Deepwater Promo Winter2013

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Martial Arts Masters In Their Own Words

Winter 2013

www.DeepWaterMagazine.com

Be White CraneBecoming Your Art

Viewing The Mind Chinese Medicine and Martial Arts

Tea As A Way A Training Journal

Cultivating YinIn The Martial Arts

Living Bagua An Interview With Shifu Dave Meikle



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Table of ContentsVolume 1 Issue 4

In This IssueOur Contributors

Cold MountainEditorialWrapping Up TheYear

Letters To The Editor

Scattered LightningViewing The MindChinese Medicine And Martial Arts

Spilled WineCultivating YinYin & Yang In The Martial Arts

Cloud Hidden...Active Vs. Latent SkillSeeking Principles

Animal InstinctsI Am White CraneBecomingYour Art

The Woodcut SchoolThe Danger OfPredictabilityThe Insidious Inuence

Lost In TranslationTea As A Way A Training Journal

Heavy HandsWing Chun A pictorial look at a different

technique every month

LegendsMasters that MatterChen Fa Ke (1887 - 1957)

6

8

4

14

10

36

42

38

46

50

51

Living BaguaInterview With Shifu Meikle

20


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IN THIS ISSUE: OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Professor Kevin Wallbridge

Kevin has been training since 1985. While living and training in China, Kevin studied agreat deal of Chinese martial arts including - but not limited to -Northern Shaolin, Zhaquan,Taijiquan (Yang and Chen styles), Xingyiquan (Henan and Hebei styles), Baguazhang(Liang, Cheng, Fu, Yin Fu, and Ba Xian styles); Classical Chinese weaponry including

straight sword, spear, single edged swords; Qigong including hard and soft martial styles,Daoist meditation and internal alchemy, medical Qigong and Emei sword Qigong. He isa co-founder of the prestigious Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences school of Chinesemedicine. Kevin is a medical anthropologist who is also trained as an acupuncturist andChinese herbalist.

Page 10

Sifu David Meikle

Cheng Style Bagua Shifu Dave Meikle (chinese name 米德卫） began his martial artscareer at the age of 12 in freestyle wrestling, where by age 15 he was Provincially rankedin his weight class. Over the years, Shifu Dave has studied Shaolin Gong Fu (aka kung fu),Xing Yi Quan, Taiji Quan, Qin Na, Bagua Zhang and Qi Gong. Shifu Dave was a top student

of the famed Grandmaster, Dr. Yuan Shaoliang, previous Head of the Beijing Hospital ofChinese Medicine where he learned Shaolin, Taiji, Qin Na and Qi Gong. Later, Shifu Davewas personally introduced to Bagua Master, Mr. Yang Guotai, where he became a formaldisciple of Bagua Zhang and the first student of Master Yang’s in Canada to be given formalpermission to teach Cheng Style Bagua Zhang.Page 20

Sifu Neil Ripski

Sifu Ripski has been training in Chinese Martial Arts since the mid 1980s and has attainedthe rank of Sifu (instructor/teacher) in Ba ying quan (Eight Shadows Fist) Kung Fu, Ba ying

jiu quan (Drunken Boxing), Wing Chun, Lohan and Taijiquan. Sifu Neil Ripski resides in

Creston and has instructors currently teaching around the world, in Tel Aviv Israel, AberdeenScotland and Taipei Taiwan ROC. Sifu Ripski has judged and competed successfully in theTiger Balm International Tournament and now focuses his attention on his students andtheir journeys through the world of Chinese martial arts. Sifu Ripski is a lineage holder in

the Piercing Cloud Style.Page 14



Jason Deatherage

Jason Deatherage has studied the major Asian religions and philosophies for over 30 yearsin both academic and practical contexts. His experiences as a paramedic, professionalmusician, parent and life-long martial artist have given him the opportunity to live many ofthese philosophies deeply and richly in various ways from the mundane to the very edge of

life and death. Jason has studied martial arts for almost 30 years beginning with Karate andTae Kwon Do as a child. As a young adult, Jason studied Aikido and the Japanese sword laterencountering the complexities of Kung Fu through the Ba Ying Quan system in which Jasonholds a black sash under Sifu Neil Ripski. Concurrently with his ongoing Kung Fu studies,

Jason returned to the study of Aikido, Kenjutsu and Iaido with Sensei Daniel Kempling. He is

also a student in MataSaBagyo Serrada Escrima under Sig Nubla and NNG Balintawak underSig Nubla and GM Nene Gaabucayan. Jason is a lineage holder in the Piercing Cloud Style.

Page 36

Shifu Ron Goninan

Shifu Ron began his martial arts training at the age of 10 and is now Australia’s leadingmartial artist in White Crane Gongfu. Shifu Ron teaches White Crane Gongfu, Tai ChiDao, Chinese Gongfu Weapons, Qinna and the rare art of Dian Xue Dao (Chinese PressurePoint Hands). He has taught Police, Army & Correctional Services Individuals in aspects of

personalised Life-Protection Skills based upon his 22 years within Front-Line Security.

Page 38

Photo by Kevin Wallbridge

Matthew Preston

Matthew began his martial arts path with Karate as a kid, later getting into the Chinese

side of things with Gong Fu in his early 20’s. Now with nearly 20 years of martial arts underhis belt, he’s had training and training partners in in all different flavors of martial stylings:

kempo, taiji, qi gong, traditional muay thai, taekwondo, hapkido, wing chun, mantis, familystyle traditional gong fu, bagua zhang, xingyi quan, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He has lived inKorea, Thailand, and Taiwan, and travelled and trained all around Southeast and East Asia. For

almost a decade, Matthew has been living in Taipei, Taiwan, where he trains ma jia quan, yizong bagua zhang, hebei xingyi quan, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Page 46



Welcome!

Message From The Editor

Welcome to the winter issue of DeepWater Magazine. As this issue hits

the streets, Deep Water completes its first

year of publication! It’s been a long andexciting path to this point; from the earlyideas of Deep Water as a forum for sharing ahigher level of martial arts discourse, to thestart of one of the world’s most interesting

martial arts magazines, to the successful DeepWater Convention, and so much more. We’ve

been amazed at how universally positive theresponse has been to what we’re trying toaccomplish here. We’ve brought together

martial artists of Quality from all over theworld and broken down barriers of style,geography, culture and language in our tirelessquest for deeper inquiry into the principles of

We must thank Professor Kevin Wallbridgewho, besides providing insightful articlesand inspiration to Deep Water Magazine, isalso responsible for many of the beautifulphotographs that adorn our pages. Thank you

Kevin!

Thanks to Shifu Neil Ripski, who providesmuch of the martial inspiration that drives thismagazine. His love of the martial arts and hisdrive to teach, share, and learn have allowed

Deep Water to coalesce into the truly greatendeavor that is.

And, of course, thanks to all of our writers,past, present, and future! Without your

unique insights and experiences, Deep Waterwould be a pale shadow of what it is. It is the

breadth of knowledge and experience of ourwriters that makes Deep Water a true treasuretrove of martial arts writing.

Finally, we must thank you, our readers!Without you, what’s the point of all of this?We hope that each issue brings you somethingthat gives new perspectives to your trainingand study in the martial arts, whether you

are a complete beginner or an accomplishedMaster.

Even as we celebrate our first year, we arealready hard at work on the next issues of

the magazine. Many more exciting features,notable masters, and insightful articles arecoming soon! Thanks for swimming in theDeep Water with us!

Jason DeatherageEditor, Deep Water Magazine

COLD MOUNTAIN

“ It has been a true pleasure to be ableto connect with so many great martialartists...”

the martial arts. It has been a true pleasure to

be able to connect with so many great martialartists, and the floodgates are only beginningto open. It seems that this spirit of opennessand friendship is contagious, and martial artiststhe world over are seeing the true benefits of

looking around to see what else is going on.

All of this wouldn’t be possible without thetireless efforts of our Publisher, Warren Bruns.His publishing savvy allows us to have such a

beautiful magazine, and his many hours of hardwork are a critical ingredient in what makesDeep Water the successful endeavor it is. Healso makes the annual Deep Water Conventionpossible with his organizational wizardry andunceasing effort. Thank you so much Warren!






We welcome your letters to the editor, commentsand article submissions. Feel free to email us [email protected]. Any lettersor articles we publish may be edited for clarity

and space at the discretion of the Deep WaterMagazine staff.

Old VS. New

Editor,

Ihad to write when I saw there was aforum to ask questions of the authors in

the magazine. I wanted to hear your opinion

on the debate of whether something olderor more traditional is better than somethingnewer. I feel that both sides of the debate havevalidity: older is time tested but newer has

evolved from others’ teachings. I feel that thenewer the material the more sense it makesthat it has become something more than itspredecessors which is evidenced over and over by the poor showing traditional martial artists

give in the octagon. What say you? I see thatmost, if not all the martial arts presented thus

far in Deep Water are of traditional (older)origins....

MM8

Dear MM8,

Thank you for your letter. As with most ofthese sorts of debates, we can find ourselvesasking the wrong questions and thus find

ourselves dissatisfied with the answers we find.When we ask which of two things is ‘better’,

we assume that they are somehow separate.We also base this search for ‘better’ on a hugemorass of other invisible assumptions thatcan mislead us in the search for truly usefulinformation. To use your example of the

octagon, if we had a 10 year old trained for 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

years in MMA and a 25 year old trained for 5years in a ‘traditional’ art, who do you thinkwould win in the ‘octagon’? So now to reallysearch for answers, we must take into accountthe attributes of each practitioner. This adds

complexity to the question of ‘better’. Noart is absolutely better; their merit depends

entirely upon who is practicing it. MMAtraining is aimed specifically at the rule set andconditions that are mandatory in the octagon.

Traditional arts don’t follow these rules andare thus at an automatic disadvantage. MMAis excellent at producing tough, aggressive,strong sport fighters and there is naturallysome carry-over to ‘the street’ in such a

fighter, especially against similar or untrainedfighters.However, the octagon doesn’t require a

massive depth of training to be successful. Wemust remember that MMA is a multi-million

dollar entertainment business that happens tohave spawned a semi-distinct style of fighting.Conversely, traditional arts, while derivedfrom killing arts, are not often practiced withcombative purposes in mind, and are instead

practiced as ‘arts’ for purposes other thanpure combat. Those that retain their martialorigins often hide their techniques for strategicreasons and are not the sort to engage in public

contests for money. Traditional arts have the benefit of sometimes centuries of refinement

and study. This depth of study and practiceallows an art to pass a great deal of informationto a practitioner. And don’t forget, even MMAis drawn from old arts: muay thai, jujitsu, andothers are ‘traditional’ arts.



The real answer here is that no art is ‘better’than any other except for how it accords with

your expectations and interests. All arts havecrappy practitioners and good ones; it is theperson that should be examined rather thanthe art. For specific circumstances certainarts can have advantages: MMA is ‘best’ in

the octagon, but wouldn’t likely be ‘best’ fora traditional sword duel.

Any Instructors?

Deep Water Magazine,

I wanted to write and ask about training withsome of the authors in the magazine, do any of

them have courses I could attend? Do you havecontact information? Aspiring student

Dear Aspiring Student, Thanks for your inquiry. Most of our authors, just by the very fact of their presence in this

magazine, are likely open to sharing andteaching with our readers. Many of themteach seminars and regular classes and wewill gladly forward any questions or requeststo them that you may have. The annual Deep

Water Convention is an excellent event toattend, as many of our regular contributorshave workshops and demonstrations there.There is such a wonderful depth and breadthof martial expertise in the Deep Water family,

and you, as a reader, are part of that family

Copyright © 2013 Deep Water Martial Arts Ltd. • Design & Layout by Bruns Illustration ~ www.bruns.ca

The Deep Water Magazine is produced quarterly. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Anyadvertisements or graphics designed in-house are property of Deep Water Martial Arts Ltd. and may not be used in any othermedium without permission. Views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reect those of Deep Water Martial Arts Ltd.

Illustration by Lorna Foot

You know what I hate about Deepwater?

I hate that it is such an anomaly. Kids laughing their waythrough a sparring competition instead of being egged onwith abusive language by coaches or parents displayingpathological aggression in pursuit of winning at all costs.A child and a teenager battling their own thighs in an epic

3 minute horse stance event instead of trying to dominateone another. The high comedy and epic laughter that markedthe multiple opponent weapon sparring; which included anon-the-fly rules change so that complete novices could playtoo (Shuriken... you could throw rubber shuriken for a half

point if it hit! Genius). Can you imagine that happening at

a bureaucratic tight-anus sausage-fest more concerned withliability that laughter?

Here is to hoping that Deepwater’s vibe becomes morecommon in the world of the strong defeating the weak, and

the quick beating the slow.- The Cranky Taoist

THE CRANKY TAOIST



SCATTERED LIGHTNING




The Mind In Chinese

Medicine And Martial Arts

Professor Kevin Wallbridge

A common model of the mind in Chinese

culture and medicine is the 五志 wŭzhì or 5

“wills.” This is derived from the section of the黄帝内经 Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic(Neijing) that looks at the storage qualitiesof the solid organs. Each of the solid organs

“stores” an aspect of the mind: heart-神 shen/spirit, spleen-yi/意 mind, lung-po/魄 yin“soul,” kidney-zhi/志 will, liver-hun/魂 yang “soul.” This works nicely on many levels.Seeing the heart as the integration of thoughts

feeling and being,the kidneys as the will tostrive and survive/adrenal responses, and soon.

One of the things that causes problems is the

inclusion of the魂魄 hun-po, which are pre-Heaven substrates, on this list. One of the keymetaphysical assumptions of Chinese medicineis that we are defined by a dynamic interactionof primordial substrate and acquired psycho-

biological traits (nature and nurture to useother terms). This list mixes and matches both these systems. I would argue there aremuch clearer ways of understanding the mindwithin the Neijing, but that this one fits the

5-phase/Wuxing model of nice clean five-point associations and so has been gravitatedtowards for centuries. If we consider thecelestial organization of the Wuxing (earthat the center of cross-roads as opposed to

cyclical circle and pentagram), this modelworks a little better. Then we can see an axisof spirit-mind-will, which places the emotions

down in the will, the reasoning in the spleenand the spiritual things like enlightenment

or wisdom in the heart. In this way the pre-Heaven aspects sit to either side.

The association of the liver and the魂 Hunis a pretty good one. It goes like this: the bloodis where the spirit is stored by the heart, blood

pools in the liver in sleep, the Hun influences

the spirit through dreams in sleep, hence theHun is stored by the liver. If that is all the Hun

did then it would be fine, but there is muchmore to it. When we look at the lung storingthe魄 Po, the wheels really start to come offthe bus and the Wuxing associations start tolook profoundly arbitrary and strained. The

Po underlies our physical substrate; nowadayswe could consider genetics as part of this. Aswell, it plays a key role in our ability to havesenses and sense experience. Not much to dowith the lungs in Chinese medicine.

One of the key issues is that the Po hasalmost nothing to do with the mind other thanproviding the ability to have senses. Discussing

it as part of the mind is like worrying aboutwhere you park as part of fight tactics in amartial arts competition. Sure you are goingto need somewhere to put your car, but is itreally directly involved in the problem? If

there is a parking lot, it’s taken care of. Yes,senses are necessary for thought, but only ifone is taken away is it worth mentioning.

Hun and Po are much better seen in the

Yin-Yang of pre-Heaven and post-Heavendevelopment; where Po is the Yin of pre-Heaven and Hun is the Yang of pre-Heaven.In this way精 Jing is seen as the Yin of post-Heaven and 神 Shen is seen as the Yang of

post-Heaven. So in terms of pre/post-HeavenHun is Yin to Shen’s Yang (because Hun is theYang of the Yin and Shen is Yang of the Yang) Inthis way Po is the Yin to Jing’s Yang (becausePo is the Yin of the Yin and Jing is the Yin of

the Yang). Because each one is a Yin-Yangrelationship between each one is a particularQi, follow?

“The association of the liver and the魂 Hun is a pretty good one. “



You can show your support for this magazineby purchasing the full version of this magazine atwww.deepwatermagazine.com

A complete version of all articles are available inthe full version. Thank you!

Continue to the next article...



The male aspect of Martial Artsis generally overplayed as great

masculine heroes go about their movie plotssaving everyone and defeating the bad guys.However, if we are to truly study the arts then

we must look to the Taoist principal of yin/yang as an underlying part of everything westudy. Without the feminine we can have nomasculine aspect. Now because this is DeepWater and skimming the surface of any subject

is frowned upon we should take a look at theyin/yang theory found in the Taiji diagram

before looking at the feminine side of theMartial practices.

The Taiji diagram (太極) referred to

generally in the West (mistakenly) as theYin andYang diagram is familiar to us all and its conceptof polar opposites defining one another is alsosomething most martial artists have studied orstart to take for granted as ‘obvious’. However,

if we first look at the definition of what theindividual characters Tai太 and Ji極 mean,we can start to delve into their meaning moredeeply. Tai 太 can be defined as 1) highest;grandest, or 2) more or most senior. The

second character Ji極 is translated as meaning1) the utmost point; extremity, 2) pole (as inpolar), 3) utmost, 4) extreme of the highestdegree. So in essence the meaning of 太極 isdifferent than what is generally assumed in the

west, instead it becomes the Great Momentor point of transformation from yin to yang

or vice versa. So the study of Taiji (the martialart or the philosophical concept) becomes thegreat study of these points of transformation in

the aspects and relationships of all things. Thistransformation is continuous and simultaneousand can and does take place even within asingle thing’s various aspects. There can be noyin without yang as they define and transform

into one another. Just as there is no masculine

Shifu Neil Ripski

SPILLED WINE

P h o t o b y W a r r e n B r u n s



without feminine in a single person. The keyto this study is the understanding of balance

between the two being the most sought afterway of becoming a whole person (or martialartist). So if we look at the cultural context ofMartial Arts evolving in China (as is the casefor most Asian arts) then the integration of the

yin/yang theory is a foundational principleand must be understood to achieve balance inour practice.

Once we really start to try and understandhow proper definition of yin/yang in our

practice becomes important then we can startto seek out a balance between the two. Thereare few martial arts students that have nothad a Master tell them to relax, even whenthey thought they were already in a relaxed

and ready state. This is due to the commonmisunderstandings of what martial abilitystems from. Most martial artists in the modernday look at harder, faster, stronger bodies asthe only way to achieve martial ability, and yet

older, weaker, softer practitioners are the onesto be the most feared. The elder teachers arethe ones demonstrating an understanding or balance of masculine and feminine, soft andhard in the body and movement and become

the highest practitioners of their chosen arts.

The lack of balance is easily seen in today’smartial arts students as they bring moreand more tightness, stiffness and rigidity totheir bodies in an effort to become ‘better’,

throwing themselves farther from yin/yang balance than they were than when they begantraining! Of course fitness, strength and soon are important parts of the martial artist’spath, but when these things are sought after at

the expense of softness and relaxation into thetissue then balance is easily lost. This is most

obvious today in the bigger, bulkier students ofthe martial arts confusing strength with power;real power comes from good training, correct

thinking and is water-like and unstoppable,not hard, brittle and easily broken.

If you look into the poetry of Martial Artsyou will find all kinds of feminine imagery

from small birds flying through the branches

of the forest to the wind blowing leaves on

the forest floor. Soft, subtle, gentle, feminineimagery; in fact one generally finds this typeof poetry more often through study of thenames of movements than overly masculinenames and images. These poetic phrases

contain many aspects of the arts being passed

down from ancient times, and encoded inthem, among other things, is the topic of yin/yang balance. If you are to dive down like aswallow skimming the still water of a pond

should your shoulders be rigid? Your abdomenclenched? Your biceps bulging? Of course not.Look at some of the most reputedly violentstyles in the world, things like the ShamanicXinyiliuhe, Xingyiquan or Erhuquan (Hungry

Tiger Boxing); their poetry leans heavily onthe side of the feminine. Swallow skims the

water, Leopard Climbs the Branch, Empty theBasket of Flowers, Beauty looks in a Mirror,Butterfly bores the Bush. No mention of

ripping and tearing, breaking or killing, thougheach of these movements are meant for such

things. Their secret is in their adaptability andsoftness, their yin aspects. Anyone can thinkthemselves into being too hard and rigid andthinking strength is the answer to any situation, but subtlety and intelligence always wins out

in the end. Look at all the high school Jocksthat are now working for the Nerds they beat

up in School

To understand the usefulness of femininitywe still have to look deeper into the idea of

yin/yang reversal. The highest levels of martialarts are defined by softness and an attitudeof harmonization with the opponent. In mytraining I have had the great privilege to trainunder many great teachers and all of them,

“There can be no yin without yangas they dene and transform into oneanother.”








Living Bagua:With Shifu David Meikle

Interview by Shifu Neil Ripski

Q: Shifu Dave, would you please provide us with some background about your training,

and specifically your training with Yang Guo Tai (lineage).

Sure, Neil. I started with wrestling back in Junior High when I was 12 years old and a drippingwet 90 pounds. By the time I finished High School, I was around 165 pounds and provincially

ranked. After High School I took a year off from anything and it was during that time that Iessentially had my ass handed to me at a party late one night – that fight separated my retina

which left me blind for 2 days (and took about 6 months before I could properly read with thateye) However it was less than 2 weeks after the incident that I found myself in karate classesclose to my home for the next 6 months. I was training karate 3 nights a week and aikido for 2nights a week at the same location - yes, I was single, haha. But I didn’t want [a fight like the onethat injured my eye] to happen again and if it did I wanted to have a better chance of success. So

after 6 months of training 5 nights a week like it was the only thing that mattered, I met up with

FLOW LIKE DEEP WATER



a guy that trained kungfu for many years. Wegot together to spar one day and I was pretty

amazed how my ‘left-right-left’ methods ofkarate (albeit beginner’s stuff) was of little useto the one hand he was using against me to both defend and attack. Basically I droppedkarate and jumped into kungfu, and I never

looked back.

From that point I was training 4 hours a day,6 days a week for the next 2 years until my shifuand I had a bit of a fallout. I bounced aroundwith a few styles of kungfu, running away from

schools that displayed many trophies for theirforms or their kickboxing - at one point I founda terrific school of hung gar that practiced verytraditional methods of excruciating stancesand conditioning, followed up with fighting

practices that were NOT simply kickboxing -their methods of application were expressedthrough a solid understanding of their form(not that I am a huge fan of forms - let meget that on the table right away). Finally I

found a man from Beijing that taught out ofhis basement. I was learning shaolin gong fufrom him for a couple of years and despitethe fact it was extremely principle oriented,I still felt there was something missing. After

training shaolin with him for 2 years we began

Yang style taiji which I took a liking to andeventually would practice the Yang 108 formfor about 10 repetitions daily - it would take just over 3 hours and I’d be drenched in sweat,

but I was loving it, and having very profoundexperiences from it. Eventually I felt it wastime for me to move on, I still hadn’t foundsomething that really clicked with what Iwas looking for in my martial arts training -

I think having trained wrestling for so manyyears as my first ‘style’ had too much of an

impact on me and I simply couldn’t get awayfrom wanting to grab my opponent and make balloon animals out of him rather than simply

duking things out.

Finally back in the mid 90s I found myselfworking as a part time security guard at thefair - I noticed an elderly Chinese woman

working at a booth and I came up to say hello

to her and speak some of my rudimentaryChinese I had picked up over the years. “Oh,

you speak chinese! Where did you learn that?”she asked. I explained that I practiced Chinesemartial arts and that I was a Shaolin instructor.“You should come to the park that I practice qigong at every morning, there is a bagua master

there teaching many people qi gong” she said,to which my initial inner thought was “yea,everybody that gets off the plane and buys ayellow pages ad is a kungfu master these days” but when she continued on saying “he is 73 and

“...he is 73 and been practicing onlybagua since he was a child...”



been practicing only bagua since he was a child”I thought “Oh... he’s one of THOSE masters!”

(meaning before the revolution in China). SoI went to the park the following week to seewhat he was about. I arrived at the park earlyone morning in East Vancouver and there hewas - a rather unassuming looking Chinese

man with a bit of a round tummy, a missingthumb, a rubber mallet tucked into 1 side ofhis belt and a polished bull’s horn tucked intothe other side. It was bit intimidating to seehim like that, to say the least.

He looked at me and said in very brokenEnglish “uhh...you...Deiwei?” (are youDavid).

“yes” I answered.“uhh...you..before...learn bagua?”

“yes”“mm. me look..” and he motioned for me toshow me one of my bagua forms. I promptly began to display the bagua that I had beenpracticing - he watched me finish the first

palm change (out of 8) then turned his backon me to talk to other old Chinese men inthe park that were learning qi gong from him.

this man was the definition of sheer power.I had only seen one other kungfu teachermove like that in the past and he had flat outrefused to teach me that stuff because I wasn’t

Chinese.

Just as quickly as he started he came to a

stop, measuring my level of recognition ofwhat I had just witnessed.“You... uhh... you wan learn dis wan?” (do

you want to learn this one?)“yes!”“ok... walk”And that was essentially what I did for the

next few years - walk. Hours upon hours per

day. I would arrive at the park at 4:30am and begin walking for an hour before he arrived.He couldn’t speak much English so he would

place my hands on his stomach and lower backto show me how he was connecting inside,

talking about various Jin (I usually translatethat as ‘connective force’) and how everythingharmonizes so the complete body workstogether. Often we would ask Chinese peoplewalking by to translate words for him, or he’d

draw images in the dirt. He would do crazy

“I felt I learned more in my rst 3 weeks with him than

I had in the last 6 years.” Finally I finished my 8 palms and stood therepatiently waiting for him to turn back to me- finally after quite a few minutes one of theold guys prodded him and reminded him I wasstanding there.

He turned to me and asked “oh!..uhh...dawan...bagua?” (that one bagua?)

“yes” I answered sheepishly.

“noooo..... da wan no bagua...dis....dis bagua...” (that one no bagua, this bagua) and

he proceeded to display his bagua to me (at age73) and I watched in amazement his displayof sheer power, watching him move was likewitnessing thunder rolling in front of me. Onemoment he moved with the power of a bear,

the next the ferocity of a lion. The one thingthat stood out the whole way through was that

things, often hitting me so hard I had to fightnot to lose my bowels from it. When he sawhow amazed I was by what he showed he’d look

surprised and ask “What..? You can’t do that?No problem. Every day, practice this one” andhe’d teach me another conditioning exerciseto develop what he had just displayed.

He wasn’t big on forms - we would practice

tons of bagua specific conditioning exercisesand soft/hard qi gong, the single palm changeand the twin palms change, and for the mostpart lots of circle walking. He would little bylittle add more principles to how to walk, how

to connect, and the whole time I thought tomyself “this is the stuff that books allude to but no one seems to know” - I felt I learnedmore in my first 3 weeks with him than I had








Active Vs. Latent Skill

Jason Deatherage

It is always said that if one doesn’t practice,

one’s skills get rusty. The subconsciousassumption is that if enough time wereallowed to pass, one might lose all of theirskill. While this is inevitable, as we all will ageand die, there are different types of skill that

can be kept for longer or shorter periods oftime. These types of skill will be referred toas ‘active’ and ‘latent’ skill for the purposes ofthis article.

Active skills are those ‘sharp’ skills thatconstant practice keeps honed and ready.They are the finer movements, the carefullychoreographed vocabulary of our art, and theclean, clear techniques that are mistakenly

used to define various martial arts. These arethe skills that require us to be the fittest andmost in shape. Our level of fitness itself is anactive skill. If we don’t constantly maintainthese types of skills, they get rusty and fade.

If your art has forms or kata, usually they

CLOUD HIDDEN...must be practiced to be remembered. Time begins to erase the complex techniques and

choreography. Our bodies, if not constantlyexposed to the feelings that an art gives riseto, can start to forget them, and our art begins to suffer. Active skill is built relativelyquickly, but requires effort to maintain, and

fades quickly if that effort is not present.Active skill depends on the operation of theintellectual mind to function well. A flusteredor distracted martial artist will seem to losemuch of his finer skill.

Latent skills are those that build moreslowly but aren’t so dependent on constantpractice. What remains of your art in timesof extreme stress and panic are your latentskills. We’ve all seen students of traditional

arts who look great on the mats, but in a morestressful situation such as full speed sparringor even a real fight, they lose all of their fancymoves and techniques, looking instead likegeneric kickboxers (which is ok if they study

kickboxing). They were showing the level oftheir latent skill, which hasn’t yet begun toinclude the martial art they practice. Besidesthe forms and techniques of one’s art, latentskills might be one’s posture, body structure,

themes of body movement, or even the way

they think about their art. These things areoften built alongside the more obvious skillsin a martial art, and perhaps even without theknowledge of the student. Once these things

are built, they don’t fade nearly as fast, even ifone ceases practice altogether. Latent skill iswhat the body itself has learned, and operateseven when the mind is distracted. Latent skillis also built by long training. Some of the types

of skills that were once active skills can becomelatent skills by the process of ‘driving them

into your bones’ through diligent training. It isthis mode of learning that is most common inthe traditional martial arts, and it is assumed

by most that this is the only way to build latentskill.

Each art is different, but most seem to relyon constantly practiced active skills, and hope

that ‘one day’ those skills become internalized









ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Don’t Do White Crane,

Become White Crane.”Ron Goninan



Iwas once asked by a student why the wayI did White Crane Boxing was entirely

different to the way it was taught and the wayhe had learned it.

My reply was simple and direct: “You aredoing White Crane, I am not”. He look at

me with a puzzled look, you could see himtrying to make some form of sense about mystatement.

He said he did not get it. What did I mean?I replied that he should look at all the others

students and instructors of our White Craneand learn from them when he could then tocome back to me and tell me if he understoodwhat I meant.

Upon his return he said that many of theothers seemed like it was a great effort whenthey moved and I looked as if I was taking inthe local scenery and not trying very hard if atall when taking the students through the formsand other aspects.

I asked him “Why is this?”. He said he didnot know.

I put him out of his misery and finally

answered his original question: “You see Iam not doing White Crane Boxing. I am notstriving for the art. I am not doing an exhibitionfor the gratification of others or my own ego.Simply put, I am White Crane Boxing!”

I explained that if one simply continues to‘do’ White Crane Boxing then they will onlyever grasp the most base levels of the art.They will become proficient but never reallyembody the art itself. They will not understand

the fighting nor energetic aspects of the art.The expression of the essence精, energy氣,and spirit神 of the White Crane Boxing art.

Forced action is not “natural action” and whatis more natural than the White Crane within

nature? When does one see a magnificentWhite Crane move in a static manner?

The movements of Zhenlan Gongfu are beautiful, graceful soft, smooth and natural.They look elegant and they continuously change

from one to another. The movements can be big or small, high or low and fast or slow. Itdepends on what is natural for individuals. The body is held straight and upright movements

are even, circular, light, quick, soft and lively.The Zhenlan Gongfu practitioner shouldmove like a river flowing smoothly or a clouddrifting lightly.

I explained to the student that “ZhenlanWhite Crane Gongfu is circular, and therein

lies much of its grace and energy. The circlesgenerate energy. Trying to punch into thosecircles and your arm feels as though it has been caught in a powerful cyclone of energy.

It has unrelenting and non-retracting handtechniques. At the same time Zhenlan has aneconomy of motion that makes it’s applicationsunique, neat, discreet and lethal - perfect fordispatching would be attackers”

I told the student that in order to embodythis natural action that he “should strive tounderstand Qiujin球勁 a physical sensitivityand sensorial mind awareness sometimesknown as a full and circular form of Qi 渾

圓一氣which and is natural, penetrativeand rapid and can be manifested at any time.Qiujin is most distinguished by being withoutthe need to retract body or limbs. Its full andpenetrating force is freely and fully transmitted

through simple arm and leg movements.Connecting one’s bodily movements withthe internal thus acquiring the ability to actthrough intuitive “feeling”.

Through the learning process, (which is to

recognize and realize, not to accumulate orimitate) the he should begin to understandhow “mental and physical” affect each otherand starts to develop the skill to unify andcoordinate them. You train through the

process of understanding your muscularmovement, body structure (skeletal, ligamentsand tendons, incorporating Qi (energy) andyour mental process. Relaxation is an essential








The Danger of Predictability

Arrow Mountain Tengu

It has been already been written in previousdiscourses that one must have some form ofdanger present in one’s training in order to

have a chance at true learning and improvementwith the sword. Without the conditions thatgive rise to true fear, we cannot hope to

properly accord our Minds to fear and learn itstrue role in our use of the sword. Fear must

be lightly grasped in our mind and allowed tocombine with all of the other aspects of ourtraining to create spontaneous expressionwith the sword, both in the realm of theactual clash of blades, and also in one’s larger

strategies and approaches to conflict itself. Butdanger in our practice is not enough, becauseit is usually limited to direct physical use ofthe sword, and can easily be neutered by the

insidious influence of predictability.

Predictability is a deeply human pursuit.Nearly all of our activities seek to increasethe predictability of our surroundings. Weeat at certain times of day, live and work on

flat floors, navigate, keep time, record history,speak languages, reproduce, ad infinitum.Each of these activities understandably

THE WOODCUT SCHOOL

attempts to ensure the continuation of pastor present events into the future but, while

many are unavoidably necessary, they are infact resistances to Change itself. We carry onthinking that we know what is going to happen based on guesses drawn from our memoriesof past events, and if we are perceptive and

diligent we can often make very accuratepredictions. However, in many cases we arenot acting on the basis of the actual reality

in front of us; rather we are acting based onsuppositions and inferences. We begin to

operate on wishful thinking rather than actualcircumstance. While this type of predictionallows for powerful organizations of humaneffort, it does not truly prepare one for thereality and inseparability of life and death.

Sadly, predictability is most often used asa way to pretend that we are not in factimpermanent, that we have control over thefuture, that we are somehow separate from

everything else. In the realm of the swordas in a full life, this type of self-delusion isdangerous and counterproductive.

When training the sword, one must takeseriously the spirit of the discipline they study.

They must realize that they study the art ofkilling people who will do all they can to killin turn. As any serious student knows, this









Chinese Swordsmanship

Living, combat effective sword

instruction is vanishingly rare in these

days of YouTube Masters and rule-bound

tournaments. Most Chinese straight sword

instruction is now derived from Taiji formsor recently created ‘traditional styles’ that

are more anthropological than combatively

expedient. Their forms are traditional and

very beautiful, but their fighting looks like

formless hack and slash, devoid of the

techniques they work so hard to cultivate.

For the first time, the PiercingCloud Method is available to

motivated students of the Chinese Straight

Sword in the form of an ongoing full-time program, running in up to 3

month blocks throughout the year.

Don’t miss this opportunity to intensively

train in a truly complete swordsystem that has deep relevance to other

sword traditions and provides the student

with a firm basis from which to learn the use

of any weapon.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N C O N T A C T :

P I E R C I N G C L O U D S W O R D @ G M A I L . C O M

W W W . P I E R C I N G C L O U D . C O M

Youtube: Piercing Cloud Sword

Piercing Cloud Spear training is

also available to select students who

meet the necessary requirements.

Accommodations are available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Piercing Cloud

“When pierced, we areuntouchable like clouds;when clouded, we pierceto the center withouthesitation.”



Tea As A Way

Matthew Preston

As the weather in Taiwan is highly variable, teaquality may differ from season to season. Although theisland is not particularly large, it is geographicallyvaried, with high, steep mountains rising abruptly

from low-lying coastal plains. (Source: Wikipedia)

Tea. There is so much more to it. (Source: Me).

T

he first time I ever tried Oolong Teawas years ago when I ended up in a

health foods supermarket in suburban Canadaand was offered a sample. I believe I was

told the name meant “health tea” by the well-meaning attendant. While packaged and soldas teabags, I remember it having a distinctlydifferent flavor than any other teas I’d tried before. What began in the aisles of a grocery

store I now trace back as the moment thatstarted a tea lifestyle.

Chinese populations are everywhere, andalong with their ubiquitous presence comesthe preservation of their cultural artifacts invarious forms: martial arts, clothing, food,music, script and tea. My first exposure

to high quality Chinese teas was through aKorean Buddhist friend I’d met in Seoul whoworked at a tea shop. Pre-GPS, I still managedto make my way to the correct address despitethe best attempts of the sprawling metropolis

to thwart me. The moment I enteredthe shop, the aromas of various teas were

LOST IN TRANSLATIONunmistakable. Also, there was an abundanceof wood fixtures all around. Wooden tables,

wooden chairs, carvings of various colors andsizes around, and of course wooden tea traysand implements. Wood vibrates in a differentway. Wood is good.

My friend’s job was to learn about thevarious teas in stock, preparation methodsand history, and to pour samples for thecustomers. As a ‘customer’, I was treated tosome tremendous hospitality, and was pouredsome amazing teas to broaden my cha (tea)

horizons. As a friend, I was treated to theinside knowledge and deeper understandingof this new environment. I’m thankful forpeople who have patience for those of us whoare rank amateurs. That was the first time I’d

ever drunk tea that priced on par with gold.I hadn’t realized what an expensive hobby/habit it could be. I hadn’t realized it was morethan a simple drink. I hadn’t realized that itwas only a simple drink, too. I hadn’t realized

how integral it was to culture, and how muchit paralleled the martial arts we’re all in lovewith. That having been said, it’s like anything:you can take it as far or study it as deep as youwant to. There are multiple layers, levels of

knowledge and understanding, and skills to

be developed. There’s a lot to learn fromtea, and it’s worth the time to invest in sucha lifestyle.

Tea is more than a drink and more than an art, it isintegrated in the culture and the mind. (Wikipedia)

STEEPING TEA: A TRAINING JOURNALThe night before, rains drummed hard on

the tin roofs of the city, the cadence of the

thundering white noise gradually lulling me

off to sleep. Getting up early is the easy part;it’s the waking up part that’s the challenge.That transition from slumber to consciousness became more tangible with three deep breaths

and the elongation of every joint right down tothe toes, mimicking my neighbor’s cat. Thereare always 1000 reasons not to train, yet it’sthe few key reasons we keep polished in ourminds that outweigh these excuses and keep us

“Tea is more than a drink and morethan an art, it is integrated in theculture and the mind.” (Wikipedia)








詠春拳Here we see a demonstration of Qin Na擒拿 (Siezeand Control Methods) doe from the style of WingChun. (1.) Warren (On the left) intercepts a punchwith a right Tan Sau攤手 (dispersing hand) block

followed by a (2.) Lap Sau拉手 (pulling hand) to pull the attack closer. At this stage Warren executesan elbow attack to the opponents (Jason) arm and

follows up with a (3.) back hand strike to distracthim following the Chinese saying “Hit to grab, Grab tohit.” (4.) Pulling Jasons elbow into his chest he begis

the qin na method of (5.) “Break the Gooses Neck” folding his wrist palm down and pulling explosivelytowards his chest. This would dislocate the wrist andcause a neurological event for the opponent, givinganother heartbeat to continue the attack. Warrenthen follows up with a (6.) Man Sau問手(seekinghand) reaching towards the throat which leads to a(7.) straight line punch to Jasons head.

Qin Na is a method of siezing control of anopponents body and therefore his mind, it consists

of different methods and dozens of techniques andwhen used opportunistically is a great part of a

ghters arsenal.

*Please practice responsibly with all due care and attentionand with appropr iate training partners.

HEAVY HANDS

Wing Chun Kuen

1.

2.

6.

7.

3.

4.

5.

50 Summer 2013

• Ba Ying Quan (Eight Shadows Fist Style)

• Online Distance Drunken Boxing Course

• Drunken Boxing Full Time Programs

• International Workshop Tours

• Tai Ji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan)

• Qigong (Chi Kung)

• MeditationCreston, BC Canada

www.redjademartialarts.com

Photos by Neil Ripski



Chen Fa Ke

Chen Fa Ke (1887-1957) was born andraised in the Chen Village, birthplace of

Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan). He was the 17thgeneration lineage holder (standard bearer orultimate authority) of Chen Taiji and fought

many challenges privately and in public Lei Taimatches throughout his life, never losing. Aftermoving to Beijing in 1928 he took disciplesand public students and brought Taiji to thepublic at large.

At a Yang Style Taiji event in Beijing duringthis time (Chen style was almost unheard

of) Chen Fake demonstrated at the event,performing the second set of the style knownas Pao Chui (Cannon Fist) breaking every

floor tile he stepped on in the demonstration.Chen Fake was the most respected Taiji Masterof the last 100 years, if not all time, andeveryone who trains Chen Style Taiji looks totrace their lineage to him through one of his

closest disciples.

LEGENDS - Masters That Matter



Living, combat-effective Chinese Swordsmanship

Email: [email protected]

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