Croy Family Kung Fu

Sifu James Croy

Sifu James Croy and family were looking for a martial arts class to go to, especially since two of his children were daughters. He wanted them to have some type of training to be able to defend themselves if ever trouble came. Sifu James Croy also has a wonderful son, who Sifu Croy also wanted to learn self defense. They went to a few clubs around the area, and every single club they went too, seemed to be very harsh on the children. One of Sifu James Croy's girls wanted to go to the wash room, she asked the instructor who very abruptly said, "No". These children were not the type who would ask to fool around, these were the type of children, if you ever met them you would have been very impressed not only by their manners, but the level of education these little children had. Sifu James Croy's daughter had to go so bad, she went in her pants. These children, were four years of age, six years of age, and eight years of age. Sifu James Croy was not very happy about the stupidity of the instructor of that club, plus all the children did not want to stay. One other very serious matter came up, the children were told they had to fight, point being they had only been in that club for a few weeks, they did not know how to block, how to move, how to punch, let alone fight with someone. But as some of these sport schools seem to want to use the little kids for their target practise, one of the Croy children was hurt, and it was not something that should have happened. Think about it this way, all the years that Sifu Fiedler taught his classes, not one student was ever hurt, not one. Why was no one ever hurt, because Sifu Fiedler cared about each and every student that came through the doors. He made sure that every student in his club knew how serious sparing, or fighting was. As both can mean the same thing, when taught by someone who cannot teach properly. Sparing is a type of play fighting, with another student around the same level, who spars with his partner, not against his partner. One of the things that Sifu Fiedler used to say to the students, always remember that you need your partner for the next night you practice, with out your partner, you will not be able to get ahead. If you hurt your partner, you hurt yourself, as your own training will also stop until he or she gets well. Unfortunately most of the time if students are made to, spar, or fight, before they even know how to block, move, punch, kick, step, and they get hurt. They become very frightened, and do not want to go back. What is the difference being beaten up in the school grounds from the bully, or getting beat up in the martial sports school you joined, by the bully of that martial sports school. I hope you see my point, and make sure to take this seriously, because so much stupidity goes on this day and age, with a master on every corner, and nine yr old black belts, it is absolutely ridiculous. Needless to say, James and family had to go and look for another school to join. They seen this little poster one day on the wall of a restaurant, and sure enough there was the address for a kung fu school. Right away Sifu James Croy phoned and talked to one of the instructors about joining, with in a week, he and family had joined the Pembroke Kung Fu School. Sifu James Croy, his daughters, Vanessa Croy, Martine Croy, and his son Charles Croy. As the years went by, the children started to be amazing in the martial arts. They had finally joined the martial art of their dreams, to them it had everything they were looking for and more. All of the children, made it to the level of black belt, each one before heading off to university which was fantastic and unheard of. The thing was all the Croy Children, were trained to the level of black belt with in five years. This brought them to the age of nine, twelve, and thirteen, much to young to be allowed a black belt in a traditional Chinese Martial art that kept all of the training from hundreds if not thousands of years old. Completely different then the commercial sport styles that allow children to go to black belt as long as the parents have the money. And yes unfortunately there are always parents that will pay anything to go around saying, Oh Look my son has a black belt, and he is only nine. This was not an issue with the Croy family at all, in fact the children agreed with the decision to hold them back until they were almost adults. Meaning the ultimate lowest age for our system of Chinese Martial arts would be 17 to 18 yrs of age. By the time the Croy children reached the age to be allowed to take the test, they were already with the knowledge of third degree black belts. And to be very honest, they as Sifu Fiedler says here in his diary, it is amazing how everyone in this family has made it to the level of black belt, it is unheard of. And knowing Sifu Fiedler, he does not give belts out, he is very strict when it comes to giving belts or sash degrees, for the sole reason, if anyone of his students was to go to another city, go to another school and they were to ask to see a form. Sifu Fiedler says he would much rather that other school say, Oh My Gosh, look at the skill of this brown belt, or look at the skill of this green belt, and look at that form, which not only looks good on the whole system, it looks good on the teacher who taught the students. This is very important not only for the students but all past masters. All of the Masters who walked before us, we want to make them proud, by always trying as hard as we can, and always making sure to keep each and every technique as it was taught to us.

    As the years went by, each of the Croy children were on their way to university, and as each one goes, Sifu Fiedler becomes more sad, as he says right here, as the children, grew older, they helped him in many ways. Two helped him with his push hands and internal training, while the other helped him with everything around his yard and house. 

Sifu James Croy a few years after he started

Sifu James Croy right after being tested for his second degree black belt in Hung Kuen

Little Sifu Charles Croy, this is a picture of Sifu Charles Croy, a few years after he started. He was already doing flying kicks and excellent forms at this age, and even though he is frowning in this picture, he always had a smile, always made us laugh before class time. He was such a wonderful child, such a wonderful student.

Father and Son, always training hard together from the day they started

Master James Croy, Sifu Charles Croy

Charles Croy, Martine Croy, Sifu Fiedler, Vanessa Croy, and James Croy

This was the last year that the whole Croy family and Sifu Fiedler trained together. This was the year where Vanessa the oldest daughter was going to go to university next year. After she left, things were not the same Sifu Fiedler writes. Of course each and every Croy member who stayed with Sifu Fiedler trained as hard as always, but because one was gone, things were never the same. Two years after Martine was gone, two years after that Charles was gone. As Sifu Fiedler writes, he says that training the Croy family taught him many things. You would think that he would say that he taught them many things, but it was not what he says, he says that he was taught just as much as he taught them. What was it that they taught him. They taught Sifu Fiedler many things about education, many things about family that he had never seen until seeing the Croy family together. This family did everything together. Not only were they highly trained in the martial arts, they were as highly trained in playing the violin, or the Chellos, or, or, or and yes I could keep on going. They were also the type of children that did their home work, each one always passing grades with high marks. Both girls were highly trained in ballet, taught to them by their mother, who was once working with the New York Ballet Company. She was one of the top Ballerina's in the Untied States until she hurt her back. James himself is a science teacher, and amateur boxer from his past. In fact Sifu James Croy had 90 fights under his belt before joining the Chinese Martial arts. There were a few issues when James did start to spar, he had that mental habit of wanting to win, wanting to be competitive, which can cause injuries in the martial arts, not in boxing, because of the rules, but in the martial arts one has to be very careful as to how and why you do spar with a partner, it is much different in the Chinese Martial arts, as it is in lets say martial sport. In the Chinese Martial arts, we learn to spar with our partner instead of against our partners from the beginning, as both students learn to move, learn to block, learn to punch and kick, that is when they will start to be allowed to spar with students they have never spared with before. They are told from the beginning that they learn how to spar to learn how to move, not to try and beat up your brothers and sisters in your Kung Fu class. After a few years of training how to spar, or fight, that is when two students can agree on how they will spar together. Will they spar with points, calling a stop after each and every point hits the target. This method of sparing is very good for speed. Another method is for endurance, that is with boxing gloves on, you spar with your partner, and only hit each other with fifty percent of your punching power. That way both students will be able to spar for over five minute rounds, which causes the students to sweat terribly, which is very good, because even with the extra weight from the gloves, it truly does train endurance. Another method of sparing we use is push hands, at first we have single push hands from the side, which comes from the Ying Yee, then we have another single push hands from the front, which is from Tai Chi, and a few types of double push hands which come from various internal arts, as well as what is known as " Free Style Push Hands", which is what all the Croy children were expert in by far. Before each one left, they were already doing blind fold sparing with Sifu Fiedler. Sifu Fiedler would not allow them to spar with each other blind folded, but with him he did allow it, the results were totally amazing he says here. He says that he cannot believe the skill level of the Croy girls while doing blind fold push hands, he was totally amazed by them. And again, it was not only for their training, it was for Sifu Fiedler's training also. The thing is, to find someone that has the training to do free style push hands with is very hard, but to find someone to do blind fold free style push hands is almost impossible, that is why instructors in the Chinese martial arts take years and year to develop a student to this high level of achievement. And then to see that knowledge walk away is the one thing that is so hard to take. When each one of the Croy children left for university, a part of Sifu Fiedler was cut away, again the reason for this was the skill and knowledge that each one of the children had in the martial arts, it took Sifu Fiedler years and years, in fact Sifu Fiedler says here that they were his work of art. Each and every student was his work of art, that is how a real true Chinese Martial artist looks at his students, his works of art.

Sifu Charles Croy

Martine Croy              

Martine Croy a few years after she started her Chinese Martial Arts Training

Valery Croy playing with the new members of the Croy Family

Sifu James Croy, Master Of Kung Fu

Black Belt in Tai Liu Chuan Fa

Third Degree Sash Ying Yee

Master Degree Hung Kuen

Also Sifu James Croy has training in the following martial arts

Wing Chun

Choy Lay Fut

Hung Gar

White Eyebrow

Tam Tiu

Northern Long Fist

Iron Body, or Iron Vest

Iron Palm

Ancient Chinese Weapons

 -Short Ying Yee Sword

 - Double end short staff

 - Spear

 - Chinese Forks

 - Three section staff

 - two section staff

 - Chukka

 - Throwing knives

 - Whip

 - Short knife

 - forearm knife

 - double short butterfly knife

 - double long butterfly swords

 - double short sticks

 - single short stick

 - Long Staff

 - and others.

Vanessa, Charles and Martine, all in the front

Sifu Charles Croy, flying kick from a dead stop, straight up into the air

Sifu James Croy, training his short Ying yee sword form

Front is Martine Croy, Vanessa Croy, and Sifu James Croy, Sifu Larry Klentz at back.

Same as above, different posture

Ballet supreme, Valery Croy, behind every great man, is an even greater women

One of the few who did listen, " Sifu Charles Croy", make sure to do your power of the instep every single day once you learn how to do them, if you do, you will be able to do flying kicks much easier. And always remember that it is not how much you do, it is the quality of the few that you do. Plus your legs will be able to move your body in many directions very quickly.

Please always remember that Sifu Fiedler used to say, it is not the amount of what you do, it is the quality of what you do. Meaning to do one hundred sloppy kicks, will give you exactly that one hundred sloppy kicks. Have you ever gone to some club, where you see students doing kicks hundreds of times on each leg, the last seventy kicks that they do, are sloppy as hell and twice as powerless. Point being, had they stuck with thirty great kicks, the memory cells in their brains would remember doing thirty proper kicks, not seventy improper sloppy kicks which is exactly what will go into their brains. What would you want your students to have, sloppy technique, or excellent technique. And that brings me to telling you, instructors that have no knowledge at all, will most of the time teach students to do few things, many times, instead of many things, few times. I hope some of you can understand this, instead of myself having to spell it out.

One thing that was different about the Croy family children, when you told them something was important they listened. One of the most important aspects of the basics, is to train various exercises for when the time comes it would come in handy. One such exercise is the power of the instep. Every student is told to practise this from the time they are white belts, to the time they start to learn flying kicks in blue belt. 99% of the students, start out right, and want to do great at what they are doing. However as the time goes by, they let some of what they are to practise alone. You see the thing is, if a student trains power of the instep until the time they are to learn flying kicks. If they did do power of the instep daily, and made sure to keep it up, when they do start their flying kicks, they will have no problem getting off of the ground. However those that do not listen, and let things go. They start to learn flying kicks and find that they cannot get off of the ground. And what do you think they have to do before they can. Yes you are right, they have to practise power of the instep for another six months  to a year before they can start to do as well as the students who listened. All the Croy children, never ever had to be told twice, they listened right away, and made sure to do every work out every day. When they started to do flying kicks, it was as if they had bones like birds, they got off the ground so high, that I thought they would be able to hold themselves in the air like when watching the Matrix. It is fabulous to watch someone do flying kicks properly, and to see them get off of the ground when years earlier they never ever thought they could accomplish these things. As they can see that they can do everything asked of them, their confidence in everything they do changes, even in home work, which is something we noticed. Every single student that has done the martial arts with us, all had great marks in school. It is a wonderful thing to see, like a metamorphosis.

Vanessa Croy training her staff form, this was the year before she left for university

Much more to come about this most amazing family coming soon:

Sifu Dee

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Last modified: 10/30/07