Chinese Martial Arts Culture Seminar
Bulkington 25th October 2004
This September Sil Lum Kune enjoyed a Chinese Culture Seminar taught by Master Chen Lei. www.chen-lei.com
The seminar took place in Bulkington and in addition to teaching martial arts, was designed to give us some basic preparation for the trip to China next year. The main areas we covered apart from the details of the China Trip 2005 were:
• Chi Gong breathing exercises [Qi Gong]
• Pushing hands
• Chinese basic language
• Spear and staff
We are all of course, ridiculously excited at the prospect of the forthcoming China experience next year and so the opportunity to get just a small taste of a few of the activities we will be taking part in, had us crackling with anticipation for what is to come.
Chi Gong
I had only touched upon the basics of Chi Gong before and so to take part in learning a whole section (one of four) of Daoyin chi gong was a fantastic experience. The section we practised is made up of seven parts:
• Hold the moon
• Yin yang stimulations
• Push mountains
• Dragon coils the pillar
• The bridge between heaven and earth
• Catch the rabbit
• Chi returning
The exercise consisted of flowing movement and controlled breathing, containing some of the fundamentals of chi gong. I believe that chi gong has great benefits for our internal organs, circulation, mental focus and general well being. It is an area that I think needs to studied and incorporated more by western martial artists not only in lessons, but also into our daily routines. I think we often concentrate mainly on the external, hard, physical aspects of training and forsake the internal benefits that chi gong could bring. It would be easy to do at home, in the morning or before bed at night and would (I feel) make our approach to Kung fu more rounded and complete. Whilst I may not always be able to train physically intensely, as I get older or through injury, I could always practise and benefit from chi gong.
Pushing hands
The second part of our seminar was pushing hand drills designed to build up sensitivity to our opponents' movement, force and balance. We can learn through pushing hands to use our opponents' force against them, to divert attacks and put them off balance. Starting toe-to-toe and wrist-to-wrist, the idea is not to break contact but to use relaxed circular movement and your partners own energies to your advantage. Combining both hard and soft elements of Kung fu theory this was an interesting experience and again a side to Kung fu that, when properly studied could help develop a more rounded and proficient martial artist.
Chinese language or Mandarin
This part of the seminar gave us a look at some basic Chinese language that might be useful to us as tourists in China. Although important phrases like ‘hello', ‘no thanks' and ‘nice to meet you' were covered it has to be said that the most well received and rehearsed sentence was “Pi jiu qing” or “one beer please!”
Spear and staff
To finish we were split into two groups, choosing to learn either the staff or the slightly more technical spear. The staff is at the base of all pole weapons and so I learnt a short section of moves involving using the staff with the back of my neck to generate tension into a strike by releasing one side of my grip and flicking the staff suddenly out at my opponent. Those who chose the spear focused on a form using the full length of the spear to hold the foe at bay and looked at the twisting technique of a stabbing motion used by soldiers to both attack and defend practically with the spear. The seminar was a great success and it was an absolute pleasure to be taught by Master Chen Lei. It's a dream situation for a Kung fu fan like myself to even meet someone like Master Chen and so to actually be taught by him was off the scale altogether!
Many thanks go to Master Paul Burkinshaw for organising the seminar and to Master Chen Lei for imparting his knowledge. In closing all I can say is many thanks and ‘bring on China!'
Written By Paul Blundell