Our History Page
History of Grand Master Chow, and Sifu Fiedler.
History
The history and philosophy of the marital arts, is such a fascinating study, in these next pages I have put together all of the pages that GM Chow and Sifu Fiedler would have wanted me to show you. It is just as important to know where a system comes from and how they think as it is to use their martial arts in real battle.
Once into the study of these amazing arts, your knowledge will increase ten fold. I hope that you find something here that hits home with you, and gives you the knowledge that sets you on your own journey into martial art heaven. Sometimes all it takes is one little verse from a philosophy that touches you so much that it sets you on a path that does not end for the rest of your life.
Going from the belts to the Sash is a remarkable change for the student. To get into the sash program all a student has to do is make it through their belts faster then normal, without any problems. Almost as if they are board with what they are being taught. What sets the Sash Student apart from the Belt level student is time in training. You see if a student studies only twice a week, and another student trains six days a week, who do you think is going to catch technique faster, who do you think is going to pass through the belt levels faster. Of course the student who trains more. And that is exactly why we have a sash system, for those students who train harder than the majority. By the way not every student wants to make Chinese Martial arts their way of life. But for those few who do take it to a high level of achievement, there must be a level for them to walk towards, and that is the Sash System. Not having a level for this type of student would be criminal. Or with some schools they have teachers that do not know this type of knowledge, for one thing they left their teachers far to early thinking they knew it all. This is happening far to often in far to many schools. Because the martial arts are not regulated, anyone can become an instructor, or should I say pretend instructor. What we end up with is the blind leading the blind. And that is horrible for these ego centric idiots pretending to be teachers when all they want is to make extra money for their own pockets, not caring about the students one bit. Which again is horrible.
When the instructor sees his student doing very well, is when the instructor brings the student to Sifu Dee to ask if he or she can be voted on to join into the Sash Inner circle group. Only the Sash Students have been allowed to study arts that are not taught openly to the population and it is free, for no extra charge at all. We have seen some schools do something like this, but they pretend to know extra knowledge, they tell their students that for that extra few grand they can learn the "Secret Techniques of the system", which in the end they find out that it is all crap. They have no extra knowledge, and they do not care what you learn in the least, all they care is to get that extra fee from you into their own bank accounts, which yes is criminal, but what can we do except warn you about this behavior. Never ever pay by the year, always pay by the month, this is safe for you. When one of our students starts training they start learning Hung Kuen, Wing Chun, and Northern Long Fist, in China these arts are taught to military and police. The reason for this is these styles work right away, they are very basic arts that do not take to much time to study and actually be able to use it in a real situation. Yes there are many styles and systems that are like this basically being able to defend themselves in six months from someone like a street fighter, and in two years if they trained hard could be at an expert level. Don't get me wrong, Northern Long fist, Wing Chun, or Hung Kuen are all perfectly good styles on their own. They have grappling, trapping, sticking, and striking techniques. But if you were to look at all three of these styles closely, you would notice that they all start out completely different. In Wing Chun, they stand in what is known as a Goat stance, throwing punching techniques called Center punching. With Hung Kuen, they have many types of horse stance and start almost what you would see in a good Combat Karate style. In Northern Long Fist, they have a stance called Monkey step, and their punching arms are held very far from the body held sideways for reach. One punch out to the front held long from the body, while their other arm is held out from their backs. The punch that was behind starts to go out to the front, while the punch that was in front, now goes to the back, "Not to the hip". This is a very small example of how different these three styles are, and they are styles, not systems. You see systems in the martial arts have some times ten to twenty different methods of training. If we call Wing Chun one type of method, Northern Long Fist another method and Hung Kuen the same. Then you would notice how different they are, not only how different they are, but how much they complement each other, and if you truly think about it, what would your skill be if you trained these three arts. For one thing you would have far more knowledge in motion than someone only training in one style, you would have far more motion to train than any one who trains only one such style, and that alone would set you apart from the rest. This is how our system was put together one thousand years ago. A very famous general in the Chinese Military, knew this and trained his soldiers in a few different styles so they could understand the different types of distances, and motions than most others who train in only one method.
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Expert level only means they have all the basics to a very high level, kicks snap out into the air, punches are crisp and fast, most important is their balance which is now trained to a high level of skill. and all of the techniques are very sound and with balance. Most students can be excepted into the Sash Program after one to two years. However I have seen some make it in six months, but that is most of the time a student that is a black belt from another style, has joined our system and is doing very well adjusting to our type of training.
All black belts have to start at white belt over again when they join. There is no sob stories as to why you should be able to keep your rank from the style you came from. Point in case, the systems that you are going to be learning need an exact base, and exact foundation. Most black belts that come over to our training are very much in agreement with this rule especially once they see our basics compared to what they were taught. And again if they came from a martial sport this is more necessary then ever.
Talking to the other Black belts they find out if they train hard they can go through a belt every month, until they reach a point where they find it hard because the system they are now learning is completely different then what they were taught. If they come from a martial sport, half the battle is over. Having a black belt in martial sport does not mean they have to throw away what they have been doing, one thing they will have that normal new students won't have is flexibility, strength, speed with their punching, blocks and kicks, and the faster they can adjust to the way that our system does things, the faster they can go through the ranks, until they find exactly the rank they find comfortable.
If they go to far, they could be overwhelmed with technique that is so different that it catches up with them. To go slow is much better, to learn one or two techniques at a time and clean them up is better then being stuck on twenty techniques and find that you do not even know where to start because you bit off to much. Don't worry we watch your progress closely, and we will put you exactly where you should be.
We are very fair, and very professional as to what class you should be in, and we can only promise you the hardest part is changing styles or systems, once here, you will kick yourself for not coming earlier. Especially if all you have been involved with is martial sports, you knew inside that something does not feel right, whether that is the lack of philosophy, or the lack of self defense techniques, or even why they do not have meditation techniques, or why they do not have weapons, sure maybe one or two, and maybe three, but that does not give you the professionalism that you should have after learning twelve to eighteen weapons.
Some of these arts that you are studying are well known, however we do have arts that are very rare and very hard to come by. Sifu Fiedler was very fortunate to have lived with a Chinese family for the length of time that he did, not only that but to be able to learn such arts as Luk Hup Bah Fah, Ying yee, Sum yee, many kinds of Chi Kung, and so much more from Grand Master Chow.
We all know that GM Chow’s base arts are Wing Chun, Choy Lay Fut, Tam Tiu, Hung Gar, Northern Long Fist, all in the first five years of training with him. This is what a Sash student starts to learn when excepted. Because of his balance, power, speed, basic technique, blocks, punching, and kicking, he has the tools to learn the arts taught by GM Chow.
This is what you had to learn first before starting the Ying Yee, which again was the base of the Luk Hup Bah Fah. We also are very fortunate in the area of ancient Chinese weapons; these weapons are historical methods that we should always make sure to pass on to our students. Not to use weapons against people, but to learn weapons for the sake of keeping the ancient methods alive. We train the whip, throwing knives, Staff, long and short, sword, long and short single edge, and double edge, butterfly knives, butterfly swords, Chukka’s, Three section staff, two section staff, Spear, Kwan do, many more.
Why these arts landed in Pembroke is so unusual, and very unique, these are arts that if we lived in the largest cities we would be fortunate to be able to study. With this knowledge, every one of you should feel very fortunate, and always study your arts as much as you can. You must study as hard as you can to become a very good instructor, so that you pass on the art that was passed on to you, exactly the way that it was passed on to you. I have seen many people that received their black belts, to them this was a signal to open their own schools, all end up failing however, just because they were too full of it to wait and see what was around the corner. Our black belt is just the start of our training, it is the foundation, once you have your foundation, you can start to learn many of the arts that are forbidden to learn as a basic student. We even have different programs for a student to start once they receive their black belts, either go on to second degree black belt in Hung Kuen, or if they like they can start their Southern Eagle and Mantis training, which is a very long course, once passed your mind will be completely changed as to how you felt about the arts before learning Eagle and Mantis, that is how dramatic Tong lung is, or Southern Eagle and Mantis. And if you are a really exceptional student you can start to learn all of the forms and techniques that are taught in Ying Yee, and take a course in Ying Yee to First level Sash, the second level is Instructor so these ranking systems in Ying Yee are the older methods, no belts, and five years between courses, five years for first course, up to ten years to the end of the second course. But if you wanted to learn a martial art that was totally extreme in battle for a thousand years in China, A martial art that has proven longevity, masters in Ying Yee have always lived longer then their Tai Chi counter parts. About the same for the Ying Yee as the Ba Gwa people. Well that is our opening all the links below will take you to different areas of History, whether then history of a style, system, Grand Master Chow's history, Grand Master Suu's History, and Sifu Fiedler's History. Even though these three have been gone, it is still a wonderful thing to read about where these systems came from and how they trained when they taught these arts.
Histories
We know through history that the martial arts were at it's zenith in the 16th century, and was not possible to bring to a higher level. From that point on, you could not reinvent the wheel, or try to create some new application, or technique, or even a new training method. The thing is that it had already been accomplished long before you ever thought about it. What strikes me is how ego centric people are. One thing to remember is people are people, who invented the martial arts, yes it was people. However I did hear one story that Kung Fu came from space aliens, they came down five thousand years ago and taught the Chinese and Tibetans kung fu and acupressure. But that is another story. If you want to do research into that mind set, read about Fah Lung Gong. I think that is the right spelling, they do martial arts and most of the time meditations and Chi kung, they are peaceful and in China they held peaceful demonstrations, the government of China was worried that they were becoming to great in number. and decided to start arresting these people for standing and doing meditations in public.
Reading Sifu Fiedler's notes, he says that during his first year, when his kicks started to become very fast and correct. He started to do this kick that no one taught him, it felt so right, and it was very powerful. Sifu Fiedler asked GM Chow about the kick he was experimenting with and he told Sifu Fiedler it was a kick taught to students in Tam Tiu. Sifu Fiedler asked GM Chow why this kick came out of his body so natural, and GM Chow told Sifu Fiedler that the martial arts are natural, they say that, "People take to the martial arts like Ducks take to water", it is so natural. Sure it is a lot of hard work, but anything that is good takes hard work. Every thing that tastes bad is good for you, everything that tastes good is bad for us.
There are some people that walk around with chests out, strutting like a peacock, but the reality is, it has already been done before us, no matter what it is. Even tournaments, it has already been tried, thousands of years before what any one is doing today. I have to laugh at some of these so called new fighting methods and training methods.
Some of them claiming that they are by far the best ever in history, or they are with the less rules ever. What a crock to listen to these statements, when we know, and not long ago, there were many very dangerous fights in the Orient long before us. In Shanghai when it was under Japanese rule. Some Jujitsu guys or Judo guys would set up rings right in the middle of the streets and ask any one from the audiences to go up and fight with their toughest guys from Japan. Well that is when some of these guys first ever seen the Chinese martial arts up close and personal. They were shocked, and once they seen the Chinese martial arts they did anything and everything to try to bring it home to Japan.
However there was one match that made headlines even back in the day, and to this day movies have been made about this story because it is true. One of the Greatest Chinese Masters living in Peking was Challenged by one of the Greatest Masters from Japan, he was a Jujitsu master. After losing the match, the Chinese Master took ill having a bad cold even before the battle. Back at that time there were no Chinese doctors that could use their medical practice the Japanese did not allow it. They had a Japanese Doctor look at him, he was dead the next morning. Dead from being poisoned by the doctor, this ordered by the Japanese military who were in charge of everything Japanese, you see the Japanese become militaristic. When the Chinese found out he was poisoned they were outraged, but could do nothing because of the fighting force that had taken over such large areas of Northern China, given the name of Manchuria.
There are stories of Japanese spies going all over China pretending to be on the Chinese side. He went around to many of the Chinese masters asking them to teach him their Kung Fu. For whatever reason as the story goes, all of the Chinese Masters knew who he was so they taught him incorrectly, the breathing was taught incorrectly, which cause serious problems if done for long time incorrectly. They were also taught technique incorrectly, and many other things. One thing that is amazing is that this style is still going strong in Japan to this day. I will not give its full name, but it is called, “Kempo”, but with words in the front or behind the word, “Kempo”. Also something I observed in many of the Kempo arts I have seen. They seemed to teach a little of everything, but in a very basic method. Also they were unaware of so many real Chinese terminologies and methods. It really brought me to an area where it made me think how Kempo was brought to Japan, and who brought it to Japan. We can see many types of Kempo introduced into Japan in various times, the first one that I studied about was in the 12th century Japan, a warrior monk from China went to Japan and started the Ninja, also various forms of Jujitsu, and also the Kempo, the Kempo was taught to a very powerful family in Japan back in the 12 century and it became famous for its effectiveness in battle. This form of Kempo was kept in that family until this century when it started to become more widely known through Grand Master Parker.
Sure the Chinese were easy marks by any country at the start of the twentieth century, all because they wanted to keep the foreign devils out and not allow them to come into China, China was self sufficient and did not need any outsiders help or discoveries, or modernization, as far as they were concerned they did not need help from anyone. However the countries of the world was at her door steps and wanted the riches of silk, selling opium, and also taking as much as they could from natural resources and treasures. China was the last country to develop the gun in the area. The Gun is what brought about the unity of Japan, brought to Japan by Jesuits in the 16th century, had it not been for the Gun, even Japan would have remained fighting each other as it was for a thousand years. The Gun made all of the Shogun make alliances and stand together against the Europeans and then they set their sights on other areas of the Orient and their ultimate plans with Germany to take over the World during the second world war, three hundred and some years after attaining the gun from the Europeans.
They knew what had happened to them, and they new that China did not have the gun at that time, plus China was a very unorganized country back at that time. That is why it was so easy for Japan to march right in and take over large parts of the north of China; China was unorganized, and fighting among itself. But this did not have anything to do with the martial arts, in fact because the Japanese had taken over parts of China many of the Chinese were angry as could be. Not only making fun of them, “the Japanese put a sign in a park in Shanghai saying that, “Dogs and Chinese were not allowed”, the sick men of Asia, this is what they called the Chinese. So when they mocked them in the streets and said that none of their fighters could match their top Jujitsu, or Judo, well that was the topping on the cake. One Chinese master went up on the stage and picked up one of the sand bags that the Jujitsu man was working on, he gave it a palm smash and the bag ripped open and smashed apart. He then turned to who was going to fight him and told him he better be ready. Needless to say his opponent was knocked out in seconds, not once was any Chinese martial artist in trouble, every one of them beat all of the Jujitsu or Judo masters easily, and they say that there is not any style that is better then the other. Something said by people, who do not want to cause any waves, they know that there are some very secretive systems not taught to many outsiders ever but hate to admit it
. Styles and systems that have remained secretive to this day. Not many people teach or even know of Luk Hup Bah Fah, or Ba Ji, or Various forms of Tai Chi and Ying Yee. There are versions of Ba Gwa that are totally remarkable, however because they take longer to work in a real situation, some people that want to learn start out and then stop because they see how much time it will take and after a certain amount of time they still see no results. Had they stayed for two years only two years and trained hard for their master, they would have started to see the results they were looking for. Most of the basic martial arts like Martial Sports you can feel things starting to get better in around the six months time span. And at the year time span, you can already see your balance improve, you see your kicks and blocks and punching techniques start to have some snap, and you could not be happier with the accomplishments. However this is not the case with what is known as the internal arts. These take a little longer to bring up to an expert level, but well worth the time and effort, if people are satisfied with the feeling of basic martial sports, if they only knew what was there for them if they only had the patience and allowed time to go by as it always will.
Why I do not believe in histories is man has always changed it. If we look close to many histories that we learned in school back in the 60s, it seems that most of what we learned has already been changed. And if we take a look at the martial arts world back to eighty years ago. We can see that when the Okinawa people taught the Japanese their martial art of Karate taught to them by the Chinese centuries earlier to fight the Japanese. The Chinese had always had envoys on Okinawa and helped them learn how to defend themselves with farm tools, and other implements. Early this century, Japan took over Okinawa totally, and had always bullied the Okinawa people; they treated them as second class citizens, and still do. Point in case, if you were picked on, if your people were treated terribly, would you teach them the only thing you have to protect yourself against your aggressors. Well that is exactly what happened, or did it?.
When the Japanese ordered the Okinawa Masters to teach them Karate. At the same time offering positions teaching in Universities with large salaries. The Okinawa masters had a meeting and decided to teach them only what they taught their grade school children, keeping the real art taught only to their adults and keep the real martial art for themselves, just in case. That is why the forms look so basic and so different. When I say different, here is what you should do if you want to see what I am saying is the truth. Even if you do not want to believe what I am saying, just take a look anyway. Look up the word Go Jo. Now look up Chinese Go Jo, now look up Okinawa Go Jo, last but not the least look up Japanese Go Jo. Now look at what has been changed from the China to Okinawa. You will not see that much of a difference. Now if you look at what it looks like from Okinawa to Japan, here is where you will be surprised, now if they are supposed to be the same forms, the same techniques the same everything exactly as it was taught, you will be surprised indeed, that is why for years you never seen anything that looked vaguely advanced. It was never taught to them. In fact the first people to learn true Okinawa Martial arts was the Americans that made friends with them while serving in Okinawa after the war.
They brought this martial art to the States, and it was an instant hit. After the Japanese learned the Karate, they changed the Characters in the Chinese writing, from “China Hand”, to “Open Hand”. They did this because of the problems they had always had with the Chinese, at this time they had lost the war with China. For anyone to say that something in Japan was from China was against the law. One such Grand Master was the man who developed Aikido, The Aikido Grand Master went to the University of Peking to get his degree, so he had to stay for years to study. While there he met a Ying Yee master, after training with the Ying Yee master for some time, he was introduced to Ba Gwa, so again he trained this art for years, again he was introduced to another Great master of Tai Chi, and from all these years of training he came home, but after ten years of training. He was so excited about his martial art and wanted to teach exactly what he was taught and who he was taught from. He almost went to jail for wanting to tell the truth. It was only after things became very serious that he changed his mind, of course the teaching position in a University was something that helped change is mind I am sure. However this is one of the Greatest Masters ever from Japan, he went to China, learned from some of the best masters in China, who were all gathering in Peking to train together. Finally the Aikido master gave in, called his art Aikido, and kept quite until he was close to his death which was when he told his story and the truth about his art.
Another Great Master who was Japanese was the head of the JKA, one of the most powerful Karate organizations in the world. Because he started to train Tai Chi, and started to teach Tai Chi to his students. It was because of what he was getting from it himself. This master did not throw his Karate away, he only wanted to add to his art, if he was training the hardest of the hard from his Karate, why not train soft also, and become proficient in Both Yin and Yang. The heads that sat on the board of the organization were so angry at this man, for another reason he was beating everyone in the Tournaments and it was from the Tai Chi techniques, which was so visible, the Japanese had to do something to get rid of him, so they took his position away in the JKA, because he would not stop teaching what he believed would help his students. When he left, half of the organization left with him, and he started his own group which is now with more members then the JKA.
How to tell if your Kung Fu is real
More to come soon:
Thank you
By Sifu Dee