Sigung’s Corner

by Sigung David Moylan
Fu For You Summer 2025

Although the feeling is perennial, this Spring was truly one of the busiest and most positive! We transitioned from a brisk lion dance year right into competition season. The Competition Team was one of the most diverse and energetic ever! Thank you, team members and our coaches, Sifus: Erich, Mark, Neel and Syd.

We had a strong showing at the annual CKKA Convention in Toronto on April 12th. Our judges and competitors shone throughout the day. Sifu Rikin held a couple of great workshops through Reset Pediatrics. Sifus Robin and D’Arcy led our Lion Dance Team and a team from North Bay through a fitting opening ceremony at the banquet. I was emcee at the banquet and past President, Peggy Day, surprised Sigung Dave from Kitchener Kicks and I with lifetime achievement awards. Our Competition Team brought back the prestigious Chong Cup for their group form! Our Performance Team kicked off the dancing portion of the evening with a dynamic show! Mark your calendars for the March 28th weekend, as we are once again hosting in 2026 – at St.George Banquet Hall.

April started with a grading and finished with our annual Spring Invitational Tournament and BBQ. The day was a lot of fun and ended on a high note with some amazing displays of skill by our Advanced students. Thank you to Sifus Anne and Sarah, our friends at Bast and Fore Quarter, as well as all the Black Sash judges, volunteers and of course participants! Next year we are set for April 26th!

Following our participation in the 45th annual Karate Maynia on May 3 and Sifu Cristina’s wedding (huge congratulations!), we snuck in a Spring maintenance day – thanks for all those that lent a hand! Then it was time for the largest Advanced grading in our 38-year history on May 10th. All the preparation paid off as the candidates looked fantastic! I proudly welcome Sifus Jackson, Jordan, Karthik, Maia, Richard and Veronica to Black Sash. Gavin, Matthew and Zia – welcome to Brown! Sifu Rikin (our longest standing member, going back to 1988) was promoted to 3rd Degree and Sifu Daryl was promoted to 4th Degree. Way to go everyone – we are proud of you!

Congratulations to Sifu Laura, on the birth of her healthy boy, Warren, on May 15th!

On May 24th, a mighty handful of our students and I participated in a collaborative demonstration with Kitchener Kicks at the Schwaben Club in support of their 50th Anniversary. You can learn more about our connection with them through the lineage section of the Student Handbook and this video. It was an honour to be part of their event. With gratitude and respect, we wish them many more years in our community!

At the time of this writing, we still have a few more weeks of Spring then right into lion dance festival/wedding season, demonstration season then into summer camps! Check us out at the Hydrocut on June 14th and the Cherry Park Festival on July 5th. There’s never a dull month at WKFA!

 

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by Chantal Moylan
Fu For You Summer 2025

In Kung Fu, we learn to be strong, focused, and respectful, but this also applies to how we take care of ourselves and others. Good hygiene helps keep everyone safe, healthy, and comfortable during training. Here are five important rules to follow:

1. Short Nails: Nails should be kept short for safety and hygiene. Long nails can scratch or cut you or your training partners during sparring and partner drills. Dirt and bacteria can get stuck under long nails, which is unhygienic and can even lead to infections if you accidentally scratch someone. Long nails can also break, which can be painful. Short nails ensure you can make a good fist. Long nails can get in the way of this, which will affect your technique. Lastly, it shows discipline and respect. It is a basic part of martial arts etiquette and it lets us know that you care about your fellow classmates and you take your training seriously.
2. Clean Uniform: Uniforms should be clean and worn properly. You should always keep your martial arts uniform clean because it shows respect for your teacher, your classmates, and yourself. A clean uniform keeps germs and bad smells away, so everyone can train safely and have fun. It also helps you feel more confident and focused, like you’re ready to learn and do your best. Taking care of your uniform is part of being a responsible and disciplined martial artist!
3. Hair Tied up: If you have long hair, tying it up for class is important because it keeps you safe, you can see better and it even helps you focus. Loose hair can get pulled or stuck when you’re moving or practicing with a partner. Also, hair in your face can block your eyes, and you need to see clearly to do your moves right! Lastly, when your hair is tied up, you’re not busy fixing it or brushing it away, so you can focus better on your training!
4. No Jewelry: Jewelry including rings, bracelets, dangly earrings, necklaces and watches shouldn’t be worn in Kung Fu class. Jewelry can scratch and poke you or a partner or get pulled by accident when you’re training. It can also fall off or get damaged while you’re moving around. So, before class, it’s best to take off all jewelry. That way, you and your classmates stay safe and nothing gets broken or lost!
5. Stay Home When Sick: If you’re feeling sick, stay home and rest. Staying home will help you get better and keep germs from spreading. Resting helps your body heal faster, so you can come back strong. If you’re sick, you might accidentally make your classmates or instructors sick too. It’s also hard to train when you’re not feeling well because Kung Fu takes lots of energy and focus so you won’t be able to do your best!

By following these five important rules, we can keep everyone safe and healthy!

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by Sifu Charlie Romeo
Fu For You Summer 2025

As the school year comes to a close, many of you finally have time to relax—no tests, no assignments, no presentations. Giving your brain a break after nine months of learning is important for your mental growth and development. But relaxing doesn’t have to mean being unproductive, and summer is the perfect time to build new skills. For some of you, this might include a part-time job, sports, or—hopefully—your Kung Fu training. You may think that focusing on Kung Fu is the opposite of relaxing, but with the right mindset, it can be exactly that. Letting your training reset and relax both your mind and body can help you recharge and return in September feeling stronger, more focused, and ready to go.

Kung Fu doesn’t just train your body–it trains your mind just as much. There’s a reason we begin every class with a brief period of meditation; having a clear head solely focused on the present is essential to relaxing your body and mind, and to making the most of your training. Controlled breathing, however, is not just limited to meditation, and can be used as a tool throughout class. For example, use your breathing to work deeper stretches and lower stances. As you direct your attention to your breathing, your mind and body soon shift to a more relaxed state, allowing higher levels of focus and discipline. Not only are you making your body stronger and more flexible, you’re also helping to relieve your mind from stress.

Slow activities such as stretching and stance work are excellent for relaxation, as are cardio-focused activities. While more physically demanding, these activities are beneficial to stress management, weight management, and quality of sleep–all of which are important to mental health. These are all long-term effects of cardio training which require dedication and consistency. To help achieve these long-term benefits, there is something called a ‘flow state,’ which is excellent for both your body and your mind. A flow state is a hyper-focused, relaxed state of mind that you can achieve when performing long-form cardio activities such as running, bag work, or continuous forms. In this “flow state”, you forget about distractions like your phone or school. You’re just there, moving, breathing, and reacting. Your body is under a lot of (good) strain, but your mind is quite relaxed. This helps to reduce stress and improve your mood, which can be felt rather quickly. Doing this regularly can drastically improve your mental well-being over time, while improving your physical health as well.

Continuing to train throughout the summer is not just beneficial to your progression through your rank. It’s equally, if not more, important for relaxing your mind from the previous months of intellectual work. Instead of lying on the couch munching on Doritos every day this summer, make the choice to relax in a healthier, more productive way through Kung Fu to get yourself ready for the road ahead.

The post It’s Summertime, Relax! But Not Really. appeared first on Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy.

by Sifu D’Arcy
Fu For You Summer 2025

Before we dive into the meat of this article, I have a question I’d like you to consider. Taking a look at your weekly physical training regime, how much of it is made up by your Kung Fu training? The calculation to do so would be something like: I exercise 10 hours per week (average), and 8 of those hours is Kung Fu, therefore Kung Fu makes up 80% of my training. Using that formula, you can find out exactly what percentage of your physical activity is devoted directly to martial arts. Without doing a formal survey of the student body, it’s probably safe to say that many students devote a large percentage of their physical exercise time to the practice of Kung Fu, and that’s great! There are, however, some very real benefits to devoting some portion of your time to the practice of cross-training.

First off, what exactly is cross-training? Simply put, it is the action or practice of engaging in two or more sports or types of exercise, with the goal of improving fitness or performance in your main sport, in this case Kung Fu. By adding in a variety of training methods alongside your normal training regime, you can realize gains in the form of cardio, strength and/or flexibility without the fear of overworking your body by overtraining in one format. As you climb through the ranks at the academy, the need to be in better overall shape to successfully complete gradings climbs at an exponential rate. If you only focus on the training we do at the academy, you’ll find that: 1) the training you do won’t be enough, especially when preparing for a grading, and 2) your body might wear down by doing the same activities over, and over again. Enter the concept of cross-training.

By adding additional forms of exercise, you can zero in on specific areas of your fitness that you are looking to improve. You can add a resistance training day to improve strength, making your push-ups stronger, your stances better, and your technique more powerful. Adding Yoga to your routine can improve your breath control, your flexibility and your balance. Running, biking, or swimming will enhance your cardio capacity allowing your body to power through those longer grading days, extending the time out before you hit that wall. Looking to get your kicks higher, or your splits lower? Add in some mobility/flexibility training and see the results isolated training can bring. The best part of this type of training is that you can do it anywhere, making use of the equipment you have around you.

Cross-training is a great way to improve your overall fitness and really allows you to target elements that may be missing from your Kung Fu training. Interested in learning a bit more about it? I’d be happy to chat, but the Internet is an incredible resource and has a ton of solutions.

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by Sifu Veronica Sas
Fu For You Summer 2025

Have you ever wondered what exactly your child was learning in class? You might have had a specific reason for signing your child up for Kung Fu such as for exercise or to learn how to defend themselves. Perhaps it was your child’s idea to join. Whatever the reason, Kung Fu is so much more than kicking and punching. At the Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy, your child will also learn: discipline, respect, responsibility, self-confidence, patience, resilience and perseverance. Over the next few articles, I will go more in-depth on each of these subjects. If you wish to learn more about how our classes are structured, I recommend reading Sifu Laurent’s article, What a Typical Kung-Fu Class Looks Like.

Discipline

Like most martial arts, instructors at the Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy expect a certain level of discipline from their students. The simplest example of this is when your child is expected to hold their closed stance without fidgeting. It is hard to stay in a stance without moving and by working on not fidgeting, we are teaching them how to have control over their own bodies. Instructors will often give out push ups if certain expectations are not met. This type of “punishment” is designed to make your child stronger. Push ups are hard, and the more push ups you do, the easier they get. Push ups might be given out if the class has low “spirit’. When an instructor wants more spirit, they want to see the class responding louder and moving places more quickly. This shows that the student is truly listening and wants to learn. Sometimes if the students are not verbally responding to a command, they could be given push ups or they could be made to do the command repeatedly. An example would be running from their spots in line, to the back wall and back again until they realize what they are missing. I’ve also seen discipline done in fun ways, where when a class was too noisy in the weight room, they were made to hold different stances. This made them concentrate on something other than talking with their friends.

Respect

Martial arts are known for demanding respect. One of the biggest ways to show that respect is by bowing. Your child will be expected to bow when entering and exiting the Kwoon. This shows respect to the space in which they will train. Your child will also be expected to be respectful to their fellow classmates and to their instructors. When your child works with another student, you’ll notice that they will bow both before they start and after they are done. This shows respect for your child’s classmate and thanks them for helping them train. Another way Kung Fu students show respect is by addressing instructors and brown sashes by their proper titles. This acknowledges the instructor’s knowledge and appreciation for passing on that knowledge.

Knowledge and respect are core beliefs at Waterloo Kung Fu and not to be taken lightly. They are principles instilled in and demanded from every student and instructor.

Read the entire Series:

1. What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 1: Discipline | Respect
2. What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 2: Responsibility | Self-Confidence
3. What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 3: Resilience & Perseverance | Patience

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“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

~ Jack Layton

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