Hi everyone! As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, remember that practicing martial arts is a great way to keep warm! This month, I am only doing one word for the entire month, and that word is Perseverance. We martial artists know all about the struggle that it takes to become better at what we do, but few also know the struggle behind bringing that knowledge to you. Ask anyone who runs a business and they will tell you just how hard it is. I feel it is almost doubly so for those of us who use art as our medium. We try to cater to everyone that we can, young, old, experienced, brand new, everyone. However with literally thousands of schools teaching something similar, it is hard to make what you do stand out and seem unique.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The kung fu we teach is rare and unique. An old master once said that there are as many styles of kung fu as there are grains of sand on a beach and he was right. Our style has been passed down and changed in its ‘family’ for many generations of instructors, from Professor Andrew Lum to Mr. Thomas Enfield to Sifu Melvin Rivera, to our current Qisheng, Raymond Bennett, to me, Head Instructor Shawn Morris. I intend on passing it on to my wife and children, as well as all my students who wish to become instructors. Without them, the system, like many systems that have gone before, vanishes into the mists of time.
I for one refuse to let this happen, not only to my own system, but any system of martial arts. I feel that traditional martial arts has started to be replaced by too many schools that pander to the easy road philosophy and only teach the bare minimum to succeed. I won’t name names or point them out, but they do exist and many people who aren’t martial artists are unable to tell the difference.
With all that said, we persevere. We have to in order to stay strong. In order to bring traditional martial arts back into the limelight and forward into the 21st century, we have started a Patreon, located here:
To help us keep traditional kung fu and martial arts in general, we ask that you share this with others. The more people we can bring together into the family of martial arts, the longer martial arts will continue to grow and thrive. We will Persevere and we will keep martial arts where it belongs, in the hands of the next generation. Our children.
Train hard,
