Your Life Is Your Toolbox

I recently opened my own Kung fu School. If you're interested in opening your own martial arts school this post may be of interest to you. The decision to open my own Kung fu school came after several years of very hard work (Kung fu), intense focus, and sacrifice. But by the time I was ready to open the school, everything that I needed to start a school seemed to already be in place. It was almost as if I'd been unconsciously laying the foundation for this moment over the course of my entire life. Maybe I had. You see, I've used almost every talent I've ever had, every skill I ever practiced and refined, every experience I've had in the creation and promotion of my school. I'll start from the beginning so this will make more sense.

Since I was a young boy I've been creating. I created my own comic books from characters to stories to drawing, inking, and coloring. I never sold any, never wanted to--they were just for me. But what this early creation did was get me started with visual arts and design. I'm not saying that the comics were extraordinarily well drawn or the stories were examples of the craft of writing. I mean, I was nine, or ten, or eleven years old. But it was a start. And I took those early attempts, knowing that they were crudely drawn and roughly crafted examples of writing, and worked on making improvements the next time I drew a comic book.

Once I'd achieved a level of proficiency at them, I moved on to other art forms. I tried wood working. I worked with clay. I made 16mm movies and played them on my brother's projector. I was part of the first generation of personal computer users and learned to program in BASIC on my Commodore 64. As time progressed I became very computer and tech literate and eventually used my skills to design newsletters and event programs using design programs like PageMaker and Quark for one of my early adult jobs.

I tried working with acrylics making "glass" tabletops. I tried my hand at photography, and bought a base model DSLR and took it everywhere shooting pictures and learning how to adjust the shutter speed, aperture, and other settings. I turned my eye to mounting and framing some of my pictures with varied success. All of this is to say that over the course of my entire life I was trying out skills and testing my various talents, experimenting and learning the right way to things by doing them, usually, completely wrong.

As a thirty-something, after starting my Kung fu training but long before the thought of owning and operating my own school was born, I began purchasing equipment to use for my workouts. A BOB heavy bag. A weight vest. Little things here and there over the years.

I opened my school on a tiny budget. I knew I'd have to make use of many of the talents I'd developed and honed over the years, and I did. I made a sign for the exterior of my school out of an old shelf, a chisel, a hammer, stain, spray paint, and lots of elbow grease:

The sign for my school is made from a 24" x 36"
30+ year old wooden shelf. I used a chisel, hammer,
sand paper, stain, and gold spray paint to create it.

It says Shaolin Kung fu Institute. It took me six straight hours of drawing, chiseling, staining, and painting to complete it. I'd never done anything like it, but my experiments as a boy had prepared me for it.

I made business cards and brochures for my business using the design skills I honed during my time as a PR Coordinator. In short, I've used every skill, artistic and otherwise, in the creation of my business. I hadn't realized how directed my life was toward this one destination until I'd finished most of the work and looked back. But, serendipitous or synchronous, all of these times and experiences had lead me to this moment in my life.


The BOB heavy bag found it way into my school. I acquired fu dogs for the entrance to my school and created pedestals for them:

The parts of the pedestal
 for the Fu Dogs

The pedestals assembled and spray
painted with stone spray paint

The finished pedestal with Fu Dog

What I say to you, martial artist, prospective instructor, student--wherever you are on the path, is this: use everything you have learned in your life in your business. Never forget the lessons you learned as a child. Don't be afraid to try something because if you fail at least you've learned something, and can use that knowledge in your next attempt.

What I Love About Training At My School

Fitness, Instruction, Application

The list of reasons that I love training in Northern Dragon Kung fu at my school is long and continually growing, but I’ll try to express some of them as best as I can. 

First off is the way classes are structured. I know that many, many martial arts schools probably structure their classes similarly, but all I can speak realistically about is the one I train at. I try not to take more than one quarter of a class block for calisthenics and stretching because 1) students should be working on strengthening and fitness at home, and 2) I value the instructional time with students as a time for tweaking and correcting improper technique. Forty-five minute classes are structured as follows:

Warm-up and Calisthenics

Skills Training

(On Staff Training days, we’ll teach students for three hours and then have an hour to two hours of training from our Sifu without students present.)

Warm-up and Calisthenics

Class begins with twelve to fifteen minutes of High Intensity Interval Training interspersed with Northern Dragon basic exercises. These instructor-led exercises, such as upper block exercises, vertical block exercises, kicking exercises, and basic forms, move across the training hall floor. The warm-up is meant to work up a sweat, get the muscles warm, and the body relaxed. It is a time to focus on basic skills like proper breathing, striking, stepping, and posture while also building strength and endurance. A typical warm-up routine might look like this:

Four minutes of high-kneed running in place or hop scotches

25 pushups

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches followed by a basic unpaired blocking exercise that moves across the floor in a stepping pattern

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches followed by a kicking exercise that moves across the floor

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches followed by 50 Russian Twists 

5 ladder Burpees

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches followed by 100 straight punches in a horse stance

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches 

1 minute plank

The warm-up can also be done without the basic blocking and kicking exercises as standalone High Intensity Interval Training, in which case it would look something like this:

Four minutes of high-kneed running in place or hop scotches followed by four to eight sets of the following:

25 pushups OR Spiderman Pushups OR Walking Pushups

30 seconds running in place or hopscotches

50 Russian Twists OR mountain climbers OR squats

30 seconds of running in place or hopscotches

Either way, by the end of the warm up students (and instructors) have developed a good sweat, they've increased their heart-rate and deepened their breathing, and are relaxed and ready to begin training. The great thing about the warm up is that it combines aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

While an instructor is leading the warm-up, another instructor should be checking student progress reports/sheets to focus on skills that need improvement and review. If there is only one instructor, this is usually done before students have arrived and class has begun.

After the warm-up, and students have had some water, an instructor will lead the class in static and ballistic stretches. This is great, too, since the muscles are now warm and “loose”.

Instructional Time

Typically, instruction begins with a review of basic stances and strikes, and then skills training begins as students execute techniques or go through their forms as instructors watch and make corrections with explanations about why the correction is necessary. If the students are at a basic level, the explanations are simple and limited to basic applications of blocks or stances or strikes. The more advanced a student is, the more advanced the explanation. This occupies the remainder of the forty-five minute class session, and always proves enlightening both as an instructor, and as a student.

This instructional period is an incredible time of learning and connection—if the student has practiced away from class. What is incredibly gratifying to see is the uniformity of instruction across the training hall; there is never an instructor teaching a technique differently than another instructor. If an instructor has a question about the execution of a technique, he or she refer, or in some instances defers, to a higher ranked instructor or to Sifu/Sigung. It makes group demonstrations look crisp, and clean, and tight. Hopefully, students understand that the repetitious nature of practicing their forms is preparing them for more than demonstrations--it's preparing those techniques to become second nature when called upon as a response. I made that connection after two years of training or so.

To accomplish this uniformity of instruction and deep understanding, instructors attend a staff training session once a week where techniques are reviewed and new instruction is given. It’s really one of my favorite days of the week. 

Another of my favorite aspects of training is the genuine appreciation shown by students when you teach them. When explaining the application of a technique of the execution of a technique and the best way to accomplish the execution properly, there is no better reward than the smile of satisfaction on a student’s face when they “get it” after performing a technique properly. I’ve also had adult students directly tell me that I’m doing what I should be doing because I’m a good teacher. There’s almost no feeling that can compare to the feeling of validation that comes with a sincere compliment from a satisfied student.

Sparring As A Learning Opportunity

I’ll end with my appreciation of sparring. Before beginning my training, I’d never sparred in an organized setting. I’d play fought/slap fought/messed around with friends but it was never serious. I had no training beyond the streets of New York City! But since beginning sparring I’ve had the chance to apply the techniques learned in class to an actual situation, and its been enlightening. Sparring is a true learning experience. Its not a time for “winning” or “beating” someone, its a time for figuring out how to use the knowledge gained in class, to avoid the errors made last session, to contemplate those errors and make adjustments. It’s also a time to observe your peers’ skills and learn from your opponents. Kung fu is as much timing and quickness as it is having complete confidence in your techniques to keep from being hit while moving into an opponent’s technique. 

It's important to practice all learned forms and exercises because forms train strikes and stances in different contexts. Its the repetitious nature of forms training that will allow techniques to become second nature when responding to an aggressor, or initiating contact in sparring. Every hand and stepping technique should be practiced to exhaustion. This includes short bridge backward stepping techniques.

After gaining proficiency with hand and stepping techniques, it is really important to remember that you learned blocks for a reason; to block strikes. You learned stepping patterns for a reason; to step off line and around opponents. Opponents think the way you do—when confronted with an onslaught of strikes you’ll probably step back to avoid engagement and being struck. So will your opponent. Its your job to step into the opponent’s zone and block, parry, deflect, or control his/her strikes and counter attack, driving forward protecting yourself with each attack.

Use your legs! Practice your kicks—front, crescents, lift, side, side lock outs. The front kick is your friend. It is a tool to keep opponents at bay, a tool to lull them into a trance, a tool to defend yourself.

Time your attacks and remember to attack the opponents inattentive side. Vary the rhythm of your strikes. If you attack mid to high range with hands, attack mid to low with feet when the opponent defends. If you attack mid to low with feet, follow quickly with a mid to high hand attack.

Change your “type” when fighting—be aggressive, counter attack, angle in on your opponent, be defensive. Use all stances. Confuse your opponent. The greatest compliment you can get is having an opponent say that your style is “weird” or “strange” or to call you “fast” just because you’ve beaten them to the punch, so to speak.

I always leave the training hall and school with a sense of accomplishment at both instructing and having learned something new.