Hey, I just finished reading Peregrine Phoenix vol.1 - I adored it enough to come poke the author about it. I'm a fervid martial arts guy, and I noticed that, despite the relatively sparse description of grappling in comparison to the abundant striking, both of Mokou's barehanded fights ended with suplexes. Interestingly, she fights taurs both times. I'd love to hear more about the process behind choreographing this, particularly the process of figuring out what might and mightn't work on a quadrupedal body plan. Were you inspired by judo, wrestling, something else?

thank you so much for this ask. it's maybe the perfect question so i hope i can do it justice.

it's been about 2-2.5 years since i wrote the fight scenes in book 1, so i don't have as precise an idea anymore of my peripheral inspirations. as far as personal experience with martial arts, i don't have a whole lot - i took karate in high school at a suburban McDojo and got to... brown belt? then a whole lot of nothing. but by the time i started writing book 1, my wife's interest and appreciation of Wing Chun got me into the off-and-on habit of doing daily Si Lim Tao with her.

because of this, i'm a bit of a chameleon when it comes to my influences. i rely on media depictions a lot. i see a cool martial arts movie (like the Ip Man movies for Wing Chun, or like The Raid for Silat, etc) and i'm like "well that's cool as fuck, and mokou loves to tussle and she's lived forever so i bet she knows that." i like to give her worldly influences and i also like to give her otherworldly/larger-than-life/future influences because she's been part of this unbroken continuity of being and her knowledge and practice should reflect that. so it's things like Wing Chun and Silat, but it's also things like Lunarian CQC from the Lunar Wars, Danneskjold Pit Style from her life across the Moghra'yi, or Heaven Sundering Fist from wherever the hell you learn fake anime martial marts in the time and space between Gensokyo and Qud.

the suplex finisher is for any number of reasons. number one, there's something incredibly decisive and definitive about a suplex. number two, it's flashy as hell and i love flashy things. number three, and perhaps most critically, it gets your foe off of their feet! and when you're facing a quadruped, that's very important, that's the root of their strength! they can get twice the leverage out of the ground as you can, so the sooner you can negate that advantage, the better!

writing this series has me thinking about the ergonomics and design philosophy of centaurs more than i usually do, which, if you look at my #taurposting tag, you can probably understand is something i already think about a great deal. whenever agate fobs off mokou's interest or training offers with "i have my own techniques" i'm always like god. but actually what do those look like. how do you get gains as a centaur in a world with no gyms. one of these chapters in one of these books i'll probably go into it.

mokou's moveset in ULiL/AoCF is also a big inspiration! she's got all these great stomps and kicks and flips and nasty fire-claw punches whenever she deigns to pull her hands out of her pockets. she's not a very "honorable" fighter, she cares way more about getting to cut loose. agate's lucky she didn't catch a handful of homemade explosives to the face!

my choreography process is usually like… well i do a lot of rotating these gals in my mind and seeing what would be the coolest thing for them to do, the most sensible thing for them to do, the most emotionally or thematically resonant thing for them to do, the best nod to that dope move in the martial arts flick i just watched, etc, and then whatever i settle on i try to depict as clearly as i can. then if there's room for textual flourishes i'll spruce it up some.

Judo wasn't really a direct influence over book 1's fight scenes - i think the first judo-centric martial arts film i've seen was Sanshiro Sugata (1943), and i saw that one for the first time in may of 2022, too late to influence book 1. hilarious movie for fight choreography btw, he just fucking shuffles up and GETS them and then they fly across the room and almost die and it keeps happening. beautiful.

that said, there's some tussles coming up in book 2 that give a nod to Judo! this is because i've been getting way into Sumo lately and Judo has a good playbook to help in Sumo bouts. also Judo is a great style for someone who is too depressed to regularly keep herself in peak condition, because a lot of it is about putting what force you have to best use, and using your enemy's force against them. Wing Chun is also good for folks who aren't in the best shape, so that's another of my justifications as to why she talks that one up.

and finally, caves of qud as a game is one that has sadly underdeveloped (though not nonexistent!) barehand combat support, so there's a bit less inspiration i can pull directly from the game. mokou's new in town anyway, so she hasn't had a chance to soak in the styles regardless. i'm gonna take this opportunity to plug the Qud-Fu - Mixed Martial Arts Skills mod which i keep meaning to install and play around with but so far haven't. but if i do it strikes me as one very likely to show up in the fic XD

thank you again and i hope this gave you better insight!

In Action.....

Exercising Demons, Wing Chun Kung Fu, and Self-Care!

As of this week, I had suddenly felt the vibes to write another blog post again. This time, I am happy to share with you not only the feeling that I could happily take the bus and train alone via a Grab ride alone but the feeling of going to a random gym to continue my further training.

Without depending on a personal trainer, I went to the Blitz Gym at SS15 to do my own training. Just like the other day I did my training at OUG Gym in Old Klang Road, I trained for an insane 4 hours which was actually worth it.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

Lately, as though I missed going to the gym in Shah Alam, I changed my gym to OUG Gym every Mondays before Wing Chun Kung Fu class, and Blitz Gym in SS15 every Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while I was suggested that Thursday is supposed to be my rest day. Throughout the self-training without my personal trainer, within the four hours of my time in the gym, all I focused was on my cardio, biceps, triceps, back, chest, leg, and abs. With all the workouts I was unfamiliar with, I asked other attendants nearby to teach me so that I could learn effectively.

Alright.

So, speaking of Wing Chun Kung Fu, I have been practicing the martial art for a good four months now. I joined since July, and so far I had to keep up with the basics and the small concept, which they call it the Siu Lim Tao (小念头). My sifu, Alex Yap (Sifu Yap) and his wife seem to notice that I haven’t been practicing much. I understood that I had to keep my personal issues out of my practice, ever since I was very passionate and serious about being a martial artist and following Bruce Lee, my grandmaster’s footsteps. (LONG STORY)

As I was training in class, Sifu Yap and his wife got me to do a “special”, yet I call it intense training to train my horse stance. Sifu Yap’s wife has taught me to do my Yeung Ma (or the horse stance) the proper way. Instead of jumping, she told me that my feet must always sweep the ground and never slouch. If I slouched, I would be whipped on my leg as a punishment until I was asked to do the proper way. I did not react to it, I wasn’t scared after all.

As after I did my horse stance with sweeping on the ground instead of jumping, Sifu’s wife taught me to pretend like I was sitting in a halfway chair, and focus on staring at my great great great grandmasters’ photos. 

(On a side note, before getting to know Ip Man the grandmaster, Bruce Lee was my idol ever since I was 12. I bought his two books: Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense and Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method)

When I always get into the class, I saw most of my grandmasters’ pictures hanging on the wall, and besides, Sifu once introduced me to the grandmaster that trained him, whose name is Samuel Kwok, based in Great Britain.

As I was doing my horse stance correctly, I stared at Ip Man’s portrait and the film poster which starred Donnie Yen, which I longed to watch as a twelve-year-old as I did not have the time. Whereas, when Sifu and his wife were away, their son, my senior Simon was monitoring if I did get distracted or slouched on the floor. I did slouched for a while, therefore, my slouching habit broke immediately as I swept the ground. Sifu’s wife was happy, as she told me

“Don’t be like Pinnochio, be as relaxed as your teddy bear!”

“Don’t be like that puppet that grows his long nose!”

Hearing this, I felt much empowered, so I continued to stand until class ended late. With the words from Sifu’s wife and Sifu Yap, I was very much excited to get back to training again. Whereas, I had to keep progressing with my Siu Lim Tao and to break the habit of slouching in the public, not really just in class.

If you cannot do things properly, how can you act for the person?

This seemed to make me motivated to practice more and to consistently exercise so that I could aim to be the person I become today, as though I still battle with dysphoria, depression, and anxiety myself. And speaking of Pinnochio, all I ever do is to be honest with myself as I was to others. I would always honestly speak up what is in my mind instead of bottling shit up. Therefore, telling the wrong people will land you into the bigger trouble.

Furthermore in Wing Chun, everything is relaxed instead of being tensed up like a puppet. Sifu has changed my life from being bad-tempered and pessimistic to a man of modesty, gentle in his manners, and practicing spiritual tranquility and optimism. Sifu told me to look at the bright side of life instead of fighting with the people who do not deserve my attention. When I first met him, he told my mother that he saw potential in me, that I can be a great martial artist until I could compete in Hong Kong for the championship. However, a championship is too far to talk about as of now, because consistent practice and the willpower is the key to success. As I read in Jackson Ng’s book, The New You, I was taught that success is never an easy walk in the park. Indeed, it is a tough journey and when you get familiar with the struggles and become strong, it gets easy. I realized that this is resilience. Instead of suicidal and negative thoughts, I choose to start caring for myself physically, emotionally, and mentally, so that I could stand up and start caring for myself and for others.

Also, as I have read two chapters of the book so far, I was learning more about the differences between the eagle and the chicken. From now on, I would rather be seeing changes/failures as opportunities than to give up easily. Being a practitioner in Wing Chun, it’ll not be easy; therefore, the more I could get familiar, it will get easier.

Review and study of text again. Been watching Tao documentaries on Gaia this morning, practiced my tai chi. Trying to establish longer daily practices that also incorporate study of texts into my martial arts practice. Later today I would also like to practice my first form in wing chun. What are you doing today in your practice?

Dit Da Medicines

For this week’s topic, I thought I would delve into one of my favorite special areas of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), which is Dit Da (跌打). Literally translated, it is Dit which means “fall” in Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) and Da meaning “hit”. When I was a student at PCOM (Pacific College of Oriental Medicine) in San Diego, this is how I learned about the relationship between Martial Arts and Dit Da: If you know or have the ability to hurt someone, (through physical means, i.e. sparring), then you should know how to heal someone. 

That being said I also have interests in Wing Chun, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, but those all sound like separate Tumblr posts, for another time. :)

I originally obtained the below information from my Introduction to Clinical Techniques class at PCOM, back in 2008. This Dit Da Zau ( 跌打酒 , “Fall Hit Liniment”) formula, was an accompanying document to a video shown in class, with Dr. Rene Ng as the main lecturer. 

I would like to Thank Dr. Ng for always being like a mentor to me over the years, and someone whom I truly look up to. For more information on his practice, please go to: www.chinesemedicalsolutions.com . 

This Dit Dat Zau is:

Used for: *Treatment of injuries caused by “falls” and “hits”. 

*Bruises, pulled ligaments, sprains, fractured/broken bones, etc. 

Basic Actions: 

*Invigorates the blood

*Removes Qi and blood stagnation

*Cools the blood

*Regulates Qi

*Tonifies the blood

*Stops bleeding (esp. internal) 

*Warms interior

*Defend against external pathogenic attacks. 

Common Basic Ingredients and dosage: 

The recommended dosage for each herb is between 2 - 5 grams of each, but I used the below dosage of herbs below. Always consult with a Primary Care Provider and /or TCM Practitioner when starting a new health regimen. 

*Ru Xiang (Gummi Olibanum) - invigorates the blood  (6 grams)

*Mo Yao (Myrrh) -  invigorate the blood (6 g)   

*Chi Shao (Radix Paeoniae Rubra) - cools the blood  (6 g)  

*Mu Xiang (Radix Saussureae seu Vladimiriae) regulate Qi  (6 g)     

*Hong Hua (Flos Carthami Tinctorii) - invigorate the blood  (6 g)  

*Tao Ren (Semen Persicae) -  invigorate the blood  (6 g)

*Dang Gui Wei (Radix Angelicae Sinensis) - tonify the blood  (6 g)

*Pu Huang (Pollen Typhae) - stop bleeding  (6 g)

*Da Huang Tan (Rhizoma Rhei- Charred) - purgative  (6 g)

*Tian Qi (Radix Pseudoginseng) -  stop bleeding (9 g)

*Ding Xiang (Flos Caryophylli) - warm the interior and expel cold (6 g)

*Rice Wine (drinking quality) - application agent and blood mover   

Method: Soak all ingredients in a glass container (preferably), in 500 cc (cubic centimeters= 500 mL (milliliters.) A personal suggestion to label the liniment container with the date and ingredients, for quality and documentation purposes. 

I have personally soaked this liniment myself and can see and feel a difference in trauma recovery when applied topically, such as the time it takes for the color of a bruise to dissipate. Although I do not have the bottle that I soaked of this liniment handy, for future posts, I will try to have pictures of herbals and medicinals that I am sharing information about. 

Application Types: 

* Liniments (Dit Da Zau - over the counter and tailored) 

* Plasters (over the counter and tailored)  

* Pills (over the counter and tailored)    

Note: most over the counter liniments are good for basic muscular ailments. You will need to tailor with additional herbs for specific injuries.        

Wing Chun: Hands of Blitz

Izael G. Gomez

Remember the movie artists Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Robert Downey Jr.? Did you know that were all notable in the field of martial arts? But what kind of martial arts do they actually specialize in?

Wing Chun, a southern Chinese kung fu style which is characterized by narrow stances with elbows close to the body, is a self-defense method that requires the use of quick arm movements and strong legs to pin down opponents. It also emphasizes not only the centerline principle, but also the central line principle. This is the line that runs from the center of your body to your opponent. When you attack in a linear direction, your line is away from your opponent while your central line faces his or her center.

According to legend, Wing Chun was made by a Buddhist nun Ng Mui, a shaolin kung fu master. She devised a compact form of kung fu based on her martial art training and personal experience. She exploited the weaknesses of other martial arts and created a new one which would be advantageous for all people, regardless of their size and strength. She created a compact style of kung fu and named her martial art after one of her students Yim Wing Chun.

One of the basic forms of Wing Chun is Siu Nim Tao ( 小念頭), which is translated as the little idea, is the first open-hand form from which all forms and techniques depend. It concentrates on a form that presents concepts of energy, motion and position in a fixed context. Imagine the form having already 108 movements in a static position. What else if it would be used in a moving context?

Siu Nim Tao has been adopted and changed over the past hundred years. The form has been said to be inspired from the hybrid snake and crane style kung fu. The first section of the form concentrates on training for basic power by tensing and relaxing the arm. The second section emphasizes training on how to use the power or strength that has been generated in the first section. The third section circles mainly on the correct positioning of the basic hand and arm movements, and building muscle memory.

Wing Chun focuses on the power of the joints. Close combat, quick punches and tight defense helps in destabilizing the movement of opponents, making them flinch and lose control of the situation. This martial art also focuses on redirecting the blows made against you to double the power when it bounces back. 

Great power can be generated from the center of the body; however, the centerline must be protected at all times because the vital organs are mainly located in the center of one’s body. Thus, one should not expose his or her own centerline to others.

I am currently a green-belt karateka of Shitō-ryū. This is karate style founded by Kenwa Mabuni which is known for its physical strength and long powerful stances derived from Shuri-te (indigenous martial art in Shuri, Okinawa) styles such as Shorin-ryū and Shotokan styles, and its eight-directional movement derived from Uechi-ryū and Gōjū-ryū . I believe that all martial arts are great in their form and their techniques, but one kind of martial arts intrigued me.

Wing Chun Kung Fu Association (WKA) Survival Tactics Philippines made its way in 2010 and was lead by Sifu Jayson A. Navarra, a Filipino national from Muntinlupa City, and founded by Sigung Joel Resurrecion of WKA Italy, another Filipino national from Laguna City. He was one of the many who started and spread Wing Chun in the Philippines.  

Jayson studied Aikido and had knowledge in doing high kicks when he was in high school. He was enthusiastic about martial arts, and he came to a point in his life that he wanted to teach a martial art that was simple yet applicable in most situations. He came across Wing Chun, the best martial art that describes his dream martial art. As he went on with learning Wing Chun, he had met two of the most prominent people in his journey. One is Sifu Galpo, who used to train with masters in Taiwan. The other one is Sifu Casas, under Golden Harvest Wing Chun,  a Wing Chun who has his headquarters located in Japan and is headed by Sifu Mc Gowan.

His passion is teaching Wing Chun to others. He believes that this martial art will be one of the best in terms of practical use and effectiveness. “Simplicity. Explosiveness. Effectiveness.” These are the words best to describe Wing Chun. Believe it or not, I have taken up lessons and practical application of Wing Chun and made so much improvement with the way I move, as if I am being prepared for what situation is brought to my life.

If you want to defend in a soft and relaxed manner, this is one of the best martial arts to go to. I believe that this martial art is one of the most simultaneous when it comes to movement of arms and feet. I really liked how the execution of Wing Chun is done since it uses a relaxed method of releasing the core strength of the body.

Here’s a sample video of how Wing Chun works in different combat situations.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/368316686889024?view=permalink&id=482166875504004

If you want to learn Wing Chun, there are training sessions done in the following places: Muntinlupa, Makati, Luneta, Rizal and Marikina. For private lessons you can contact him via sms or call at 0930 026 6631.

 References:

Ching, I. Ip Ching on Sil Lim Tau. Samuel Kwok Wing Chun Martial Arts Association. Retrieved June 23, 2019, from http://www.kwokwingchun.com/about-wing-chun/the-wing-chun-forms/sil-lim-tao/

Karate World. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from  https://karateworld.info/shito-ryu/

West Coast Wing Chun. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://westcoastwingchun.com/training/forms/siu-lim-tao-2/

Wing Chun News. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://www.wingchunnews.ca/siu-nim-tau/

Wing Chun Online. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from http://www.wingchunonline.com/wing-chun-kung-fu/concepts/centerline-theory/

Martial arts and Consciousness Yep that's me training Wing Chun a few weeks ago Practicing martial arts is improving my ability to balance my mind, body and soul together. #instantconsciousness #martialarts #wingchun #kungfu #vegan #healthy #focus #meditation #energy #vibes #philosophy #knowledge #tao #balance #light #lifestyle #mindset #wingchundaily #taichi #mindset #mixedmartialarts #body #silence #soul #practice (à Germany)

Trapping Principles

So, to make the tools strong requires a number of important factors and attention to some small details.  Here are a few:

1)  Immovable Elbow Principle.  The elbow must be maintained on or close to your centerline, and should never be positioned less than one fist length from your body.  "If your elbow gives," I recall Bruce saying, "then your structure is destroyed".  About this, Bruce was adamant! 2)  Structure Softening.  Learn to soften and concave the chest so that you are all shoulders, back, and forearms.  This allows structural strength and firmer grounding while reducing tension in the body.  It keeps your mid-body at further reach from your opponent while, at the same time, naturally extending your reach to him.  The soft curvature of the body face is also used for setting up gaps that you may need for exercising powerful mechanical advantages in the use of your tools. 3)  Sealing down the shoulder.  Raise it and your structure will be both offensively and defensively weakened.  This is not only important while jamming and trapping, but also in striking.  The Sil Lum Tao form teaches how to weld down the shoulders so that your structure will powerfully unitized, rather than weakly disjointed. 4)  Triangle structure.  Bruce's structure was based on triangles.  A number of triangles beginning at the feet work all the way up the body and end with the tools.  For instance, even the simple tan sao if done correctly provides the angles for five separate triangles.  See if you can you find them. 5)  Chi.  To improve chi energy for greater strength in your tool you must be sure to keep open a space between your index finger and middle finger, particularly in tan sao, jut sao, bon sao, wu sao.  In tan sao, keeping the palm flat up and angled slightly will also create a natural mechanical advantage and line of deflection.  Bruce believed in chi! 6)  Wrist Mechanics.  The practice of wu sao, huen sao, and jut sao (as in the Sil Lum Tao form) teaches powerful and indomitable wrist mechanics.  Pay close attention to the drilling and adduction principles using the joints of ankles, knees, hips, forearms and wrists.  These are the mechanics that will move a bigger man around with seemingly little effort on your part.  A Bruce specialty! 7)  Ball Principle.  If you were to roll around on a big ball, you would be rolling on multiple planes of movement.  You can go under, over, around on either side and in either direction, or at any one of 360 degrees of direction, or push straight through.  Learn to use these planes to your mechanical advantages.  For instance, you might lift or push down the opponent's arms or elbows to break down and move his structure.  Bruce was great at this! 8)  Switching.  The switching movements both at the heels and the balls of the feet offer certain mechanical advantages.  For power and uprooting your opponent switch on the heels.  For instance, a bon sao that not only deflects an attack, but also serves to put shock into the opponent and disrupt him, switch on the heels.  To create angles and cover single ground in a single movement switch on the toes.  To cover ground, as in snake-stepping alternate switching on heels and toes.  Bruce could either come straight at you or retreat without ever taking a step! 9)  Falling Step Power.  True Bruce picked this one up from Jack Dempsey's book, but he was also quite familiar with its principle from his gung fu training.  It has to do with landing your punch or trapping a hand in timing with your lead step and weight transfer.  Actually, there is an exercise that develops this power.  It's one of those tricky things that looks like a feat of strength, but also provides a clearer understanding of how to optimize the falling step effect.  (See: "Falling Step Drill").  I still wear Bruce's palm print on my chest! ;-) 10)  Bow Action of Hip.  Here the hip acts like a bow (as in bow and arrow), flexing and building tension, then releasing it directionally.  A fundamental power source provided by the wing chun structure and well known to Bruce.  It's the very kind of thing that you don't see, but you can be sure it's there!  (see: "Hip Loading Drill) 11)  Tactile Sensitivity.  Bruce developed this mostly from Wing Chun's Chi Sao's sticking hands, but also from Tai Chi's pushing hands.  The only way to learn this correctly is to learn it from a good instructor, hands on.  When Bruce trapped he became one with his opponent.  But one trap is not always enough.  The highly skilled practitioner will be able to go to the next move, and the next move, and whatever is needed to finish the job.  Bruce did not get stuck after the first move! 12)  Helping Hand.  Sometimes a single tool is just not enough and you need a little help.  This is where the other hand comes into play, a mechanical reinforcement or engine for maximizing results.  It made Bruce's traps indomitable! 13)  Third Hand Principle.  Tactile sensitivity teaches how to use the full arm as a tool.  Often times you will be in a position to trap or jam down with your opponent by using your upper forearm while, at the same instant, freeing both of your hands.  This is how Bruce fought with three hands. 14)  Expanding Triangle.  One of the greatest forces throughout the universe is the Principle of Compression and Expansion.  Compressing and expanding the body's structure and the use of its tools was a powerful component to Bruce's art.  The Expanding Triangle involves setting up a triangle structure with the arms, backed by the triangle structure of the body and expanding it.  The effect is unbelievably incredible mechanical forces, but with very little effort. ​Needless to say, this list does include all of the principles and mechanics used by Bruce, such as grounding, slipping, poling, vectoring, oscillation, plyometrics, slanting, joint selectivity, jing (final power), simplicity, and more.  I always find it amusing to think how utterly simple Bruce's art is if you understand all that complexity of details.

Wing Chun and Boxing

So I strapped on some light gloves and head protection and sparred lightly for the first time with a friend who has experience in boxing and other unarmed arts. It was my first experience really putting what I know into practice in an environment that was that unpredictable and resisting. Here are my thoughts:

- People like to always put up Wing Chun against Boxing because while all manner of kung fu styles have variously been referred to as “Chinese Boxing” Wing Chun perhaps because of its being widespread and visible is often seen as the “Chinese Boxing” method to compare with western boxing. This may be because of the nature of Ip Man’s students disseminating the art form specifically to western audiences, its passing similarities to pugilism, and other things. But in my opinion... They’re really not so different, when you’re looking at just the hand work. They’re two different approaches of doing the same thing. So conceptually, seeing youtube videos and other media always pitting the two as two sides of some weird coin with vague British colonialist trappings has always seemed strange to me. Having my first in-person experience now seeing the two methods go up against eachother, I feel even further that there is little theoretical practice in seeing them as vastly different. - I have been very intently reading Bruce Lee’s “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do.” Like so many thousands of people I was always inspired by Bruce Lee growing up. Now that I have some years of classical training in the same method that he originally learned, it’s especially interesting reading his book. He makes overt references to inspiration from Boxing, Savate, and Olympic Fencing for his striking analysis. As a HEMA fencer, I found that adapting his right and left lead stances felt incredibly naturally to apply my Wing Chun technique from - and going up against a western boxer the classic front-on Jong position felt a little vulnerable.

- I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to work any trapping techniques, though my normal defenses worked incredibly well. Tan and Fook both did their job in rather effortlessly glancing strikes away from my body. Most of my more active defences were simple Pak and Jut techniques. Most of my chi sao practice is against people with years more experience than I do, so while I’m pretty good at getting out of a hairy situation, it’s still difficult for me to use trapping to impose that situation on someone else. - My opponent was a bit shorter than I am and is a strong infighter. The same advice that I get from my teacher and many kung fu sources rung incredibly true - for the love of god keep your elbows low and in front of your ribs. So many hits that would have winded me stopped dead at my elbows - and the more I focused on maintaining good structure under stress the more effort in blocking was taken away.

- My main weakness was hooking - and here’s the thing - one of the ubiquitous aforementioned youtube videos you’ll always see on wing chun is how to deal with a hook - but they only show you head hooks. Here’s the thing, if you engage our opponent in a good, extended jong sau, the only way they’re going to hit you in the face is if they’ve got way longer arms than you - and then they probably won’t hook, because that upsets their range. The REAL hooks you have to worry about are hooks coming in to the side of the ribs. My opponent would clash against my elbows and if I couldn’t keep him away he’d close and start throwing shovel hooks to my sides. I could usually get some elbows down on his head on my way out of range, but I was always left wondering what those hits would feel like without the gloves. At one point I was able to break into his centerline and chain-punch to make space away from the hooks, but it wasn’t easy. So that was only one bout, but it was loads of fun and I’m really looking forward to exploring my technique more! His knee wasn’t feeling good today so we stayed away from leg work but I’m really excited to see how kicking translates into the fray as well.

Martial Arts Questions Game

Rules: Tag people!

tagged by @knittin4kicks :D

When you first tried martial arts: I tried Tai Chi about 12 years ago at school. Dropped out after one class, came back the next semester and was hooked since then. 

Martial arts you have trained in: I’ve *trained* Tai Chi. I’ve dabbled in Kung Fu, Xingyi, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, and am currently dabbling in bjj. 

Other physical activities you do: I once ran two miles. I have been known to play ultimate frisbee. 

Martial art you most want to try: Wing chun, or anything with swords - same!

Most recent martial arts movie you saw: Does Mulan count? Also same! haha. It’s on Hulu right now. 

Most recent martial arts book you read: I can’t remember the name but it’s a bunch of Yang Style applications

Fav martial arts movie: Ip Man

Fav martial arts book: Again I can’t remember the name but it’s a pretty great break down of tai chi and standing meditation and how it affects your brain. 

What do you wear for training: For Tai Chi, either stretchy pants and a flowy shirt or loose soft pants with a flowy shirt. BJJ so far I’ve only done no-gi so I have a rash guard. 

Do you practice outside of class?: Yes but not daily like I should. But I THINK about practicing multiple times per day...does that count?

Worst martial arts injury: A classmate nearly broke my wrist playing push hands. He was some kind of body worker tho so he fixed it in like 2 minutes immediately after he hurt me.  

3 favorite martial artists: Oh jeez, Donnie Yen is awesome to watch. Chen Bing is amazing. There are a ton of MMA fighters I love and personally, all the dudes on my boyfriend’s team. 

3 martial arts goals this year: 1. Practice more. 2. Run a successful workshop in June. 3. Figure out how to go to bjj trains at least once a week. 

Fav movement in your style: Fair lady works shuttle. Use it allll the time. 

Do you compete?: I have. I hope to again someday. 

Anyone else in your family do martial arts?: Nope, not that I know of. My sister has taken some of my classes and went to a workshop I taught but just because she was being supportive. My dad did some judo and I don’t know what in the police academy but didn’t study anything beyond what was required for work. 

Do you dream in martial arts?: I have but not often

Any martial arts regrets?: Not going to China to study with my teacher when I was invited. Now I can’t go. Also, not practicing enough and letting myself get off track too often. 

Something you learned the hard way: Not everyone will forgive you, even if you didn’t actually do the thing they’re mad about. You can’t make them and they don’t have to. 

Advice for someone just starting out: Let yourself be new. You will not be good for a while and it will be hard but that’s GOOD. Failure won’t kill you. Losing isn’t failure. Losing is learning. Ask yourself “what’s one thing I learned today” after every class. If you learned one thing, you were successful. It doesn’t matter if you’re GOOD at that thing. Don’t get wrapped up in style hype. 

Tagging time! @tao-of-life @idreamofgjj @thetaijistudent @shinchido and anyone else who wants to do it! 

#Sil Nim Tao As First Taught in U.K to myself over 30 Years Ago by my #WingChun #Sifu as a closed door student .First section defines the #centerline and performed in slow motion with dynamic tension in bicep ,forearm, elbow ,wrist and fingers isolated at the shoulder so the rest of the body remains relaxed This: 1 focus of mind, also #energy into specific points (not whole body) 2 training to Isolate restrictor muscles that hold back and slow down required movement While building and conditioning specific muscle groups for fast effective response and application.3 slow rotations in dynamic tension of wrists so to condition them adding enhanced #strength .4 the Stretching and tightening of the sinews for storage and transmition of energy. Sections 2 &3 are performed at full combat speed to teach flow from one form or technique to another while maintaining #focus, switching on and off immediately energy so it is only employed on the exact contact points within form ,fixed elbow principal practice , control of air /breathing while performing at high speed ,no over extension of shoulders or deviation from positions (which disrupts #structure, #balance and #centerline ) while under the pressure of fast movement ect . ect. Wing Chun is after all a full #combat style there for all but the first section of #silnimtao must be trained to reach an acceptable level of flow with #speed and #energy /#power as would be required in full combat !!!

Donnie Yen: The Martial Artist Who Brought a Wing Chun Legend to Life in 3 Ip Man Movies

Donnie Yen first appeared on my radar 25 years ago, when his name often graced the pages of martial arts periodicals. I learned that Donnie Yen, the son of Boston-based wushu pioneer and Black Belt Hall of Famer Bow Sim Mark, stood out from his peers because of his strong stances and aesthetic postures, which helped him dominate the competition at martial arts tournaments.

In part because he longed to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen decided to try his hand at action films. Like Bruce Lee, he opted to return to southern China, where he found work as a stuntman in Hong Kong. Donnie Yen quickly leveled up to starring roles, commanding the screen opposite Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China II (1992) and as hung gar kung fu master Wong Kei-Ying in Iron Monkey (1993). (The movie found U.S. distribution in 2001 thanks to Quentin Tarantino and Miramax.)

With hit after hit under his belt, Donnie Yen built himself into one of Asia’s most bankable actors. In 2008 he landed what would be his heaviest role to date: playing wing chun grandmaster Yip Man in Ip Man. (The Chinese family name Yip can be Romanized as Yip or Ip. In this article, I will use “Ip Man” to refer to the movie and “Yip Man” to refer to the man.)

Portraying the martial artist who was Bruce Lee’s master didn’t come without immense pressure and criticism, but the movie’s box-office performance and the rabid following it generated online proved the naysayers wrong — and set the stage for two sequels.

When the publicity tour for the latest film, Ip Man 3, brought Donnie Yen and co-star Mike Tyson to Los Angeles, I got an opportunity to interview Yen and hear about the struggles, triumphs, insights and visions that make up his life. Bearing a gift from my teacher, Black Belt Hall of Fame member Dan Inosanto, I entered the room, hoping for a good conversation. What I got was a great interview with a man who’s humble, hardworking and still hungry for higher achievements.

***

It’s an honor to finally meet you. I have a gift for you from someone you might have heard of: Dan Inosanto.

Donnie Yen: Wow! Thank you so much. I’ve heard so much about him and followed his career for years, but I never had the opportunity to meet him in person. Please thank him for me.

I spoke to him just before coming here, and he’s a huge fan of yours. Not only does he love your movies, but he also had high praise, saying that Bruce Lee would’ve been pleased with your work had he lived to see it.

Donnie Yen: That’s overwhelming. Please thank sifu Inosanto for me. [He tells his wife and his manager excitedly in Cantonese that Dan Inosanto was the training partner, best friend and top student of Bruce Lee.]

Go to Amazon now to get your copy of the Bruce Lee classic Tao of Jeet Kune Do: New Expanded Edition!

I always wanted to study Filipino kali from him. I’ve been a Bruce Lee fan ever since I was a kid, and as you probably know, I did an homage to him by reprising the role of Chen Zhen (whom Lee portrayed in Fist of Fury) in a TV series and feature film.

Absolutely. Your performance in Legend of the Fist is one of my favorites.

Donnie Yen: It’s funny … people asked me whether I knew that Bruce Lee had already done that role. The whole point of me doing those movies and playing those roles was out of respect to Bruce Lee — as a way of showing how much he inspired me in my career.

I could never be Bruce Lee. Nobody can. Nor could I imitate him in a way that would do him or the role justice. But just paying tribute to him with those roles was huge for me. I’ve always said that if Bruce was still alive, I’d have become his most devoted student.

How did that weigh on you when you were offered a chance to portray Yip Man?

Donnie Yen: The pressure was huge, and it came from a variety of angles, too. Let me share a bit of background with you. The first time I got a call to play the role of Yip Man was a couple of decades ago, but that movie never got made due to problems with the film’s backers. Years later, I was at a press conference in Beijing and got another call from a producer, saying that they’d spoken to grandmaster Yip’s family, gotten their blessing, were going to make a movie on him and wanted to cast me in the lead.

But there was already a film about Yip Man (The Grandmaster, starring Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi) that the famous director Wong Kar-Wai was going to direct. I asked about that, but the producer said not to worry since Wong has a reputation for taking his time on projects. Even though we were going to involve the same namesake character, they would tell their story and we would tell ours.

When the public got word that we were going to do Ip Man, people in the entertainment industry started drawing lines and picking sides. Critics claimed that our director Wilson Yip wasn’t qualified to direct a project of that magnitude. At that time, I’d just finished police movies like SPL: Kill Zone and Flash Point, which had a ton of over-the-top action sequences and MMA-based fight choreography. Those movies and Special Identity were the first Hong Kong action movies to take MMA grappling techniques and communicate them in a cinematic language. So critics also said that I wasn’t suitable for the role of grandmaster Yip or to showcase wing chun cinematically.

All this even before you started shooting?

Donnie Yen: Yes. I never expected there to be so many doubters, even though I knew this to be an iconic role.

Preparing for a role like that must have been different, considering your extensive martial arts background. What was your foundational training in with your mother? Was it modern wushu?

Donnie Yen: No, it was traditional Shaolin kung fu and then tai chi, but my tai chi is a little different. My mother’s master Fu Wing-Fay had a different style, and I’ve added my own flavor to my tai chi.

Growing up in Boston, did you get to experiment with different martial arts?

Donnie Yen: When I was a kid running around Chinatown, hung gar was really big, really popular. I used to study the old Lam Sai-Wing books on hung gar with the line drawings and practice those stances and postures. But back then, I was so curious and excited to learn martial arts from any source, regardless of style. I just wanted to absorb as much as I could. I’m still that way when I see something I like.

Wang Bo, formerly of Shaolin Temple, is the featured instructor in an online kung fu course from Black Belt. Titled Tree of Shaolin, it streams video lessons to your preferred digital device. Sign up here and start your journey along the 1,500-year-old Shaolin path!

Did you get any formal wing chun training back then?

Donnie Yen: Unfortunately, I did not. But there was one kid that knew a little bit, and we’d skip school and train in the park together, sparring and practicing techniques on each other. Back then, I was just trying to learn moves from the different styles and systems, including taekwondo — not just Chinese martial arts.

You mentioned Bruce Lee as a source of inspiration. Did you watch other kung fu flicks?

Donnie Yen: Oh, yeah. I was a big fan of those movies as a kid. I’d see some move that I thought was cool or some character that inspired me, and I’d try to imitate them physically or philosophically.

When it came time to prep for Ip Man, I understand that you spent time with both of Yip Man’s sons.

Donnie Yen: I actually spent a lot of time studying Yip Man’s personal story in terms of his history and background, not just studying wing chun. To get as close as I could to the source, I spent time with his sons, listening to them talk about their father, their family life and their art. I even went to Futsan (Foshan, China) to see where he lived.

Were the Yip brothers your technical trainers for the movie?

Donnie Yen: I actually had a bunch of different wing chun trainers to help me learn the forms and the basic drills, like the lap sau and chee sau (sticky hands) drills. The big thing they helped me with was learning the forms. I didn’t have three years to devote to mastering wing chun, so I could only try to embody the mindset and philosophy.

So there wasn’t just one master who oversaw all your training?

Donnie Yen: No. I didn’t want to try to be a clone of any one sifu. I knew that I could never imitate grandmaster Yip Man perfectly. I could only do the role justice by offering my interpretation of his philosophy in movement. Actually, studying the old black-and-white films of grandmaster Yip was very valuable. If there was one source that I tried to draw on most, that was it.

I also tried to get a sense of Yip Man’s movement and personality from his students outside the family. I actually used social media a lot to see how the different groups interpreted wing chun. It was very interesting. It gave me a chance to see how different wing chun people expressed the system physically and strategically. From the super-traditional to the more modern and aggressive versions, I wanted to get a broader view of what direction people were taking the art. All that figured into how I moved and how I portrayed the character. Luckily, the public reacted well to it.

There seem to be some signature moves in the fight scenes throughout the Ip Man franchise.

Donnie Yen: You see a lot of the mun sau posture from Yip Man because it fits [him]. He was originally from a well-to-do family, scholarly, very reserved. Wing chun is also a physically conservative style. You’re not going to see a lot of flash or wasted movement. So making the action exciting meant that the fight scenes had to educate the audience in a way that made those more efficient movements visually appealing.

The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s: 500+ Films Loaded with Action, Weapons & Warriors, by Dr. Craig D. Reid. On sale now at Amazon!

In Ip Man 3, as in the two previous movies, there’s a strong thematic element of family. There’s a push-pull that’s evident between Yip Man and his family in which he’s pulled out of involvement in some aspects of the martial arts while being motivated to accomplish more as a martial artist because of them. Is this a bit of art imitating life with you?

Donnie Yen: Absolutely! As you can see, my wife Cecilia is here in the room with us, as she’s also my business partner, but I absolutely know how that goes. Luckily, my wife sees everything I go through. She understands me and what I need to do.

For an actor to really nail the character, he has to live through something similar to be able to call on that kind of emotion and bring it to life for the camera. If you’ve never been through something, you won’t have the same depth of experience to be able to share on-screen.

What’s smart about Wilson Yip, the director of the Ip Man movies, is that he not only understands filmmaking but he understood what kind of stages I was going through in my personal life. So he wasn’t just creating another role for me to play. He made it so that I could bring something special to the character as it was written and the character would allow me to express those aspects of myself, as well. I can’t tell you how precious that kind of work environment is in acting.

After you did Ip Man and Ip Man 2, did the wing chun world give you any special status?

Donnie Yen: Look, I come from a traditional martial arts household, so I know how it goes with status. [chuckling] I don’t care about seeking status in martial arts from my films. Like if you asked me to teach you wing chun, I’m not the guy who’s a wing chun master. There are many other people who’ve devoted their lives to learning, researching and developing wing chun. Those are the wing chun masters, not me.

Silat for the Street is the title of an online course from Black Belt Hall of Famer Burton Richardson and Black Belt magazine. Now you can learn the most functional silat techniques whenever and wherever you want on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Get more info here!

What’s important to me is that authentic, traditional martial arts were overlooked for years in favor of making more exciting action films. But now that audiences are more educated and can recognize traditional martial arts, it’s more important than ever for me to portray these arts and the personalities around them with a certain dignity that’s appropriate. The fight scenes have to convey a sense of realism, as well as communicate the principles of the styles that are portrayed.

When the movie does well and inspires people to do more with their lives, that’s the reward for me. With the Ip Man movies, it’s not about what I did for wing chun; it’s about focusing on a character that inspires people. It’s not about wing chun versus this style or that style anymore.

Last question: I heard a rumor that you were phasing out martial arts films. What’s the scoop with that?

Donnie Yen: I’m human. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment. For me, there have been days when my body is just tired of the beating that I put it through in a high-powered, high-intensity action flick. But at the end of the day, if I sit down and watch TV or see an action sequence on the screen and think, “Oh, come on! That’s it? I can do better than that!” then it stirs that competitive spirit. I’m an actor, but inside I’m also a fighter.

As for kung fu movies, I don’t really have as much motivation to conquer anything more, especially after doing roles from Guan Yun-Chang in The Lost Bladesman to the Ip Man franchise. But especially when it comes to contemporary fight scenes, I feel like there’s a lot of knowledge about using martial arts and cinematic techniques in harmony that I still have left to show, that I still want to show.

Dr. Mark Cheng is a Black Belt contributing editor and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. In his free time, he teaches shuai chiao, tai chi and kettlebells.

Photos Courtesy of Well Go USA

from Black Belt» Daily » Black Belt http://ift.tt/2ntC3Ef via Michael Chin Worcester Systema

Donnie Yen: The Martial Artist Who Brought a Wing Chun Legend to Life in 3 Ip Man Movies

Donnie Yen first appeared on my radar 25 years ago, when his name often graced the pages of martial arts periodicals. I learned that Donnie Yen, the son of Boston-based wushu pioneer and Black Belt Hall of Famer Bow Sim Mark, stood out from his peers because of his strong stances and aesthetic postures, which helped him dominate the competition at martial arts tournaments.

In part because he longed to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen decided to try his hand at action films. Like Bruce Lee, he opted to return to southern China, where he found work as a stuntman in Hong Kong. Donnie Yen quickly leveled up to starring roles, commanding the screen opposite Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China II (1992) and as hung gar kung fu master Wong Kei-Ying in Iron Monkey (1993). (The movie found U.S. distribution in 2001 thanks to Quentin Tarantino and Miramax.)

With hit after hit under his belt, Donnie Yen built himself into one of Asia’s most bankable actors. In 2008 he landed what would be his heaviest role to date: playing wing chun grandmaster Yip Man in Ip Man. (The Chinese family name Yip can be Romanized as Yip or Ip. In this article, I will use “Ip Man” to refer to the movie and “Yip Man” to refer to the man.)

Portraying the martial artist who was Bruce Lee’s master didn’t come without immense pressure and criticism, but the movie’s box-office performance and the rabid following it generated online proved the naysayers wrong — and set the stage for two sequels.

When the publicity tour for the latest film, Ip Man 3, brought Donnie Yen and co-star Mike Tyson to Los Angeles, I got an opportunity to interview Yen and hear about the struggles, triumphs, insights and visions that make up his life. Bearing a gift from my teacher, Black Belt Hall of Fame member Dan Inosanto, I entered the room, hoping for a good conversation. What I got was a great interview with a man who’s humble, hardworking and still hungry for higher achievements.

***

It’s an honor to finally meet you. I have a gift for you from someone you might have heard of: Dan Inosanto.

Donnie Yen: Wow! Thank you so much. I’ve heard so much about him and followed his career for years, but I never had the opportunity to meet him in person. Please thank him for me.

I spoke to him just before coming here, and he’s a huge fan of yours. Not only does he love your movies, but he also had high praise, saying that Bruce Lee would’ve been pleased with your work had he lived to see it.

Donnie Yen: That’s overwhelming. Please thank sifu Inosanto for me. [He tells his wife and his manager excitedly in Cantonese that Dan Inosanto was the training partner, best friend and top student of Bruce Lee.]

Go to Amazon now to get your copy of the Bruce Lee classic Tao of Jeet Kune Do: New Expanded Edition!

I always wanted to study Filipino kali from him. I’ve been a Bruce Lee fan ever since I was a kid, and as you probably know, I did an homage to him by reprising the role of Chen Zhen (whom Lee portrayed in Fist of Fury) in a TV series and feature film.

Absolutely. Your performance in Legend of the Fist is one of my favorites.

Donnie Yen: It’s funny … people asked me whether I knew that Bruce Lee had already done that role. The whole point of me doing those movies and playing those roles was out of respect to Bruce Lee — as a way of showing how much he inspired me in my career.

I could never be Bruce Lee. Nobody can. Nor could I imitate him in a way that would do him or the role justice. But just paying tribute to him with those roles was huge for me. I’ve always said that if Bruce was still alive, I’d have become his most devoted student.

How did that weigh on you when you were offered a chance to portray Yip Man?

Donnie Yen: The pressure was huge, and it came from a variety of angles, too. Let me share a bit of background with you. The first time I got a call to play the role of Yip Man was a couple of decades ago, but that movie never got made due to problems with the film’s backers. Years later, I was at a press conference in Beijing and got another call from a producer, saying that they’d spoken to grandmaster Yip’s family, gotten their blessing, were going to make a movie on him and wanted to cast me in the lead.

But there was already a film about Yip Man (The Grandmaster, starring Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi) that the famous director Wong Kar-Wai was going to direct. I asked about that, but the producer said not to worry since Wong has a reputation for taking his time on projects. Even though we were going to involve the same namesake character, they would tell their story and we would tell ours.

When the public got word that we were going to do Ip Man, people in the entertainment industry started drawing lines and picking sides. Critics claimed that our director Wilson Yip wasn’t qualified to direct a project of that magnitude. At that time, I’d just finished police movies like SPL: Kill Zone and Flash Point, which had a ton of over-the-top action sequences and MMA-based fight choreography. Those movies and Special Identity were the first Hong Kong action movies to take MMA grappling techniques and communicate them in a cinematic language. So critics also said that I wasn’t suitable for the role of grandmaster Yip or to showcase wing chun cinematically.

All this even before you started shooting?

Donnie Yen: Yes. I never expected there to be so many doubters, even though I knew this to be an iconic role.

Preparing for a role like that must have been different, considering your extensive martial arts background. What was your foundational training in with your mother? Was it modern wushu?

Donnie Yen: No, it was traditional Shaolin kung fu and then tai chi, but my tai chi is a little different. My mother’s master Fu Wing-Fay had a different style, and I’ve added my own flavor to my tai chi.

Growing up in Boston, did you get to experiment with different martial arts?

Donnie Yen: When I was a kid running around Chinatown, hung gar was really big, really popular. I used to study the old Lam Sai-Wing books on hung gar with the line drawings and practice those stances and postures. But back then, I was so curious and excited to learn martial arts from any source, regardless of style. I just wanted to absorb as much as I could. I’m still that way when I see something I like.

Wang Bo, formerly of Shaolin Temple, is the featured instructor in an online kung fu course from Black Belt. Titled Tree of Shaolin, it streams video lessons to your preferred digital device. Sign up here and start your journey along the 1,500-year-old Shaolin path!

Did you get any formal wing chun training back then?

Donnie Yen: Unfortunately, I did not. But there was one kid that knew a little bit, and we’d skip school and train in the park together, sparring and practicing techniques on each other. Back then, I was just trying to learn moves from the different styles and systems, including taekwondo — not just Chinese martial arts.

You mentioned Bruce Lee as a source of inspiration. Did you watch other kung fu flicks?

Donnie Yen: Oh, yeah. I was a big fan of those movies as a kid. I’d see some move that I thought was cool or some character that inspired me, and I’d try to imitate them physically or philosophically.

When it came time to prep for Ip Man, I understand that you spent time with both of Yip Man’s sons.

Donnie Yen: I actually spent a lot of time studying Yip Man’s personal story in terms of his history and background, not just studying wing chun. To get as close as I could to the source, I spent time with his sons, listening to them talk about their father, their family life and their art. I even went to Futsan (Foshan, China) to see where he lived.

Were the Yip brothers your technical trainers for the movie?

Donnie Yen: I actually had a bunch of different wing chun trainers to help me learn the forms and the basic drills, like the lap sau and chee sau (sticky hands) drills. The big thing they helped me with was learning the forms. I didn’t have three years to devote to mastering wing chun, so I could only try to embody the mindset and philosophy.

So there wasn’t just one master who oversaw all your training?

Donnie Yen: No. I didn’t want to try to be a clone of any one sifu. I knew that I could never imitate grandmaster Yip Man perfectly. I could only do the role justice by offering my interpretation of his philosophy in movement. Actually, studying the old black-and-white films of grandmaster Yip was very valuable. If there was one source that I tried to draw on most, that was it.

I also tried to get a sense of Yip Man’s movement and personality from his students outside the family. I actually used social media a lot to see how the different groups interpreted wing chun. It was very interesting. It gave me a chance to see how different wing chun people expressed the system physically and strategically. From the super-traditional to the more modern and aggressive versions, I wanted to get a broader view of what direction people were taking the art. All that figured into how I moved and how I portrayed the character. Luckily, the public reacted well to it.

There seem to be some signature moves in the fight scenes throughout the Ip Man franchise.

Donnie Yen: You see a lot of the mun sau posture from Yip Man because it fits [him]. He was originally from a well-to-do family, scholarly, very reserved. Wing chun is also a physically conservative style. You’re not going to see a lot of flash or wasted movement. So making the action exciting meant that the fight scenes had to educate the audience in a way that made those more efficient movements visually appealing.

The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s: 500+ Films Loaded with Action, Weapons & Warriors, by Dr. Craig D. Reid. On sale now at Amazon!

In Ip Man 3, as in the two previous movies, there’s a strong thematic element of family. There’s a push-pull that’s evident between Yip Man and his family in which he’s pulled out of involvement in some aspects of the martial arts while being motivated to accomplish more as a martial artist because of them. Is this a bit of art imitating life with you?

Donnie Yen: Absolutely! As you can see, my wife Cecilia is here in the room with us, as she’s also my business partner, but I absolutely know how that goes. Luckily, my wife sees everything I go through. She understands me and what I need to do.

For an actor to really nail the character, he has to live through something similar to be able to call on that kind of emotion and bring it to life for the camera. If you’ve never been through something, you won’t have the same depth of experience to be able to share on-screen.

What’s smart about Wilson Yip, the director of the Ip Man movies, is that he not only understands filmmaking but he understood what kind of stages I was going through in my personal life. So he wasn’t just creating another role for me to play. He made it so that I could bring something special to the character as it was written and the character would allow me to express those aspects of myself, as well. I can’t tell you how precious that kind of work environment is in acting.

After you did Ip Man and Ip Man 2, did the wing chun world give you any special status?

Donnie Yen: Look, I come from a traditional martial arts household, so I know how it goes with status. [chuckling] I don’t care about seeking status in martial arts from my films. Like if you asked me to teach you wing chun, I’m not the guy who’s a wing chun master. There are many other people who’ve devoted their lives to learning, researching and developing wing chun. Those are the wing chun masters, not me.

Silat for the Street is the title of an online course from Black Belt Hall of Famer Burton Richardson and Black Belt magazine. Now you can learn the most functional silat techniques whenever and wherever you want on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Get more info here!

What’s important to me is that authentic, traditional martial arts were overlooked for years in favor of making more exciting action films. But now that audiences are more educated and can recognize traditional martial arts, it’s more important than ever for me to portray these arts and the personalities around them with a certain dignity that’s appropriate. The fight scenes have to convey a sense of realism, as well as communicate the principles of the styles that are portrayed.

When the movie does well and inspires people to do more with their lives, that’s the reward for me. With the Ip Man movies, it’s not about what I did for wing chun; it’s about focusing on a character that inspires people. It’s not about wing chun versus this style or that style anymore.

Last question: I heard a rumor that you were phasing out martial arts films. What’s the scoop with that?

Donnie Yen: I’m human. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment. For me, there have been days when my body is just tired of the beating that I put it through in a high-powered, high-intensity action flick. But at the end of the day, if I sit down and watch TV or see an action sequence on the screen and think, “Oh, come on! That’s it? I can do better than that!” then it stirs that competitive spirit. I’m an actor, but inside I’m also a fighter.

As for kung fu movies, I don’t really have as much motivation to conquer anything more, especially after doing roles from Guan Yun-Chang in The Lost Bladesman to the Ip Man franchise. But especially when it comes to contemporary fight scenes, I feel like there’s a lot of knowledge about using martial arts and cinematic techniques in harmony that I still have left to show, that I still want to show.

Dr. Mark Cheng is a Black Belt contributing editor and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. In his free time, he teaches shuai chiao, tai chi and kettlebells.

Photos Courtesy of Well Go USA

from Black Belt» Daily » Black Belt http://www.blackbeltmag.com/daily/martial-arts-entertainment/martial-art-movies/donnie-yen-the-martial-artist-who-brought-a-wing-chun-legend-to-life-in-3-ip-man-movies/ Donnie Yen: The Martial Artist Who Brought a Wing Chun Legend to Life in 3 Ip Man Movies published first on http://thrandythefabulous.tumblr.com

Donnie Yen: The Martial Artist Who Brought a Wing Chun Legend to Life in 3 Ip Man Movies

Donnie Yen first appeared on my radar 25 years ago, when his name often graced the pages of martial arts periodicals. I learned that Donnie Yen, the son of Boston-based wushu pioneer and Black Belt Hall of Famer Bow Sim Mark, stood out from his peers because of his strong stances and aesthetic postures, which helped him dominate the competition at martial arts tournaments.

In part because he longed to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen decided to try his hand at action films. Like Bruce Lee, he opted to return to southern China, where he found work as a stuntman in Hong Kong. Donnie Yen quickly leveled up to starring roles, commanding the screen opposite Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China II (1992) and as hung gar kung fu master Wong Kei-Ying in Iron Monkey (1993). (The movie found U.S. distribution in 2001 thanks to Quentin Tarantino and Miramax.)

With hit after hit under his belt, Donnie Yen built himself into one of Asia’s most bankable actors. In 2008 he landed what would be his heaviest role to date: playing wing chun grandmaster Yip Man in Ip Man. (The Chinese family name Yip can be Romanized as Yip or Ip. In this article, I will use “Ip Man” to refer to the movie and “Yip Man” to refer to the man.)

Portraying the martial artist who was Bruce Lee’s master didn’t come without immense pressure and criticism, but the movie’s box-office performance and the rabid following it generated online proved the naysayers wrong — and set the stage for two sequels.

When the publicity tour for the latest film, Ip Man 3, brought Donnie Yen and co-star Mike Tyson to Los Angeles, I got an opportunity to interview Yen and hear about the struggles, triumphs, insights and visions that make up his life. Bearing a gift from my teacher, Black Belt Hall of Fame member Dan Inosanto, I entered the room, hoping for a good conversation. What I got was a great interview with a man who’s humble, hardworking and still hungry for higher achievements.

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It’s an honor to finally meet you. I have a gift for you from someone you might have heard of: Dan Inosanto.

Donnie Yen: Wow! Thank you so much. I’ve heard so much about him and followed his career for years, but I never had the opportunity to meet him in person. Please thank him for me.

I spoke to him just before coming here, and he’s a huge fan of yours. Not only does he love your movies, but he also had high praise, saying that Bruce Lee would’ve been pleased with your work had he lived to see it.

Donnie Yen: That’s overwhelming. Please thank sifu Inosanto for me. [He tells his wife and his manager excitedly in Cantonese that Dan Inosanto was the training partner, best friend and top student of Bruce Lee.]

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I always wanted to study Filipino kali from him. I’ve been a Bruce Lee fan ever since I was a kid, and as you probably know, I did an homage to him by reprising the role of Chen Zhen (whom Lee portrayed in Fist of Fury) in a TV series and feature film.

Absolutely. Your performance in Legend of the Fist is one of my favorites.

Donnie Yen: It’s funny … people asked me whether I knew that Bruce Lee had already done that role. The whole point of me doing those movies and playing those roles was out of respect to Bruce Lee — as a way of showing how much he inspired me in my career.

I could never be Bruce Lee. Nobody can. Nor could I imitate him in a way that would do him or the role justice. But just paying tribute to him with those roles was huge for me. I’ve always said that if Bruce was still alive, I’d have become his most devoted student.

How did that weigh on you when you were offered a chance to portray Yip Man?

Donnie Yen: The pressure was huge, and it came from a variety of angles, too. Let me share a bit of background with you. The first time I got a call to play the role of Yip Man was a couple of decades ago, but that movie never got made due to problems with the film’s backers. Years later, I was at a press conference in Beijing and got another call from a producer, saying that they’d spoken to grandmaster Yip’s family, gotten their blessing, were going to make a movie on him and wanted to cast me in the lead.

But there was already a film about Yip Man (The Grandmaster, starring Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi) that the famous director Wong Kar-Wai was going to direct. I asked about that, but the producer said not to worry since Wong has a reputation for taking his time on projects. Even though we were going to involve the same namesake character, they would tell their story and we would tell ours.

When the public got word that we were going to do Ip Man, people in the entertainment industry started drawing lines and picking sides. Critics claimed that our director Wilson Yip wasn’t qualified to direct a project of that magnitude. At that time, I’d just finished police movies like SPL: Kill Zone and Flash Point, which had a ton of over-the-top action sequences and MMA-based fight choreography. Those movies and Special Identity were the first Hong Kong action movies to take MMA grappling techniques and communicate them in a cinematic language. So critics also said that I wasn’t suitable for the role of grandmaster Yip or to showcase wing chun cinematically.

All this even before you started shooting?

Donnie Yen: Yes. I never expected there to be so many doubters, even though I knew this to be an iconic role.

Preparing for a role like that must have been different, considering your extensive martial arts background. What was your foundational training in with your mother? Was it modern wushu?

Donnie Yen: No, it was traditional Shaolin kung fu and then tai chi, but my tai chi is a little different. My mother’s master Fu Wing-Fay had a different style, and I’ve added my own flavor to my tai chi.

Growing up in Boston, did you get to experiment with different martial arts?

Donnie Yen: When I was a kid running around Chinatown, hung gar was really big, really popular. I used to study the old Lam Sai-Wing books on hung gar with the line drawings and practice those stances and postures. But back then, I was so curious and excited to learn martial arts from any source, regardless of style. I just wanted to absorb as much as I could. I’m still that way when I see something I like.

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Did you get any formal wing chun training back then?

Donnie Yen: Unfortunately, I did not. But there was one kid that knew a little bit, and we’d skip school and train in the park together, sparring and practicing techniques on each other. Back then, I was just trying to learn moves from the different styles and systems, including taekwondo — not just Chinese martial arts.

You mentioned Bruce Lee as a source of inspiration. Did you watch other kung fu flicks?

Donnie Yen: Oh, yeah. I was a big fan of those movies as a kid. I’d see some move that I thought was cool or some character that inspired me, and I’d try to imitate them physically or philosophically.

When it came time to prep for Ip Man, I understand that you spent time with both of Yip Man’s sons.

Donnie Yen: I actually spent a lot of time studying Yip Man’s personal story in terms of his history and background, not just studying wing chun. To get as close as I could to the source, I spent time with his sons, listening to them talk about their father, their family life and their art. I even went to Futsan (Foshan, China) to see where he lived.

Were the Yip brothers your technical trainers for the movie?

Donnie Yen: I actually had a bunch of different wing chun trainers to help me learn the forms and the basic drills, like the lap sau and chee sau (sticky hands) drills. The big thing they helped me with was learning the forms. I didn’t have three years to devote to mastering wing chun, so I could only try to embody the mindset and philosophy.

So there wasn’t just one master who oversaw all your training?

Donnie Yen: No. I didn’t want to try to be a clone of any one sifu. I knew that I could never imitate grandmaster Yip Man perfectly. I could only do the role justice by offering my interpretation of his philosophy in movement. Actually, studying the old black-and-white films of grandmaster Yip was very valuable. If there was one source that I tried to draw on most, that was it.

I also tried to get a sense of Yip Man’s movement and personality from his students outside the family. I actually used social media a lot to see how the different groups interpreted wing chun. It was very interesting. It gave me a chance to see how different wing chun people expressed the system physically and strategically. From the super-traditional to the more modern and aggressive versions, I wanted to get a broader view of what direction people were taking the art. All that figured into how I moved and how I portrayed the character. Luckily, the public reacted well to it.

There seem to be some signature moves in the fight scenes throughout the Ip Man franchise.

Donnie Yen: You see a lot of the mun sau posture from Yip Man because it fits [him]. He was originally from a well-to-do family, scholarly, very reserved. Wing chun is also a physically conservative style. You’re not going to see a lot of flash or wasted movement. So making the action exciting meant that the fight scenes had to educate the audience in a way that made those more efficient movements visually appealing.

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In Ip Man 3, as in the two previous movies, there’s a strong thematic element of family. There’s a push-pull that’s evident between Yip Man and his family in which he’s pulled out of involvement in some aspects of the martial arts while being motivated to accomplish more as a martial artist because of them. Is this a bit of art imitating life with you?

Donnie Yen: Absolutely! As you can see, my wife Cecilia is here in the room with us, as she’s also my business partner, but I absolutely know how that goes. Luckily, my wife sees everything I go through. She understands me and what I need to do.

For an actor to really nail the character, he has to live through something similar to be able to call on that kind of emotion and bring it to life for the camera. If you’ve never been through something, you won’t have the same depth of experience to be able to share on-screen.

What’s smart about Wilson Yip, the director of the Ip Man movies, is that he not only understands filmmaking but he understood what kind of stages I was going through in my personal life. So he wasn’t just creating another role for me to play. He made it so that I could bring something special to the character as it was written and the character would allow me to express those aspects of myself, as well. I can’t tell you how precious that kind of work environment is in acting.

After you did Ip Man and Ip Man 2, did the wing chun world give you any special status?

Donnie Yen: Look, I come from a traditional martial arts household, so I know how it goes with status. [chuckling] I don’t care about seeking status in martial arts from my films. Like if you asked me to teach you wing chun, I’m not the guy who’s a wing chun master. There are many other people who’ve devoted their lives to learning, researching and developing wing chun. Those are the wing chun masters, not me.

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What’s important to me is that authentic, traditional martial arts were overlooked for years in favor of making more exciting action films. But now that audiences are more educated and can recognize traditional martial arts, it’s more important than ever for me to portray these arts and the personalities around them with a certain dignity that’s appropriate. The fight scenes have to convey a sense of realism, as well as communicate the principles of the styles that are portrayed.

When the movie does well and inspires people to do more with their lives, that’s the reward for me. With the Ip Man movies, it’s not about what I did for wing chun; it’s about focusing on a character that inspires people. It’s not about wing chun versus this style or that style anymore.

Last question: I heard a rumor that you were phasing out martial arts films. What’s the scoop with that?

Donnie Yen: I’m human. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment. For me, there have been days when my body is just tired of the beating that I put it through in a high-powered, high-intensity action flick. But at the end of the day, if I sit down and watch TV or see an action sequence on the screen and think, “Oh, come on! That’s it? I can do better than that!” then it stirs that competitive spirit. I’m an actor, but inside I’m also a fighter.

As for kung fu movies, I don’t really have as much motivation to conquer anything more, especially after doing roles from Guan Yun-Chang in The Lost Bladesman to the Ip Man franchise. But especially when it comes to contemporary fight scenes, I feel like there’s a lot of knowledge about using martial arts and cinematic techniques in harmony that I still have left to show, that I still want to show.

Dr. Mark Cheng is a Black Belt contributing editor and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. In his free time, he teaches shuai chiao, tai chi and kettlebells.

Photos Courtesy of Well Go USA

from Black Belt» Daily » Black Belt http://www.blackbeltmag.com/daily/martial-arts-entertainment/martial-art-movies/donnie-yen-the-martial-artist-who-brought-a-wing-chun-legend-to-life-in-3-ip-man-movies/

Interview with Sifu Wan Kam Leung and Sifu Jack Leung from Practical Wing Chun Australia.