I want to congratulate you again if you have come this far. Obviously, you have an interest.
What I am going to say next might confound or at least surprise you.
Learning the martial arts through reading a book is one of the most pointless activities you could choose to do. To demonstrate my point I have written chapters five and six describing techniques in Dan Zan Ryu Jujitsu and Tang Lang Kung Fu in detail for you to practice.
What you will notice is that as you practice these techniques you will receive no feedback to let you know if you are doing them correctly. And if you are conducting the techniques incorrectly in an actual altercation with someone who is attacking you, you would find yourself in worse trouble than if you didn't even try to learn it on your own.
But I wrote them out anyway to let you know how difficult it is to attempt to learn a self-defense system without an instructor and better yet without a class filled with fellow students supporting each other as they all learn the same material.
When you step into a class and you are under the instructor's guidance, they have identified you as someone they care about so much so that they want to train you in a subject they know a lot about that would be effective in stopping and apprehending an attacker. The first thing you will notice when you are working with an instructor is that the technique you are attempting is not at all like the technique your teacher just demonstrated in front of you. Your movements of blocking and attacking will be performed with stumbling motions.
But that's ok. You will develop the muscle nerve skills that are appropriate with practice. By appropriate I mean that your demonstration will look close to what your instructor just showed you. Eventually. But that improvement will only happen if you are in the presence of an instructor who is giving you corrections.
Let's say for instance that you were trying to find a way to block an attack from an opponent who wants to grab your shirt collar and throw you off balance and hit you with his other fist.
The techniques that your teacher can show you to stop your attacker from doing those two things would work. There are several different ways of responding to that specific attack. These techniques wouldn't stop only his grabbing hand but it would also capture it while blocking his punch. And then within the space of one second he would be beset with a series of attacks that would completely render him unconscience or unable to attack you again. You would practice this technique repeatedly with other students under the watchful gaze of your teacher who would make small corrections to your hand and feet positions.
Your body is unique. Your teacher would correct the movement of your hands so that you remained in balance and strong. The teacher would continue to make these instructions until you are able to do the technique so that it worked. You know it works when you are attacked and you intercept the grab, lock the wrist, block and lock the fist and drop the attacker to the ground. Before that will ever be put to a real-life test, your fellow students would practice with you, letting your body memorize the motion while feeling the speed and weight of their body as they pretend to attack you.
Without that piece of information from a living instructor you will never know if what you are doing would accomplish your goal until someone has challenged you on the street. Without practice under the eyes of a living instructor what you will discover is, come that day when you are tested from an attacker is that what you have practiced will not work. It would have been better if you never read how to do a technique without a teacher.
That brings up the next question.
How do you find a teacher who knows what you want to learn and also wants to instruct you.
Each person has their own way of discovery. I'll tell you mine.
I was visiting some friends in Tahoe in the mid 90s. Both husband and wife were black belts in Karate. Before I arrived I had heard a story about a martial art called Wing Chun Kung Fu. Yes the legendary Bruce Lee had indeed studied this art under Grand Master Ip Man. But at the time I had heard nothing of that. What I was told was Wing Chun was mostly hand forms. The feet stayed planted on the ground. As my legs are paralyzed keeping them planted on solid floor made good sense.
My Tahoe friends showed an interest in my curiosity in martial arts and mentioned that they had heard of a Wing Chun school in Santa Rosa California near where I lived. They didn't know exactly where the school was located. But it gave me a direction to look. And there was a principle at work.
When the student is ready the teacher will find you.
Shortly after that meeting, I was in a coffee shop where I overheard a man telling his friends about a martial arts he was studying called Wing Chun Kung Fu. I was curious. I asked him where he trained. He gave me the address and later that day I drove to the school. Sure enough there was a sign above the door of a blue barn size building that said Wing Chun Kung Fu. And next to those words were written two other words. Jujitsu and Akido. I looked at the schedule posted on the closed door to mark the next Kung Fu class. Later that week I stepped into a room with a wooden floor, wall to wall mirrors with 10 students paired off practicing something called, sticky hand. It was an exercise in which they faced each other, hands extended, pushing and receiving the hands while attempting to find an opening to strike their opponent's body. I stood in that room as the instructor went from student to student for about 15 minutes. The instructor gave me no recognition or acknowledgement. I was fine with that. I had read in a martial arts book that traditionally a potential student would sit outside the classroom gates for up to three weeks waiting for the teacher to say “come on in.” This is the interview process. In this way a teacher finds which students are committed to learn the treasure of teachings the instructor has spent a lifetime learning.
While this was happening I heard martial artists screaming loudly in the next room. I peeked through the open door and saw men and women dressed in white pants and wrap around shirts jumping up in the air and landing on their backs. I stepped back into the kung fu class. A white haired John Wayne statue of a man with a white uniform and a black belt walked through the door and greeted me.
His name was Carl. He said to me, “So you are interested in the martial arts?”
I told him about how I had heard of Wing Chun, and how it appealed to me because they kept their feet on the ground.
He then told me the story of Laurie Santiago, who was a first-degree brown belt, almost a black belt, who had studied the martial arts they were studying next door, which was Dan Zan Ryu Jujitsu. Laurie, he told me, was in a wheelchair, with 80% of her body beneath her neck paralyzed from a car accident. He told me that Dan Zan Ryu Jujitsu is primarily the study of leverage rather than muscle. And she does the forms from a seated position in her wheelchair. He explained how she had been attacked on the street and stopped the attacker by rendering his wrist and elbow useless using Jujitsu techniques. I was impressed.
“You should come over, and check us out.” Carl said.
I thanked him and wandered over to the big room. I saw these guys and girls jumping up in the air landing on their back hitting the thin canvas mat, still screaming like wild banshees. Eyes wide open I thought, no, no, no, no. This is not what I had in mind.
So I went back to the kung fu room and stood there for another fifteen minutes watching the students continuing their sticky hands practice with their feet planted on the floor.
Carl came back over from the Jujitsu class and said, “You didn't like what you saw?”
I smiled somewhat bewildered and said, “Carl, they”re jumping up in the air. Look at my legs. I don't jump. I don't even kick.”
He looked at me with a knowing smile and said, “Steve, when I first started, in was 65, and had back surgery. My son asked me to come to his Jujitsu class. Just to sit and observe. He was a teacher. I agreed to go and watch. No more. When I was there he suggested I take the class. I said to him, Son, I can't do your flips. I have seen you guys jump up in the air. I can't do that. He said to me, Dad, that comes much later in our training and only if you choose. We can alter the curriculum so that it fits your body type. And besides, by the time your training becomes that advance you'll be able to do it with no pain. I promise.”
He was intrigued and began to study Jujitsu. He was now a Shodan, 1st degree black belt.
At this point I became interested enough to go and continue to watch the remainder of the Jujitsu class.
As I sat sat on the observation bench both teachers, Sensei Jeff Penner and Sensei Lisa Gadolfas came up to me and said the same thing. That it would be an honor to teach someone like me this art. It would be fun to teach someone an art that was designed for people whose bodies work completely to someone who's legs don't work.
I smiled, nearly laughing as I signed a legal document promising that I would not sue them if I died while taking this class.
I continued to study Jujitsu for 11 years until I passed my ikque rank, 1st-degree brown belt. I loved every moment of it. For anyone curious I never completed my black belt exams. I had finished my school exams and was prepping for my international exams but I became very ill. I had to take a long long break. And then I moved. I also redesigned my life and gave up my vehicle as a way to regain my strength by becoming self-mobile. But then I was not able to travel the far the distance to class.
During this time I found a Shaolin 7 Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu school within walking distance of my home. I called my Sensei and asked him if he would give me his blessing. He said yes and wished me well.
I entered the Kung Fu school during class the next night. As I sat in the spectator seats watching the class, the teacher, Sifu Mcfarland walked up to me and said, “I”ve heard of you from one of my students. I want you to know that I would be honored to teach you. You wouldn't have to do everything I teach the way everyone else does it. We could figure it out as we go.”
I told him that yes, I wanted to learn from him. And that I was honored he asked me. I began my training in his class that very night and continue for 8 years until he move. I love every minute of it.
The process I used to find my teachers was the same in both cases.
- I decided what I wanted. I wanted to learn the martial arts.
- I encouraged the passion of wanting by imagining doing the arts.
- I kept my ears open while doing some research about the arts that appealed to me.
- I walked into the martial arts school to observe.
- I decided that I liked what I saw.
- I had a conversation with the teacher and listened to them tell me if they wanted to teach.
- I started training.
The martial arts were created by warriors who went to battle frequently. Every warrior who went into war understood that sooner or later they would be injured during the conflict. If they survived they would return home with a cane, or on crutches or be confined to a chair. Sometimes those injuries were permanent with an amputated or paralyzed limb, and other times the injury was temporary with a broken leg or arm requiring 6 to 12 months to heal.
DOf course, their life would continue as they moved around with medical aids. During this time they didn't stop practicing their martial art forms. They spent their life practicing as a meditation to give them calm and power. They found ways to adjust their practice while using their cane, or crutches or sitting.
This means that all martial arts were historically designed for people who knew they were going to need physical aids to remain mobile at one point or another.
There are teachers who still know that being partially able bodied is a part of the martial arts training. They saw me, a man on crutches as an opportunity to learn the martial after injury.
If a teacher is destined to be your instructor they will tell you.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear.