Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
I thought I'd share a recent turn of events with you all, with regards to my training.
A little background, first: I've been training with my kung fu sifu for some eleven years now, mostly in Tibetan White Crane, but with some Shaolin influences and taiji as well. White Crane has always been my primary interest of study with him, and he has generously given me as much as he could.
His training in White Crane goes back some 40 years or so, when he learned under his uncle, who is a lineage-holder and master of White Crane, and is one of the top White Crane people in the Western Hemisphere at the least. The problem was that he was unable to complete his own training in White Crane, due to an injury after a few years (not related to martial arts). This sent him in other directions, studying Shaolin and Taiji and Bagua and such. But he was unable to continue with his own White Crane training.
Over the years, he has taught his White Crane to very few people, instead teaching mostly taiji and shaolin. He generously agreed to teach me when I requested it, and I have been his only White Crane student for some time now. But he was always honest with me about the fact that he does not know the complete system, and that some of what he learned he has forgotten over the years. But he gave me what he could, and I just kept on working on it. From time to time I would try to encourage him to "jog" his memory and see if he can remember more, or suggest maybe he could get some of his classmates from back in the day to come in and help teach, or maybe get his uncle involved. All to no avail: his uncle closed his school decades ago and only teaches four disciples who have each been with him for 30 or 40 or more years, and he doesn't take new students, and the four disciples he does have aren't teaching either. So no luck.
But I kept with it, and kept reafirming my own dedication to the art, and my interest in learning as much as possible.
A few weeks ago, sifu took me to meet his uncle. And his uncle agreed to give me a chance, and let me come to the training sessions with his four disciples. He only agreed to do this because of my relationship with my sifu, and he made it clear that he was willing to do it because I am not a complete beginner.
So now I am training with sigung, and I am the new student there. We train in his back yard and garage, and I've been doing this now for a couple weeks. The training has been great, I've been drilling the hell out of my basics to clean up what I am doing, and relearning all my forms to get them just right. We train hard, and I am loving it. And I know that in all likelihood, I am the last student that he will accept.
Tibetan White Crane is a system that is not very openly taught nowadays, and it is quite difficult to find someone teaching it. And most of those who do teach it only have a partial knowledge of the system. Sifu has often said that the art is dying, and most of the old teachers are content to let it die. They feel that students aren't willing to work hard enough to learn it properly, so they don't bother to teach more than just the basics.
I am not going to mention names, because these people are rather private, and might not appreciate me putting their names out on the internet. But I feel tremendously fortunate to have been given this opportunity, and I hope my skill and knowledge in the system will rise to a new level.
After ten years, the door has finally been opened for me (and likely locked again after I walked thru), and I am excited.
Just wanted to share.
A little background, first: I've been training with my kung fu sifu for some eleven years now, mostly in Tibetan White Crane, but with some Shaolin influences and taiji as well. White Crane has always been my primary interest of study with him, and he has generously given me as much as he could.
His training in White Crane goes back some 40 years or so, when he learned under his uncle, who is a lineage-holder and master of White Crane, and is one of the top White Crane people in the Western Hemisphere at the least. The problem was that he was unable to complete his own training in White Crane, due to an injury after a few years (not related to martial arts). This sent him in other directions, studying Shaolin and Taiji and Bagua and such. But he was unable to continue with his own White Crane training.
Over the years, he has taught his White Crane to very few people, instead teaching mostly taiji and shaolin. He generously agreed to teach me when I requested it, and I have been his only White Crane student for some time now. But he was always honest with me about the fact that he does not know the complete system, and that some of what he learned he has forgotten over the years. But he gave me what he could, and I just kept on working on it. From time to time I would try to encourage him to "jog" his memory and see if he can remember more, or suggest maybe he could get some of his classmates from back in the day to come in and help teach, or maybe get his uncle involved. All to no avail: his uncle closed his school decades ago and only teaches four disciples who have each been with him for 30 or 40 or more years, and he doesn't take new students, and the four disciples he does have aren't teaching either. So no luck.
But I kept with it, and kept reafirming my own dedication to the art, and my interest in learning as much as possible.
A few weeks ago, sifu took me to meet his uncle. And his uncle agreed to give me a chance, and let me come to the training sessions with his four disciples. He only agreed to do this because of my relationship with my sifu, and he made it clear that he was willing to do it because I am not a complete beginner.
So now I am training with sigung, and I am the new student there. We train in his back yard and garage, and I've been doing this now for a couple weeks. The training has been great, I've been drilling the hell out of my basics to clean up what I am doing, and relearning all my forms to get them just right. We train hard, and I am loving it. And I know that in all likelihood, I am the last student that he will accept.
Tibetan White Crane is a system that is not very openly taught nowadays, and it is quite difficult to find someone teaching it. And most of those who do teach it only have a partial knowledge of the system. Sifu has often said that the art is dying, and most of the old teachers are content to let it die. They feel that students aren't willing to work hard enough to learn it properly, so they don't bother to teach more than just the basics.
I am not going to mention names, because these people are rather private, and might not appreciate me putting their names out on the internet. But I feel tremendously fortunate to have been given this opportunity, and I hope my skill and knowledge in the system will rise to a new level.
After ten years, the door has finally been opened for me (and likely locked again after I walked thru), and I am excited.
Just wanted to share.
