SHAOLINPOWERED

New School in Town - Shaolin Culture

2011-02-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

New school in town

It is almost a year now that a new Shaolin Kungfu school opened in the Southeast part of Amsterdam. This area also known as the “Bijlmer” is home to various martial arts schools. On December 7^th Shaolin Wuhun Helan - 少林武魂荷兰 (Shaolin Warrior Spirit) opened its doors to the public. Not so much as to compete with other schools but because teaching is a way to keep learning and also not to let all that what was learned go to waste. Not so longs ago the East and Shaolin kungfu were not accesable for the general public and now everybody can learn Shaolin Kungfu even in Amsterdam’s “ghetto”.

The school is headed by Erika Blackson. She started Karate at age 13 and has never stopped training since then. Karate, Taiji, Wing Chun, and finally Shaolin Kungfu. Se has won numerous national championships, her highest achievement being Pan American Champion Karate in 1988.

She has completely dedicated herself to Shaolin Kungfu eager to share this mainly as a result from visiting China for the first time in 2008 where she met her Shifu (teacher).

Students used to asked “will we learn how to fight?” To which the answer would always be, “No, not at first, against others that is”.
Actually there is a lot of ‘fighting’, against yourself! Going that little extra to improve, everytime, all the time. She has noticed that the children like to look at others a lot and without fail see all the errors in others. Paying too much attention to others is distracting and leads to arguments and quarrels. At one point the children were told that they were allowed to talk as long as it does not involve others….silence followed. They had absolutely nothing to talk about!

This rule is one of the most important ones in the school.

Look at yourself, being quiet and become calm. And yes, you can talk and even talk about someone but only if it is positive and something nice.

It took some time but the children are used to it now and you can see that in class.

They do talk but most of the time it is quiet, everybody works hard even if the teacher is not watching, they are enthousiastic and most important no more quarrelling.

Like many other traditional martial arts, Shaolin Kungfu and Chan (Zen) cannot be seen separately. Chan provides us with guidelines to help us in our daily lifes and our relationships with other people. Think about virtues such as, charity, patience, diligence and wisdom all of which one can find in the practise of Quanfa (aka Kungfu) itself.

Charity, not keeping to yourself but helping fellow students or by just working hard motivating and inspiring thus helping fellow students. Patience, there a no shortcuts in Kungfu. Diligence, keeping at it even if it gets hard. Wisdom, finally, when you realize after years of hard training what Kungfu really is about and you understand the meaning of:

chán quán hé yī

Chan (Zen) en quan (fist-kungfu) are one!

Omituofo!

One on One with Philip Sahagun

2010-01-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

January 18th, 2010

On the weekend of January 15th until the 17th, I was lucky to attend a workshop with none other than Philip Sahagun, Hosted by Sifu Henny Eleonora's Lui He Men Kungfu school. The first session on Friday evening was kind of a getting to know each other and a clever way to determine the level of the group. But the following two days were hard work and in the end most of us were aching all over. All in all, a weekend well spent.

Philip Sahagun is young man who has already made it in the martial arts world. A top rank athlete, performer and actor who despite his celeb-status Philip is very modest and has no star-like airs, he is kind and talks to everybody. I had a chance to sit down to talk to him and I would like to share this with you.

Philip on his training:

"I have been training martial arts since I was 5 years old. I was exposed to Kenpo Karate, Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and at age 17 Chinese Wushu and eventually moved to Shaolin Kungfu and that is where I am today."

On how the different styles influenced his martial arts:

"Training multiple martial arts really helped me because in each system I learned different skills. I learned how to develop precision, fight more accurately & develop performance intensity... the benefit of Wushu and Shaolin kung fu was that it strengthened my body more than other systems, I feel I am much faster and stronger now than I ever could be without Chinese Martial Arts. So naturally I have a lot of respect for people who dedicate themselves to this type of practice.

On training in China:

"My first time in China was in 2004, I trained at the Shaolin Martial Arts Majoring Institute in Zhengzhou which was headed by Shaolin master Zhu Tian Xi. The school specialized in traditional Shaolin Martial Arts Skills and had exceptional "Jing Gang Quan" (Diamond Fist) and "Luohan Quan" (Enlightened One's Fist) During my first stay, and those thereafter I focused mainly on Luohan Quan and Zui Luohan Qun (Drunken Luohan Quan) those forms really caught my attention and I still practice them today. Through my trips in China I had the opportunity to take part in some extraordinary shows and eventually train inside the Shaolin Temple itself.

On K-Star:

Photo: www.philipsahagun.com

"The K-Star competition lasted about 5 months in China with about 9 months worth of Competition events taking place around the world. Out of these tournaments they took the top 3 winners from different Countries and flew them to China.
In the North American competition. We had two days of competition covering forms, weapon forms, fighting and an extra talent. I was lucky enough to be one of the guys they picked and I was excited thinking we all were going to China to perform, see Shaolin Temple and go home. But once we all got there they told us it was going to be some big TV-show competition.

Before the start of the official competition we were sent to Shaolin Temple to study Martial Arts & Shaolin Culture under the 18 Luohan. It was a rough combination, the food, the meditation and the kung fu practice. I found the meditation particularly difficult because some of the sessions would last about two hours at a time... that was a killer! After we got out of Shaolin Temple the actual K-STAR show started and we began performing all over China. The show was well received and had over 300 Million viewers. It was a success!

On Tina Turner's final tour

"Tina Turner's Ninja's" Photo: www.philipsahagun.com

The Tina Turner Tour was a very nice experience! This took place right after I finished a martial arts/acting show with Jackie Chan in Beijing (The Disciple) I came back to America and decided, "ok, now I will focus on my personal life and study". Then a friend called and said "Tina Turner is looking for people who do martial arts." and I was like, "What!? Why on earth does she want martial arts people?" Then my friend said: "Are you interested in going?" and I was like, ok!
So we sat down later that week had a meeting and that was that. The whole process was like a dream. It took about a year to complete, 3 months preparation and 8 months covering North America & Europe.

On martial arts attitude:

I think depending on what level, the attitude varies from each person. As a beginner it is important to be patient, watch and listen… but on a intermediate level it is okay to have a bit of an attitude, this is not a “foolish mindset.” This is having an attitude to build up your confidence, to be proud of what you do and push forward your training. With that being said it is also important to find someone who can knock the attitude out of you.

As a beginner, you teach them something, they get to a certain level and they feel comfortable. For them it is like driving a car, after a while it isn’t special anymore, you just sit and drive and don't think about it. Now if you practice martial arts for lets say, five years and think "I won a competition I am great", that is when you stop making progress. At this point I think it is necessary to find a teacher or someone to knock the attitude out of you. Build yourself up, then tear it down, learn some more, knock it out again and eventually you don't need the attitude. You’ve been knocked around so many times you don't care about it anymore. You realize, the only thing the attitude is good for is to make you look foolish and that you have to stand on your own eventually.

For me, training with friends who come from different styles, you always have your own conception of the arts, your own thoughts. You walk into Jiu-jitsu class for example, and find you cannot do your punching and kicking or go to a Shaolin kungfu class and wonder "why do they train the legs like that?" But then after six months of either training you're like, "wow I am more powerful now".

There is a lot to learn and you got to remove your attitudes and keep looking for things if your unsatisfied with your level. If you think you’ve achieved anything you should look hard to find someone who is better, because there are people who are better. Even if you are the best in Shaolin Kungfu or any other traditional Chinese martial art, go find someone from another martial art and even though it is a different style it will help your martial art!

For more on Philip Sahagun, South Coast Martial Arts , training and contact please visit: www.philipsahagun.com

Heroes of Martial Arts

2009-04-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

This show, featuring the Shaolin Legend Group, toured the Netherlands from march 31 untill april 11th 2009. The show was called "heroes of martial arts". According to the flyer the Shaolin Temple is considered the origin of Chinese Martial arts. This is not completely correct although the Shaolin Temple did play a major role in the developement of chinese martial arts as we know today.

The show was said to have been inspired by traditional gongfu styles and famous martial arts movie stars, namely Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The tradional part consisted of a shaolin routine we know from other "shaolin" shows. This included Taiji, Weapons, Animal routines and Qigong (needle through glass, breaking iron bars on the head etc.)

Shaolin Wheel of Life may be the best shaolin show ever to have toured the world. Anything that followed was a variation on the the same theme done by martial artists posing as shaolin monks. Though some of these martial artsist may have a connection with the Temple, whether they are monks or not, is still questionable. But this is not about real and/or fake monks. The martial artists in this show are not monks. The Shaolin Legend Group is a group of highly skilled, Zhengzhou based, performers some of which have worked with Jackie Chan.

What makes this show different from all the other shaolin shows?
For starters, the performers did not shave their heads to look like monks. Only the first part of the show, the taiji part, they donned shaolin monk atire. The rest of the show the were wearing wushu uniforms and "streeth clothing". There were performances in which we could recognize Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li. Jackie Chan is famous for his drunken style and this was beautifully done by Zhao Fei, a very talented young man whose specialties are drunken sword and praying mantis. He presumably also played a major role in the show's choreography.
Next was the Bruce Lee look-a-like, the black pants, the muscles and the nunchaku's and the Bruce Lee-yell, Bruce all over. Then there was Wong Fei Hung. A little harder to recognize weren't it for the movie intro played on a big screen, perhaps the only part, together with the drum and liondance that was not so good about this show. But this is easily forgotten watching the rest of the performance.
High speed weapons routines, acrobatics, animal forms and the absolute icing on the cake was the finale!
Based on The Matrix, the performers dressed in long black coats, wearing dark sunglasses made us re-live the Matrix hype.

This show clearly demonstrated that one doesn't need to dress and pose like shaolinmonks to entertain an audience. Ditch the robes and what do we get? A really spectecular martials arts performance done by outstanding atheletes who don't need shaolin robes to shine!

Watch the videos, taken from a local tv station, giving you an impression of the show. The drunken style part in the second video is done by the before mentioned Zhao Fei, who like two other members of the group, is a teacher at a gongfu school in Zhengzhou, that is when the group is not on tour.

Master Shi De Yang in Italy

2009-03-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

Most of us may know monk Shi Deyang from his VCD series, which are probably the most sought of by shaolin kungfu aficionados. Although a VCD cannot replace a real master they may be of use as preparation untill one finds a teacher or serve as reference once one has learned a form from a teacher. The VCD's are very detailed, featured by the master himself, show the forms from various angles and the subtitles are not too bad.
Shi Deyang is one of the most respected masters, who still lives within the Temple proper. He also has a large private school in Dengfeng; the Songshan Shaolin Wuseng Houbeidui. Among his disciples are the Italian based Walter Gjergja (Shi Xing Mi) and Valter Carboni (Shi Xing Cang).
Every year Shi Deyang visits Italy and this year we can learn again from the Master. Assisted by his before mentioned disciples master Deyang will teach jibengong, qigong, taolu and chan on april 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th. For more information check the calendar on the website of the Shaolin Wushu Guan Italy, or see the flyer.

BOS - Seven Years in Shaolin

2009-02-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

This is a documetary of the Buddhist Broadcast Association (Boeddistische Omroep Stichting - Bos) about a young man who decided he could no longer continue to live the way he did and just up and went to China. He finally ended up at Shaolin Temple. This story may be an inspiration to many. Not to go to shaolin perse, but to change ones life. It does not matter where you are, because if there were a place that could change your life where would that be? The place to look for is inside yourself. Like the monk in this documentary says; the goal of Buddhist teaching is to find your heart.
This is the link to the documentary:
Enjoy!

Kungfu Training in Zhengzhou

2009-01-28T06:33:00.001-08:00

Most people who want to practise kungfu in China are most likely to end up in Dengfeng (登封), prefecture of Zhengzhou (郑州) in the province of Henan (河南) . Dengfeng is where Shaolin Temple (少林寺) is situated. There is probably no other place in China, or in the world for that matter, where one can find so much kungfu practitioners in one place. The city has numerous kungfu schools among which the most popular are maybe:Shaolin Temple Taguo Martial Arts Academy, Shi De Cheng Wushu Center of Songshan Shaolin and the Shi De Yang Shaolin Wu Shu Guan.
When you drive up the road to Shaolin Temple you pass these schools and a whole lot more. Most of these schools carry the name shaolin in their schoolname because they are either runned by (ex) monks or people who used to train at or near Shaolin Temple and they teach shaolin style wushu.

Not so famous but just as good is the Zhengzhou Shaolin Cultural Middle Vocational School (少林文化中等专夜学校).
The school is relatively small with a student body of approx. 200 students. Nevertheless students of this school have participated in shows in China and abroad. They have been to Kongo, Greece and The Netherlands.

Henan Chinese Kong-Fu Group

Students practise five to six hours a day, six days a week which is the same like most schools in Dengfeng. Apart from shaolin wushu you can also practise sanda and Taekwondo. One of the Shifu at this school is 赵飞师傅 (Shifu Zhao Fei). Zhao Shifu comes from a family of farmers. In his hometown his talent was immedaitely recognized and he was sent to Dengfeng to practise kungfu. After having trained at Shaolin for several years he finally ended up at this school near Zhengzhou City. His skills are remarkable. He is part of the group that will do a number of shows in the Neteherlands april this year. So if you don’t want to go where everyone goes and still get the best out of your kungfu trip, this is the place to be.

Zhao Shifu

School Impressions:

Training

Billboard outside the school