Burning palm

[Mpstaples]

Al Novack was a very sweet guy. At one point, Ron Dong and I decided we wanted to try our hand at karate kumite competitions, instead of the usual kata competitions we would go to from time to time. I believe we were the first to ever take White Crane into the sparring sections of karate at the time. Certainly around the Bay Area. Of course we didn't get very far, mostly because we didn't have any techniques that were score able. The White Crane punches are nothing like the karate reverse punches. the long-arm is something pretty alien to karate tournaments. Doesn't really fit in. About the only thing we had was a roundhouse-like kick. So we went to maybe five or six tournaments, and had a great time just the same, then gave up. But Al Novack was a big part of the tournament scene around the San Francisco Bay Area, and come up to us after one of our matches and told us that he really liked the fact that we were out there, that at least he knew what we were doing...even if the judges couldn't really score it... and was just kind of supportive all the way around. Nice guy.

[windwalker]

http://focusingemptiness.com/index.php/ ... WhiteCrane
mike and gary

The White Crane punches are nothing like the karate reverse punches. the long-arm is something pretty alien to karate tournaments. Doesn't really fit in.

I noted in prepping "gary" for one of the full contact venues of the day, "boxing" hands were introduced.
Was this to comply with the rule sets or did you feel it would give some advantage that the long arm did not offer?

[Mpstaples]

Windwalker,

We were experimenting quite a lot, especially when we broke away from the White Crane school, and started our own school (which was eventually merged into David Chin's Hop Gar umbrella). I think I saw a kind of kindred spirit in boxing where the "short hand" was concerned. And I liked the fact that we could put on gloves on, and really pummel each other without getting too messed up. I saw much of boxing's maneuvors as following the same kind of circular ideas we were doing on a more extended platform with the long-arm. I was looking at Bruce Lee's ideas about fencing and boxing, but relative to White Crane. So it there was quite a lot of experimenting we were doing by the time you came along. And Yes, you do have to look at differing "ranges" with regard to long arm/short hand moves. Kicks were effective at the most distant range. short hand is the closest. But it seemed to me that most non long-arm styles had a kind of dead spot between those two ranges that the long-arm filled. So White Crane had three different ranges -- One for kicks, one for long-arm, one for short hand. If someone was at the longest range... then kick him. If they were at a closer range, then hit him with the long-arm, and if he was close by, use the short-hand. And of course the footwork (always the footwork) helped to make adjustments in those ranges by not only opening up unique angles, but placing the opponent into the best range. White Crane, as I saw it, was 3 dimensional on many levels, intricate and thought provoking. Like Mr. Long use to say... "Pretty sophisticate."

[Mpstaples]

You might remember my saying that a lot of Mr. Long's students used his White Crane in the streets -- just as there were guys in our later school where were bouncers. But some of Mr. Long's students were street gang members, and a few of them had developed really interesting and unique ways of using White Crane. As usual, I was pushed into sparring with pretty much anyone who walked through Mr. Long's door, and one of the most interesting of his "older" students was a gang member who had a very tricky way of using the Crane style. I was warned about this in advance by Ron, so I had a little knowledge to start off with, but when we squared off in the middle of the room, he had a very modified version of the crane horse... so modified that you would never know he was taking up any kind of ready position. He had a way of moving back and forth that was hard to follow, and completely disguised what he was up to. And he was kind of magical in the way he could draw your attention over "here" then slip quickly into a crane postion and attack you over "there" that was really hard to track. Mr. Long use to say "Don't let the wind blow you." So, this guy's unique way of maneuvering your attention without telegraphing anything of value, was using his "wind" to move your attention to his benefit. It was quite an experience to spar with him. But this was another example of the ways in which White Crane could be molded to fit a particular need, to accommodate a particular set of assumptions about where you were fighting and why. It might be fine to sink down into a fancy on-guard position in some cases. In other cases, you might not want to let a potential opponent know anything bout what you are up to decide to unload on him. Those were also the kinds of things we were experimenting with.

[windwalker]

Ron & Mike

Mr. Long use to say "Don't let the wind blow you." So, this guy's unique way of maneuvering your attention without telegraphing anything of value, was using his "wind" to move your attention to his benefit. It was quite an experience to spar with him. But this was another example of the ways in which White Crane could be molded to fit a particular need, to accommodate a particular set of assumptions about where you were fighting and why. It might be fine to sink down into a fancy on-guard position in some cases. In other cases, you might not want to let a potential opponent know anything bout what you are up to decide to unload on him

Interesting, in China, it was often said to feel as though what one did was or like, the "wind" blowing through the opponent. In this case it might have referenced other things but seems to have had the same effect reading your description.

But it seemed to me that most non long-arm styles had a kind of dead spot between those two ranges that the long-arm filled. So White Crane had three different ranges -- One for kicks, one for long-arm, one for short hand. If someone was at the longest range... then kick him. If they were at a closer range, then hit him with the long-arm, and if he was close by, use the short-hand. And of course the footwork (always the footwork) helped to make adjustments in those ranges by not only opening up unique angles, but placing the opponent into the best range. White Crane, as I saw it, was 3 dimensional on many levels, intricate and thought provoking. Like Mr. Long use to say... "Pretty sophisticate."

Used to spar with a lot of Army guys who either did box or thought they could box....found out the hard way, one could not "box" a boxer, the long arm filled a range that stylistically they could not deal with due to the long arm, type of horse, and foot work used. I would agree not to kick, since they did not know how to kick and could not kick, it made things a lot simpler with less to worry about.

Can you speak to the idea of "space" ie penetration, and evasion, seems like a different idea used, than in other CMA styles were "bridging" is employed.

[windwalker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkSdvEwKMc

What you hear in today's episode is the story of someone who was destined to be the martial artist they became.

thought some might find this interesting. Mike talks about old style training and his adventures with Gorge Long
his first teacher in White Crane...

some of it outlined in Mikes book

http://focusingemptiness.com/index.php/ ... WhiteCrane

[voidisyinyang]

Mike in his interview says he would be more into Zen now or "meditative styles." I met the assistant (Jim Nance) of a Shaolin-trained qigong medical healing master. The assistant was a kungfu master in the 1960s in the African-American kungfu scene but he would always cry even though he always won. He would see the opponent in slow motion and when he hit the person then he felt the pain that he inflicted just as much as the other person felt. So this Chinese teacher saw him crying after he won and said he needed to learn qigong. He didn't know what "internal martial arts" was - in the 1960s. So then not until 1995 did he meet the Chinese qigong master Chunyi Lin. So then he trained to be the assistant and the first African-American medical qigong master - http://guidingqi.com is his website.

So he did healing on me - he told a story similar to the "burning palm" story. The Chinese qigong master http://springforestqigong.com - the assistant told me the Chinese teacher did use his qi once to break open marble - sending the qi at a distance - but that it was too violent for him. So he focused on healing. So they even had their healing tested as an "external qi" randomized controlled study by the Mayo Clinic - Dr. Ann Vincent said the results were "especially impressive" - so they healed chronic pain that people had for at least 5 years, untreatable by Western medicine. But after each external qi healing they felt dramatically better. I did a pdf on the Shaolin qigong training - https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/04/10/ ... t-alchemy/ lots of images and science research on the meditation training.

Great youtube interview Mr. Michael Staples. I didn't realize acupuncture had been illegal but I guess that makes sense.

Mr. Staples is talking about something that is blatantly dismissed by say Joe Rogan - can I say his name on this forum? haha. But read Paul Dong on Shaolin qigong master Yan Xin - people don't want to believe this stuff. https://issuu.com/exopolitics/docs/chin ... _paul_dong his book is posted - there's a chapter on Shaolin's qigong master Yan Xin and Japan - a qigong martial arts show down.

thanks again.