Only relatively recently has martial arts training taken on self-development and self-cultivation as a primary emphasis. This view arose about 400 years ago in China and Japan, once the arts were less essential to winning on the battlefield. At this point supremely skilled martial artists began engaging in structured, ritualized combat on a widespread level. This means that for the majority of its history, traditional martial arts were practiced specifically as war arts on the battlefield. On the battlefield there were no rules, no structure, on life and death; victory or defeat. This fact alone is proof of the effectiveness of techniques, training, and strategies. Soldiers, bodyguards, couriers, and other professional martial artists who fought for their lives on a regular basis, would not have continued to employ ineffective tactics.

During World War II traditional Chinese martial artists were employed effectively in encounters by Chinese guerrillas to resist the Japanese military occupation of their country. In many of these instances, they used only traditional martial arts and weapons, no firearms.

A more recent example is a master still teaching in Canada named Pan Qing Fu. Master Pan earned the name “Gangbuster” when the Chinese government recruited him in the 1960s to break the stranglehold the Triad gangs had over many communities at that time. He eventually brought 23 Triad leaders to justice; many Master Pan captured single handedly using only his Chinese martial arts and traditional weapons skills.

So why do many modern exponents of traditional martial arts seem so ill-equipped and ineffective in many self-defense scenarios? There is more than one answer to this question. The first has to do with the complexity of many traditional martial arts techniques. These techniques were developed over hundreds of years, resulting in very complex techniques. This evolution occurred due to the need of martial artists to be able to survive encounters with other martial artists who were developing their own sophisticated techniques.

Professional martial artists today are very different from professional fighters of the past. Today many professional teachers run schools part-time and maintain other work part-time, at the very least, if not full-time. Those practitioners who are able to run their schools full-time, usually work very hard to do so; spending a great deal of time advertising, talking with potential students, daily management duties, teaching, and so on. Unfortunately, this can often leave little time for personal training.

This was not the case in the past. Professional martial artists had no other distractions. Often they could practice honing their skills for sometimes as much as 10 to 16 hours a day. With the demands of long work days, family and friends, and the pressures of paying the bills, many modern practitioners may not even spend this much time training in one or two weeks! Martial arts has taken the position of an activity or a hobby, not as a serious endeavor and lifelong pursuit as in older days.

One should also not overlook the fact that martial artists in the past had greater opportunities to apply their techniques in the real world; they faced life and death scenarios often. Physical confrontations and violent clashes with opposing forces, whether they be individuals or enemy armies, were a simple fact of life for these warriors for thousands of years. They, and in fact their entire world, were conditioned by this reality. People fought, the weakest or least prepared combatants were maimed or killed. As a result of this, they had much more practical knowledge and experience than experts today. We live in a much more peaceful and stable society than the world these traditional warriors inhabited. The average, law-abiding citizen will probably never engage in a true life-threatening altercation. This is a very positive development in our society! However, it does mean fighters have vastly less experience in practical application than their predecessors.

How the martial arts evolved is also an important factor. When one practices so many hours daily, they will very quickly become quite proficient with basic punches, kicks, and blocks. However, if their opponent also practices many hours a day, simple hand strikes and kicks, in many cases, will not be effective to penetrate their defensive capabilities. As professional martial artists developed their arts and skills other fighters had to developed new skills, tactics, and deceptions to catch their opponent off-balance or surprise them, hitting in a place or manner they did not expect. This, in turn, forced fighters to further devise and evolve new tactics and more original ways to neutralize the attack and counterattack. This cycle continued in this manner for generations; thousands of years for some systems. The result is very sophisticated fighting systems, developed to conquer other complex systems and practitioners.

But today, finely tuned martial skills and personal fighting ability is not nearly as in demand as in the past. As a result, skills have gotten weaker. Many martial artists today try to use methods developed for very complex encounters, to respond to very simple attacks; using a tool in a way it was not designed. The vast majority of attacks will come from people who, if they have any skill or training at all, will most likely use only rudimentary boxing, kickboxing, or wrestling. These are simple attacks. You cannot counter them with complex techniques which are not designed to deal with them; you are using the totally wrong tool. Simple attacks only require simple counters and counter-attacks. This is the number one reason why traditional martial arts are often perceived as not being useful for modern day self-defense.

Another reason why many students have trouble in practical application scenarios is that most practitioners do not put in the time to fully master a technique.  For the sake of argument let’s say that a jump spinning reverse type kick takes 100 hours of dedicated practice in order to effectively execute in practical application. Most students may spend only 10 hours total training that technique. This means that a student may only have 10% of the knowledge and skill when applying this technique.  This is a huge gap! It is no wonder why the technique does not work properly.

In either case it is not the weakness of the martial system, but the improper training methods or application tactics of the practitioner. Critical thinking on your methods and techniques must be applied in advance. Proper preparation is essential. Traditional martial arts can be very effective if you undertake proper training and use correct tactics for the situation encountered.

Martial arts as a whole has had a tremendous change of emphasis over the past two hundred years. Where personal fighting skills were highly valued as battlefield arts, they began to fall away with the rapid advancement in warfare technology. At that point, with a lack of purpose, many martial art styles particularly in China, Japan, and Korea shifted focus from combat efficiency to emphasize, in some cases exclusively, the personal self-development and discipline aspects of the martial traditions.

As these arts were later transmitted to the West, another, more subtle shift occurred. Fighting techniques, which had become almost secondary in importance, began to take on a tertiary position. In many cases the arts were only methods of moving meditation with all, or nearly all, of their combat relevance removed and forgotten. This view of martial arts has taken greater hold since the end of World War II.

Chinese martial arts were hit particularly hard by this idea of modernization of the martial arts. Even within China the arts were promoted and cultivated as a form of performance only (modern compulsory wushu) where fighter effectiveness was completely removed and replaced with acrobatic skills and an emphasis on movements and postures that were aesthetically pleasing. The result was the development of highly skilled athletes essentially performing a dance based upon martial arts, at this point it ceases to be a martial art, and is simply art.

We no longer need to train martial arts daily for battle, and do not wish to produce mindless, brutal combatants obsessed with fighting, but when you remove all understanding of the martial aspect, we remove the heart and soul of the martial art, and strip it of it’s rich history. However in modern times we have a unique opportunity. We can combine the aspects of combat training with the powerful self-development of traditional Asian martial arts.

Training in practical combat, no matter the style, can help you explore areas of yourself you may not be able to access otherwise. When practiced in a realistic manner, self-defense training can put us under pressure and even some stress. Self-defense deals with a subject that touches us on a very primal level; someone attacking us, violating our personal space with the intent to harm us. This is where you can learn a lot about yourself, how you instinctively, physically and, perhaps more importantly, emotionally react. Emotions of anger, fear, anxiety and insecurity will arise. They are not produced by the training, but they exist within you without your knowledge. Once they surface we must learn to deal with them and work through them. In this way we work through and develop our physical, mental and emotional reactions in the safety and comfort of our school.

Often we learn that how we thought or wanted to believe we would react is not in fact how we react. This and other challenges help us to break down our over-inflated ego to a more manageable size. When we realize that we do not know all we thought we did, we are more open-minded. This attitude can be taken into any other aspect of our lives, if we choose to make that leap.

Furthermore, proper training can be a blueprint for success. Martial arts training forces you to confront challenges, hardship, pain and frustration not only physically, but on an inward level as well. It teaches us that nothing comes without some effort; we must put something forward. This is the guide for success in any arena. The path to success is the same no matter what you are trying to accomplish. We are using something tangible, the physical training of the martial arts, to guide us toward those more intangible and elusive aspects of ourselves.

I do not teach the arts of violence. All forms of physical violence have their genesis in thoughts of violence in our minds, the body is only an outward reflection. Fear and insecurity are its seeds. I teach people how to control and defend themselves and protect those weaker than they are.

An untrained person, who has not examined the dark corners of their own mind, can react to a confrontation in a physically and emotionally uncontrolled manner, harming themselves or others tremendously. The person who has examined and developed their personal aspects, that most people ignore and have cultivated physical and emotional confidence, is a benefit to everyone. When they are confronted, they will know when to act and when to remain still. This person is a true warrior.

This event is open to the public and we encourage family and friends to come join us as we celebrate the Year of the Rabbit

Nine Dragon Academy Combat Kung Fu is a method of practical application that is simple in training and execution and is designed to be a springboard for students to express their own knowledge and abilities. These are realistic and practical fighting methods, rooted in the solid foundations of  Traditional Chinese Martial Arts.

To introduce the Nine Dragon Academy Combat Kung Fu method, the Nine Dragon Academy will be hosting a seminar.  This seminar is open to the public and welcomes practitioners of all styles of martial arts of any skill level.  The seminar will be on Saturday January 15, 2011 from 1pm – 6pm.  The entry fee is $20 for the public and $10 for students and friends of the Nine Dragon Academy.

You will be introduced to:

• Basic Combat Principles
• Basic Techniques
• Defense Against Punches
• Defense Against Kicks
• Defense Against Grabs
• Control Tactics
• Basic Joint Locks
• What You Should Know About How the Law Applies to Martial Artists

The first half of the day will include instruction in basic techniques while the second half will be dedicated to control tactics and joint manipulations (Qinna).

There will also be a lecture covering the physical and legal realities of personal protection, and why many traditional martial arts schools today are not equipped to teach students practical fighting methods.

This seminar provides an opportunity to learn kung fu techniques in the manner they were used for centuries; as methods of saving a practitioners life and overcoming an attacker.