| One of the fun things about martial arts is | | | | the real innovator of the style, bringing in |
| that it teaches you a bit of history as you | | | | staff work, and the balanced stances that |
| go through it, and the bull sessions after a | | | | formed the basis of the Five Styles. While |
| good workout are great. | | | | all three of us agreed that it'd be cool to |
| | | | work with him, the consensus was that we'd |
| One of the bull sessions that Steve, Aaron | | | | rather learn from someone who'd been involved |
| and I had recently, after closing down the | | | | with one of the more modern forms. Kung Fu, |
| dojo, was sort of like fantasy league | | | | like all martial, arts, changes and grows |
| baseball, only for shaolin kung fu masters. | | | | over time. |
| Now, in fantasy baseball (another avocation | | | | |
| of mine), one of the positions you can fill | | | | The next candidate that we considered was |
| is "team manager", and the team manager helps | | | | Lung Po, who became the principal teacher at |
| your stats. For a martial arts school, a good | | | | the temple in the 17th century, which is when |
| teacher is reflected in how well his students | | | | the style grew the most, branching out from |
| learn, and how well his style spreads. | | | | staff work to more joint locks and strikes, |
| | | | making it a more complete style. It's harder |
| We were pretty careful to avoid direct style | | | | to learn, but Master Lung was renowned for |
| comparisons. Aaron knows two styles of Kung | | | | being an excellent teacher. It's this style |
| Fu, and Steve knows at least three, and I've | | | | of Kung Fu that ultimately became known as |
| dabbled in more styles than I like to admit. | | | | Chinese Boxing. |
| (Steve makes jokes about Yoshi's New Dance | | | | |
| Steps, and Sit On Your Ass Kung Fu when I do | | | | The last candidate we considered was Jow |
| something stupid and have to recuperate...). | | | | Lung, who integrated three different styles |
| So we all know that every style has merits | | | | of martial arts into Jow Ga (family Jow) Kung |
| and drawbacks, and reflections based on | | | | Fu, and who won a ten round (ouch!) |
| student's temperament and ability. | | | | tournament to become the official Martial |
| | | | Arts teacher for the Chinese army in 1911. He |
| So we focused on the kung fu masters | | | | and his brothers spread Jow Ga Kung Fu |
| associated with our respective styles. | | | | throughout China, and were never leery about |
| | | | integrating other martial arts practices into |
| One of the earliest masters of shaolin style | | | | their combat style, which means that Jow Ga |
| Kung Fu was Yu Dayu of the Ming Dynasty. | | | | Kung Fu has probably grown the most of any of |
| While there were references of Shaolin monks | | | | the shaolin styles in this century in terms |
| using martial arts techniques prior to Yu, | | | | of practices and things learned. |
| going back to the 14th century, Yu Dayu was | | | | |