April 3, 2004
kung fu
I’ve started training again in Shaolin Kung Fu.
Nothing fancy or hardcore. Just a few basic moves that have served me well over the years. Like with my biz card drawings, I tend to gravitate to the very simple, small, compact etc.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
I first learned about how simple Kung Fu could be when I studied Wing Chun under Sifu Eric Oram in Los Angeles a few years ago. His teacher, William Cheung, trained with Bruce Lee back when they both were teenagers.
Bruce Lee belonged to a street gang back then. If you watch his movies, you’ll notice how simple and brutal his basic technique is. Sure, he’ll do the occasional stunt for the camera, but to actually win the fight it’s just whack-crunch-fight-over. His style evolved from the need to win fights on the street, not to land movie parts.
William Cheung calls it “The Three Second Rule”. Basically, the ideal Wing Chun fight is over within three seconds. If you haven’t won your fight within three seconds, you’ve probably lost it. Wing Chun is not like the movies.
A brief history of Wing Chun is here.
Hooray!
One has to wonder what Bruce Lee would be doing today if he was alive. I like to think that he’d have retired gracefully from the limelite once Grandmaster Time began to slow him down.
Of course, my cynical mind always dredges up the image of him whoring himself Tae-Bo style on the Home Shopping Network, but my huge admiration for the man fights relentlessly to relegate such a shudder-inducing image to the back of my mind.
Interesting post, though — martial arts is a great topic I don’t get to talk much about, since a) I don’t know many people who do it, and b) when you attempt to talk to someone who doesn’t do it, you come off as some kind of macho weirdo, or sanctimonious Mr. Miyage wannabe.
Let us know how the training goes (I’m long-overdue to get back into Tae Kwon Do, myself), and good luck!
I dont like tai kwon do, its too impractical.