July 25, 2022
There are countless kung fu forms across innumerable schools and lineages, but sometimes different schools share the same form. While reviewing the Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu Complete Collection, YMAA Staff Writer Gene Ching discovered some overlapping forms between his Northern Shaolin tradition and YMAA’s curriculum and discusses the shared roots and divergences.
April 18, 2022
This is Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming's official YMAA External Arts Curriculum, which outlines his recommended order of study for Kung Fu students.
February 11, 2021
Needle Through Brick is a documentary that poses these questions by taking an intimate look at some surviving traditional Kung Fu and Tai Chi masters of Malaysian Borneo, particularly Sarawak and Sibu. There’s a large Chinese population here, a diaspora of masters who fled the Japanese occupation and the communists. Needle Through Brick presents insightful interviews of Borneo’s unique elder masters as the precious disciplines that they have dedicated their lives to face extinction.
April 22, 2019
At YMAA, students learn qigong (energy cultivation) as part of their taiji or kung fu classes. In ancient times, Shaolin monks trained the cultivation of qi (energy), and realized muscular power could be enhanced to a tremendous level, making martial techniques more powerful and effective. This was the beginning of internal cultivation in Chinese martial arts, starting around 550 AD /CE. In internal styles, YMAA focuses mainly on traditional Yang-style taijiquan which originated from Yang, Ban-Hou (楊班候).
February 26, 2018
Body conditioning. It is painful and time consuming, yet it is essential for reaching high levels in martial arts. The upper extremities are used for striking, blocking, sensing, grabbing, breaking, lifting, etc.
Bij YMAA België worden er drie stijlen gevechtskunsten beoefend: Shaolin zuidelijke Witte Kraanvogel (Baihequan of Bai He Chuan), Shaolin Lange Vuist (Changquan of Chang Chuan) en Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan). Het zijn alle drie traditionele stijlen die al honderden jaren bestaan.
Training does have to be adjusted and changed for modern day, but the principles and essence should remain the same. We are constantly striving to preserve the teachings of our masters, and we should be very cautious when to modify them.
The Jian (Cantonese: gim), a narrow-blade, double-edged sword, has been respected as the “King of Short Weapons” in China for millennia. Wielding the Jian requires the highest of skill, and the sword user must strive to the heights of spirit and morality.
There has been a clear and obvious downward shift in the average skill level of students, and even masters, of today compared to the masters and students of old.
In ancient times, many students would unconditionally sacrifice their lives to their training and beg masters to take them, often striving to prove themselves worthy for many weeks, months or years before they were accepted.
My Long Fist grandmaster, Grandmaster Li, Mao-Ching, spent 23 years and 1 month in the Chinese military during harsh wartime conditions while he trained everyday, under Great Grandmaster Han, Chin-Tang, one of the foremost traditional martial artists and graduates of the Nanjing Central Guoshu Institute
Over the years I have seen many people train many times a week on regular basis, yet make very little progress in their martial arts ability. They spend a lot of time practicing their sequences, yet after many months of practicing their sequences they have made very little progress.
Any successful martial arts school can be enhanced through the development of a children’s program.
Any successful martial arts school can be enhanced through the development of a children’s program.
Traditional martial arts is not supposed to be glamorous, and conditioning is not a very glamorous process, being a very repetitive and monotonous type of exercise requiring many years of training.
Traditional martial arts is not supposed to be glamorous, and conditioning is not a very glamorous process, being a very repetitive and monotonous type of exercise requiring many years of training.
Through many years of history, experience, and practice, martial artists realized that in a fight, there are generally three factors that determine victory.
Through many years of history, experience, and practice, martial artists realized that in a fight, there are generally three factors that determine victory.
Jin, or Martial Power, can generally be divided into three categories: Hard Jin, Soft-Hard Jin and Soft Jin. Among these, Hard Jin uses the most muscular power, followed by Soft-Hard Jin and finally Soft Jin.
Jin, or Martial Power, can generally be divided into three categories: Hard Jin, Soft-Hard Jin and Soft Jin. Among these, Hard Jin uses the most muscular power, followed by Soft-Hard Jin and finally Soft Jin.
In Chinese martial society, candles were once popularly used for training. This is because candles were an important source of lighting in ancient times, and thus were more readily available for practice.
Though it is very hard to catch the Chin Na techniques with 100% accuracy from a book and a video, many techniques can still be learned as long as you ponder, practice, and humbly ask.
- « first
- ‹ previous
- 1
- 2
- 3