Training under my
sifu
When
I first joined the Tien Loong Gung Fu club under GM Dino Salvatera, I had no
idea of what kind of training that took
place in this martial art club. There wasn't a formal setting like you
saw in typical Karate schools. Most of the students were Asian (mainly
Chinese) and the day I walked into the school their faces had the look of
"what is this white boy doing here?"
As
a kid, I was hard headed and liked to fight.
I was looking for something to give me an edge for those just in case
moments in life. Since I was raised in
San Francisco's Mission district I was already accustomed to doing what it took
to fit in since my neighborhood was mostly NON-WHITES. The day I met my Sifu I could tell he was
from the streets too. He was in his mid
30's and by the way he carried himself I could tell he'd been in a few fights. This was what I needed, a teacher who knew how
to fight that can teach me a real martial art.
On
the days i'd go to class, I recall my sifu heading out for Chinatown to train with
his sifu while he left the senior students to look after the class. It was
those seniors who started out new jacks like myself. At the time, I was only taught a few moves at
a time and expected to find a corner and practice them over and over until Sifu
decided to add on more to what i just learned.
As I look back on it, true traditional
training could seem a little boring to the average American. Sitting in static Horse stances until you can
barely hold yourself up while learning just a scant few techniques at a time is
enough for the impatient individuals to leave and find another school. But, I'm not a quitter and if my class mates
were doing it, then so was I. It was
then that i realized that boring basic training was also used to weed out weak
links. So, I stuck in there and the rest is history.
I
found my corner and practiced my few moves over and over again regardless of
how boring it got. I believe it was like 3-6 moves in about
3 months. The whole purpose was to teach you good training
habits and to teach you patience; not forgetting that its giving you a chance
to perfect those few moves. I completely
understood that if this was the process then just go with the flow.
The
usual method of learning under Grand Master Salvatera was to learn the
techniques and then practice them on your own, unless I was learning two-man
spar forms. One of the things my sifu constantly reminded me of was to
practice my techniques as if i were in a real street fight to get the proper
mindset over robotically repeating the moves without soul, passion, LIFE....whatever
you want to name it.
What
my Sifu taught at his school was serious self defense. Some of the things we put heavy emphasis on
wasn't proper for competition so we tried to stay away...eventually competition
drew us in and we changed our focus to deal with the sport side of things. In those days (80's) if you were a tough gung
fu student who'd been in fights or is known to be a fighter the outside martial
art community looked at you as if you were nothing more than a gangster. I mean, we trained for realistic street
combat, the true purpose of gung fu in the first place.
One
of the things sifu always taught us was gung fu was an individual experience
because everyone is different in so many ways.
He taught us to focus on what works best for us out of the Hung Sing
Choy Lee Fut style. He also told us to
choose about 5-6 favorite techniques and MASTER them. When it came to actual
combat, he encouraged us to perfect our basics because those are what we will
depend on in combat. He also taught us
that the combo's found in the form isn't set in stone. Yes, it was a guide, a blueprint so to speak,
but it wasn't the only possible application and that we should explore them in
depth first. This is how we came to OWN
our gung fu.
One mistake i made in my early days at the
Tien Loong Kwoon was asking how a technique was applied. I should have known better by the look on his
face when he said to me "kick me here." He used the move on me FULL BLAST sending me
to the floor screaming in pain. Needless
to say, I never asked again how to use a move, I just had to figure it out for
myself. the price I had to pay for being a newbie.
Since
i already knew how to fight as well as throw some kicks, I jumped into
the mix right away and started sparring. I knew I'd be an open target
for my Asian
classmates who wanted to try their gung fu out on the Bak Gwai. We also
didn't spar with gloves on because
they limited our techniques but it taught us to be more on our toes
because we
could black eye, lose a tooth, have your face busted open and so on. The
reason
why we sparred with no gloves was because we felt that each person had a
job to
do and if either one wasn't doing their job someone was going to get hit
or
even hurt.
When
i look back on this type of training, i can't help but smile. Because when my gung fu light bulb turned on,
everything my sifu taught me completely made sense. I saw things in a totally different light
than prior to the light bulb turning on for me.
Personally,
I feel that's a good way to practice. Sometimes you get a few bruises here
and there but out on the street it's way more violent and way less
predictable. Therefore, I've chose to
honor my sifu by teaching, transmitting and preserving it all to keep this great
legacy alive and well prepared for the next millenium.
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