All the same to me

Last night was another interesting experience for me. Recently my sifu moved over to China, and the san shou side of our school has been taken over by a new instructor. Obviously this new instructor is particularly good at fighting, but for me the interesting thing was that his background is that of a both a ninjutsu practioner and a choy lay fut martial artist. His focus however has been more towards the ninjutsu side of things.

Last night he was demonstrating some basic ninjutu techniques for possible inclusion in our san shou repetoire. Almost all of the moves that he demonstrated were moves that I personally had encountered during my training in either chang quan, hong quan or choy lay fut.

From the very choy lay fut sau choy and pek choy, to some more chin na type movements every move had its parallel in one or more of the traditional styles of kung fu that I have encountered. Indeed, even the ideas behind the application of the movements seemed to be the same, such as using the been choy to attack the attack as it were (Not as a block or an attack, but both in one).

For me this was a concrete realisation of the discussions that my sifu and I were having before he left for China; discussions about how at the heart of all of the martial arts, there is a core set of tools that we all share, although the tools might have been refined to suit a particular style or even philosphical ideal (as in the case of the hung gar 3/4 tiger claw). These core tools can be seen as the basics of any art, and are often the most neglected too. The repetitive and focussed practise of these basics is (in my opinion) the sign of a true martial artist. As the saying goes, "Do not fear the man that has practised a thousand kicks. Fear the man that has practised one kick a thousand times".

- Nameless