Iron Buddha Kung Fu

09/17/2024

Wishing you all a happy Mid Autumn festival, hoping it is full of the warmth of friends and family.

06/07/2024

Sad to hear of Ken's passing last night. We last spoke a couple of weeks ago - he seemed to feel that it was the end of the line. I was thinking of calling him yesterday to enquire how his treatment was going - now it is too late.
Ken and I met over 45 years ago at Kenny Gong's kung fu school on Christie Street, in Chinatown NY. We hit it off immediately - we had similar views of the world in general and a similar sense of humor. We were together almost daily until I moved out of New York. Still, we managed to maintain a close friendship. Ken astonished me in recent years with his drive and ability to continue teaching and writing. He managed to find excellent teachers in whatever he put his mind to study - qigong in Emei mountain, Latin dance in New York - he seemed to have boundless energy. Hard to believe that he has left us. I feel like I am still waiting for a phone call.....

06/04/2024

05/27/2024

For those of you who only know this day as a part of a long weekend , a day to enjoy a day in the sun and perhaps around a barbecue with friends and family: In the U.K. the day is Remembrance Day. It is the day we remember all of the soldiers fallen in all of the wars, and (in my opinion) should also be the day that we remember the civilians who died in conflicts declared and undeclared as well.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

03/21/2024

This is a documentary about Lu Meiji, an amazing person whom I was privileged to meet while working on a documentary in Taiwan. Not only is he an incredibly skilled martial artist, he is a truly benevolent and beneficent human being. He has taken in many children who came from difficult backgrounds and given them stability and a positive outlook - he has changed many lives for the better.

🏠【我家都是武林高手】🏠　　　　　　　　🥋56歲的呂美吉，大家叫他呂師父，他是實打實的武術高手。因為從小體弱多病，五歲開始學武，國中一年級就拿到全國武術冠軍，20歲代表台灣參加國際武術散打比賽，打敗20多國...

05/12/2023

We are currently holding small group and private classes in Gaithersburg. PM for times and cost.

05/12/2023

A sound like distant thunder. That is 雷聲 (lei sheng). Lei Sheng is a sound made by the muscles and tendons during a strong, explosive contraction, and it sounds like a muffled bass drum or distant thunder. The first time I heard it was when I began studying Buddha Hand Wing Chun under Sifu Henry Leung. I was his first non-Chinese private student and was a complete neophyte - I had no idea what I was learning, seeing or hearing. On the first lesson Sifu Leung showed me the standard Wing Chung vertical punch. Each time he threw a punch his body made this muffled, drum-like sound at the point of contraction. I did not ask Sifu Leung about it - and had no idea that there was a term for it. Later, in Taiwan, I studied under several teachers - all of their bodies (Shaolin and Xingyi teachers alike) produced this sound when they used power in a punch - it sounded to me like a sound effect from a Shaw Brothers movie. Much later I heard someone mention Lei Sheng, that person having seen the term in a book. I did not put 2 and 2 together, and expressed ignorance when asked about it. Other people told me that it was a vocalization created by the abdominal forces produced during the strong contraction at the time force was exerted, and I subscribed to that explanation for a while. When I visited Master Yang Hai in Montreal I asked him about the term, and he quickly demonstrated - when he moved the sound was loud and clear. At last I had an explanation for something I had been exposed to from the start.

05/12/2023

A few words about the Xingyi animal sets as I learned them from Master Zhang Junfeng and his wife Master Xu Baomei. The Tiger is one of the first animal sets that one learned at our school (the other being Dragon, which was generally taught prior to Tiger). There were 5 tiger "sets" (basically repetitive movements practiced with "7 star" stepping). There were some additional variations on the Tiger set movements taught as part of a series of sets called "Eight Hands". In addition there was specific hand training to train the grasping movements inherent in the Tiger applications. One of the aspects of training Tiger that I seldom see demonstrated is "tiger back" - the use of force generated from the back and shoulders with a distinctive stretch and rolling quality - much like a cat or a tiger.
Our school also taught 5 variations on Monkey, as well as several different variations of Snake. Again, each "animal" trained a different aspect of body mechanics and coordination, expanding upon and adding to the foundation 5 elements.

10/29/2018

New batch of bruise medicine 跌打藥酒, just made. Needs to age a bit before use (about 3 years)