On November 4th, we got the opportunity to go to Ling’s Oriental Martial Arts located thirty minutes away in Noblesville, Indiana. When we arrived there, one of the first things we were instructed to do when we walked in was to take our shoes off. We all then sat on a chair and met Master Ling before getting up to learn some self-defense moves and some kung fu.
One of the first things that Master Ling taught us was how whenever stepping on and off the mat, we have to stand in the corner of the mat and bow facing the center of the mat. He also taught us that at the start of every class, the students would bow to the master with their right hand in a fist and their left hand flexed with the palm touching the fist while saying “shī fù hǎo” which means “Hello Master.”
Before starting any actual self-defense moves and kung fu, he had us warm-up. He had us run and gallop around the edge of the mat. Then he had us do jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups. He then ended up talking for about 30 minutes. I don’t remember everything he said, but I do remember him mentioning how with kung fu, there is a singular winner because the two people are actually fighting and competing with one another. Taichi, on the other hand, has two winners because the two people coexist with one another.
Another thing I remember him mentioning was how when he moved to the US 20-30 years ago, he was amazed with how advanced the US was. He mentioned how now when you go to China, you would have the same reaction that he had when he moved to the US because of how far ahead and advanced China is now. He also brought up how the high-speed railways go over 300 miles per hour, and there were people that put corn on a seat on the train as a test, and amazingly enough, the corn was on the seat for over 30 seconds. He also at one point mentioned how we are still young, so we need to keep our minds and perspectives open to new things.
After the talk, he showed us some self-defense moves, while trying not to hurt them too much, on a couple of the boys. We then partnered up and tried the moves on one another. I never actually used much force on my partners because I felt bad hurting them, but I still managed to learn and gain the knowledge of how to defend myself if I got into a certain situation.
Something that Master Ling mentioned was how the self-defense mechanisms he taught and showed didn’t always work on everybody. There were a couple moves that we could use if you high-fived someone or shook someone’s hand, but it didn’t work on everyone because some people are flexible enough to not feel any pain from it.
Master Ling also mentioned how resisting the movement would cause you to feel more pain and actually hurt yourself, while relaxing and being more flexible would cause you to just flow with the movement and not actually feel as much pain. This relates back to when he mentioned earlier on in class how being soft doesn’t mean you aren’t strong.
He also emphasized how once you learn and know the basics, you can use it in any way; you don’t have to always start in the position that he showed us in. He showed how if we use one move that he taught us on him, he can use a different move that he taught us to counter it.
After learning some self-defense techniques, we took a small break before learning a basic sequence of kung fu. It was really fun to learn each movement of the sequence individually. Growing up my sister took tae kwan doe lessons, but I don’t think I ever did. I didn’t know that I had the strength and power that I showed in my movement that day.
After learning some kung fu, Master Ling showed us two small performances. One of them was the fan form of kung fu. The other was the sword form. It was really cool to see how smooth and coordinated he was while performing the sequences. After performing the sword form, he mentioned that swords were first used to recognize what social status the owner was in. The status was shown through the decorations that were on the handle.
At the end of class, we bowed to Master Ling again, but this time we said, “xiè xiè shī fù” which means “Thank you Master.” Then we bowed once again at the corner of the mat before stepping off the mat. Throughout these two hours, Kwan was taking photos of us. We also took quite a bit of group photos.
The whole experience was overall really fun and laid back. Master Ling seemed to really enjoy messing around with us while showing us all the movements and such. I never thought that I would enjoy learning and doing kung fu, let alone be good at it because I have always seen myself as a soft, gentle, and nonviolent person. As for the self-defense part, I have always told myself that I should learn some tactics just in case I run into a situation where it may help. You definitely saw the softer and more gentle side of me while practicing this though because I never actually used much, if any, force when practicing on a partner.