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1977 The Year I found Tai Liu Chuan Fa
Sigung Tallbear was like no other teacher
Sifu Fiedler had. Even though by this time, Sifu Fiedler had visited many Grand
Masters, and Masters on his journeys, not once did he ever meet someone with the
skill and knowledge of Sigung Tallbear. The other thing that struck Sifu Fiedler, was the
way that Sigung Tallbear acted, he was so much like the students he taught, he
was truly one of the guys. He did not act like someone that had to sit on a
thrown in his club, yelling and screaming out orders. If you are the head of some system and you go around
with your chest out, shouting and screaming at people, your students are going
to act the same. What do you think this would cause, you bet, nothing that is
productive. All of the schools that I have seen where the teacher acted like
some idiot, all of his top black belts acted the same. Is that what you would
like to be like, is that the way you want to turn out. I do not think so. Grand
Master Tallbear is such a wonderful teacher, that he acts just like one of the
guys, and because of that, he is most of the time smiling and teaching with a
love for his students like you have never seen before. When Sifu Fiedler first
seen that, he was so amazed, so incredibly surprised. The thing was when Grand
Master Tallbear caught someone doing anything wrong, all he had to do was to
look at someone, and they knew right away. If you talked out of line, you could
look in his eyes, and again, you knew right away you did wrong. He never had to
scold anyone, again it was with a look that could rip your heart out.
Another thing that I noticed on my travels
was the higher a masters skill was, the more they acted down to earth. The
lesser a masters skill was, the more they acted like a thug. I hope you see my
point, and also hope that you keep your eyes open for this type of behaviour,
because in all honesty, you do not want to become something that you yourself
does not like to see or hear. The best Masters teach with compassion, teach with
love, they are not afraid of the word, "Love", because they are real masters,
not charlatans.
Grand Master Tallbear was a breath of fresh air to the young
Sifu Fiedler. By this time in his short martial arts life, he had already seen
the absolute worst, and the absolute best, both sides of the coin. However that
part of Sifu Fiedler's life was gone, standing before him was his future, Grand
Master Tallbear. At first Sifu Fiedler went down to Vegas with his teacher Grand
Master Chow. Grand Master Chow had a very rare type of kung fu that was called
Ying Yee. Had it not been for GM Chow, Sifu Fiedler would have been taught the
same styles being taught in Edmonton at that time. Sifu Fiedler was
hired to teach at one of those schools, because of the way that the students
were taught, and what they were taught, the young Sifu Fiedler felt so bad for
some of them, he started to teach them the basics of what GM Chow taught.
Regardless of what he felt when working at that school, he had to stay, under
the orders of GM Chow. You see Grand Master Chow did not have a school at that
time, as he had come over from Hong Kong only a few years earlier. He told the
young Sifu Fiedler to take the job, and get paid eight hours a day for training.
As GM Chow explained it to Sifu Fiedler, he told him that he could never pay him
full wages eight hours a day to teach kung fu at this time, so he made sure that
the young Sifu Fiedler took the job.
To make a long story short, Sifu Fiedler finally was allowed to leave that
place, and start working for GM Chow in his new school, around one year after
moving to GM Chow's school, was when GM Chow started to talk to one of Sigung
Tallbear's students, who actually played in a band, better explained as an
orchestra, they sounded amazing. They played theme songs for some of the top
movies and you could close your eyes and actually be there, it was that good. GM
Chow started to talk more often to one of Sigung Tallbear's students in
Edmonton, finally this student of Sigung Tallbear asked if GM Chow wanted to
come to Vegas to meet and talk to Sigung Tallbear. GM Chow went home where the
young Sifu Fiedler also lived and asked him if he wanted to go with him. Sifu
Fiedler was so excited, he said yes right away without thought, as it was a
chance of a life time. Not even realizing what was to come of all this. Gm Chow
and Sifu Fiedler sat up most of the night talking and
laughing about how fortunate they were to be having this chance. Soon enough
they were on their way. They decided to drive all the way to Vegas from
Edmonton, and what a drive it was. Going through all of those funny named towns
in Utah, and Idaho, Butts Montana, and some place called Boise Butts, which when
we seen the sign we laughed our heads off.
One and half day, we were in Vegas, without stopping, we went right to Sigung
Tallbear's club. Sigung Tallbear and GM Chow talked for awhile, then I was
introduced to Sigung Tallbear. I bowed and was as respectful as I could be,
making sure not to look as nervous as I felt. It was an amazing time for myself,
small town boy going to Vegas to meet a very high level Grand Master in another
very rare Chinese Martial Art, I was in my glory.
Much more to come, from the notes of Sifu Fiedler, and all past web
pages..............
Sifu Dee
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