Many of us who came of age in the West during the ‘70’s watched Kung Fu. Before, the only martial arts generally available were those brought back by returning troops: namely Karate Do and Tae Kwan Do.

In the mid 70’s, Feeman Ong had Shaolin schools in Northeastern Ohio, and I joined. The mystique created there was very alluring at the time. Those of us in the system were sure that we getting secrets right out of the Temple, and were learning the only true martial art.

We did standing postures, learned forms…, more postures and forms, until I got my brown sash. I was so proud. I knew many forms, and could stand in many postures – and thought I could cause some serious damage. I was wrong.

After 7 years of training in the Shaolin system, I moved to So. Cal. I started with a school that claimed to teach traditional Chinese martial arts. Actually, the content was regular old Ed Parker Kenpo with a lot of esoteric weirdness thrown in.

It was at this school I did my first free sparring. I remember the thuds from some guy named Manny, echoing around the studio, as he hit me pretty much at will. “ But I was a brown sash…! ” All those stances and all those forms meant nothing. It was like a out-of-body experience, and one I’ve never forgotten.

It was at this studio I met Master Lin. He taught the Tai-chi class, and was depicted by the owner as someone who, “Didn’t have much power, but knew some cool Chinese stuff”. He’d walk by me, while I was practicing the Kenpo stuff and whisper, “ You stupid do”, or, “ You have true good body, why you use stupid power? ”.

The weirdness was too much at the Kenpo school and many of us left. …but what now?, I wondered. One of my “brothers” ( thanks Steven ), told me Lin Chun-fu was teaching at a park and I should stop by. I started taking classes there, and my well earned skepticism was abated.

Master Lin used typically me to demonstrate techniques. Whether he was showing chin-na, Ba Gua, Tang Lang applications, the results were awesome (literally full of awe). Clearly, after all that I had seen, he had what I had been looking for all these years. We met every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. I took private lesson for about a year. As time went on, Master Lin opened up and taught more material and deeper concepts.

After several years of training, Master Lin suggested I go to other schools, “ To test yourself ”. This was in the early 90’s, and there wasn’t all the MMA places like today. I went to several studios in the area. In general, the senseis/instructors were open to letting someone from the outside in, and the students enjoyed the challenge.

I found I could not us several Tang Lang techniques in sparring, as they required a full commitment and would have caused injury. For instance, I blocked a jab with “lo-sho” and countered with “chen-chua (circling hammer). That strike is for the temple. I stopped the strike, as the temple is a lethal point, and my opponent back-fisted me in the nose. I learned to use mostly straight-forward techniques. This experience also showed me where I needed to focus on, in my training.

One of the wildest places I went to was a Kung-fu Karate place, where the sensei was a full-contact champion in Japan. The workouts were intense and followed by 40 minutes of non-stop sparring. The studio had a carpeted floor. During my first class, the skin on both big toes blistered, the blisters ruptured, and the next layer of skin was worn away. The sparring was full-contact and was so intense I didn’t realize what happened to my feet. The students at this school loved fighting. I continued going, as it tested my abilities greatly. …until one time, I was sparring with the senior student. I hit him, he lost his temper and literally tried to kill me. I was a guest at this school – I was always taught losing ones temper in sparring was unacceptable and did not hit back. I used “Be-gee-sho” as a guard, and he never landed a strike. I quietly left the class and never returned.

Around 2005 Master Lin stopped teaching, due to his stroke. For the three years before that, I spent every spare moment with him. He was teaching with added intensity and every class was like drinking from a fire hose. It was during this time he said to me, “You not my student, you Master Wei’s student”. Shortly after he said this, I was given a braided black belt. I assume all this meant I was given Master Lin’s lineage – and the responsibility to pass it on.

For the first time in twenty years, I didn’t have a teacher. I decided to check out MMA and Jiu-jitsu. A new gym had opened up and I started. I was quite a bit older than most of the students, but was in good shape and enjoyed the intense workouts. I had the opportunity to roll with many professional fighters. I took private boxing lessons and started to see where my traditional background could enhance what was being taught.

The gym closed down, I relocated to another gym, where I'm fortunate to work out with professional MMA fighters, who are not only excellent instructors, but very decent people.  Not only have I been training MMA and Jiu-jitsu, but I've started Kali as well. It's amazing how the Kali relates perfectly to my gung-fu training.  Kali's "female triangle" is exactly the angle fo many of the evading Mantis movements. In Kali, the emphasis is on flowing relaxed movements, etc. ...very familiar to what Master Lin always was saying.