Kung Fu Basics Pdf

[Kum Dana]

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I recently took up Kung Fu at age 47 as an activity to do with my boys. I'm absolutely loving it. The discipline and practice it takes to master just the basics, appeal to my personality, and, as my wife would say: ''you have OCD when it comes to physical activity''. The creative juices were flowing this morning and I found a way to bring together leadership and martial arts. How the heck would you bring these two topics together? Allow me to tell you.

Both require hard work and skill - it is said that the real meaning of Kung Fu is ''Kung'' (skilful) and ''Fu'' which means hard training, endeavour and time spent. I am still grappling (excuse the pun) with Mandarin which is the language of Kung Fu. But some words are committed to memory because of the painful association with hard training. An example of such a word being the ''mabu'' or horse stance. Believe me, getting your body and legs to do a proper horse stance, isn't easy. Neither is leadership. Many skills are required to get the basics right in both. And this simply takes time and hard work. Gary Player, the famous South African golf player, said in response to being called ''lucky'' : ''the more I practice, the luckier I get''. In martial arts, there is no such thing as luck. You need to go through the process to achieve something. Nobody gets promoted to the next level without the ability to demonstrate a certain set of skills. Developing your own leadership requires tenacity and doing the hard yards.

Both require paying attention to basics and detail - leadership requires focusing on the basics like effective planning, understanding your market and developing people. The same for Kung Fu. In all forms of martial arts, you have forms i.e. patterns for practising the basics e.g. Karate has ''katas'' which are executed as a specified series of moves. The word ''basics'' is a bit misleading in my view. There is nothing basic about a stance or most moves in Martial arts. It takes repetition and practice to perfect. Every move has to be calculated and must be done correctly. The same for leading people, miss an important client requirement, neglect doing a scan of your market and see what happens. The word ''muscle memory'' comes to mind here. Your body starts to learn the moves as your repeat it and it becomes easier to do. The same for leadership. Not so easy at first, but then it becomes more "natural". How I envy other students who make things look so easy when kicking a bag or bending limbs in unnatural ways. But they had to practice, overcome the initial awkwardness and pain and they became better and better. Kung Fu acknowledges students are at different levels. This is also true for leadership.

Stretching yourself - stretching my legs is one of my least favourite activities in Kung Fu. Simply because I'm as flexible as wrought iron. Yet stretching is one of the most important things you need to do. Stretching allows for flexibility and the ability to do the basics better. We need to stretch more in life. After a training session, is the best time to practice flexibility. Your muscles are warm and ready to be challenged. Leaders need to expand their capabilities. When last did you try something new? Go on a training course or take up a new hobby? Can you stretch yourself? Lengthen your reach to kick higher. Flexibility is part of the work out and needs to be part of life. We get so comfortable in our daily lives. Being comfortable, doesn't lead to improvement. When last did you do the splits? Ouch!

Respect - in our place of training, we respect each other and especially the more senior and experienced people. They are called ''older brothers / sisters''. We have to get into ranks when training, with the most senior people standing in front and the newer people at the back. Every time our teacher says something, we need to reply, acknowledging his instruction, loudly and promptly. If we don't, push ups. Do you respect your fellow workers and clients? Do you respect the experience and leadership of others? Senior people have earned their stripes and have skills and knowledge that only come through time and repetition. In martial arts, you need to put in the effort to progress. What your master says, is law and you learn to trust him or her. Have we not maybe lost some respect for others in our places of work?

Be proactive and know how to fight - people take up Kung Fu for various reasons, but ultimately it was developed for combat. Students repeat moves and practise to survive in the ring. Being fit and flexible will lead to better performance. The world of leadership is a fight. You need to be on your toes and you need to know how to punch and block. In our form of fight training, you need to keep your stronger hand next to your cheek and the other one extended to defend your face against kicks and punches. This stance has to be kept even when you are feeling tired. Dropping your hand, will cause some discomfort to your face as caused by your opponent. How do we defend ourselves when tired? Do we default to certain principles when we are weary or do we just react to the situation in an emotional outburst? ''Keeping your hands up'' could include treating others with dignity, communicating during tough times or sticking to the plan. Just keep that hand up in the fight.

Patience and routine - leadership and exercise both require patience and routine. What do you routinely do as a leader? I think the trick is to love what you do on a continual basis. At first, the routine may feel boring and a bit contrived, but when you stick to it, it becomes a habit and something you do with passion. When you start seeing the results of the routine, it motivates you. Learning an art or a new skill takes patience. You may suck at something initially, but doing the same thing regularly, over time, leads to improvement. Its surprising how doing a form comes together over time and you eventually do it with speed and precision. In this fast paced world of ours, I think we need to take a bit of time to learn a new skill and be patient with ourselves. Having a routine doesn't mean you are not innovative. Knowing the basics, helps you to be creative. In a fight, you learn to be creative but keep those hands up!

Being quick and aware of what's happening around you - certain styles of Kung Fu have head snaps in which you quickly snap your head to one side to look our for attacks and then snap it back again. A really quick movement of the head. This motion, takes time to learn. We need to be quick as leaders. Adjusting to change speedily, makes or breaks leaders. Do you do a head snap when leading?

The more time you spend on something, the more you realise how much you still need to improve. This is humbling. Spending hours in class with others, but especially on your own, make the difference. I spend time by myself doing the forms, but I have to be guided by my seniors in order to do it correctly. Leaders need to practice resilience and repeat the basics. Respect others and be honest with yourself. Try something new this year. It helps to get the brain working and being a better more creative leader.

As one would expect Sifu Thomas presents the three basic hand movements of the system, which are Tan Sao, Bong Sao and Foot Sao these movements are essential in learning the single and double hand Chi Sao basics.

Because of being blessed to have a chance to train with many people, it has also been an opportunity for me to continue going over my basics. Every time I teach a student how to pak sao, it just enforces to me how to do an effective pak sao.

At first, it seems like using these techniques is difficult, however over time with practice they become second nature. And that my friend is the key. I remember when I first started learning Wing Chun, everything to me seemed very difficult.

Stances are the basic part of all Chinese martial arts, the foundation for further training in traditional kung fu. By the way a student approaches the development of stances, the master checks his zeal and desire for a truly deep immersion in the study of wushu.

The followers of kung fu believe that even if a person has not yet mastered the fighting taolu, as required by the canons, but has mastered stable stances and positions, this is a third of the victory in the battle with the opponent.

The execution technique seems quite simple, but they are all very energy intensive and effectively develop internal strength. Muscle fibers become elastic, joints are strengthened, qi energy flows freely, and breathing helps guide it to the right place.

The most important stand, often called the base. It is found in all styles of modern and traditional Wushu. In performing the tricks, the mabu is seen as an intermediate position from which the student can quickly move to any other.

Before starting to study the switch stance one to another and mastering formal techniques (taolu), students should be able to hold the mabu for at least 5 minutes, any master will not let him go further into training until the practitioner acquires stability in the mabu stance.

Gongbu is often used to go on the attack. Its structure is such that a practitioner can punch with his left foot with great strength, steadily resting on his right. In addition, from this stance you can instantly strike and right

The legs are widely spaced, the right is bent all the way, the heel is on the ground and touches the buttocks, the knee and toe are deployed to the right. The straight left leg is pulled to the side and almost lies on the ground, its heel touches the ground. The feet are parallel, the body is slightly inclined forward, but the head does not fall below the pelvis.

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