The Year of the Tiger celebration lasts two weeks. A week ago, we marked the New Year by launching our martial art ebook and video – TanDao Tiger Combat Series. Toni, our resident Taoist & Chinese cosmologist, cautions this year of the metal tiger will provide ongoing challenges. But with the courage and tenacity of the tiger we can overcome adversity. An experience we had last November is appropriate and we would like to share it with you.

We went to the seashore to film our tiger videos as we were planning to introduce our Shaolin/JKD tiger style for the lunar new year. But a Nor’Easter storm put a halt to that. It was awesome to see the tumultuous ocean, but our mission was aborted by bad weather. We were bummed. The last evening, however, we managed to film a wellness exercise to a stupendous sunset and in the following dawn we also filmed tiger kung fu form sequences. We were on a roll. (Click on links to see the videos!)

Our schedule was actually completed. We were elated. While walking back along the seashore looking through rocks and shells for our zen garden in the city, a tiny object in the sand simultaneously caught both Toni’s and my own attention. It was a tiger figure. An omen? Although our rational minds may regard this as superstitious, a holistic view sees it as synchronicity, a meaningful coincidence as psychologist Jung would say.

As for our tiny, smiling tiger talisman, we choose to view it as a positive omen. After all, this figure was utterly miniscule in the vast space of the seashore. Yet we both found it. Go figure… What do you think?

In the week since its release, we’ve received enthusiastic responses to our TanDao Tiger Combat downloads from martial artists of different styles. We take it as a good sign. May the tiger bring us all a good year!

Lawrence Tan

It’s a tiger year—rrrrROAR! http://www.tandao.com/premium-videos/

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

TanDao Kung Fu

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.

Keep your questions coming!

Lawrence Tan
TanDao Kung Fu

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 hands in 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.

Toni Josephson

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 in the film Kung 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/

1982 was a good year ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!