Internal Gung-Fu is a way of getting back to that learning.
It might be a bit late, but better late than never. In fact, it
does not matter how old one is when one begins training,
the mind is never too old, as it never ages unless some
pathogenic state has crept in through bad eating, sexual,
thinking and movement habits over the years, but that's
another volume! I have met with indigenous leaders from
all around the world and all have had the same story to tell.
I was amazed at the similarities between the Maori race
for instance and what I have learnt from ancient Chinese
thought. The wonderful games that the Maori children
play as part of their internal learning puts them far ahead
of their western counterparts in the body mechanics
stakes. Sadly though many indigenous races are trying to
become western, leaving behind their wonderful heritage.
There is a large swing however, back to this heritage,
forced onward by some forward thinking elders of many
of the ancient races such as the Australian Aborigines.
The children are now being taught that they should be
proud of their heritage and are happily learning all of their
ancient dance and story telling skills.
RULES FOR FIGHTING
The games (training methods) teach us certain rules for
Self-defense. I will document many of them here,
however, it is important that you do not just read about
the se rules and try to intellectualize them, but rather do the
training methods in order to gain the necessary body
mechanics.
1. Never step backwards.
When you are attacked, do not do what most hard style
martial arts teach you to do, to step backwards as you
block! This will invite certain defeat. Any fighters or
brawlers all work on 'switches'. We are born with
switches that tell us to do certain things sub-consciously,
like a male puppy that ,a tacertainage begins to lift his leg,
why? He may not have seen any other dogs doing this but
he does it anyway as if some programmer has
programmed a computer program into his brain. This is
not far from the truth. We are all born with switches, those
that tell us to cry, to begin crawling etc. Then there are
those switches that we learn from experience. It is the
same with the Qi that we are born with (pre-natal Qi) and
that which we gain as we grow, (post-natal Qi).
A fighter learns certain switches as he becomes more and
more experienced at fighting and aggression. However, it
is also these learned switches that can bring him unstuck
in a fighting situation against someone who knows about
switches. The fighter learns these switches but also learns
sub-consciously that his switches will also cause other
switches in those who he is attacking, which will in turn
switch on more switches in himself. This is the way that a
fighter works. He may not know this and indeed it would
be rare that any street fighter would know about such
things. So, when the expected switch does not happen
when he attacks someone, it throws his own switches out
of wack, thus putting his timing and co-ordination off.
This is where internal Gung-Fu gains the upper hand. We
know that the fighter expects us to react in a certain
learned manner when attacked or when faced with
aggression. He expects us to move away from him trying
to lessen his attack. So he is ready for this and knows
exactly what to do when we do this expected movement.
But if we do not, then he is taken by surprise and before he
has time to change his method, we have already finished
it.
Someone who is attacking you expects you to be where
you are when he attacks otherwise he would not have
attacked you where you were. Someone throws a punch
for instance, they do not throw the punch to where they
think you might be, but to where you are at the time of the
attack. Remember though, the attacker is expecting you to
either be there or to move backwards. So even if you do
move back, he is ready for this and will launch another
attack to compensate for this movement. So, if you are not
where he expects you to be, and more importantly, if you
are in his face attacking him, then he is just not ready for
this. He has to re-group and think about what he has to do
next, giving you time to attack with devastating attacks
from the internal Gung-Fu system.
Often when we train in techniques or training methods,
we will be taught to stand still and not move. But this is
only in the beginning to get the movement correct. Once
you have it, then you begin training in a more realistic
manner by moving into the attacker as he attacks.
