For Fajin

Hi Farooq,

Your compliments make your good heart apparent. I enojoy discussing with people like you any time. You may ask me any question at any time, even if the reply is late, it’s a pleasure discussing with you. 🙂

Yes, I am able to stand in the horse stance with 650 lbs. of weight on my knees. Although, it’s not THAT great as you think it may be. The shaolin of past were able to do over 1000 lbs. of weight at higher levels.

I do this without standing on wooden stakes though. When you stand on wooden stakes, the weight is concentrated on the soles of the feet which is really skillful, especially with weight over 1000 lbs.! So, I perceive ALL the legends of old to be true. I mean, I know through my experience, hehe.

The hard part, at first, is being able to stand in the low horse stance for several hours. When you can do that, it’s pretty much all downhill. Well, not really downhill if you’re standing on stakes too, because it is extremely painful in the first month.

After, the pain subsides and the legs get VERY strong and the root is very deep and powerful. Yes, my root is very strong and I doubt a wrestler could displace me even if he spear-headed me, hehe.

Sadly, I did not learn Chinese in China. This is because 98% of the time, I stayed at the academy and trained alot. And my teacher was Eglish speaking along with many Chinese students who knew some English. But I did manage to learn some basic words. I will probably learn Chinese on this visit.

Btw, you said your uncle stayed in Hong Kong, does that make you part Chinese (is that why you asked)? I know it’s part because your name is not Chinese and you said that you grew up in Pakistan. Thanks!

🙂
Fajin

Hi Farooq,

I keep my hands relaxed over my thighs sometimes, or wherever is comfortable really. It doesn’t matter too much where I put them because the exercise is for rooting. It’s all about daily progress!

The students at the Wudang academy are definately better. There are some that stay there for some years who want to take their studies seriosly and really dedicate themselves like me. So it all depends. But I agree with Mr. Terlecki, the students today here in the West, especially, just train a little, they don’t put enough time and effort into it – the real meaning of gong fu.

Like I said, I was disciplined in the traditional ways, and so I put alot of time and effort into it, that is what it should be all about.

I really don’t know much about the schools in Vancouver all that well, because I don’t follow much since I received the training I needed from my teacher here who passed and my teacher in China.

My recommendations to finding a good teacher are this.

The single most important thing you need in a teacher is one that puts a huge emphasis on the internal aspects of martial arts. If he has you doing running drills and push-ups, he’s not up to par. Martial arts are all about internal power so when looking for a teacher, make sure he lives up to his word on that. Does he have strong root, lightness, vitality, etc.

If you could perhaps name me some teachers and show me their websites, then I could check out their web page and tell you what I think of them. It would be a pleasure!
🙂

Regards,
Fajin

Hi Farooq,

I feel my root beneath my feet and the heaven force above my head and my dantian connected as one like in a Taiji form. You could also do the macrocosmic orbit but it is to dangerous I think in low horse stance, so I’m not even going to try it.

I hope that this inspires you to train more! Good luck!

Smiles away,
Fajin

Farooq,

you might try Diane Kehoe in Delta (Riverbank Taichi), she does not look like a typical martial artist, but has the best push hands and structural training of principles out of anyone I have met. Don’t make any judgments about her until you’ve checked out how solid her root is, and listening power. Her and John have been practicing for over thirty years from the best Chen and Yang style masters on the west coast, they both focus on the 8 yang style push hands forms, cheng man ching 37 move short form, the two person combat form and yang long form. It is a telling point that Kelly, one of SYL’s best students goes to her for push hands training (and is actually not that good to begin with). SYL’s main thing is sanshou and wushu.

http://www.thewushucentre.ca/whatsup.htm#this%20month

If you are interested in joint locks (Qin na), check out sam masich.

http://www.sammasich.com/

There is also a guy who teaches wudang gong fu in richmond, maybe taiji?

Wudang Cultural International Association

Phone: 778-892-8488, 604-273-3828, 778-862-5092 or 778-862-0652

Email: admin@chinawudang.org

Enjoy!

It’s nice you showed this the last day I was here.

I can’t understand the chinese text so I don’t know if they teach what I learned. If it has roots from Grand Master Zhong Yun Long, then it is.

Anyway, I’ll demonstrate my Wudang forms to you and Farooq one day, and show you around with Wudang push hands and hunyuan qigong and other nifty things, I think you’ll like them. Wudang goes very internal unlike other styles.

‘Til one day,
Jin

I train privately with this guy in QE park who does a root form similar to both taiji and bagua (bei kuen), the family that brought it here still lives in richmond, but is not active with classes right now. I have been training 1 year and a half, and have only learned the first third of the set.

I took classes with SYL, Victor Fu, and Diane Kehoe. There is also a 70 year old guy from beijing out by SFU that does old style Bagua. A lot of old school guys from vancouver who have done taiji with tchoung ta chen practice with him. I don’t know how to contact him, but if you email mike juzenas, he can hook you up:

http://www.thewushucentre.ca/canadian.htm

You could probably learn something useful from SYL, but would have to be in for the long haul, and learn wushu and shuai jiao to get in his good books so he will show you something, as his school is quite large with many students. He does not focus on practical applications much for the internal arts.