Drawing a picture each day in October - Inktober Day #1

Some of my friends are artists and in the month of October, there's an event called "Inktober". Basically draw a picture a day based on the official prompts provided.

I will join them in solidarity, however, I may or may not follow the prompts. I am not artistic. I will practice drawing/doodling/sketching for the times when I learn something in martial arts class or a MA seminar.

Here is day 1's pic.

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My drawings for Inktober 2017 - drawing at least 1 pic each day in October:

• Inktober Day #2 - DBMA's Chupacabra knifefighting stance
• Inktober Day #3 - Peacock Pose/Mayurasana/Kujaku
• Inktober Day #4 - Bob Kasper's/Kni-com's knifefighting stance
• Inktober Day #5 - Bob Kasper's/Kni-Com's "Passata Sotto"
• Inktober Day #6 - "Grab & Stab" vs. "C" Grips
• Inktober Day #7 - Richard Ryan's/DCM's Knifefighting Stance
• Inktober Day #8 - Michael Janich's/MBC's Knifefighting Stance 
• Inktober Day #9 - Michael Janich's/MBC's "The Filipino Grip"
• Inktober Day #10 - Bob Kasper's/Kni-com's In-Waist Band Carry
• Inktober Day #11- Trapping's "Pak Sao"
• Inktober Day #12 - Bob Kasper's 'palm push'
• Inktober Day #13 - Bob Kasper's tiger claw entry
• Inktober Day #14 - Michael Janich's Vascular Knife Targets
• Inktober Day #15 - John Styers' On-Guard Stance
• Inktober Day #16- "Box Theory" by Terry Trahan
• Inktober Day #17 - Bob Kasper's 5th Principle of Knifefighting - "Stay in the box."
• Inktober Day #18 - Dwight McLemore's/American Fighting Congress' "Window of Combat"
• Inktober Day #19 - Beware the hidden knife!
• Inktober Day #20 - Richard Ryan's Tactical Concealment/Deceptive Carry Methods
• Inktober Day #21 - Lee Morrison's/Urban Combatives' Body Language Cues
• Inktober Day #22 - Lee Morrison's/UC's The 3 Es
• Inktober Day #23 - John Styers' In-Quartata (or Out-of-Line)
• Inktober Day #24 - John Styers' Passato Sotto
• Inktober Day #25 - John Styers' Targets
• Inktober Day #26 - Amante Marinas'/Pananandata's 12 Targets
• Inktober Day #27 - Fernan Vargas'/Raven Combatives' Fairbairn Vital Template
• Inktober Day #28 - Bloody Brazilian Knife Fighting Techniques' Immobilizing Targets
• Inktober Day# 29 - Hank Reinhardt - Old fencing trick
• Inktober Day #30 - Michael Janich's/MBC's Abanico
• Inktober Day #31: Craig Douglas' Pikal: Some points and stance

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Happy 112th Birthday Zheng Manqing (aka Cheng Man-ching) (郑曼青)!

Click for larger pic

Happy Birthday Zheng Manqing (aka Cheng Man-ching) (郑曼青)! Today would've been ZMQ/CMC's 112th birthday! He passed away on Mar 26, 1975 at the age of 72.


At the age of 28 in 1930, Zheng met and trained with Yang Chengfu, the grandson of Yang Luchan (founder of Yang Taiji). Zheng learned from Yang Chengfu until Yang's death in 1936. Zheng was one of the earliest Chinese masters to teach Taiji publicly in the United States. He taught what he called "Yang-style short form" or "Yang-style Taiji in 37 Postures." By eliminating most of the repetitions of certain moves of the Yang long form, Zheng counted the moves as 37 Postures. It takes around ten minutes to practice instead of the twenty to thirty minutes of the Yang long form.

Zheng mastered Taiji, Chinese medicine, calligraphy, painting and poetry (the last 3 called the "3 perfections"). He was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences" by virtue of his mastery. As a point of comparison: IIRC, Miyamoto Musashi was a Master of painting, sculpture as well as swordsmanship/martial arts. Yamaoka Tesshu was a Master of calligraphy, poetry, Zen, and swordsmanship/martial arts.

Posting some videos in ZMQ/CMC's honor.


Enjoy!

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37 posture Yang Taiji form developed and performed by Zheng Manqing

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Zheng Manqing performing the form as well as some Push Hands/Tui Shou

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Zheng playing with some; peng, lu, ji and an (Ward off, Roll back, Press, Push energy)

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Zheng Manqing, New York Push hands class with Stan Israel, Lou Klinesmith and Mort Raphael, Mid 60s

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Zheng Manqing demonstrating the Tai Chi straight sword form

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For further info, please check out:

• Official Site
• Wiki

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GIFs of Cheng Tin Hung sifu in Shaw Brothers' The Shadow Boxer (1974)

This set features 6 GIFs of Cheng Tin Hung sifu in action. I made the animated GIFs from the 1974 Shaw Brothers' The Shadow Boxer's Opening Credits. Made in Cheng sifu's honor because today marks the 9th anniversary of his passing:

• IN MEMORY OF: Cheng Tin Hung (鄭天熊) (1930 - May 7, 2005)

Enjoy!

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Here is the clip on Youtube:

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For further info:

• Cheng Tin Hung Wiki
• Tai ji quan aka The Shadow Boxer (1974) IMDB

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IN MEMORY OF: Cheng Tin Hung (鄭天熊) (1930 - May 7, 2005)

Source photo:  http://www.taichichuan.co.uk

9 years ago today, Cheng Tin Hung sifu passed away. His reputation was that of a Taiji practitioner who was able to use his art in a martial way. He won a championship as well as coached/taught his students who also went on to win full contact championships. His "internal" style of Taiji was able to beat "external" styles.


He was not as well-known in America as he was in the UK, which was only natural as Hong Kong back then was still under the Britain. However, he made a brief appearance in an oldschool Shaw Brothers movie called "The Shadow Boxer". The casual Shaw Brothers fan may not know this movie, and at one point, the full movie was posted to Youtube. You can see him in action from a vidclip as well as an animated GIF set I've made of him here:

• GIFs of Cheng Tin Hung sifu in Shaw Brothers' The Shadow Boxer (1974)

Posting some notes on him as well as some vidclips of him in his memory.


Rest In Peace Cheng sifu

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Excerpts from Requiem for a Bodyguard by Dan Docherty:

... he was also a voracious reader of history and philosophy and a writer of many books on Tai Chi Chuan, an amateur geomancer and fortune-teller, who changed his name of Cheng Ngar-man to the more propitious Cheng Tin-hung

... in his heyday from 1956 – 1980 he was the best known combat Tai Chi Chuan master in South East Asia ...

He first made his name in the 50s, a time when many Hong Kong residents took up Tai Chi as a cure for TB. ...

Then in 1956 teams from Hong Kong and Macau were annihilated in Taiwan in a three way international full contact competition. He was the only one to win, defeating the three times middleweight full contact champion of Taiwan. He then met and pushed with Cheng Man-ching and while impressed with his softness, didn’t rate him as a fighter. He never had too much time for the Kuomintang anyway.

Over the years he led his students to numerous victories over external martial artists.

...

... He said the Judo people could sometimes throw him if he wore a Gi, but not otherwise.

He began working with the Sport & Recreation Dept of the HK government in 1976 by providing teachers for morning classes set up in the housing estates to improve public health and well-being ... He then devised teacher training programmes for the government which run to this day.

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Excerpts from Grandmaster Cheng Tin Hung by Ian Cameron:

...

His reputation was one of someone who knew Tai Chi Chuan as a martial art, having proved himself, not only as a Tai Chi body guard, but by competing in martial arts tournaments, defeating the Champion of Taiwan along the way.

...

He was also very well read in the Classics and Chinese History.

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Classic footage of Chen Tin Hung teaching and practicing Wudang Tai Chi in Hong Kong.

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Cheng Tin Hung Wudang hand form

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Chen Tin Hung with students of Ian Cameron in Edinburgh, 1986.

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A short clip of Cheng Tin Hung in Edinburgh 1986

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For further info:

• Cheng Tin Hung Wiki
• Requiem for a Bodyguard by Dan Docherty
• Grandmaster Cheng Tin Hung by Ian Cameron

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THE WISDOM OF ... Lou Reed

Ren Guang-yi and Lou Reed
Source Photo Credit:  KungFuMagazine.com

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I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.

People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.

I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

Source Photo Credit:  KungFuMagazine.com

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.

I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.

I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything. 

Source Photo Credit:  KungFuMagazine.com

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.

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In case you missed my previous posts on Lou Reed, please check out:

• Rock Legend Lou Reed died at 71 on October 27, 2013
• Lou Reed on Tai Chi, Meditation Music and Care of the Knees

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For related entries in this series, please check out:

• THE WISDOM OF ...

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Vunak's Top 50 Combat Secrets Ch. 25

Chapter 25 – Contemporary JKD’s Progression

As stated before in our previous articles, mixed martial arts has boiled down to really two arts, Thai boxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And as mentioned before, we were aware of this revelation around 1985. And since that time, we have had plenty of years to devise ways to improve this Thai boxing – Brazilian jiu jitsu cocktail. Adding Kinamutai was our first priority. The single most important thing that we wanted to do, was defeat another person that also knows Thai boxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu, and happens to be bigger, stronger, younger, etc… Kinamutai filled this hole, next we found that by injecting Wing Chun, we were able to control the opponents center line, trap the opponents hands, and even apply follow up arts. Some of these follow up arts can include, but are not limited too, savate, dumog, tai-chi, etc…

When two people are trading blows, in a typical MMA fashion, and all of a sudden somebody enters with a Pac Sao, and the perhaps a Lop Sao, and then if they were to go to a double leg takedown, continuing the match on the ground, we would see a visceral response of most of the audience sitting up in their chair, extremely impressed, in deed this scenario has actually occurred once in the UFC.

Joe Rogan, perhaps the most sophisticated man on planet earth, when it comes to knowing fighters, was blown away by Vitor Belfort’s Straight Blast on Vanderlai Silva. In fact, Joe actually got up out of his chair, and declared at a very high decibels, did you see that he, “Wing Chuned him”.

Once this perfectly timed Wing Chun entry occurs, and you have Pac Saoed and Lop Saoed your opponent, controlling his center line, there is a brief window in which we can actually flow to the enigmatic but functional art of Tai Chi. Picture the opponents hands crossed, and you square up your body and sail him, straight across the octagon, or perhaps a street fight, sailing the opponent into a 65 Chevy. Now we have a contemporary JKD person, able too trade blows in the world of Thai boxing, able to trade counters in the world of jiu jitsu, yet also able to put more sophisticated and sublime arts in, that are more germane to the street, again weather these follow up arts are Wing Chun or Tai- Chi, or locking, or throwing, there main purpose, is to add to the potential degree, of violence, necessary to win the encounter.


Training Drill:

Step 1: Get your Thai boxing and jiu jitsu skills as high as possible.

Step 2: Integrate the Pac Sao as a Portal to enter.

Step 3: Make sure you can perform said Pac Sao on the retraction of any punch or kick.

Step 4: Trap the rear barrier (Wu Sao).

Step 5: Once the students are able to get all the way up to this final point, add the two basic Tai Chi shoves.

Step 6. Add Foot sweeps

Step 7: Add Dumog

Step 8 : Add Savate

Step 9: And now finally by step 9, we should see our students, looking very similar to two MMA cats sparring in the Octagon. They should be trading blows, not too dissimilar from Thai Boxing. Integrating Ground Fighting, integrating biting, indeed if we could for a moment, lets shut our eyes and picture this one combination.

Thai Kick – Pac Sao -Lap Sao - double leg takedown - ground and pound - sweep occurs from the bottom person - the sweeper comes to his feet, with a blitzing straight blast, and a Tai-Chi Sail into the Octagon, concluding with a knee strike.

In conclusion when one can seamlessly integrate, tai chi, locking, biting, with Thai boxing and jiu jitsu, they can fight out of their weight class by 70 pounds, when they are 70 years old.


 

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Please check the Table of Contents for links to other chapters of this Online Book.

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