Yang Laoshi talking about how to find correct posture in our Standing Postures

Yang Laoshi taking about the correct structure in Gao Bagua and how we use kicks to advance.

Evolution is Traditional

Ok, I already know that the title of this article has some of you crying and curling up in the corner in horror, and that's ok.  But for the rest of you that get all the way through this because you have solid critical thinking skills, I think I can make a solid point for this idea.  But I do what to make a disclaimer that I am NOT in any way insulting the traditional arts, just pointing out how things were always done, until recently that is.  So put on your big boy thinking caps and lets dive into this!

The title of the article sums it up.  Evolution and adaptation in the Chinese martial arts was the norm until this past century.  Then a combination of factors conspired to freeze the Chinese martial arts in place, but as many of you who are familiar with Taoist thought would know, change is the way of nature.  Standing still and never growing or changing is against the Tao.  There are many great examples of this idea, but for a solid starting point lets ask............Why are there so many styles of the same martial art?  Look at my art of Xingyi.  The historically verified founder is Ji Ji Ke, right?  So originally we had one unique style of martial arts that began in the 17th century.  But today, how many different branches and styles of Xingyi are there?  Off the top of my head there are- Sun, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Dai, Wudang............need I go on?  All of these branches sprang up within 300 years or so, pretty clearly showing that evolving arts were normal and accepted in old China, so why not now?

Another amazing example is Bagua.  Dong Hai Chuan created his art according to popular legend from a wide variety of arts that he knew before mixed with Taoist walking techniques.  Is that not evolution, or changing from one thing to something else?  To complicate matters more, he taught his art eight different ways to eight different disciples.  He wasn't a master of Shuai Chiao, but he changed Cheng Tinghua's original style and mixed it with the Bagua he was teaching at the time, and look how well that turned out!  By today's standards, if you aren't personally a master of a style, many traditional teachers would be horrified and personally insulted if you offered ideas for shaping that art, even if they were ideas that came from a style you had mastered.  See what I mean?  How was it ok in Old China to do this, but not now?  Even more change came when when Gao style bagua was created by Gao Yi Sheng and he added the 64 linear palms to Bagua.  I haven't ever heard that his teacher Cheng Ting Hua was upset because of that.  That probably comes back to the issue of "If you know and understand an art, you have the right to change it"  Don't get me wrong though, I am not saying the traditional arts need to be radically changed, but I will explain that later.  (Didn't want to give anyone a heart attack)  How many different styles of Bagua are there today?  Look at how much the original art has changed and been added to in 150 years!  How can anyone say that change wasn't natural for the Chinese masters?  Sun Lu Tang had no issues at all taking what he knew and creating his own Tai Chi style based off of his Bagua and Xingyi, and even those two original arts that come down from Sun are unique and different than many other branches.  So it can be said he created one art and altered two others.  Here is one last example in Praying Mantis.  According to the limited lore surrounding Praying Mantis that I know, it was derived from 18 different martial arts by a man named Wang Lang.  One of the popular myths is that his art came from his meeting with 17 other masters when they were invited to Shaolin to IMPROVE THE SHAOLIN ARTS!  If you don't believe me, check Wikipedia.  It is an accepted myth that Shaolin needed help improving their arts then, but why not now?  It seems very strange to me when I listen to people getting offended by thoughts of change and then hearing them proudly talk about the origins of their art which prove that other arts were changed in the creation process.  In any case, there is no way that Wang Lang was old enough to have mastered 18 different martial arts by the time he created Praying Mantis.  If we go with the common understanding that it takes 5 years to learn all of the physical material in a style (not master it) and multiply that by 18, Wang Lang would have finished learning all the arts when he was 90 if he started the day he was born.  I just thought that was a funny idea when I realized it.

In my limited understanding, the halt of progress that we see in CMA started mostly when the arts came to America.  I'm not sure why that is, but for some reason the teachers refuse to accept the idea that arts must grow and change over time.  We see in old China that the masters didn't believe that there was an ultimate art, since they would take what they knew and change it.  And two generations later, someone would add to it or change it again.  This has been the standard practice in CMA since it first began.  Again I would like to say that I am not in any way insulting traditional arts, but the stubborn refusal or modern teachers to change anything, including their way of thinking about the world, simply means that their arts will be gone within a generation or two.  One argument against this article would be that those men who created the original arts were genius.  I can easily accept that, but people didn't stop being smart 50 years ago!  There are many brilliant minds that practice martial arts today.  I personally have two doctors, a pharmacist, a toxicologist and several police officers in my student group.  They are very smart and driven people and their clear understanding of how the body works (The doctors, not the police) have really helped me understand WHY our practices work, looking at it from a western understanding.  This is getting to the point I am trying to make.

 The Chinese masters had a FUNCTIONAL understanding of their arts, and a very good understanding at that.  But they couldn't explain the exact processes involved or just what happened in the body when these practices were used.  That is not an insult in any way, I'm just saying that no one view of things is ever totally accurate.  Here is a great example.  Many of us practice Iron Palm and the other practices for various body parts to harden the bones.  The Chinese masters knew this worked and laid out training programs to achieve it.  But what they didn't know is that the process of hardening happened in a specific way.  When we start to create low amounts of stress on a body part through continued impact, the body cells called osteoblasts are released.  They create a type of collagen in the stressed area and then turn that collagen into bone.  There is another type of cell called osteoclasts that are responsible for removing dead bone cells.  The mechanism of bone hardening comes when more osteoblasts are released than osteoclasts, see?  The bones will constantly be growing.  This offers a different view of traditional Iron Palm in that the stimulation of osteoblasts requires a low grade of stress up front, striking the bag harder in the beginning doesn't cause more osteoblasts, it would increase the removal of dead bone since harder strikes in the beginning do more damage to bone then anything.  I hope I haven't lost anyone.  But to get the bones hardening, use lighter strikes for the first few months THEN start hitting a bit harder.  This is an example of what I hope to accomplish here.  To show that the old masters were in fact correct, but also to use modern understanding to refine and fully understand what we do.  See?  That wasn't such a horrible point, was it?  Reconciling Eastern functional knowledge with Western understanding would be a great way that our arts can change, since we saw in my example that a better understanding will change details of how we practice.

Over time this full understanding of how the body works and grows will naturally lead to our arts evolving and growing, but that is a wonderful thing.  Many teachers now incorporate Yoga into their training programs since it helps the body move better.  That is an evolution in and of itself, and I think a good one at that.  I am not attacking anyone's view of martial arts here, just illustrating history and pointing out that if we want to call ourselves traditional martial artists, we should take a look back in time and see that our martial ancestors had no problem with change and growth.  As those changes lasted a few generations, they became what we call traditional.  Remember, at one time, all our arts were considered mixed martial arts by the people witnessing their growth!

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Americans are so lazy

"The reason Kung Fu isn't growing in the US anymore is because Americans are lazy".  This is the mantra of most Traditional CMA teachers whose schools aren't growing.  Its the easiest way to explain the stagnation of CMA, right?  Nope, its not.  Lets go over some facts and look at why these schools aren't growing at the rate they should be.

First (and most importantly), Americans aren't lazy at all.  In fact many studies have shown that Americans work more and take fewer holidays than most other countries in the world.  Americans are also fanatical when they find a thing they are passionate about, we tend to over do whatever our focus is.  We spend more on participating in sports and building parks and playing fields than any other country as well.   Our children start playing sports competitively at a younger age than most nations, and a big chunk of school budgets are spent on sports teams.  America has more gym's and personal trainers than most other countries as well.  If you look at the average TKD or modern martial arts school in the US, their membership numbers are very high, usually 150-200 students that come at least once a week.  When we look at all these factors, we see that Americans are very passionate about recreational activities, so that in and of itself proves that we aren't lazy as a group.  The being more overweight fact actually strengthens this fact.  If all Americans were in perfect shape, then much more money and time would be spent on recreation!

Secondly, the lazy comment is normally made by teachers with few students as their excuse for not growing. But why would anyone in their right mind want to train with an American teacher who insults other Americans??  Nobody would unless they were trying to find a group that gave them the feeling of mental superiority over others.  As in 'I'm a Kung Fu person and we work harder than anyone else'  That is actually a common thing since humans constantly try to differentiate themselves from others to prove their worth (ask a shrink if you don't believe me).  The phrase "McDonald's Mentality" is used in a derogatory way as well describing the Western desire for quick results, or because they have a specific goal for training and many aren't interested in doing only what the teacher wishes.  Again, who would pay money to be insulted?  What does it say about a teacher who insults his own culture?  This type of  teacher usually doesn't understand that small gains that come quickly are the best way to motivate students to come to class more often and to practice harder at home.  We should show new students simple exercises that are quickly beneficial to excite the student, not cut them down because they want results and aren't interested in following a plan that isn't clearly laid out for progress.

I think teachers who say this are usually the sole party responsible for their school's condition.  We should take several things into consideration when talking about this to get a better understanding of why they are having trouble.  The biggest hurdle for CMA teachers is that Chinese martial arts come from a culture steeped in Confucian ideals and Eastern philosophy and now we are trying to spread in a society that is based off of Western ideals which are the complete opposite.  Its crazy to get upset because an American doesn't come in with the understanding that is needed for success in CMA.  Many teachers think that as soon as a student walks through the door, they should just start obeying without question everything the teacher says, but that is contrary to the Western mindset.  Americans love to ask "Why", and any teacher who wants to be successful in America would be wise to understand that and be prepared.  I'm not saying that Eastern thinking is wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but I am saying that if you want to take people off the street and turn them into good students, you MUST understand how Americans think and introduce Eastern concepts slowly and in digestible amounts.  Lets think for a second.  If you were that new student and had no idea about CMA or the code of behavior required in a CMA school, you would be confused and maybe even uncomfortable if you are exposed to everything at once.  Think about the Sun Toi or school altar.  An American would have no idea why that was there, since Westerners don't have altars outside of church.  Don't you think that might be something they are uncomfortable about at first?  Or that maybe that is the reason some Americans tie religion and Kung Fu together and avoid it?  There are lots of examples, but if you really want your school to grow, you will sit down and think about what new students have to be feeling or thinking when they come through your doors.

We should also be explaining things at first in a way that Americans can understand.  A great example is "Qi".  The notion of life energy is just now starting to take hold in the Western world and many prospective students would scoff at that idea still.  But a VERY basic idea of "Qi" can be given by teaching the student that the meridians follow the same path as nerves, and that the old Chinese drawings of pressure points are in fact nerve centers.  Even the dimmest student knows that energy runs along our nerves, so the idea of "Qi" suddenly becomes more palatable and easier to accept, right?  Of course that isn't the full theory of energy work, but its an introduction that students can easily understand and the teacher can use that base to introduce more foreign terms and ideas about "Qi" without confusing the student.  See how using terms and words that are directed at the students understanding can make harder concepts easier to understand?  Stance work is another pill that is hard for Americans to swallow.  Most won't understand the point of sitting in horse stance for long periods of time, and there is nothing wrong with that initial way of thinking.  Its the teacher's job to show how stances build strength.  One way to teach it is to push the student on the first lesson, and when they complain about sore muscles at the second lesson, give them a pat on the back for working so hard and point out that their legs are already getting stronger.  Show them how great of an exercise stances are!  That is one thing Americans understand, the need for exercise.  So use that term!  Or show them a student who has been only training a few months and demonstrate how strong his legs are now.  Demonstrate how powerful it will make their kicks.  Anything along these lines is better than a teacher ordering the student to keep doing it without any explanation of why they need it.

Again  I would like to point out that I'm not challenging the old ways of doing things.  But I am saying if you want to mold a person off the street into a dedicated student, you have to make the changes gradually, not full throttle.  Introduce new ideas slowly at first and the understanding will start to snowball and become more complete very quickly.  The reason that TKD schools have so many more students?  Because they know how to teach to Americans.  The same goes for modern martial art groups like the East-West schools, they understand how Americans think and start there.  You might look down on their style (and I'm almost positive that if you think Americans are lazy that you think you are better than TKD) but their results speak for themselves and their schools are growing while yours isn't.  I also think that teachers who say that are usually the least traveled.  I have been lucky enough to travel to many different countries and what I have learned is that people are the same the world over.  They want the same things and they are willing to work hard to get it.  So stop insulting a whole culture just because you aren't happy with your school size, because after all, your school is the product of your efforts, not anyone else's.

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What is the truth?

What is the Truth?

Like many people know, I get a deep, perverse pleasure in asking the question "Why?" In that one word is the stumbling block for most belief systems and methods of practice.  I know it's not mature of me, but sometimes I can't help myself when someone starts to talk about something that is outlandish or not based in reality.  I also understand that my love of that question can make me come across very poorly to some people, especially those who I question.  I come across very brash and judgemental, but most of the time I just don't care enough to explain what I mean on a deep level (I know that sounds terrible)  But maybe I can shed some light on my personal views and the reasons for them here.
I would like to start by sharing a little about my martial journey that I haven't shared before.  Several years ago I felt totally lost and had no idea where to go as far as the direction of my training.  I have been lucky enough to meet and train with several amazing masters of Xingyi, but not one of them shared the same beliefs on training or what Xingyi was actually for.  Each master held a different origin story to be true, each one believed that the art evolved differently, and each saw a different goal for high level practitioners.  So while I was lucky to train with them, this left me deeply confused at the same time.  Where did Xingyi come from?  What was its original purpose? What is high level?  So after a lot of soul searching and coming very close to quitting due to frustration, I decided to use the tools at my disposal and proven methods to see what I could learn about my favorite martial art.  Since I'm not the most learned person I was left with simple yet irrefutable techniques.  I decided to base my research off of the scientific method of hypothosis, experimentation and conclusion, the technique of "Occams' Razor" as well as a method from our legal system, namely "Its not what you know, its what you can prove" Now obviously that is a quote from a movie, but its sums up very well how we as Westerners fuction and understand things.  And that is the only way I will ever understand things, no one can honestly say that they completely think and understand another culture without having lived in it for many years, so I would have to make do.
So having said this, nothing I say in this article is meant to insult or degrade anyone's personal beliefs, but I am simply putting out the plain facts about Xingyi that can be proven easily.  I will speak in general terms, but please don't take that as an attack, its not meant to be.  But really, if  writing about my research bothers people, they are forgetting a great quote from Aristotle "The mark of a great mind is being able to entertain an idea without accepting it"  So I hope that I get the chance to share this with many great minds in the hopes of starting a positive discussion.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, lets speak honestly and bluntly.  Xingyi is an amazing art with a world full of potential, but it's dying.  There is no sugar coating it, it's simply true.  I believe the reason for this is that Xingyi teachers are so far scattered and when we meet most of the time we can't agree on simple practices. How can we ever work as a whole to propegate our art?  We can't.  There must be a core of common knowledge and understanding for Xingyi practitioners so we can present a united front to the world.  We all must work together in the future, the old method of the wandering teacher doesn't work on a global scale.  Often times in the past it was only effective in a single province, not even across the whole of China, so how can it work across the world?
Where to start?  For me, that was easy.  I wanted to learn the most logical and provable origins of Xingyi.  Common myth is that General Yue Fei created Xingyi for his troops as well as creating Eagle Claw.  This is a fun and romantic idea, but that is all that it is.  There is sufficient proof that Yue Fei was a great general, but there is no written proof that he had anything to do with Xingyi.  Remember, we are using a proof based system of understanding here, if its not recorded, we can't use it.  I already know the arguements of some, that oral traditional is just as valid.  No its not.  We often play a childrens game in America that a group of children will sit in a line and the first child will whisper a story to the second, the second repeats it to the third, and so on.  The fun part is when the last child stands up and repeats the story, it is drastically different than the original story told by the first!  The same concept is true for adults, they are just able to hold onto a story for longer before it starts to change.  So writing has to be the way to go, that way a group can read the same words at the same time.
The first recorded Xingyi master was Ji Ji Ke, the spelling may differ from group to group, but we all know who I'm talking about.  He was a famous spear master apparently and based his empty hand techniques off of the spear movements.  This is very effective, since the practitioner would only have to learn one set of movements, not two.  It also cuts down on the training time for proficiency, since half the number of techniques are learned.  Many people claim that Xingyi was a battlefield art, but this isn't supported by historical records.  I feel that the Chinese were amazing record keepers, and we still have many of their writings from ancient times, especially concerning wars and martial tactics.  I personally believe that it wasn't begun as a battlefield art, but as a personal combat art.  I very rarely see people acknowledge that personal combat and duels at that time were usually armed fights.  Professional fighters roamed with their weapon of choice.  This same practice was very common in Japan at the time, why is it so hard to believe Chinese martial artists would do the same?  I see that Ji Ji Ke simplified spear techniques to their purest form which is the reason for the direct and linear nature of Xingyi, no wasted movement.
The next question is "What was considered good Xingyi 200 years ago?"  Often in the modern age, a person's speed or fancy movements are what elevate their skill in the public eye.  Is that the same criteria that was used during the peak of Xingyi?  Not at all.  Xingyi skill level was determind by fighting or competing, a concept that is lost on most modern masters of Xingyi.  They claim that their art is too deadly to spar with.  Really?  Navy Seals spar with their combat. Marine Force Recon uses training drills with live ammo.  Army Rangers practice sentry elimination techniques on live opponents.  Is your Pi Chuan really more deadly than anything the Seals, Force Recon or Rangers have?  I doubt it.  Usually this is the claim of a teacher who deep down knows that they aren't ready to fight or isn't used to the stress of combat, so they give reasons to avoid conflict.  They are usually the first to start throwing personal insults in many situations.  Sadly they continue to talk about their 'traditional' methods after they have declined a fight.  This is completely the opposite of what was true in the golden age of CMA.  You fought to win, to keep your school open, or the challenger chased you out of town.  I am not advocating death matches or illegal fighting, but if we wish to tell people that we are masters of a fighting art, how can we run away from a fight?  There are even ways to show skill without fighting such as sparring or application drills.  Its easy to see if a teacher has a fighting heart through these.
The hallmark of good Xingyi used to be effectiveness.  We used simple techniques, few forms and very little of the "Qi Gong" work that is so prevalent today.  I like the expression that Xingyi is "ugly but it works."  Xingyi fighters were bodyguards and convoy escorts after only a couple years of training.  For some reason today we think that Xingyi must be trained for 20 years to yield an effective fighter but this is a recent turn of beliefs, not supported by history.  Where today many new students are taught in their first lesson about "Qi" and circulating it and how to refine their power, the older generations learned how to build strong legs and raw power.    After all, how can you refine power without first having raw power to refine?
Many teachers point back to Sun Lu Tang and his fantastic books on Xingyi and Tai Chi as the reason for the focus on energy work.  But I would counter that those books were meant to be reference material for people who already knew a martial art or practiced Xingyi.  While in his book he talks about lots of energy work, if you read the written accounts about Sun Lu Tang from his daughter, he personally practiced and taught his students much differently in the beginning.  In one story she talks about how her father would go to visit his friends Bagua school and would constantly yell  "Lower!  Faster!"  at the students who were walking the circle.  This is completely counter to his books, so we have to logically assume that he taught hard work in the beginning then energy work later.  I also know that some of you will question my using her words as proof, but written first hand accounts that are backed up with references of other people there at the time are allowed in our courtrooms, so they are allowed here.
I feel that so many teachers have tried to skip the hard physical work of martial arts and move straight into energy work, that it has almost become taboo to talk about building a strong Kung Fu body in IMA circles.  This is not a judgement of those teachers, like most humans they want the good stuff up front, the dessert before dinner.  But if we keep that analogy, in Kung Fu if you don't eat dinner first you don't have the ability to taste or digest dessert after.  Understand?  If you don't have a strong, flexible body there is no way that you can really feel the energy flowing through it and learn how to control that energy.  Think about the myth of the origins of Shaolin Kung Fu for another example of this idea.  Monks who didn't have strong bodies were constantly sick and weak, including their meditation and energy work.  If you ask most of the masters of the internal arts from China, they will tell you that their youth was spent training until they collapsed everyday, about how hard they trained.  Do they ever brag about never breaking a sweat while training?  Even masters from Chen village?  No, they don't.  So we can see that historically the Internal Arts were built off a solid foundation of hard work and training until the early part of the 20th century.  If you aren't sure, look at the writings from before then.  "Qi" and energy is mentioned, but not at the same rate or the same intensity as today.  There is a clear difference.
As for the 3rd question "What is High Level?", I really don't know the answer yet.  I haven't reached that level, but I am smart enough and educated enough to know what isn't part of high level.  Mystical words or ethereal topics weren't ever part of the study during the Golden Age of Xingyi, and they should be reserved for very high level practice now.  My Bagua teacher has a great saying that I think should apply to Xingyi as well, "My Bagua isn't a key to get to heaven"  I think that is totally true. If we try to take a combat art and devote it totally to spiritual development, we are losing sight of the original reason for the fighting art, and also at the same time not progressing down the spiritual path since Xingyi wasn't ever designed to help further that type of training.  I think that high level might just be the ability to know our own bodies and having the skill to help others do the same, I'll let you know for sure when I get to that level.  While I believe in the existence of "Qi" we won't address it here since it is an unproven topic.  Each master has a different belief on what "Qi" is and how to train it, I think that means that we should not try to base our understanding and common ground on energy, but we should use the simple, basic training to find common ground.
What I put here is just a light treatment of my past few years of study and practice.  It is looking at what can be proven and shown, not based off student memories of their teachers.  Any good student will say wonderful things about their teacher and how great their skill was, so we can't rely on that to further our understanding.  I have looked at all the historical references that I can, talked to educated people and most importantly I have crossed hands with many people trying to learn.  I have kept an open mind to being proven wrong since I knew I was lacking knowledge when I started looking.  If I am wrong in any historical reference, please point me to the record that proves me wrong so I can retract my incorrect statement.

Give your Kung Fu away

Why you should teach for free..........

I would like to start this by sharing a late realization of mine and how I saw that I was standing by and doing nothing for a cause I really cared about.  I have had many friends and girlfriends that have been the victim of abuse or violence.  I was starting to think that it was me that was attracting them until I looked at the statistics and saw just how common these horrible things occur.  Each time I saw the emotional and physical scars that violence had left, I nearly lost my mind in anger because this was someone I cared about, but I couldn't do anything to help them.  The person who committed these acts was walking free, probably doing the same thing to another person, and I had to watch the aftermath or deal with the emotional barriers left.  This has been a tender subject for me, I tend to be a very righteous and just person (even though I come across as crazy and a heretic sometimes).  Even now I feel myself getting upset because I am thinking about my wife who was the victim of terrible violence by a coward...............he is free and laughing and I have to be careful how she and I wrestle and play so she doesn't break down into tears in fright.

And I know that 99% of all men share my anger towards abusers.  But do we do anything about it?  I have been thinking about how I want to change the world lately and I knew it had something to do with martial arts since that is what I know best and can teach easily.  But as I looked at my school composition, I was horribly ashamed to realize something.  I have a solid student base.............but NONE of them are people who have suffered abuse.  Due to my views on training and how intense I like to practice, ALL of my students are police or military in background or are martial artists at heart.  They are all people who are committed to training hard and eating bitter to become better martial artists and fighters.  That is the school I have built out of my comfort zone, but I completely ignored the people who needed martial arts the most!  I charge a large amount for private lessons and have lots of classes a week, but have I done anything lately that victims can likely participate in???  Sadly, no, I haven't.

As I thought about this, I remembered all the stock reasons I used to tell people how martial arts could improve their lives, through greater self confidence, better health, etc, etc.  The same thing that I know most of the teachers who read this say to their new students.  But have we looked at how much MORE important these things are for people who have been hurt?  How important a shot of self esteem and confidence could be in changing their lives and letting them move on?  That they might start to feel comfortable in their own skin again and be able to have normal relationships and relax in public?

I think the more you think about this topic you will agree with me.  We need to offer self defense classes for free to women and teens.  I am not talking about anything crazy or a lifetime commitment.  But I would challenge all the teachers who care about their students and communities to offer at least one seminar in the next 3 months to the community free of charge.  Call every church and social group you know and let them know what is happening.  Talk to leaders of support groups and social workers.  I think if you make 1 phone call a day sharing what is being offered, you will be amazed at the response you get. I felt so bad when I saw how I had let people in need down that I made a commitment that I will be doing this every month for 1 year, I already have my location and network lined up to share the details.   If you are one of the amazing teachers out there who already do this, I give you my utmost respect and appreciation for your help.  And if you can join me in this challenge, I won't be able to express how much I appreciate your support.  I hope you chose to join me.  Either way, please keep your family safe and share what you know with the people who need it most.

My Fake Teacher

A lot of martial artists would be ashamed if they found out that their teacher was fake and learned completely from videos.  Well, not me!  I chose to take it and be proud that I was caught by a scammer.  You might ask why, and I think I have a great answer that might benefit new students as they look for a teacher.  But first let me share my experience in depth and how many martial artists have reacted when they found out.

When I was 18 years old I was fresh out of high school, I finished wrestling and I wanted to try my hand at martial arts.  It had always been a dream of mine and I loved watching the old Kung Fu movies on TV, so I did what any young man would do...I ran down to the first kung fu school I saw that advertised Shaolin Kung Fu!  But when I first walked in I should have seen the truth.  This school was extremely run down and hidden away in the basement of a tiny office building in a part of town that wasn't the nicest.  But I saw all the weapons and training gear and I was hooked.  I spoke to the "Sifu" and completely swallowed his line of BS without thinking.  He told me so many amazing things about himself and his training at all of the martial arts temples in China, how famous his masters were, how many different styles he had mastered and all the famous people he knew from training.  Now that I'm more mature, I would fall down laughing at the same story if I heard it today, but I was young and fresh off the farm, so I didn't know any better.  He showed me a list of all the styles he knew, and they ranged from Muay Thai to all different styles of Kung Fu to secret family styles of Ninjutsu.  He showed me demo tapes of the styles, and Xingyi immediately caught my eye.  I had never heard of that style before, but I knew when I saw it that I wanted to master it.  But Xingyi was a privately taught style, so I had to either pay for a year of private lessons up front or become a formal disciple right then to be taught my chosen style.  Both were VERY expensive, the private lessons costing 2,000 a year and becoming a disciple was 5,000 dollars for a lifetime of training.  I chose the private lessons and began to train.

At first the lessons were great.  He taught me personally even though he rarely taught his group classes, he had mid-level students usually teach for him.  I got all the attention I wanted and was almost force fed material and pushed very hard during training.  I loved every minute of it.  I would watch the other students in their classes and I felt so arrogant and proud that I was learning faster and training harder than them.  I progressed quickly in Xingyi, partially because I trained so hard and had a background in combat arts from wrestling and partially because I was only learning forms and techniques and the standard to gain a level was very low.  Only memorization was required, not any degree of skill.  After 6 years I became a black belt in Xingyi and I tought I had learned so much!  I had also gained rank in several other styles of Kung Fu as well, a red sash in Hung Gar and a blue sash in Northern Shaolin.  I was the instructor of the demo team and taught other classes as well.   Overall I was very happy with what I had learned.  But as I started my family I began to examine everything in my life and several things started to bother me about my training.

A big problem for me was that I had never seen proof of any of my teachers claims about ANYTHING.  Not a single picture taken overseas, not a single video or trophy from any of the tournaments he had won, never had any of his martial family come to visit.  NOTHING.  It started raising other questions as well.  He would give out videos to refine what he had just taught, but they weren't of the teachers he claimed he learned from.  In fact many times he would incorrectly identify WHO was on the tape.  When I was younger I simply thought he was mixing names up, since he knew so many people and trained with so many great teachers.  Then I started to compare his claims and the years he said they had happened.  In 1982 he had already opened the school I was training in, but somehow managed to spend months at the Wudang Temple, practice with Jet Li and be a private student of Grandmaster Hatsumi, the leader of the Bujinkan (Ninja school), all while being a competitive Muay Thai fighter in Thailand.  Now I wasn't a complete sucker, he didn't tell me all this at once, he told me these lies over years, never stopping to think if he had said something else that would conflict.  But I have a fantastic memory and I was impressed by the stories, so I remembered them all.  I watched his group students and saw that most of the time they would take a video tape of the level requirements and learn a WHOLE level off of them, with barely any instruction from a teacher.  And there weren't just a couple students there, for many years he had between 80 and 100 students!!!  We all bought into the myth and supported each other in it like cult members do.  I was initially complimented when he asked me to teach his demo team, his reason being that I was a good teacher and always pushed for technical perfection.  But the HUGE point he glossed over was that I had NEVER competed in a forms tournament!  I had only visited a few, since I watched them and laughed because I felt they were just dance competitions.  Remember I had been recently medically discharged from the Marines and a nationally competitive wrestler, so I knew what combat was like and it can't be seen at most tournaments.  I began to see how my teacher would forget basics of each style, maybe not a movement, but the name or association.  Sometimes he forgot the connections of the 5 basic movements of Xingyi and their corresponding element.  And these are only some of the things that I saw that weren't right.

Eventually I posted some of his videos on Youtube and I was contacted by a local Northern Shaolin teacher who told me in polite but direct terms that my teacher was a fake.  He offered to prove it if I came to meet him and he would work on my Northern Shaolin material and show me how it was supposed to be done.  I accepted and was completely ashamed when he easily showed how I had been mislead.  He showed my the videos that the forms had been stolen from, and it stung because I had seen those same videos in my teachers office but never watched them.  This new teacher became a good friend and helped me to learn a lot of where I had gone wrong.  As I looked online more and more, I found other videos of teachers that had gone to my old school and challenged my former teacher and his claims, and I watched my old master almost run in fear from the challengers.  My new friend who was teaching me Northern Shaolin even went and spoke to my teacher behind closed doors when I was there and called him out.  At the time I was so hurt and confused, I almost quit martial arts all together.  But martial arts were such a massive part of my life that I couldn't walk away.  So I resolved to find the right teachers to correct my Xingyi and never again be caught by a liar.  I traveled to Wudang Mt in China to train, I thought that if I started in China I would be able to know what to look for in the States.  When I came home I continued my search and was able to train with some of the best Internal teachers in the US since I was willing to travel however far for lessons.  It took several years of hard work and LOTS of travel, but I finally got my horrible initial instruction corrected and I wound up ahead of where I would have been, since I was exposed to so much great teaching.  But for all the knowledge I have gained, many teachers today recoil when they learn about it.  I have had it thrown at me that I must be fake because my first teacher was.  Or that I can't have any skill because of he had none.  Other say I shouldn't teach because he had influenced my understanding and I could never correct what he taught me.  Some teachers have told me to hide it since any bad perception is unacceptable.  Many have offered creative ways of lying about my past so I can look better on paper.  But in the end its just different ways to lie and I don't want to be like my teacher and build a career off lies.

Now comes the part where I share WHY I am proud of falling for lies but I would like to share first some of the warning signs in the hopes that this might prevent another student from being taken advantage of.  First, ALWAYS research a teacher before you give them money.  If they make a claim, learn if it is true or false immediately.  If they claim to have trained with a famous teacher, write or call that teacher and ask if its true. There is nothing rude or wrong about checking these things and if a teacher is insulted or gets upset, that is another bad sign.  If the teacher has a massive video collection and has a TV anywhere on the training floor, be careful!  There shouldn't be a TV out there, any video review should be done at home or in his office.  Watch how the teacher interacts with the students, if he is arrogant and aloof, it usually that means he is trying to prove something.  But if he is calm and relaxed it usually means he is confident and has nothing to hide or prove.  If the teacher fails to train with his students or even teach them personally that is a VERY bad sign.  I can understand if he is busy with another class or a meeting, but to sit and watch a student who has only been training for a year teach his new students is bad!  A good teacher trains with his students to show them how to do things correctly and the right intensity, he doesn't just shout orders.  Many famous MMA fighters still train along with new students to bond with them and show them how hard the new student should train. In the Marines, the Drill Instructors have a saying "I will never ask you to do something that I am not capable of doing along with you".  I hate to put it that way, but there are so many fake teachers in the world that are only interested in getting your hard earned money, you should be very suspicious of a teacher at first until you make your decision.  Masters should be open and friendly with prospective students, sharing and answering any questions easily and without having to think or change topic.

So my reason for being proud?  First off I know I trained like a maniac, even under false instruction.  I know that the skills I learned from him actually worked in real fights, at the time I was training with him I had a job as a bouncer at a nightclub and my knowledge came in handy many times.  I made great friends with some of the other students and I still talk to them to this day.  But mostly I am proud because learning that I had been lied to started an amazing kung fu journey that took me places I never would have gone if I didn't learn the truth.  I got to see so much more of the world, train with some of the best teachers and my understanding of my arts grew so much because of it.  I can honestly say for the most part I have "Been there and done that".  Of course I am a bit harsh on other teachers and their claims at times if I'm not careful because I ask for solid proof or a logical explaination, but for the most part I am a much wiser student of the arts now.  I actually wish I could thank my old Sifu for how my training and skills have turned out because of his actions.

There are many more ways to find out if your teacher is legit or not, and just because he doesn't meet the standards I am laying out here doesn't mean for a second he is fake.  That is a very serious charge to lay against a martial arts teacher and if said can wreck his school and ability to care for his family.  Be careful of who you train with and give your time and devotion to and trust that if he proves to be real, your hard work will pay off in spades.  Best of luck and I hope you enjoyed reading this!  Now get back to training!