills, manage feelings and take responsibility for behaviour. The aim is never to shame or punish. The first important point to consider is that disciplining methods vary widely based on cultural background. This point is easily understood when we watch any older Chinese Kung Fu film where discipline is typically instilled with harsh training and lifestyle.

In my work as a pediatrician, I am often asked by parents how to manage challenging behaviours and instill discipline. The Canadian Pediatric Society shares principles we can incorporate regardless of culture or background.

Step 1: Exploring the Behaviour

The first step in approaching discipline positively is exploring the behaviour with a simple ABC method (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence). Helping to change an unacceptable behaviour means first understanding why it may be happening.

1. Observing the events prior to a behaviour (antecedent),
2. the behaviour itself, and
3. then the result or aftermath (consequence)

…can help identify patterns and make links between what is happening from the child’s perspective and a specific behaviour. This focused approach also helps identify key opportunities before and after to change our approach to guiding a possible new behaviour. This first step of observation requires multiple views and takes time to establish a pattern but will be critical in striving for lasting change. It can also be important to identify external factors that are potentially modifiable, such as environment, transitions, scheduling, or possible interferences.

Step 2: Exploring Ourselves

The second step in positive disciplining is exploring ourselves as the instructor or parent. It is important to identify and recognize our personal biases and experiences towards discipline. First, it would be important to identify how our parents, teachers and mentors approached us and how we responded to these approaches. We may be strongly influenced to take the same approach but having this reflection will at least allow us to consider a different approach. Second, it will also be important to ask ourselves if there is a more helpful way to think about a certain behaviour. This takes practice and may require multiple prompts to pull us out of our tendency to assume and make quick judgments based on our own opinions. Third, we should always be reflecting on our own habits and how we are modeling, not just when others around but when we are alone.

In part II, I will share specific strategies on how to approach discipline in ways that are both practical and supported by research. Stay tuned.

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