|
Yip Man
“The Origin of Wing Chun” (English Version) By Yip Man
The founder of the Kung Fu system, Miss Yim Wing Chun was a native of Canton China . As a young girl, she was intelligent and athletic, upstanding and manly. She was betrothed to Leung Bok Chau, a salt merchant of Fukien . Soon after that, her mother died. Her father, Yim Yee, was wrongfully accused of a crime, and nearly went to jail. So the family moved far away, and finally settled down at the foot of Tai Leung Mountain at the Yunnan-Szechuan border. There, they earned a living by.All this happened during the reign of Emperor K’anghsi (1662 – 1722).
At the time, kungfu was becoming very strong in Siu Lam Monastery (Shaolin Monastery) of Mt. Sung , Honan . This aroused the fear of the Manchu government, which sent troops to attack the Monastery. They were unsuccessful. A man called Chan Man Wai was the First Placed Graduate of the Civil Service Examination that year. He was seeking favour with the government, and suggested a plan. He plotted with Siu Lam monk Ma Ning Yee and others. They set fire to the Monastery while soldiers attacked it from the outside. Siu Lam was burnt down, and the monks scattered. Buddhist Abbess Ng Mui, Abbot Chi Shin, Abbot Pak Mei, Master Fung To Tak and Master Miu Hin escaped and fled their separate ways. Ng Mui took refuge in White Crane Temple on Mt. Tai Leung (also known as Mt. Chai Har). There she came to know Yim Yee and his daughter Yim Wing Chun. She bought bean curds at their store. They became friends. Wing Chun was a young woman then, and her beauty attracted the attention of a local bully. He tried to force Wing Chun to marry him. She and her father were very worried. Ng Mui learned of this and took pity on Wing Chun. She agreed to teach Wing Chun fighting techniques so that she could protect herself. Then she would be able to solve the problem with the bully, and marry Leung Bok Chau, here betrothed husband. So Wing Chun followed Ng Mui into the mountains, and started to learn kungfu. She trained night and day, and mastered the techniques. Then she challenged the local bully to a fight and beat him. Ng Mui set off to travel around the country, but before she left, she told Wing Chun to strictly honour the kungfu traditions, to develop her kungfu after her marriage, and to help the people working to overthrow the Manchu government and restore the Ming Dynasty. This is how Wing Chun kungfu was handed down by Abbess Ng Mui. After the marriage, Wing Chun taught her kungfu to her husband Leung Bok Chau, and he passed his kungfu techniques on to Leung Lan Kwai. Leung Lan Kwai passed it on to Wong Wah Bo. Wong Wah Bo was a member of an opera troupe on board a junk, known to the Chinese as the Reb Junk. Wong worked on the Red Junk with Leung Yee Tei. It so happened that Abbot Chi Shin, who fled from Siu Lam, has disguised himself as a cook and was now working on the Red Junk. Chi Shin taught the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques to Leung Yee Tei. Wong Wah Bo was close to Leung Yee Tei, and they shared what they knew about kungfu together they correlated and improved their techniques, and thus the Six-and-half-point Long Pole Techniques were incorporated into Wing Chun kungfu. Yip Man shown with Bruce Lee practicing Wing Chun |
Category: Uncategorized Page 62 of 76
SANTA CRUZ — On July 16, 1966, at the age of 16, Ted Mancuso entered his first martial arts school. It was a life-altering event that ignited a passion and professional calling that remains potent 45 years later.
Early on in his career, Mancuso placed competitively among top trophy holders, and, by the early 1970s, he earned the title “head instructor” for one of the largest martial arts franchises on the East Coast. He sparred with well-known martial arts champions such as Joe Lewis, a United States Nationals Grand Champion from 1966-1969.
Mancuso was even once invited to train alongside world-class martial arts innovator and actor Bruce Lee, but Mancuso declined, wary of the corruptive potential of Hollywood fame.
Mancuso, who founded the Academy of Martial Arts in Santa Cruz in 1991, is deeply philosophical about his life choice and continued commitment. The academy still operates today, offering beginning and advanced classes throughout the week.
“Having martial arts as a core laboratory has taught me a lot about life,” he said. “I’ve discovered how far I can go with my ideas. I’ve examined their depth. It’s taught me about kindness, because we all struggle and feel isolated, but we aren’t.”
Steeped in traditional Asian martial practice, his Academy’s core studies include Shaolin Kung Fu, Qigong, Bagua and Tai Chi.
“I love Sifu Mancuso’s amazing knowledge of the art and the history behind it,” wrote a veteran of the Academy,
Rod Oka. “Attending the school has given me a lot of confidence. I like doing things that sustain my good health while learning martial skills. That, plus the nice environment Ted has constructed, keeps me coming back.”
A self-taught scholar who enjoys studying and translating Chinese, Mancuso expounds the virtues of Taoism and makes a hobby of physics and mathematics. His photographic memory has helped him to absorb hundreds of martial techniques, styles and forms during his career.
Mancuso’s school is an adult-only establishment and he handpicks his students through an interview process. Unlike the majority of martial arts schools, Mancuso doesn’t tolerate the fierce competitiveness often encouraged among trainees. He issues no prizes, nor belts for achievement, and believes that a good martial artist cultivates the entire self — body, mind, and spirit.
“Martial arts is a way of life, and not because it’s wonderful and sweet. It is because anything that survives 2,000 years is a way of life,” he explained. “It’s like dancing. There are a lot of dancers in the world, but people who are dedicated to the practice know that it is a way of life — because life dances.”
Students who buy into Mancuso’s teaching say they have noticed the difference it has made in their lives.
“I have learned to apply the Tai Chi and martial practice I have learned from Ted in ways that have improved personal issues, my relationship with my family and my sensitivities and interactions with others,” said Karl Forest of Capitola.
Mancuso’s teaching style isn’t one size fits all. It is personalized to the student.
“He will point out vectors to the scientists, qi to the students who are aware of energy, philosophy to the thinkers, but use simple language for the students who need to keep it straightforward,” said Jean Andrews of Santa Cruz, another of the Academy’s long-time trainees. “He seems to have the perception and the enormous flexibility to find an appropriate way to reach each student.”
“The school has been like a second family to me,” said Chuck Hendel, a computer systems engineer from Felton. “The experience is so positive. I am more at peace in my life and how I deal with people and situations.”
While Mancuso has penned articles on the Shamanic Fist, Lost Track Kung Fu and Five Element Boxing, his most recent book was a collaboration with acupuncturist Narrye Caldwell entitled “Blossoms in the Spring: A Perfect Method of Quigong.” It is available through plumpub.com.
After four decades of teaching, Mancuso is clear in his intent to educate.
“My greatest goal is to make my students aware of what they have,” he said, “not because I want their respect as a good teacher, but because I want them to know what they have so they can pass it on, and it can become part of our culture.”
Ken Corona, a martial-arts teacher for four decades, says self-defense lessons are not all about learning to fight.
The owner of Corona’s Martial Arts Academy, near 35th Avenue and Bell Road, has taught self defense to Valley adults, children and police officers. Corona’s business specializes in Pung Wol Kwan, a martial art originating in Korea that builds a foundation for students.
About a dozen youths were at the academy last week in the Lil Ninja class. They chanted, “Front kick! Round kick! Top kick! Round kick! Knee! Knee! Palm strike!”
Corona said his business teaches discipline to children. After all, martial art requires focus, which allows for lessons about respect.
“I teach them about the word, ‘care,’ ” Corona said. “If you care about a pet dog or mother and father, you offer care, and then you need to show respect. In a small way, I am helping the community and teaching them martial arts, but I’m also teaching confidence and self-esteem.”
Customers
Corona’s customers range in age from 3 to 70.
The elderly clients use his business to improve their health and for the self-defense classes. The stretching they do helps with the circulation of blood and boosts energy, Corona said.
“About 90 percent of elders have had some experience in the martial arts,” Corona said. “I modify the lessons for them. For example, if somebody has knee issues, instead of throwing a kick out, I have them lift up their knees. I’d say it takes three months to get them more relaxed and . . . they will notice an increase in flexibility.”
With the school year starting, Corona said he expects parents to enroll kids in his after-school programs.
“I believe America has lost its manners,” Corona said. “Martial arts are one thing that helps in that area. Things that our parents and grandparents taught us -such as respect for others and courtesy, those things don’t seem to be practiced as much.”
Young clients come to the academy to learn self defense. By the time they earn several levels of belts, their parents notice a change in behavior.
Corona said he hears from parents about how a child cleaned his or her room for the first time or how their child’s grades improved. Tarin McGuirk, 28, is a mother who struggled to have her 5-year-old son help with dinner.
Her son, Landon, would declare, “I’m not going to clean up my mess.”‘
She enrolled her son at the academy in April and started to see a more helpful Landon by July.
“I say, ‘Hey, karate champions’ help clean up,” McGuirk said. “He now helps clean.”
History
When Corona started teaching children how to defend themselves through judo in 1971, martial arts had not gained a strong following. After graduating from Greenway High School, he moved to Los Angeles.
He returned to Phoenix and opened a business at 51st Avenue and Northern Avenue in 1982. Corona moved the business to Tempe in 1985 and later added a children’s curriculum.
Hollywood celebrities such as the late Bruce Lee and movies such as “The Karate Kid” boosted interest in martial arts. People became interested in learning about self defense.
Corona was selected by Valley law enforcement as a trainer for police defensive tactics in the 1990s. Clients included police officers from Phoenix, Glendale, Tolleson, Buckeye and Tempe, according to a news release.
“With police, the biggest problem is civil liability,” he said. “Officers like martial arts because it teaches them how to control an individual without hurting them.”
For example, Corona taught officers how to weaken joints of suspects when they are arrested.
Corona’s Martial Arts Academy, would like to expand.
The business has been in existence since 1997 under the same name, Corona said.
Chuck Norris is the reason Nhlanhla Ndlovu went from being a hard-nosed thug and drug addict to becoming a taekwondo world champion.
Ndlovu was once considered a “menace” by residents in Ballito on KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast. But last month he kicked and punched his way to a Global Taekwondo Federation world championship title in Scotland.
Just three years ago he was addicted to cocaine and marijuana.
“I also took ecstasy … my life was pretty messed up and a lot of people didn’t trust me,” he said.
Tales of his fights with taxi bosses in the coastal town are still legendary in certain areas of Ballito.
But he said his life changed after he was accused of stealing R30000.
During a subsequent court case he spent two months in jail before being acquitted.
Shortly after his release Ndlovu joined a local church, the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ, and landed a job as a security guard.
He befriended Timur Kurmanov, an international taekwondo instructor, and became one of his students. He has since participated in several international tournaments.
Taekwondo, a self-defence sport, is based on continuous kicking and parrying.
At a taekwondo tournament in Kazakhstan last year Ndlovu scooped two bronze medals.
Last month he was awarded top honours at the tournament in Scotland where he won gold in the “hyper-heavyweight” category.
He said he became interested in martial arts in the 1990s after watching movies featuring US martial art exponent and actor Chuck Norris.
“I was bitten by the martial arts bug from the time I was in primary school,” he said.
Ndlovu said that after every movie he would imitate Norris’s moves. In 1999, after his mother died, Ndlovu was forced to drop out of school in grade 11 and work as a gardener.
“It was during that time that I became hooked on drugs and alcohol.
“I became quite a menace. I became short-tempered and beat up people at the slightest provocation,” he said.
He described his life as having spiralled out of control.
“But it’s all a distant memory now,” he said.
Ndlovu is preparing for the Taekwondo World Cup in Canada next year.
Said his mentor Kurmanov: “(Ndlovu) is very disciplined … he can achieve a lot.”