July newsletter
July Newsletter
Welcome to our July newsletter.
It’s been a bit of a sweaty one, but well done to those that made it to class in this heat, Master Lu Jun Hai always said it was hotter in China whenever we complained about the heat, he was right, it’s why they trained at 5 in the morning… maybe we’ll have to start doing that if this heat continues :D
A story about Lu Zhen Duo https://mizongkungfuandtaichi.weebly.com/lineage.html
My Shifu’s father was famous for his fighting skills and became famous for his ability to knock opponents unconscious with his palm strikes, which earned him the nicknames “Iron Palm Lu”, “Lu the Hero” and “Lightning Hands Lu”.
He often entered competitions under assumed names (not sure why) and on one occasion entered an army competition even though civilians were not allowed to enter. The competition was in 3 parts, a forms competition, the winners of which would fight bare hand and then with weapons.
Getting through to the forms competition Lu met his opponent in the bare hand section and knocked him out, so winning the competition as his opponent was unable to continue.
Unfortunately his opponent later found out that Lu was not supposed to have entered the competition and through a mutual acquaintance invited Lu to his school.
Lu understood that this would be a test and told his own students that if he wasn’t back by midnight to bring a cart to the school as things had probably gone badly.
When Lu arrived he was invited to eat with the shifu and his students, but on each occasion when he went to pick up some food with his chop sticks someone would try to block him with theirs (much like in kung fu panda), this was a way to test his kung fu.
After the meal the shifu of the school, the opponent that Lu had beaten, got up to perform a spear form, when he'd finished Lu jumped up and performed a spear form of his own. By choosing to perform with the same weapon Lu was offering a direct challenge, ultimately saying “I can do the form better”. The shifu again got up and this time showed a staff form, to which LU immediately performed his own staff form. Finally the shifu picked up his sword and on finishing Lu picked up a sword to begin his own form, this was too much and the shifu and his students all jumped up to angrily confront Lu.
Now Lu’s students had done as their shifu instructed and waited until midnight, and fearing the worse took their cart to the other school looking for Lu. On arriving they heard noise from inside the school, worried about what they might see they peered through the window… to see Lu, his opponent and his students eating and drinking and getting on wonderfully.
Luckily the mutual acquaintance was able to convince the school owner that Lu was a good man and they shouldn’t fight and so they ended up getting drunk together… the moral of the story? I have no idea. But it’s an interesting glimpse into a martial artists life in China at the start of the 20th century when fighting and weapons were still common place.
Dates to remember
Our summer shutdown August 1st – August 14th
7-13s grading days:
White up = September/October depending on how hard everyone works
Everyone below yellow belt needs to know section 2 of Mizong Kao
Yellow belt and above need to know section 1 and 2 of Mizong Kao
Orange belt and up = November, December or earlier if you're ready
4-6 years
We have been working through our ninja levels congratulations to:
- Leo, Sienna level 1 Ninja
- Lydia level 3 Ninja
- Nihal, Jeevan, Cooper level 4 Ninja
- Rishik Level 7 Ninja
We have been through plenty this month, working on our roundhouse kick, blocks, sweeps and plenty of tumbling and ninja stars, building agility and hand eye co-ordination.
Well done to those that made the extra lessons you did really well with the staff, chain and ninja stars.
7-13 years
- We have nearly finished section 2 of Mizong Kao, and have been practising combinations including the stamp kick, arguably one of the easiest and most useful kicks to learn, everyone's power is improving.
- Everyone is getting better at the hip throw, well done.
- Force the moon into the sea, armlock and elbow.
- It was nice to see so many at our extra classes where we went through some staff, chain and shuriken/chop stick throwing.
Weapons we have looked at are:
- Jian (double edged straight sword), we are lucky to have the Qingping Jian (green water-lily sword) https://mizongkungfuandtaichi.weebly.com/qing-ping-jian.html as a part of our training. It is a sword system considered to be a Chinese treasure and was passed down to my Shifu who fiercely guarded it. A nimble and fast system that has 365 moves spread over 6 forms, it also includes a 2 person fighting set.
adults
- 10 step Tai Chi form and the difficult bung (ward off), lu (pull) , ji (press), an (push) (the 4 basic energies of Tai Chi) push hands drill.
- Yan qing jia: Building those mizong quan iron legs, with muscles and tendons made of high tensile steel.
- Cha Quan: Moving faster and jumping higher! If you’re not out of breath at the end you’re doing it wrong.
- Some nice conditioning in the heat… animal movements, stretching sequences… using each other as punching and kick bags.
- Starting to ponder your 4 go to techniques/strategies.
tai chi
- We’ve been slowing the breathing down by using the 4 - 8 method and expanding the out-breath as long as we can, a 30 second out-breath is the aim.… not there yet
- Releasing the shoulders by contracting the latissimus dorsi.
- Releasing the tension in the empty leg.
- Brush knee twist step, linking the foot, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and hand. Turning from the centre and pushing the button.
- Squatting, how to do it properly and why to do it.
What I’m learning/ reading at the moment
training
Stretching flow routine.
Breath work, getting back into some of my old yogic breathing and looking at some new ideas.
Courses
Building a website funnel… (yep as interesting and confusing as it sounds)
books
The Harvard medical school book of Yoga (the science behind the art)
Don’t sweat the small stuff (a great book on how to put challenges in perspective)
Dates to remember
Our summer shutdown August 1st – August 14th
7-13s grading days:
White up = September/October depending on how hard everyone works
Orange belt and up = November, December or earlier if you're ready
