How inspiring to turn a half century birthday into a celebration. To mark his 50th, Neil Hall, Chief Instructor of London Chinatown Tae Kwon Do, took the challenge of creating a new martial art, Ensodo. In the spirit of the zen circle, the enso, Ensodo is a soft system favoring circular motions in place of high kicking Taekwondo. Neil wisely recognizes the maturity of the body, and has created something appropriate for this next stage of life. It is something to grow into. As he says, “It’s a martial art for grown-ups. It’s an art for the thoughtful martial artist, not the soldier. ”
This embodies the spirit of the Evolving Martial Artist. Visit his blog and read his insightful martial musings on this significant turning point: On Getting Older and learn more about Ensodo
Neil, you are a rare jewel…Happy Birthday!
Lawrence & Toni
We are implementing a new feature. Each week we will select a question from our forum or social media network: facebook, twitter, etc., and answer it on our blog.
This week’s question is from twurman on our TanDao forum:
Regarding the 1982 Tiger and Crane Shaolin Kung Fu Lawrence choreographed, wrote, directed and was featured in: “In a similar street situation, which of those techniques featured in the video would you still use today? Which did you stop using and why?”
Great question! These applications are still valid since I made sure that over stylized techniques were modified for street realism and adhered to economy of motion borrowed from Wing Chun. Note: the purpose of this video was to teach Hung Gar, it does not fully reflect my personal style. The applications are effective – absolutely – but they can be more efficient. Today, I would focus on three points:
1) I would make sure the attacker was incapacitated, not just stunned. For example, in the first situation against three attackers, I kick the first, then incapacitate the other two. Against the second attacker I target a crane head to the jaw, then a knockout tiger claw palm heel strike to the attacker’s jaw followed by an elbow smash to the sternum. With the third, I strike the attacker’s groin and follow up with a double punch, just in case. Today, before taking off, I would also finish off the first attacker (stunned, though not incapacitated) with another kick rendering him unable to chase after me.
2) Hung Gar employs simple, direct and powerful techniques (fine for those who have big, tough and muscular physiques). Since my body type favors speed and deception, I would augment the same hand attacks by adding subtle half beat kicks to the knees and shins or quick knee bumps to the thighs to overwhelm the attacker. This reflects TanDao’s deceptive strategy.
3) Most significantly, I would amplify the destructiveness by aggressively disrupting the attacker’s balance as I simultaneously executed the same hand attacks. This adheres to TanDao’s Progressive Destruction of Balance, which is the single strategic principle that distinguishes from other styles. In short, I am not just hitting (which is universal to all striking systems), I am simultaneously focusing on using my body mass to destroy the opponent’s center.
Kicking it old school! Here’s the opening sequence from Wing Chun – The Science of In Fighting, an instructional video that Lawrence wrote and directed in 1982. It features the late Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung, a legendary figure in Wing Chun and the world of martial arts. As one of Yip Man’s top students, he is credited with teaching Wing Chun to Bruce Lee. Wong Shun Leung is known as The King of Hand Talking (Chi Sau – which means trapping handsin Cantonese). Lawrence spent a year with him working on this project, learning the system and bringing it to life on video. Today, you will see the essence of Wing Chun trapping, as learned from Wong Shun Leung, modified and incorporated in our TanDao Animal Combat videos. See if you can find the modified Wing Chun chain punch in our Tiger Combat video.
Lawrence wrote, directed, choreographed and was featured in this 1982 video, Tiger and Crane Shaolin Kung Fu. We were surprised to find a few of these on You Tube. The Hung Gar tiger and crane forms are demonstrated by Master Chiu Chi Lin, a descendant of the style’s originator, who is recognized today for his role inthe film Hung Fu Hustle. In this video, Lawrence seems to find trouble wherever he goes…from ascending a staircase (above) to strolling through the park — employing kung fu techniques for effective self defense.
Tiger and Crane Shaolin Kung Fu was made in the early days of video production. Today, we continue the tradition of exploring practical application of martial art techniques to protect and defend. Check out our latest videos ~ including tiger and crane combat: http://www.tandao.com/videos/
I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. ~Elie Wiesel
This is the work of bringing chaos to order. The martial spirit of the warrior, scholar and monk must be alive in the effort, epitomizing the integration of all three components of our humanness: action, organization and compassion.
There was an incredible moment in the reports coming from Haiti. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a CNN journalist who is also a neurosurgeon, spontaneously tends to a tiny baby whose house collapsed on her during the earthquake. Miraculously, she survived. Many, many others have not been as fortunate.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/health/2010/01/14/sot.gupta.treating.baby.cnn.html
