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A well known aspect of kung fu is its five animal forms. Each form is believed to be a surviving remnant of its respective parent style, that has been lost in history. In this article I will begin to give you a brief overview of these styles. Many of you out there may train in these styles – feel free to correct me as this is merely a compilation of information. According to legend, it was a Shaolin monk named Jueyuan and Li Sou who took the 18 Luohan Hands techniques, expanded them to about 170, then organized them into what we now know as the five animal forms.

The Snake

The snake is a calculating, patient animal. It waits for its prey, then when the moment is right, strikes quickly and precisely. This is the nature of the snake style. It flows around its opponents defenses. It is known for rapid fire strikes. The strikes of a snake style practitioner are extremely precise, striking his or her opponent’s soft spots. Students learn to use energy from their tan tien, out to their fingertips. This gives their strikes power. Because of this internal focus, breathing is an integral aspect of training in the snake style.

The snake evades attacks in a different manner than that of the crane style. The crane will hop out of the way, but the snake will simply yield, bending the body out of the way, or around the strike. By evading in this way, the snake finds itself behind its opponent’s yang energy where it can make rapid strikes to the unprotected parts of the opponent’s body.

Where have the heroes gone? I don’t mean to belittle those great individuals out there, selflessly putting their necks out for others, but they seem to be in short supply. How many times do we turn on the television and hear stories of people (sometimes even young children) getting hit by cars, and the individual simply drove off? These are average people that simply drove off leaving someone for dead! Isn’t that behavior that we would expect to see in the odious ‘bad guys’ in movies? Have we lost our regard for life? I could get real controversial here, but this isn’t the right forum for positing a theory on how we have lost our sense of respect for life.

What is the Solution?
I don’t think that martial arts is the elixir that can step in and fix societies woes. Honestly, I am completely at a loss regarding the specific example above, but in the case of hateful, bully like behavior, is it possible that martial arts could provide some help? Where does a person’s character emanate from? Doesn’t true integrity come from the inside out? In a world that values only empirical data, all we would see within us is organs. Our integrity, our morals and character originate in a place beyond the reach of science and mathematics. Can martial arts help us to hold a mirror up to our soul? And if so, how does that work?

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Trust
If martial arts can help us put our character into perspective, perhaps one reason this is so is because of trust. When we are training, everyone is vulnerable. Youneed to be able to trust that your partner will exercise some self control. Students come into close contact with many other people and we all have to trust that other students will give us respect and decency. Unlike virtually any other area of life, we are “bonding” with others on an uncomfortably personal level.

Ownership
In a healthy training environment, every student is a teacher and every teacher is a student. Simply holding a pad for someone to kick, is an act of teaching. You are able to watch what the other student is doing and offer advice and corrections. You can hold the pad in such a way as to simulate a more realistic ‘fight’ scenario. This alone puts selflessness into practice. Even if it isn’t truly character (because it is simply an outward action), in simply going through the motions we may learn the value of such character. Because we are all teachers as well as students, we can feel a sense of true ownership. Our school, kwoon, dojo isn’t simply a place we go to train – we are all part of that training. Each student is making daily contributions to the ancient teaching that are being carried down from teacher to teacher. That is a pretty amazing thought. None of us may ever become ‘masters’, but even if we don’t, we too have contributed to the teachings that will be passed down through the centuries after us.

In Conclusion
I think that indeed, martial arts can be for us a mirror that shows us what we look like on the inside. But it depends on the student, it depends on what you want to get out of your training. Those with a passion for the teachings, a desire to help others grasp the truths taught in their chosen style, they will be the students who may, in the end, learn to defeat themselves and come out of the kwoon a better person.

I realize that this topic will probably step on some toes, but it was actually inspired by a discussion I have recently had with Mr Gibbs (who is training in Tai Chi Chuan) where he suggested writing an article around such a question. The title is a little misleading, in that the question is a bit larger than that. Every martial art style can reasonably be asked this very question. Unless we are stepping up onto a platform, without pads, authorities or rules, how can we possibly say that our training or sparring is teaching us to deal with real world scenarios? Even the platform pulls us out of the ‘real world’. Of course it’s not like we can simply go out and pick fights with people in bars, clubs, on the street etc, and call it training. In light of this, none of our styles truly train us in real world situations. So in using the wordmartial in martial arts has a slightly different meaning. Here I am referring to techniques that can feasibly used to subdue or injure an opponent. An example of what I DON’T mean here are some of the moves in styles like modern Wushu that are so showy, were a person to attempt to apply them, they would be countered well before they are done executing the technique.

More Specifically…
Perhaps more specifically, can training martial arts moves without ever sparring, without ever performing the moves ‘at speed’ produce in the practitioner the ability to use said techniques in an actual fight scenario? I have heard stories of the amazing power that long time Tai Chi masters can generate, and I do not doubt these stories. But if these masters were jumped on the street, would their training be a noticeable asset to them? This is a good question for students like me, who are inspired by forms / katas and are far more skilled at these than sparring or other ‘applied’ training. Can forms work develop skills that will help in fighting? Before answering, we need to remember that there have been studies that show a perceived activity offers huge benefits, like the actual activity itself. I will cover this information in future articles, but it seems that science would argue for at least the possibility that forms or katas could instill skills that would aid in an actual sparring match.

The Benefits of Slow Movement
While I do not know any measurable amount of Tai Chi, I do often work through my forms at a ‘Tai Chi’ speed and I have seen beneficial results from it. As I move slowly through my forms, I am able to see what stances I am doing and how well I am doing them. At such speeds you cannot get away with simply fudging over a move you aren’t entirely certain about. It forces you to learn and remember every move in the form. But as far as a direct correlation between this and my sparring abilities, I haven’t seen anything noticeable. Then again, progress in kung fu is usually something that can only be seen when looking back through months and years of hard training, so it’s difficult to tell. I do know that working my self defense combinations in a ’shadow boxing’ style (out of necessity, as I don’t have a training partner in my home) has improved my confidence when sparring other students. I no longer feel entirely awkward when I step out onto the floor.

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Brutal Moves
I know about a quarter of a Tai Chi form, this is the most we have learned in the Tai Chi style in my kwoon. It is a Chin Na form, and when we learned the martial application for each move, I realized just how vicious every step was. But each move is executed slow and smooth, and the moves are hidden behind abstract versions of the moves. But the knowledgeable student can easily visualize what he or she is doing to his or her opponent, and therefore reap the benefits of mentally running through the martial application of the form.

In Conclusion
Unfortunately I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on the applicative efficiency of Tai Chi. I would be very interested in hearing from the Tai Chi practitioners out there. I Tai Chi a training in martial arts, or is it more of a health, centeredness, personal strength exercise? I know that it builds a centered foundation, and teaches its students to gather and utilize qi, but are these skills that can, via Tai Chi training, be transferred over to a fighting situation?

In time, when Mr Gibbs is at a level of mastery that he can teach his skills to others, perhaps he would be willing to teach me more of this fascinating style.

Learning the noble arts of kung fu is something that many people do for a challenge or to better themselves. Many people play casino games for fun but there is a real chance to win money too. If you play for real cash you can make a big difference to your life if you play well.

Excerpts from the book “The Monk from Brooklyn” were published on the Martial Arts Explorer web site. The links back to Antonio Graceffo’s web site are broken, but I tracked down two articles that he has published regarding the book. I haven’t explored these two articles yet, but the list of ‘prerequisits’ before training at Shaolin make for a very interesting read.

Most of us will never even see Shaolin, let alone train at any temple. While it would be amazing to be able to train there, I believe that it is up to each student to determine their own level of training intensity. To paraphrase – the teacher can lead the student to the door, but it is the student who determines how far inside they will go. Since we may never have the opportunity Mr Graceffo has had, what is the point of reading such a list of helpful hints? As I read the list, I am impressed with the amount of dedication just in attempting to train there. Most of us simply hop in our car and drive a bit to our training facility (kwoon, dojo, etc), and fork out some money every month. Are we dedicated enough to do even half of the things that Mr Graceffo has done in order to train at the Shaolin temple? These are some of the steps he had to take:

• Learned the language
  He first learned Chinese. For most people, this alone is a daunting task, unless they have learned some during their schooling. He is also adamant in pointing out that you will not just ‘pick it up’ by staying there. This item alone is a major commitment.
• Money
  To earn money, he suggests working in Taiwan, teaching English. This requires a BA. For those of us with meager educations, this too is an amazing feat that would require years of expensive hard work. But if you follow his route, you only have to work part time, so you have lots of free time for your training / language learning etc.
• Getting Your Visa
  Then there is the pleasure of jumping through all of the Visa hoops… flaming, razor wire-lined hoops. You will need to find out what the Chinese government’s current requirements and regulations are. To make this simple, you can use a travel agent – this will of course cost you still more money.
• Finding the Correct Temple
  Just finding the Shaolin temple can be tricky. He points out that there is a phony Northern temple that is essentially a trap for foreigners. If you are OK with staying in a nice hotel and only training about 2-3 hours a day, and you don’t mind the high prices – then the “Shaolin” temples will be just fine. For the real deal you need to find the temple at Deng Feng, Henan.

The Living Conditions
All of this is simply in arriving and training at the temple. None if it takes into account the living conditions at the temple itself. You will be sleeping in military style barracks. There is no running water, and each student has two uniforms. So the temple is dirty, and stinky. On top of all this the food is bad, as you can imagine.

Conclusion
I am very impressed with the amount of dedication anyone who endeavors to train at Shaolin has. I think that pushing our own level of commitment above that of simply putting in a few hours a week and paying for the training would be a good thing for the serious student to do. I know that I will be buying Mr Graceffo’s book, I would be interested in hearing how much of the regimen he outlines.

I remember hearing a Dead Can Dance song about a tree. It uses the changing of seasons, the falling of the leaves to demonstrate the need for change. While the world around us changes, here we remain, stuck. Out of fear, we stay unwilling to change. Unwilling to take flight. This indifference is described as a plague washing over the land. I have always wished that I could sit at a table with a cup of coffee and talk to the band about this song. It seems to me to be only one half of a good story. But because it is only half the story, it is lacking.