Grand Master Chow

GM Chow in Hong Kong, at the age of Sixteen

Pictures of GM Chow before leaving Hong Kong. He was one of the youngest masters in the systems he learned, but that is what suited him and he seemed to be destined to be a Kung Fu Master. From the Time the Gm Chow was a child, he wanted to learn Kung Fu. He asked and asked his father, and always the same, no son you can't learn Kung Fu. Then one day another person had escaped from China to Hong Kong by swimming across a small piece of Ocean, they had to swim in shark infested waters, some would put a type of herbal medicine that they believed would stop the shark from attacking and eating them, but found later it did not work at all. Back to young Chow. This friend of his father came to live with them, as he has just escaped from China and had no where to go, he needed to find a job.  Then he wanted to get his own place, Chow's father told this Kung Fu Master, if you teach my son that is all I want in return, the young Chow is wild, does not want to go to school, and is starting to get wild with friends, so the master in Kung Fu named Grand Master Cheung Tin of the Luk Hup Bah Fah system,  decides to take the Young Chow as a student, even though he swore he would not teach ever again when in China. Something happened to one of his students in China and he did not want that hassle ever again. But here he was starting to teach a very young, very impressionable young boy, it made them both happy, GM Chow started to do much better in school, he started to behave at home and his parents could not have been happier.

On a boat going from the Hong Kong Island to the Mainland or New Territories.

One Year after starting to teach Sifu Fiedler in Edmonton, he gave this picture to Sifu Fiedler, as every teacher does for their top student.

Back in Canada

When Sifu Fiedler first started at a Hung Kuen School, it was a few months before GM Chow and Sifu Fiedler met each other. Had Sifu Fiedler not started at this Hung Kuen School, he would not have had the training that he received from GM Chow. Reason being, everything taught to Sifu Fiedler at the Hung Kuen School, Sifu Fiedler would ask GM Chow if he was being taught properly, and if he had ever seen a style like this type of Hung Kuen. GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler that there were many different types of Hung Kuen. Most were for soldiers, police, and security people, all who had to learn martial arts and self defense that had to work. Most Hung Kuen are traditional Kung Fu Systems, that have just about every type of martial arts taught, from how to escape from someone trying to bring you to the ground, how to escape from most every type of hold or grab. And most Hung Kuen systems taught combat type kicks, combat type punching, and blocks that were used for attack and defense in real situations, not sports.

Very real traditional systems of kung fu that were kept basic to stay uncluttered with too much, and enough to defend yourself easily. What Grand Master Chow would do is not only explain what Sifu Fiedler was being taught at the Hung Kuen School, but add his own knowledge to the technique and show Sifu Fiedler how to use it in a much more advanced method, but GM Chow tried to show Sifu Fiedler that every real Kung Fu technique from the forms, had over one hundred techniques in each motion. Sifu Fiedler told us after training for some time, just when he thought he knew everything about a certain technique, he would learn more from the same motion, only with a different idea, a different attack, or defense, and that is what is so special with these types of motions, or techniques, is that they work both ways, to attack, or defense. You can use the same motion for a block, as you can for a strike, and that is what makes it so unique. After GM Chow seen how much fighting Sifu Fiedler had to go through at the Hung Kuen School he told Sifu Fiedler he could not leave that school until he himself had a school running in Edmonton. Sifu Fiedler not only worked his way up through the ranks at the Hung Kuen School, with in two years he was asked to work teaching Kung Fu eight hours a day. He went home with the news to GM Chow. They sat down and Sifu Fiedler asked him what to do. GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler he could not pay Sifu Fiedler to teach at this time. With that said, GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler he had to work at the Hung Kuen School until GM Chow had his own school. Sifu Fiedler's skill in basics from Hung Kuen, and advanced techniques from GM Chow, was starting to come together. Something that Sifu Fiedler did not see coming, but GM Chow did. GM Chow knew all along. From the military type teaching. From the type of sparring they had, which amounted to almost no rules, It was wild, but to think back, Sifu Fiedler said he would not have it any other way. Sifu Fiedler said that there were black belts that would come into the Hung Kuen School, they would be belligerent and want to argue, when told we would not spar with them, try to make them leave and all they want to do is fight.

So Sifu Fiedler and the other instructors at the Hung Kuen School would tell them that they can fight as long as they sign a paper saying we would not be held accountable for any damage. That alone would make most leave. However some would want to sign the paper and get it on, as they would say. Sifu Fiedler was the one who they all wanted to spar with, was it because of his smaller size, or had they watched him train and knew his skill was of a higher level. Who knows, the thing was it always turned out the same way, into sparing for one moment and down they would go with a quick kick to the groin, most would lie on the ground rolling around telling us that we broke the rules, " What rules", we told them that we had none when they first started to spar. We told them we knew enough not to kill each other, not to hurt each other intentionally, and if we have injuries we learn from them, we know enough not to do it that way ever again. Sifu Fiedler says the first time he was kicked in the groin was the last, he was kicked in the groin one day when he least expected it, and oh boy, he said never again. And that in of itself makes it so that you make sure to block it if ever someone tries to kick you in the groin again, and especially in the streets.  That's where it has to be real, you can't learn martial sports and expect it to work in the streets, sure it will work in a sport environment, but not in the streets. Our way works, and we do not have to make excuses that we or they cheated and broke the rules, you know why, " We have no rules". And again Sifu Fiedler told us it was because of this type of training at the Hung Kuen School that GM Chow wanted Sifu Fiedler to stay there and train until he could move into GM Chows school in the future. Which was another two years later. And fight Sifu Fiedler did, sometime in the future we will write about some of the stories from Sifu Fiedler past, not stories that you could make up or change, these are all stories that have been in newspaper articles, some starting out with, "Good Samaritan goes to far". I mean think about it, how far is to far to help someone from being attacked.

Only Six months in Canada, GM Chow

GM Chow, master of many Traditional Chinese Martial arts systems

This is the first year that Sifu Fiedler and GM Chow are training together, when they first started, GM Chows arms were half the size of Sifu Fiedler's, and Sifu Fiedler says he was skinny. He had wrists that were half the size of Sifu Fielders, he had arms that were so thin you would never think of power coming out of them, when they would block your punch or kick. However the first time Sifu Fiedler had to do Three section block, or three star blocking, or temple blocks, he almost screamed from the pain that shot threw his forearms. It was a horrible type of pain, it seemed as if GM Chow was getting a kick out it, because every time I wanted to stop, he made me go a little while longer. Sifu Fiedler  says that he knew when Sifu Fiedler was really done, it was when GM Chow could see that Sifu Fiedler could hardly hold his arms up. Those skinny little arms of his, every time he hit, it was like getting hit with a baseball bat right on the bone of the forearm, it was horrible type of pain. But as he made Sifu Fiedler do it daily, and at the same time showing Sifu Fiedler how to use real, "Dit Dat Jow". Sifu Fiedler said that GM Chow was a teacher in Herbal meds also, and the Dit Dat Jow that he had was made exactly the way his Ying Yee teacher told him too make it, and it really did work. It was for bruises, for bone injury, small bones, not large, and it really made the body heal faster, and made your joints so they had no water in them, so that we would not get any bad symptoms later from hitting objects to make us harder in certain areas of our bodies, called Paking. As the days turned to weeks turned to months it got easier and easier, and when Sifu Fiedler was made to spar with anyone coming into the Hung Kuen club to try it out. One little touch on their punching arm and now they were screaming like Sifu Fiedler was when he started with GM Chow. That is why Sifu Fiedler said he always loved GM Chows training, it was real, it was no nonsense, and it worked on different levels. Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced technique. Three different levels, chock full of amazing martial arts technique's. As soon as Sifu Fiedler was able to do his three section block with ease, he was taught how to use Iron Palm technique's on sand bags. The sand bags were put on stools that were the height of us while standing in horse stances in front of them. As GM Chow started to teach Sifu Fiedler one of the most mind blowing things that he was taught was when GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler to punch a brick wall. Sifu Fiedler said are you serious, GM Chow said, sure, go ahead and punch that brick wall. Sifu Fiedler looked at the brick wall, then decided to hit the brick wall with enough force to make it a good hit, but with the force weak enough as not to break his fist. As soon as Sifu Fiedler hit the wall GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler how did that feel, Sifu Fiedler told him it hurt, but he did not hit it as hard as he could because he would break his fist. Grand Master Chow said there you go, did you just hear yourself say what you said. Sifu Fiedler said am I not getting this, because he still did not see what GM Chow was getting too. Now with out the answer to the first question, GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler to go ahead and hit the brick wall with a palm smash. Sifu Fiedler did not even have to think about damage to his palm, as the palm is soft, and it will not break, the fist is hard and when it hits something harder something has to break, and yes it will always be the object that is not as hard as the other. So with that all said, GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler can you understand now. That was when Sifu Fiedler could not believe what he was just told and what he had just started to understand. Oh My Gosh, yes to hit something with your fist, you have to be careful not to hit something to hard, and with your palm, you do not have to worry about such things.

    That is a saying that GM Chow taught to Sifu Fiedler, it says, "The Teeth are hard and they fall out, the tongue is soft and it will always remain".

After Two Years together

Sifu Fiedler, GM Chow after two years

After two years together, the year is 1976, both are doing very well as student and master. Sifu Fiedler has done every possible thing that GM Chow has asked him to do, and because of this, Sifu Fiedler's skill has blossomed to areas Sifu Fiedler could only have dreamed about. Sifu Fiedler remembers when he first started with GM Chow, Bruce Lee looked so fast in his movies. After training with GM Chow for two years, watching Bruce Lee movies again, this time Bruce Lee looked normal, he was not that fast any more. Sifu Fiedler asked GM Chow why, and GM Chow told him it was all in his eyes, his eyes had caught up to fast motion, which happens in training. GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler to remember after the first six months of training, up until that point, to remember how fast he seemed to be kicking and punching. Then all of a sudden, it seemed like his speed stopped, he felt sluggish and it felt like the more Sifu Fiedler tried, the worse he felt. Sifu Fiedler was told to keep on training and not worry about what he was feeling, the thing was he was passing into the next stage, and every stage he was going to pass through from here on in, would get worse, it would become harder to go through to the next level, but to remember to always try, to always keep up the training and not worry about how he felt at those down times. GM Chow was so right, Sifu Fiedler could not believe what happened to his kicks, blocks, punching, and motion, it seemed to speed up one day so much that he did not believe it was his kicks or punching, but it was. Every level one passes through he gets more fast, more skilled and more experience. That is why you have to keep on going. Had Sifu Fiedler not had a teacher like GM Chow, how would he have known what was happening to him. Where most teachers would not have known this themselves, GM Chow knew enough to tell the young Fiedler to stick with it and watch the results, it would shock him, and shock him it did. What was even more amazing was the shock came not from someone else, the shock came from what Sifu Fiedler was doing, whether that be a kick or punch, every time he went through to another level he would feel stronger and faster then ever, he would feel faster then ever before and again onto another level. As the years went bye, two years turned into five, five into ten, as more years went by, when Sifu Fiedler went from black belt to third degree black belt, it was totally amazing how much his skill level rose. When one thinks of getting to black belt, and knowing that it is only the basics, going from First to second degree black belt, is like going from white belt to black belt again, with thirty to fifty techniques per belt, by the time a student goes from White belt to Black belt they have three hundred and fifty techniques to perfect. By the time they reach Second Degree black belt they have 700 hundred techniques. By the time they have gone from White belt to Third degree black belt the students knowledge goes from around 700 techniques to one thousand. What is unique about the number one thousand is that there are techniques that intertwine with these others. Because of this, even to say that we have learned one thousand techniques by third degree black belt would not be the truth. If we take a look at the self defense techniques in of themselves, and we also take a look at Combat Techniques, and weapons techniques, from every form, not only that, but also all the techniques in every hand form, and when you look at all of this and add it to the thousand, you have easily two thousand. I remember once someone said, would it not be easier to learn ten kicks, ten blocks, and ten punching techniques your whole life, would you not be much more powerful because of such few motions, would they not all be sharper. You might think like this as I did one day. But we do not have the full picture when we start, we actually don't understand at all what is going on, and never will unless we have had an excellent teacher, someone taught by some famous master, or that famous master, either way you will be taught the same way. As long as the teacher of the system gave his top student the teaching degree. The main thing is you learn properly, and that is another thing that your teacher will know when it is right. There have been a few third degree black belts and when they started to train the forms and technique from that level they could not believe it again. To be surprised so often by the martial art you have been taught for over twenty years, and still your teacher comes out with incredible things you have never seen to that day. A good teacher will always teach you properly, and will always teach you with compassion and respect. There might be times when you think it is wrong of your teacher to say something, all I can say is please trust him, don't be like Sifu Fiedler, he would ask a question, and once answered he would ask again, trying very hard to understand, and at the same time, even if he did understand, it was something that could be rapped around our brains and then we start to understand it, but it takes a few months to really look at all sides of the new technique.

Sifu Fiedler would take a team down in parks to run, do forms, and to spar. On right, GM Chow and Sifu Fiedler started to train really hard with his new school. And with his new school Sifu Fiedler could finally stop going to the Hung Kuen school, but even though Sifu Fiedler knew the style was not for him, it still was a style that had it not been Hung Kuen, Sifu Fiedler is sure that his training would not have been what it was.

GM Chow taught Sifu Fiedler how to run.

There came a time in Sifu Fiedler's training when GM Chow told him he was going to teach Sifu Fiedler how to run. He taught Sifu Fiedler how to run up on the ball of his feet, running basically on your toes. At first you find that your shines will hurt, but you have to do a little at a time, and build up. Once you run up on the balls of your feet for some time, three months, you can start to run a little farther and then try to run the whole way on your balls of your feet. And today this is one thing we always tell all of the students is to run, to make sure to start a running program at home. It is not how far you run, it is staying on track every single day and not miss ever. It will help your ankles become stronger, you will be able to move side to side very quickly. Because of your ankles. Running is something every student that is serious about the martial arts should do. If you cannot do it every day, try to start out by running three times a week, once you feel comfortable with that, you can figure out your own schedule, which is very important, Remember you only have to run ten minutes a day, once you can run ten minutes up on the ball of your feet, that is all you will need to have excellent feet for kicking, moving in stances, and moving while sparring. It is amazing the knowledge that GM Chow was taught.

After around the forth year with GM Chow, Sifu Fiedler had to learn staff forms, long and short, spear forms, and the Famous Ying Yee sword forms. This is how he started dealing with weapons.

Now Sifu Fiedler had to learn all types of staff forms, staff, is always the first type of weapon one must learn in most traditional martial arts systems. After one learns the short double ended staff, one has to learn the single ended long staff. Once the short staff and long staff were taught, the student could start to learn the spear. Spear techniques always complimented Ying Yee motion, in fact some people say that Ying Yee was thought of because of Spear techniques. Plus most people say that because the Ying Yee sword is so much like the Japanese Samurai sword that it had to have come from Ying Yee. Now as far as Sifu Fiedler is concerned he could not see the similarities, but at that stage of his training what did he really know, even at the level between five and ten years students think they know it all, some actually know they know nothing, but Sifu Fiedler even after twenty years knew he would be a student forever. Sifu Fiedler seen that no matter how long he could learn Kung Fu, he could never learn all there is to know, with six hundred styles and systems, recognized systems, Sifu Fiedler said with all the training he has, and is still learning, he knows nothing compared to what there is to know. Sifu Fiedler said he might have learned two systems to a high level, and one to a fifth degree black belt level, but that still means nothing compared to the big picture.

Getting Ready for Vegas

Kicks were starting to fly to their target, once Sifu Fiedler understood what it was to go through different phases of training, he knew what to do if ever he felt sluggish or warn down, or without power or speed, he knew right away what it was, and would deal with it. What Sifu Fiedler does not understand, what about all the teachers that do not understand this for themselves so can't teach it. What about when their students go through this type of situation, what happens then?

After around five years, Sifu Fiedler is starting to love doing flying kicks, flying spinning kicks, jumping into the air and kicking to two different targets without landing yet, then landing in crane stance and keeping balance, then putting foot down. GM Chow showed Sifu Fiedler how to do many amazing traditional Chinese Martial arts type kicks, these kicks were not from Wu Shu, we could say it comes from Traditional Wu Shu, but if you use the name Wu Shu without traditional it would allow people to understand better.

Off to Vegas

On our way to Vegas

On there way to Vegas, it was wild, they drove all the way without taking a rest all the way from Edmonton, they were both so excited that they could not sleep.

Sifu Fiedler would love to get out of the car and run into the Desert

Sifu Fiedler got out of the car as much as GM Chow would stop and wait for him. Sifu Fiedler would run into the desert as fast as he could, and look at what ever it was he was looking for. It was truly an experience until I bumped one of the cactus plants with my shoulder. Ouch, holy cats that was sharp. And then he though of all the western movies he had seen where the cowboys are fighting throwing each other into these same cactus, which are as sharp as needles. That is something you would never know until you went to that same type of desert.

We Got to Vegas Safe and Sound

GM Chow takes picture in Vegas at other Grand Master's school, the school was a Southern Eagle and Mantis school, very rare, and very traditional.

Sifu Fiedler took another picture of GM Chow in Vegas

Two excellent students of a Southern Eagle and Mantis teacher who we went to talk too about doing a demo in Vegas. These two guys were from Lao's and they trained in some form of Kick boxing, it was a little more wild then what we know as kick boxing. Nether the less, these two were fantastic together.

Here two of the students in Vegas, standing in front of Grand Master Suu of China.

Some of the guys we met in Vegas, this was where they taught Southern Eagle and Mantis.

Link to Luk Hup Bah Fah

Grand Master Chow

Grand Master Chow, loved to stand like this for ten minutes. Sifu Fiedler said had he not seen GM Chow do this, he would never have believed it, try to stand for any length of time with your side kick up as high as you can bring it and then wait to see how long you can hold it up in the air. Sifu Fiedler said the longest he built himself up to the highest level was five minutes, exactly half of what GM Chow could do. But after Sifu Fiedler moved to Pembroke he kept training like mad. He wanted to prove to GM Chow that he was more serious about the Chinese Martial arts then any one ever. With in six months he was already doing one leg stand for six and half minutes, and that is the highest he could ever do it for. Some people have larger legs, others are very light and skinny, those people who have smaller legs find it easier and can stand longer, the larger a man, the more he cannot hold his leg up for very long. This is why Sifu Fiedler's skill level went sky high, he had one of the best masters to copy from. His master did not stand there and say do this and do that, he would do it right beside Sifu Fiedler  every single lesson, and that again is how Sifu Fiedler became a very good teacher, he was taught by one of the best, GM Chow's skill at teaching was second to none. Even when they first met and GM Chow could hardly talk English, Sifu Fiedler was still able to learn through, "Monkey see, Monkey do".

    With the palm, you can hit hard areas of the body to cause serious injury, when you hit the temple for instance, and use "Ging", or "Jing", in with your strike, which you can't get from a fist. It can cause serious injury inside the brain. Also to use the palms to break arms, legs, to block any incoming attack, but not only to block that attack, but to break that attack causing it to be unable to hit you again. If you break someone's arm, they can't hit you with it. If you break someone's leg, they can't even follow you to try to hurt you, plus they would be in the same spot as you left them for the police, something you have to do after any attack, make sure to call the police even if you think you got them good enough. What if the police were looking for a rapist and that person that just attacked you was who they were looking for, sure you gave them a little punishment, but any where near what they should be held for if caught by the police, so make sure to call them if ever you have a situation. Sifu Fiedler was in so many of these situations especially after starting to bounce or work as a night manager in a bar, he had to take people out with restraining techniques,  even when they did not want to go, and that is where some of GM Chows Eagle Claw came in, it was all joint locks, arm and leg locks, that would work so fast, that once Sifu Fiedler put them into categories he had one hundred and seventy joint locks to use as restraining techniques. Because Sifu Fiedler was so small compared to some of the lumber jacks and the military that would come to the same place looking for women, and after the night was into it's half way mark, the military and the civilians would want to fight each other. And you always knew when some of the military guys got together and were not drinking, they would all have one beer the whole night, or until they started the trouble. And I am saying this would happen some times not all of the time. Because of this Sifu Fiedler told the girls serving drinks to come and tell him if there were any soldiers that came in and did not drink all night, they would talk, and keep looking over at the guys they wanted to get from the last week ends fights at some other bar. When ever they would start to argue over women, some times it got real wild. But that is another story that has some colourful bits of Sifu Fiedler's history. Ten years of having to protect himself in bars, and not once did anyone touch him, not once. That was against five guys three times in those years, three guys many times, and of course two guys many many more times. One guy for many different reasons, his girl friend left him, his guy friends pulled some joke and he is not happy about what had happened. There are so many reasons that people start to fight in bars, and if you have ever worked in a bar, you know when the worst times of the year are. Did you know that Spring is the absolute worst, that is when people are twikapated, and as Horney as heck. So when they can't get what they want, they fight. They drink much worse, and then get angry at anyone just because their own night did not work out. Just crazy in these bars, and it is the same across the whole world, people are the same, guys want the same thing, Women want the same thing, we all want to be loved, and we all want to be wanted. Right?

GM Chow in Pembroke for first time

When GM Chow came to open the school in Pembroke with Sifu Fiedler, it was a hit, it was the very first time a real martial arts master came to Pembroke, as all others were martial sport teachers, not traditional martial arts. There is a very very big difference. And it should be a concern to you when you want to think about joining a school, make sure to do some home work, make sure to watch a class, and see if it is for you, because in the Chinese Martial arts, there is a style, or system that is made  exactly to fit you like a glove.

GM Chow taking down an attacking Sifu Fiedler at demo in Pembroke

More to Come soon"

Sifu Dee

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