Sifu Dee

Sifu Dee

Sifu Dee when he first started his Martial arts, Sifu Gallant is teaching him his first lessons

This is where Sifu Dee's story starts. He started his training with Sifu Gallant, Sifu James, Sifu Klentz and other top students. Why was Dee allowed to come into this class. Well all I have to say is read on, it's all here. I have to look at this picture and laugh, see Sifu Dee punching with his shoulder up, and his wrist bent, if he punched someone to defend himself, he would break his own wrist on his attacker, who would win in that situation. However the whole issue here is not winning and losing, it's living or dying, plain and simple. Training in a martial art, rather then martial sport makes things much different in the curriculum, it is the difference between night and day. In a martial art you have meditation, one of the most important aspects of your martial arts training. And I do not mean sitting on the floor on your knees for a few minutes, not told how to meditate, only told to sit like the guy at the front, with no instruction as to how to meditate or how to breath at all.

    Sifu Dee looks so young in that picture above, I remember when he started his training he was so much shorter then he is now, and he was also very thin. He trained as hard as every one that ever started in Ky Moo Kwan and made it to instructor, and you have to know in this system of kung fu the instructor degree is not given to anyone. We have seen fourth degree black belts not allowed to go for their Teaching Degree, "Sifu", because they can't teach. You have to know that not everyone is gifted to teach. In the same breath, not every one has the gift to heal people. And another is not everyone can be a good fighter. And those are the three main areas of Kung Fu excellence. Healing, being able to spar with incredible courage, speed and timing, last but not the least, to be a very good teacher. The last type of student is one who can do all of these and all three to the highest level possible. To soon to know if Sifu Dee will be one who can do all three. To have two thirds on it 's way to mastery, Sifu Dee is not far off to becoming Ky Moo Kwan's third Master.  Think about this one for a second, being taught in school as you grow up, you remember the teachers that really cared about the students, how they taught, how they got threw to us, but again we also remember those teachers that always looked at their watch, they always sounded droll and not interested in the students at all. This is what I am talking about, it is not just in kung fu, but everything with teaching involved, bad teacher, bad result, good teacher amazing result. Instructor means, "Sifu", that means teacher, it means instructor. Sihing means teachers assistant, it also means instructors assistant, and it also means Sifu's second in command. The Sifu can have many people who are Sihing under him, they all teach different belt and Sash levels every time they go to class. So that one night they will teach white to red belts, the next night they will teach Green belt to Blue, and the next night brown to black. One night in there some where they have to teach a Sash night, which is the combat class, sparring, weapons training, and self defense training. With the Sihing's helping teach the classes, they become very experienced, and have a high level of skill with in a few years. Not only that but because they kept on teaching as they should have been all along, that is when they can memorise the belts from white to black, and every one of the Sash Techniques and the weapons forms and hand forms. At first it is a daunting, but as time goes bye, you can start to see the light. What at first seems to be impossible because the curriculum has much more then you had anticipated, but again as time goes bye you see that what you thought you could not do, you can do. And when these things happen, it builds our confidence, and our courage to always believe in ourselves.  while the top Sifu goes around making sure all the different groups are teaching it properly and also if they have a question they know they can ask without any problem.

Sifu Dee was in his instructors training area until it was dark out and everyone else was gone. He wrote down every lesson, every word that his instructors told him, he wrote down diligently, as you all are told to do when you start your classes. There are a few things that we ask when students start, one is to keep a record of your classes, dates, times, what was taught, and how it went. We ask that you practise your power of the instep, every single day for when Blue Belt comes, " Flying Kicks", starts here, and if you have not done what was asked, those few things, that is where you have to stop and practise your flying kicks, and your power of the instep so that you can bring it up to the level it should be had you worked on it a little bit every day, five every day would take one minute, that does not sound like we are taking up much of your time at all. So please do those two things, write down your lessons in diary form, and make sure to do power of the Instep, if you do this you will go through your levels much more rapidly.

Sifu Dee has been in the martial arts for ten years now, and to be as good as he is, the reason for this is every thing written above and the absolute respect he gave everyone who taught him. He never missed class, he never ever was disrespectful to people he did not like. Of course no matter where you go there are always people easy to dislike, you know the type, whether at work, at some sport, there is always someone that is off of the wall, but does that mean to treat them badly, no it means to try to show them that he does not have to have a chip on his or her shoulder. Because of the respect he gave his instructors they all took him under their wings. Not one of them, but all of the top instructors, every one of them helped Sifu Dee in their own special area of expertise. That is one thing that I do not understand, how can some students actually argue with their teacher. But again it does not matter where you are, what you do, or what class of people, you will always find someone that is just so infuriating.

Sifu Dee, Sifu Gallant front row

Here we see Sifu Gallant starting to teach Sifu Dee the long staff. This area was the private training area when Sifu Dee started ten years ago, now it has changed to an area half way to Petawawa. This picture was taken around 1998. Sifu Dee started only six months earlier. Sifu Dee was able to get into high level classes because he did all the cleaning, he did all of the garbage detail, and he did anything that needed work like the grass being cut or branches being picked up, Sifu Dee did everything, the top guys were so thankful they all took him under their wings. In those first ten years, as Sifu Dee says, not one day has gone by where I have not been taught something mind-blowing.

Sifu Gallant and Sifu Dee

Both Sifu Gallant and Sifu Dee train together all the time, always making sure their technique is up to stuff for the next time their masters come to teach them. One of the masters was introduced to Sifu Dee when Sifu James retired from teaching at Ky Moo Kwan, he moved to Florida. Every one was so upset when Sifu James Left, he was a great teacher and excellent martial artist.

Something happened that was so strange, one of the high level masters from out west that Sifu Fiedler trained in Vancouver with long time ago. Sifu Dee got an email and told him if he wanted to learn more Ying Yi, he would teach him as long as he was serious. Sifu Dee also told the Grand Master from Vancouver that they have no one to teach them at this point and that they love Kung Fu and want to see it flourish in this area.

This master told Sifu Dee he was coming to work close to Pembroke a few months a year, and on special weeks when something had to be put together at AECL in a hurry. When he finally came he visited Sifu Fiedler, brought him some Chinese herbal meds for his neck and back. Then he came to visit Sifu Dee. From that day on, his new master has  been coming twice a year to teach the top Sifu of Ky Moo Kwan, Sifu Dee a few months each time he comes. Since starting to come Year and half ago, he has taught Sifu Dee all of the forms that he missed before Sifu Croy left, and now are on their way to becoming masters in their own right.  Since he has been taught by this master his skill level has increased ten fold, Sifu Dee is so excited being taught by Masters for the first time in his life. Sifu Gallant was taught by Sifu Fiedler, he could not believe Sifu Fiedler's skill and knowledge. Now that Sifu Dee has a new teacher, both Sifu Dee and Sifu Gallant have it made now.

Art by Gai Fay Li

Some of the new people that come in from other styles or systems, they might be as high as black, some higher, so yes they are set in their ways. One man came in and wanted to join. So when Sifu Dee was trying to teach him, he was telling Sifu Dee that he had to punch like this, because his old teacher told him that it was the most powerful punch in all kung fu. Well to put my own two cents in here, to clear this up, there is no one punch in kung fu that is best, each one has it's own flight path, each one can hit with a different force, using Ging, or hard style, or something else, the fact remains, unlike Sport Karate where you have a hammer and nail. Kung Fu has the whole tool box, crane beaks, Tiger claws, Dragon Claws, Side punch, Eagle Hand Drop, center punch, and so much more, remember in sports they are only allowed to use few things in order to score points. In the real world on the streets, you need to protect yourself or loved ones, and believe me, it has to work. Right away the young student looses respect from every one in the club that is teaching him, at the same time, what about having a full cup, you can't learn with a full cup, you can only learn when you come with your cup empty, you come to learn, not to stand there and say you were taught this way and that.

 I hope some of you can see my point on this issue. Again we can't tell this person to move on and not come back, why because we care about everyone, and no matter the attitude bad or good, we will always try hard to help someone, and not give up until we have gone through every possible avenue with the student. Most important way to show new students is by actions, and not by words, words mean nothing, it is by actions that people will learn from. 

 Even when some of the higher belts picked on Sifu Dee, he made it with flying colours, and I don't mean pick on him to hurt him, I mean they pushed him and pushed him and pushed him until he had to react. Another test we have to see what type of personality they have, are they ego centric, are they introverted, or are they out going. All of these things can determine if you get into the Inner circle group. Some of those who have acted up, or who did not come with empty cup, ask why they cannot come into the Sash Class, and our only answer is get some help with your attitude, learn humility, and compassion, learn respect, you can't make someone respect you, you have to act properly to get that from people, people above you and below you, it works both ways. People can demand respect, but this is not real respect, what it is, it's fear.

Also going back to a physical encounter, someone coming in at you. First time, you are frightened, and you clam up without being able to move. This you will never forget, and because of  that feeling you start to experiment with what you were taught, to stay calm, how to get calm, threw breathing techniques, over and over in class using breathing techniques that make you calm immediately. This will help with fear. Fear is something that is not a bad thing, God or what ever you want to call it, gave us Fear for self protection, Fear can get out of control on people who have not been taught to bring fear under control, and use the power of fear in our techniques. Most do not know the power in emotions, it is absolute power, inside and out. When someone is attacking you, you learn to move, move so fast, instead of becoming tight and frozen, freezing is a common aspect for beginning students in sparing, and that is why we have to make sure to teach properly, help students always and make them feel comfortable even as they make mistakes. And if they have a great teacher the teacher will teach his students to breath, you have to make sure to stay calm, and the only way to stay calm is to breathe properly. When taught how to breath properly everything else falls into place.

Sifu Dee doing another demo at the Gym Club

Also the more a student gets caught with a technique in the club, a front kick, side kick, roundhouse kick, all of the punching and other techniques, each one with their own methods to block them from hitting you, well this is what happened to Sifu Dee, he was hit from some kick or technique, and would learn from it, after Sifu Klentz caught Sifu Dee with a technique over ten times, he could not catch Sifu Dee with it any more, Sifu Dee was so used to the technique he could block it easily. Then you would have another one of the black belts, like Sifu van Hoof, the legs on her, she was one of the best kicking students we have ever had, and right at that time, she was honing her skill from brown belt to First Degree Black in Hung Kuen, and Sifu Dee was sparing with her when Sifu Klentz would leave, she would attack Sifu Dee with various techniques that Sifu Klentz never used, and now Sifu Dee was twice as good in knowledge of how to move against attacks, from one of the instructors who was much better attacking with hand techniques, and another top instructor who would come in with kicks all over the head area, and from the floor straight up under a side kick or round house kick. She would spin on the ground, and kick straight up into his groin. And not hard, the kick is taught to kick up high, against the supporting leg, up right close to the groin, by the thigh. If you can hit that target without fail every time, you then would also be able to hit someone in the groin with the same technique easily. Remember she has skill, any one with skill has control, and when you have control you do not hurt your students.  As the weeks went by, each of these higher students would keep on pushing and throwing techniques at Sifu Dee until again he would be able to block the technique without thought. As soon as this happened, they would switch right away to a new technique, because their were four to six high level students, each one would teach Sifu Dee a different way, using different techniques against him. Teaching him self defense, and the Sash Techniques as he was allowed into the inner circle club faster then most people do, however we have been very fortunate to have had excellent students, ten percent making it into the Inner circle group which is incredible. Plus many higher level students are staying now, reason being we have less high school students, and more people that have jobs around here and are not leaving to go anywhere at any time. Unlike the high school student that has to go to University after High school, and all that hard work goes with them. We look at the students as our works of art. Each one is a beautiful picture of martial art motion, power, skill and speed. They are our canvas, and we try to help them in each and every possible way to allow them to become the best that they can become, physically and mentally.

Sifu Klentz teaching Sifu Dee roll over hand technique.

Another issue to bring up here is the time people have to do their martial arts. There are many people that wish they could come more, but they work hard, they have families and are professionals in their own fields. Some students wish they could come more often, but they can't. But if a student that is in that situation, as long as they do the martial arts as much as they can, that is all that is needed. Not everyone wants to be an instructor, or a good fighter, or many other reasons. The main thing is if you take the martial arts you do it the way you want to do it. If you can only train twice a week, and you do the best that you can when you are there, you can still be very good at the martial arts. Remember as long as you write every thing down, and you practise what you were taught at home, ten minutes here, twenty there, it all adds up. We will always have people that want to make Kung Fu a way of life, and we will always have people that want to only take the martial arts for hobbies, and that is Ok too, as long as everyone is happy with what they are doing, again that is all we could ever ask for.

What we do with the students is make sure we build up their bodies in the right areas. Why not build up the chest, because it is the wrong type of muscle group to build for movement. Biceps are bad to build for your body as well. What I am talking about is martial arts muscle, not weight lifting muscle. Both types are very different, one has the result of looking good and feeling strong, the other is for real armour in the right spots, and a strength that is very different, it has muscle that is not only with strength, but also stretch, as with the muscle being flexible. If your muscles have good stretch, they can move your limbs twice as fast. And as you all know, power does not come from muscle or strength, it comes from the speed of the limb striking the target. , and to have very fast arms and legs when you have to move. There is a completely different set of muscle groups and how to build them.  Weights for legs are not good for you either, flexibility is the key for legs. One very important aspect is stomach muscles, and if a student sticks to this type of training for six months, he is already starting to see results, especially if they train every single night.

Ok lets get back to this, take a look at your Triceps and the V shape of the back.  The neck and back muscles, are all very important. You see your triceps will make your punch fly, your neck and back muscles can protect you if you do not see a punch or kick coming and it hits you from behind or side, especially if you are being attacked by many people. If you have some armour, "Muscle", their attack could bounce right off of you. Even more so with Iron Body training. Some of the stories I heard from when Sifu Fiedler did his Demo's, oh boy, lets leave that for now. Students learn how to move compared to how their opponent moves, and every time their opponent moves, we move beside them, or on angle, or the many other, one of the best is called Angular attack, which is very hard to block. We pretend we will hit high, and go low, we pretend to go to the right, and we go to the left, it is astounding when students start to become skilled at these methods stepping, and of combat, as it helps them so much to understand how to move. I should bring up a point here also, we have many methods of sparing, not one method, but many. The reason for this is our Grand Master was taught more then twenty systems, and styles, when he taught these to Sifu Fiedler he not only showed Sifu Fiedler the movements, he taught him what each movement would do, he taught Sifu Fiedler to defend himself by moving foreword, one of the hardest types of defense, because of the fear you have to deal with when first learning to keep on moving straight forward. It sure takes courage, and another way to develop to be courageous. Some people say you can't teach someone to be courageous, I have to step in and say that is not true at all. Sifu Fiedler says he was scared and rightfully so. Once over the fear of doing something. He had the courage to do it over and over with out the least bit frightened. But that did not come over night, that came with weeks of training, weeks of GM Chow showing Sifu Fiedler over and over again.

Sifu Dee and Sifu Gallant always sparring together, and for the last seven years steady for both not missing a day. In fact to watch these two move together is better then watching a kung fu movie, they are now starting to look that good. With all martial arts, the true power of the art does not come for ten to twenty years. Sure you can defend yourself if taught the proper techniques for self defense. Which most systems understand to begin with, they know that everything dealing with the power of nature, takes a little longer then normal technique.

Learning to move backwards when someone is attacking, is a death sentence, most people understand why?, It is usually martial sports that teaches to move backwards to set up your opponent for a point, in real life to move backwards can be the death of you. Some could be  preparing themselves to go to a tournament which has so many rules that you can't call it martial arts any more, you have to call it martial sports.

Because of this type of training, Sifu Dee was in his glory. For so long he wanted to learn a martial art and not a martial sport. He always listened to his teachers and did the right weight program to build up his body, as he was very thin. They would also go running threw the bush, his instructor had fields and bush beside his farm house, they had all the room in the world with paths to run on and stations to do various drills every half mile.

 He practised his sparring and lucky for him he was in with four to six black belts every single night at his teachers place of training. He also got to learn throwing knifes much faster then most, and with in four years, he was standing heads and tails with the instructors that were teaching him, his skill with his legs and kicks came from Krys van Hoof because she was one of the best kickers and he loved to watch and train with her. Plus she was like a bird of pray, she could do her flying kicks incredibly well, at the same time she had claw techniques with her tiger and Eagle claws that could grip you so hard, you would not want to move, because of the pain, Sifu van Hoof wanted to show the guys that she could do anything they could. What she did with her hands was lie on the ground face down in a push up position with tiger claws, once she did enough of those, she would finish with Eagle Claw push ups, from eight fingers and two thumbs, to four fingers and two thumbs, which is the Eagle claw.

 The skill I talk about is the use of the fingers for weapons, using Eagle claw to do grappling on your opponent. You learn many things about the human body you never knew before, and you see just how easy it is to touch someone in the right area, at the wrong time, and it leaves them paralysed for a few moments, or worse, but we never do that worse with each other, we save that for an attacker. Besides GM Chow always told us that it was dangerous to work on each others most serious nerve attacks, body cavities, or joint lock techniques. Always be careful and when it comes to any type of body cavity strike, serious nerve attack, or attacking the acupressure areas that cause severe damage and pain. All of these are very dangerous, so please always listen to your instruction.

What Sifu Gallant and Sifu Dee learned, is that this method is very hard to learn for westerners. Westerners always think they have to fight like they were in some competition, every time they spar they fight against each other, both not learning much. If one is better then the other, one learns to get beat up, the other learns to beat up another person. Who learns from this type of training, think about it. The Eastern method is to practise with your partner to help each other learn, to allow each other to take each other down, to throw each other and to help each other into the next motion to pull it off perfectly. If the technique is not perfect, no "Ging", no sucking in and spitting out, nothing seems right, they tell each other. They don't keep that from each other in order to have an upper hand. No one learns then, but to tell each other about the technique they just used creates amazing results. 

When you fight with your partner, you never fight to win, you fight together, not apart, you fight to help each other into and out of motions, you tell your partner if his attack did not hit the nerve in the arm properly, or nerve in the neck, and then let your partner try again. Or if you see that your partner could have done better going in on an angular attack, rather then sideways, backwards, or forwards. Since they have been excepted by some of Sifu Fiedler's old teachers, teachers that used to train with GM Chow and Sifu Fiedler in Vancouver, when they both lived in Edmonton. GM Chow and Sifu Fiedler would drive from Edmonton, to Vancouver on a week end, the drive was sixteen hours one way, leave Friday, ready to train Saturday and Sunday, be home by Monday evening. Both of them would do that trip sometimes every week end, GM Chow wanted Sifu Fiedler to work with as many of GM Chows friends as possible, one of GM Chows friends is a Mantis master, the other a Hsing i master. Sifu Fiedler was the same rank as both of these masters, except in 1993, Sifu Fiedler was ranked to Master Instructor in Ying Yee, and Luk Hup Bah Fah. 

Tiger form, Ying Yee

 Sifu Dee also learned the best self defense off of most of the other black belts, he was taught to spar properly with all of them. Another black belt, Sifu Klentz was the one who taught Sifu Dee how to throw a knife and to do his short double end staff, his single end long staff, his spear form number one, and his Ying Yee Short single edged sword form number one two and three. Sifu Dee just about passed everyone and most if not all were very proud of him, lets face it, most had a hand in helping him reach these goals. This is the hardest thing about trying to get students to work together and not alone. To have no ego, to be always compassionate to the students, and to always help students, to always teach them the way Sifu Fiedler would if he was still here, or for  that matter GM Chow, or GM Chow's teacher, you see they all taught exactly the same from warm up to everything else. I remember once when someone started to do the warm up a different way. Right away the student remembered when Sifu Fiedler was teaching and he told every one that he did not change one thing ever that he was taught. Not one thing. When he seen someone doing the warm up wrong, and in the wrong order, he was angry. Who would be so full of ego that they think they know better then the Kung Fu masters of the past. You would have to wonder what type of mind would do such a thing, to change forms, to leave out technique because the so called teacher cannot do that technique very well. But his students can, well if the technique does not fit the teacher, why would he not want to teach it to his students, when they can do it. You know why, because of ego, they would not be able to stand it, to see someone doing something that is going to make them look bad, and someone lower then them look good. That is what I mean by ego, I could try to give you many examples, but I think I will leave it there. If anyone sees anyone changing the warm up from off of the wall, make sure to tell Sifu Dee and he will deal with that Instructor immediately. That is how serious is it.

Sifu Gallant doing his Eagle form from Ying Yi

Anyone who has studied Chinese Martial arts, knows that every style and system says that they have the original Eighteen Temple Motions. When in fact not many styles and systems have the true version. I am not saying that Grand Master Chow has the true version created thousand years ago, why?, because I did not live back at that time, how could anyone know what is and what is not. Well for one thing, today there is much research into the martial arts of China. They are reading ancient scrolls, looking at the writings of masters living hundreds and thousands of years ago, and looking deep into the words of these amazing people who lived so long ago. Grand Master Chow always taught Sifu Fiedler to do as much research as possible, always read about styles and systems. When you see that most have what looks the same which they say is the true style, and you see two or three that are completely different, that is when you know something is not right. It surely can not be the styles and systems that all have what looks to be the same motions, some with small changes but still the same.  Sifu Fiedler always told us how can he know anything is for sure, because history is always changed by large organizations, or governments.

In the past people could be killed for knowing of a certain secret, like knowing where the Emperor's tomb is, everyone that knew were thrown into the tomb and buried with the dead Emperor. Those who killed the workers who built the tomb were killed when they were finished with the whole operation, every thing hidden and buried. Next the people who killed the workers, were now killed themselves, and only once they came away from the burial site. Once those guards were killed no one else had to be killed because everyone was dead who knew where the Tomb was. This is another reason why they have only found one Emperor's tomb in China to date. They were hidden that well. Not only that, but the way they made sure every thing would remain secret for ever. Or at least this is what they hoped. Today because of the building bomb in China, every time they put in a new foundation, they find more evidence of ancient times. Some day while doing this they will find another Emperor's tomb. In fact one of my National Geographic's magazines, said that they did find a new tomb, but it goes for a long way towards a block of old houses. One of the archaeologists, said that once the houses were bulldozed over, they will certainly find one more ancient tomb, they are sure of this.

Both top Sifu Gallant and Dee, doing Eagle form of Ying Yi

 They are finding more every day now, and is that not about time. I thank God that China has come out to the public now, and is doing it's best to clean up it's image, the image that was told by other systems that were always so jealous of Kung Fu, making up serious lies for fifty years. Kung fu is flower hands, that would never work in real, Kung fu is for women, as it is no good for combat, kung fu is for children, because it looks nice and is soft and useless for defending one self, the stories were endless, and yet every time someone came into the school out west, and challenged Sifu Fiedler or some of the other teachers, always hit the ground so fast, holding onto their family jewels, screaming how unfair it was to kick them in the groin. We did not go to their club and cause problems, they came to our club to cause problems. If they come to our school, they must use our rules, and our rules does not stop anyone from kicking your opponent in the groin. You see, everyone that starts to learn to spar in martial arts might get hit in the groin once, but after that, never again. And honestly it never does happen again. Do you think you want to feel that type of pain again, no way. .

With all the years of study that Sifu Fiedler did on his journeys, with all the different high level masters that helped to teach him, he seen the phony temple motions compared to the real temple motions. You see the thing is anyone can read what is famous in China, why it is famous and how it came to be famous. Meaning anyone that knows that such a thing exists, can make up their own version, especially if they know it might be never that people would find out which is which, "Is it real, or is it not real", that is the shame of kung fu, the few characters that make it look bad for all of the true masters also. Think about it, Sifu Fiedler said one time he asked a master of kung fu what, "Chi Kung" was, and the answer he got was it was a sword form. This is what we had to put up with in the seventies.  Because most teachers of that time, knew they might not ever be found out to be charlatans. Or worse the students of a Charlatan. You see if you have been a student of a Charlatan, and he is found out after teaching for thirty to forty years, does that not make every ones diploma null and void. It truly does, which makes many schools out west, maybe twenty or thirty schools, all students of this charlatan as schools that should not be teaching, because no matter the black belt they have, the reason they even received black belts, was because of the money that was made for the organization. If you brought in lots of students, and started another school for their master, "Who remember is not a real master". You were right away given another black belt, and that without test. The teacher who told Sifu Fiedler that Chi Kung was a sword form, was a third degree black belt in 1975, by 1977 he was a fifth degree black belt when Sifu Fiedler finally stopped working there. Come to think about it in those two years, Sifu Fiedler not once seen this man train, called the head master of the school, and he did not train ever with the students, not once. I  would be horrified to find out my teacher created himself as a master, he did not receive any diploma's in kung fu himself, so how can he even think to give out Kung Fu diploma's to students, when he is not even real himself, meaning every student for the last forty years, has white belts again, not forth degree, or fifth, or even first, you are a white belt again.

Oh Boy, I would hate to be that teacher to find that out, and even worse to have to tell your students that all this time, they were phonies also, but did not know they were until the news of their masters trial came out from the public records a few years back. In his own words saying he never learned kung fu traditionally. He learned boxing in Germany, he learned Karate in Toronto, and trained with some of the masters in Edmonton that felt sorry for him, the same masters who taught Sifu Fiedler, taught this master of Karate a few forms and techniques, which he kept for himself, as none of these techniques were taught in his club. He only taught the Karate he learned from books and movies again his own words from the trial.

Deer Form

  You see back in the late sixties, no one thought that kung fu would come out to the public. In fact many different styles that hated Kung fu thought the Chinese would never give in and teach it to the public. They made up all types of stories that were untrue about the Chinese Martial arts, even telling people that it was only one style of martial art, when in fact there are six hundred different styles. Sifu Fiedler says he remembers well how the Karate schools told everyone that Kung Fu learned the Reverse round house from the Japanese. I mean you want to talk about silly. Do you really want to know who brought the Reverse roundhouse to Japan from China in the   Twenties or thirties, it was the founder of Karate in Japan, his son. His son went to university in Peking China. So he started to train with the elderly Kung Fu masters, masters who could at eighty years of age, use their feet like hands. They could jab with their feet, they could block and tie up your arms with their feet, and hands behind their backs. This style of fighting is Tam Tiu, one of the most highest forms of Feet Fighting in all of China. Tam Tiu comes from Northern China, in fact many styles of feet fighting comes from the North of China. Another such style is Northern Long Fist.

Many such styles came from Japan. Japan came into Karate very late in the martial art game as they would have it, Martial Sport, it is a downgraded version of Chinese martial arts, the type of martial art that the Chinese taught to their children, something that the Japanese would never want their students to find out. Today many ex Karate students, mostly in the area of forth and fifth degree. A time when they find out after twenty to thirty years of training, that they have not been taught anything knew for years and years. Their teachers tell them that they should keep on training and some day they will be taught the secret techniques. Well my friends, there is no secret technique, only a great teacher, and an even greater student. So they started to go to one of the most famous Kung Fu systems in all of the World, and yes it is in Japan. They teach Ying Yee, Ba Gwa, and Tai Chi. The fighters trained in that school are famous throughout the world for their fighting ability. 

And Recently in 2009

Sifu Fiedler and GM Chow had to go to Vancouver almost every week end from Edmonton, for a year. GM Chow went to learn more Chi Kung Techniques, and Sifu Fiedler was happy to be there, it did not matter what he was taught. As they got to know this Grand Master, I should say as Sifu Fiedler got to know this master. GM Chow already knew him, and trained with him in Hong Kong. He came to Canada five years after GM Chow came. He moved to Vancouver which  would be the best place to live in Canada if one has money, as the price to live there is totally out of control, from rent to food, and everything else.

 One of the nicest things about Vancouver is the weather, it is always so beautiful, and in winter it rains instead of snow, and if it does snow, it is such a short amount of time. Most Chinese that come to Canada from China move to Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, and other major cities, I believe the Chinese are so used to living in close proximity, they love to live in Cities, when GM Chow came to Pembroke to visit and train with Sifu Fiedler and the students here, he hated it in Pembroke, almost every second day he wanted to go for dim sum in Ottawa.

The same master of Ying Yi comes to work at AECL now, and Sifu Dee was introduced to him,  he gets together once a week to go through advanced Ying Yi technique. I could not believe it when he phoned and introduced himself, such a soft spoken man, and so polite, he was so happy all the time, Sifu Dee told us. The system he teaches is the same Ying Yee, the same Ying Yee that GM Chow taught Sifu Fiedler. Since Sifu Fiedler does not teach any more, Sifu Dee finds himself so fortunate to have been introduced to this master by GM Chow.

This brings me to something that Sifu Fiedler always wrote about. Any of us could slack off if things seem to be going a little slow, some people get board and slow down on their training, they can't keep up their training on their own, and can never have the same type of kung fu as those who can go through a work out every day on their own. Without having to be pushed into it, without having to be talked into it, they do it because they love kung fu. This master who met Sifu Dee asked him to do his highest level forms for him, Sifu Dee made such an impression on this master that he could not believe that Sifu Dee was taught what he was taught, not only that, but how well he moved with the Ying Yee. Sifu Dee told the Master that Sifu James who used  to be his teacher taught him the Ying Yee the way Sifu Fiedler taught him, the way that GM Chow taught Sifu Fiedler. Any true martial art would never be changed, not one kick, one punch, or technique, they are taught the way they are taught for a reason, it was excellent for combat for a thousand years, and now into the twenty first century because of students like Sifu Dee, Sifu James, and Sifu Fiedler.

Even though Sifu Fiedler is gone now, he gave us something that is incredible for this area, or any area to be precise. It is truly an amazing art.

More to come soon

come back

Sifu Dee

from the notes and old web pages of Sifu Fiedler

Both Sifu Working on Long Bridge techniques

Sifu Dee doing his Eagle form

My name is Sifu Dee, I am being taught Eagle form from my new Grand Master who teaches me once to twice a week here in Pembroke. My new master works at AECL, where he comes to work from Vancouver a few months out of the year, his profession aside from Kung Fu is an Astrophysicist. This master is the same master that taught Sifu Fiedler in Vancouver with Grand Master Chow in the late 70s. Every time they came back from Vegas, they would travel to Vancouver once a week. Especially that Grand Master Chow and this master were such good friends in Hong Kong. They were both taught by different masters, but they shared each others art with each other.

Grand Master Chow introduced this 40 yr old master to Sifu Fiedler who was 23 at the time. Now this master who I can't say his name in case people try to look him up, this is what he said he did not want when I met him, he never wanted to teach anyone ever again, something that happens to many masters once they have been burned by some of the students that he gave so much of his self and time too. But he made me the exception. He was so upset what happened to Sifu Fiedler. He decided to teach the head of Ky Moo Kwan which is myself, he has been teaching me for a year and half now. It was around the time my last teacher left, Master Croy.  Ever since Master Croy left, I did not have a teacher. I was so upset that I had no one to teach me, however what I did was start to work on everything that I was taught. I kicked and punched, blocked and stretched, every single day did my forms. I remember reading something that Sifu Fiedler said, he said when you do not have a teacher, to make sure to always train everything you know as much as you can. When the time is right, when you least expect it, you will have another teacher come around. There is only one way he will take you under his wing, is if you are sharp, if he sees that you have always been interested in what you were taught all those years ago, and the only way he will see this is if he sees you do your forms, your weapons forms, your techniques perfectly. If they look like you have been training hard and exact, thanks to Sifu Croy, he will teach you, however if it looks like you were lazy and need someone to hold your hand then he will not teach you. No master wants a lazy student to baby sit.

The forms he teaches me are exactly what Sifu Fiedler was taught in the seventies, you can see it in the old tape's Sifu Fiedler made from White Belt to Fifth degree, and White, Gold, Blue, Red, and Black Sash a two hour tape for each belt, and one tape for each form, the motions and the techniques to that motion, so the student can understand it inside out. The Five sashes deal with the Element fists, and the Eight Methods.

Much more to come soon.

Sifu Dee

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