Kung Fu
Congratulations To Fellow Martial Artist, Robert Downey Jr.!
Fellow Martial Artist, Robert Downey Jr. won a Golden Globe Award 2010 for the best comic actor for Sherlock Holmes!
The actor credits the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun kung fu, which he started to train about seven years ago, for giving him the strength to overcome his addictions.
Hey, Robert, Wing Chun looks good on you.
Congratulations from TheMartialArtsReporter.com!
Wing Chun: Chi Sao, Also Known As Sticky Hands
As most of you know, before developing Jeet Kune Do (Way of the intercepting fist) Bruce Lee started his martial arts training in Hong Kong under the highly acclaimed kung fu instructor, Ip Man, in the style of Wing Chun, as described in “Introducing Wing Chun“.
One exercise that you practice to improve your sensitivity, reflexes and the way you absorb and send back offensive energy is known as Chi Sao or sticky hands.
When I was training in Wing Chun years ago, Chi Sao was referred to as ‘thinking without thinking’.
Perfecting Chi Sao will help you become a well-rounded fighter.
I will also tell you from my personal experience that for a beginner and even at an intermediate level it can be one of the most frustrating martial arts training experiences. When you think you got, you don’t!
Chi Sao does not replace sparring and fighting. It simply complements these disciplines and what I have noticed is that the best Wing Chun practitioners are all really good at Chi Sao.
There is a saying in Wing Chun, “Stay with what comes, follow as it retreats, thrust forward as the hand is freed.”
Hope you enjoy every second of the video. The lines are open for your comments 24/7.
Bruce Lee One-On-One With Kareem Abdul Jabbar
If you’re into any style of martial art that involves high kicks every now and then such as taekwondo, karate, kung fu, muay thai, savate, kick-boxing and others, you have probably encountered the challenge of executing the perfect high kick.
Let’s say you’re 5’10″ and you nail a kick at your opponent’s temple who happens to be 6’1″.
Who wouldn’t consider that to be quite a feat?!
Bruce Lee was able to take similar challenges to unchartered heights.
According to a number of reports, Bruce Lee was 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall.
So, normally in our equation it would be pretty good to execute a high roundhouse kick or similar to the head of an opponent who was around 6 feet tall, right?
That wasn’t good enough for Bruce Lee. He picked an opponent for his movie “Game of Death”, who was 18 1/2 inches taller.
His opponent’s name was Kareem Abdul Jabbar who at the time was a NBA star still playing for the Milwaukee Bucks and measured 7 feet 2 inches in height.
As we know a picture can say more than a thousand words.
So let’s just enjoy 5 minutes of a martial arts movie classic with Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul Jabbar in “Game of Death”.
Thanksgiving Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com
I Hope You Enjoy Thanksgiving Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com And A Quote I Really Like!
Sifu Eddie Camden, The Instructor Recommended By Martial Arts Legends
Martial Artists And The Day After Thanksgiving, Aka Black Friday
Happy Thanksgiving 2009 From TheMartialArtsReporter.com
Peaceful Warrior Wisdom For Martial Artists (And Others, Too)
Urijah Faber, The California Kid Of World Extreme Cagefighting
Jet Li, From Humble Beginnings To Action/Martial Arts Movie Superstar
This week’s quote for readers of TheMartialArtsReporter.com:
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but the number of moments that take our breath away. ” Unkown
Jet Li, From Humble Beginnings To Action/Martial Arts Movie Superstar
Are your ready for some action?
Among all the remarkable action/martial arts movie stars over the last 20 years or so, several of them truly stand out such as Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, probably Jean-Claude Van Damme.
(Maybe you have your own favorites that haven’t been mentioned here. Let me know by sending in your comments.)
There are movie performers most people remember and who are quite frankly household names.
One such martial artist and movie performer I am always impressed with is Li Lianjie.
“Who the heck is that?”, you ask.
I admit I also only knew him by his stage name, Jet Li.
For many years, Jet Li has worked extremely hard to get where he is now in his career.
And obviously his hard work and determination have paid off for him and his family.
Especially if you consider that his mother had to somehow pull him, his bother and two sisters through as a widow in Beijing during the Sixties.
As a teenager, Jet Li rigorously trained in Wushu for several years, winning countless titles and national gold medals.
Jet Li became a member of the high-acclaimed national Wushu team that even performed for then-U.S. President Nixon in the United States.
In those days it was an extraordinary honor and opportunity for Chinese to be able to travel overseas and even more so to perform in front of “the leader of the free world”. Jet Li was still just a teenager at the time!
His abilities and achievements as a Wushu forms practitioner paved the way for Jet Li’s acting in martial arts movies that started in China, then Hong Kong and ultimately the United States. He has become a global superstar throughout the years.
You might have seen him in some of his movies such as:
Shaolin Temple
Once Upon A Time In China
Lethal Weapon 4 (This was the first time I had ever seen Jet Li and I was impressed!)
Romeo Must Die
Hero
Cradle 2 The Grave
Fearless
War (with Jason Statham)
The Forbidden Kingdom (with fellow superstar Jackie Chan)
I have learned that Jet Li is a cast member along with Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Staham, Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in “The Expendables” which is scheduled to be released in 2010. More on that at a later date.
But there is also another side to Jet Li such as his charitable activities, notably after his near-death experience in 2004 in the Maldives during a tsunami.
Reportedly, Jet Li’s “The One Foundation” supports international disaster relief efforts with the Red Cross and other efforts, such as recovery in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Jet Li continues to impress on and off the big screen.
Here he is at age 14 performing Wushu form for his first championship:
And who doesn’t remember Jet Li as the bad guy in Lethal Weapon 4?
Cynthia Rothrock, “The Queen Of Martial Arts Films”
In a recent post just several days ago I referred to Gina Carano as “The Face Of Women’s MMA”.
Today I would like to introduce Cynthia Rockroth, “The Queen Of Martial Arts Films”.
She was once quoted, “throughout my life, I’ve been opening the door for other women to get involved with martial arts films. I was the first woman to be on the cover of a karate magazine and the first woman to win a men’s championship.”
Quite an accomplishment!
I myself became aware of Cynthia Rothrock while flipping through a martial arts publication, I guess it was Black Belt Magazine, probably in the very early 80s when she was on the West coast demo team.
Between 1981 and 1985 Cynthia Rothrock was a five-time (and undefeated) World Karate Champion in forms and weapons.
Remarkably, these categories were open to both male and females at the time.
She currently holds an astonishing five Black belts in numerous Far Eastern martial art styles such as Tang Soo Do, Tae Kwon Do and Wu Shu.
She most probably was the first Caucasian actress that ever had a lead role in a Chinese film as a heroine.
Rothrock became one of the few Caucasian performers to achieve big-time stardom in the local Hong Kong film industry having starred with Michelle Yeoh, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, even before achieving success in the U.S.
Reportedly, she set a record of becoming the very first non-Chinese westerner to carry an action movie single-handedly in Hong Kong. Cynthia departed from Hong Kong as one of the most celebrated action stars in Hong Kong’s movie history!
She has starred in countless movies here in the U.S. since returning from Hong Kong in the late 80s.
Probably best known for starring in “China O’Brien” and “Guardian Angel”, Cynthis Rothrock has added the fact that she is an inductee to the Black Belt Hall of Fame and Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame to her long list of outstanding accomplishments.
Even after all her major achievements off and on the Big Screen, Cynthia has also become certified as an instructor of Fighting Chance Combat Systems, a reality based, self defense system against armed assaults.
Cynthia Rothrock – Queen Of Martial Arts Films
Introducing Wing Chun
In my bio you will notice that I consider myself fortunate to have also studied the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun Kung Fu (or in Cantonese also known as Gung Fu).
I studied under Sifu Francis Fong, one of the finest Wing Chun instructors in the U.S.
Coming from a Shotokan karate training background I will admit that studying Wing Chun was a real change of pace, if you know what I mean.
But after having read about some other famous Wing Chun practitioners such as Ip Man, Bruce Lee, Ip Chun, Leung Ting, Emin Boztepe, I just had to give it my best shot.
Wing Chun, translated into English, means ‘Eternal Spring or Beautiful Springtime’ and refers to the name of Yim Wing Chun, who received Chinese boxing training from a Buddhist nun.
At the time the style was nameless.
Yim later married and taught her husband this style of fighting. He then simply went ahead and gave the syle her name, Wing Chun.
There are a number of theories and versions about how Wing Chun originated. I like the one I just gave you.
The typical Wing Chun stance is supposed to be like a piece of bamboo, firm but flexible, rooted but yielding.
Wing Chun favors a high, narrow stance with your elbows kept close to your body and your arms are positioned across the vitals of the centerline.
Attack and defense follow along an imaginary horizontal line drawn from the center of your chest to the center your opponent’s chest. The prime striking targets are on or near this line, including eyes, nose, throat, solar plexus and groin.
With the emphasis on the center line, your vertical fist straight punch will be your most common strike.
Your kicks are to be kept below the waist. This is typical of southern Chinese martial arts, in contrast to northern systems which apply many high kicks.
Chained vertical punches are used a lot in Wing Chun.
You develop your reflexes by searching unsecured defenses through use of sensitivity.
Training through Chi Sao (‘sticking hands”) with a training partner, one practices the trapping of hands. When an opponent is “trapped”, he or she becomes immobile.
Wing Chun also offers forms that are meditative, solitary exercises to develop self-awareness, balance, relaxation and sensitivity. They also help you in the fundamental movement and in generating the correct amount of force.
Wing Chun generally consists of three empty hand, one “wooden dummy” and two weapons forms.
There you have it: Wing Chun in a nutshell.
Enjoy the clip and always protect your centerline!
Mark Dacascos Still Kicking Strong On “Dancing With The Stars”
Mark Dacascos, the accomplished martial artist and actor is still kicking strong on this year’s “Dancing With Stars”.
Some of you might have heard that he won several Kung Fu and Karate championships between the ages of 9 and 18.
This should come as no surprise as Mark’s dad, Al Dacascos, is a legendary martial arts instructor who exposed Mark to martial arts at a very early age.
His step mother, Malia Bernal, is also a martial artist. Mark’s ancestry is diverse. His father is of Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese decent and his mother, Moriko McVey, is of Irish and Japanese decent.
Mark Dacascos has had roles in a number of movies and made numerous television appearances.
He played the lead role of Eric Draven in the TV series entitled The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, which is based on the James O’Barr’s comic book entitled The Crow.
He also stars as The Chairman on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America series.
Currently, Mark Dacascos is doing extremely well in this year’s “Dancing With Stars” and promoting the agility of an open-minded martial artist.
Two thumbs up!
Happy Birthday To Muay Thai Icon, Ajarn Suruchai Sirisute!
Especially on a day like today, Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) enthusiasts and practitioners express their respects to the teacher (wai kru) to the Founder and President of the Thai Boxing Association of the USA, Ajarn Suruchai Sirisute and we all wish him from every corner of the Muay Thai world a very, very Happy Birthday!
His students simply refer to him as “Ajarn Chai” (Ajarn means master, head instructor).
Master Chai grew up as the son of a prominent Bangkok lawyer. Obviously he did not follow his dad to become an attorney. Something quite different, to say the least, happened.
Master Chai admits that as a kid, he must have have been a real handful and so his father sent him to kick his heavy bag after dinner to, in his own words, “wear me out”.
Now, that’s an idea: We replace TV sets with heavy bags. I’m just sayin’.
Back to Master Chai, who already at the age of 6 was challenging and beating 8 and 10 year old boys at a local karate school.
The karate teacher immediately saw his potential, but he had to infuse some discipline and respect into the youngster.
He must have left such an impression with young Chai that no time this teacher was able to get him lined up with the other kids throwing kicks and punches.
This led Master Chai to study as a boy both Muay Thai and Shorin Karate, in which he attained his black belt at the age of only 12!
At the same time he began his Muay Thai fighting career and went on to compete in over 72 fights in Thailand.
If you’re not that familiar with Muay Thai, let me tell you that it is THE national sport in Thailand.
The Thai people take Muay Thai very seriously and there is a seemingly never-ending source of incredibly talented fighters in Thailand.
The fights are nationally televised very frequently. The fight venues are packed up to the hilt.
It is no small feat to fight on a national level in this kind of environment.
Master Chai retired from a very successful fighting career in 1968 to teach Muay Thai in the U.S. and thus starting his life’s work of spreading Muay Thai.
The following excerpts derive from Master Chai’s profile that was impressively compiled by Terry Tippie, who met Master Chai in the late 1970s:
“As he would soon find out American 1960s culture was very different than the Thailand fighting circuit. With hair mid-way down his back and in rock-solid shape he stepped off the plane and shortly thereafter wound up at the Woodstock rock concert.
Recalling the wild behavior he saw Sirisute mused, “Man, I thought Americans were completely crazy.”
Sirisute by this time had a well-developed penchant for mischief and somehow managed to befriend and train a notorious motorcycle gang called The Hell’s Angels. “I had no idea who they were,” shrugs Sirisute.
That is, until the FBI explained it to him. Grimacing embarrassedly Sirisute continued, “So, then I trained the FBI.” [You could see both in the same class during the 1970s. --TT]
Nonetheless, Sirisute had a vision of spreading Muay Thai that he was determined to pursue.
The early years were lean ones during a time in which public knowledge of Muay Thai was non-existent and hostility from other martial arts was fierce.
He defended almost weekly challenges from Karate and Kung Fu experts who soon found, to their surprise, that Sirisute wasn’t an easy man to run out of town.
In the days before personal injury lawsuits were common in the U.S. it was standard practice to smile politely, close the door and beat the tar out of the challenger.
And that was precisely what Ajarn Chai did. [Those challenges were still happening in the late 1970s when I met him.--TT]
During the 1970s and early 1980s Ajarn Chai taught at several Southern California colleges:
Chaffey College, Claremont Men’s College and Cal. State San Bernardino.
Also during those years Ajarn Chai trained students at his home, the backyard of which was converted into a Thai-style camp.
Many of Ajarn Chai’s early fighters, such as Mike Goldbach, Reggie Jackson, Glen Hernandez and Don Boyd, came out of a backyard training environment.
It was this core of fighters who Ajarn Chai lead to Thailand in 1982 to enter the first American team to compete in the Muay Thai World Championships.
Sirisute also fought battles with the martial arts establishment over fighting procedure, specifically the Wai Kru ["respects to the teacher" dance before a fight], uniform and use of knees & elbows. “They told me that my fighters couldn’t wear the short pants to fight but had to wear a Gi,” growled Sirisute. Shaking his head, quot;They used to laugh and ridicule Thai Boxing [fighters] when they would do the Wai Kru. But they don’t laugh any more because we always knock ‘em out.”
Thanks in part to the early efforts of Sirisute, Muay Thai fighters no longer have to struggle against this kind of indifference.
In 1978, Sirisute met a young Filipino-American high school teacher named Dan Inosanto.
Inosanto trained as a student in Ajarn Chai’s backyard during these years and they soon became close friends.
Once Ajarn Chai gave Inosanto the task of kicking the leaves on a tree, then forgot about him and went shopping, leaving Inosanto to swelter in the LA summer heat.
When Ajarn Chai returned several hours later Inosanto was so exhausted and dehydrated that he could barely stand up. But he still had his hands up and was still kicking.
Sirisute exclaimed, “Oh my God…I forgot all about you,” and held his sides and let out a piercing falsetto cackle.
Actually Sirisute had not forgotten about Inosanto but was testing Inosanto to see whether he would keep going and whether he would come back.
Inosanto did come back, and the friendship that grew up between these two men in those years has served both well over the years.
Already well known in the U.S. Inosanto introduced Sirisute to teaching seminars, which greatly helped Ajarn Chai extended awareness of Muay Thai in the U.S.A. as well as internationally.
By the early 1980s word of Muay Thai was spreading fast in the martial arts community.
In 1983 Inosanto introduced Sirisute to Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys.
The diminutive 5’5″ Sirisute was undaunted when greeted with skepticism by the players.
“I just pointed at him [Tony Dorsett] and told him to hold the pad for me,” explained Sirisute.
Taken aback at the jackhammer like impact of Sirisute’s right leg on the Thai pad, Dorsett exclaimed, “This guy isn’t human!”
The Dallas Cowboys were soon throwing Thai kicks and skip knees, and the Cowboy’s incorporated Ajarn Chai and Muay Thai into their pre-season conditioning until the time of Landry’s departure in 1990.
In fact, all-pro defensive end Randy White is reputed to have developed the hardest Thai kick ever recorded–a stunning 450 lbs. per square inch.”
Ajarn Chai continues to teach and spread Muay Thai nationally and internationally, all while enthusing and amusing a growing number of students wherever he appears.
Happy Birthday To Muay Thai Icon, Ajarn Suruchai Sirisute!
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