This website is dedicated to the Students of Seifu A.S. Umar Sharif, MA. It is also dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Traditional Afro-Asian Martial and Healing Arts. Our goal is to inform, educate, inspire, encourage, and motivate others to improve their lives by applying The Wisdom of the Ancients.
As your teacher and host, Seifu Sharif [aka: Xia` Xue' Gong] [aka: Tobi Alakoso] is dedicated to helping each of you to remember and nurture the Spirit of Wu-Te and the powers dormant within you.
Namaste’ Students and Fellow Martial Arts Enthusiasts!
Thanks to all of you who follow my Blog and hopefully my YouTube Playlist. I hope the information and training tips I share make your time well spent. Here’s a quick look back over the year’s Posts.
To ‘mimic’ means to imitate. For example, certain animals and plants can make themselves resemble or imitate another animal or plant in order to deter predators or for camouflage purposes. Perhaps this word, ‘mimicking’, is overused or misunderstood in reference to the Chinese animal styles of martial arts but nonetheless, in developing the 7 Circles System of Southern-Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, I wanted to instill an important idea into my students that would hopefully improve their martial arts training and their general life experience. An African Proverb can highlight this point.
“Do not try to fight a lion if you are not one yourself!”
Learning to move fluidly between the Seven Animals of the 7 Circles System is a challenge that can only be met by a significant devotion of time, attention, and diligent practice. It also requires an intimate understanding and appreciation for the unique qualities, characteristics, and attributes of the various animals in the System.
There is a saying in Chinese lore, “When two tigers meet, one gets killed and the other gets maimed.” Also, “There is only room on the mountain for one tiger. The other must leave or die.”
The tiger symbolized both courage and patience.
The clawing movements, speed, tenacity, and muscular power of the tiger inspired Tiger Kung Fu. Generally, Tiger styles of Kung Fu emphasize quick attacks aimed at ending a conflict swiftly. There is little emphasis on blocking or evading because these behaviors are not typical characteristics of the tiger. The tiger is vicious, shocking, deadly, relentless, direct, and tenacious.
"To subdue the enemy, you must strike it once and for all. There is no other way."
The system’s primary weapons were fists, palms, and clawing techniques that aimed at ending a fight quickly by crippling or killing the opponent. The traditional Dragon Systems of Kung Fu practitioners incorporate much Qigong practice into their training in order to develop the internal power necessary to apply the techniques effectively.
The movements are executed without the application of Li (muscular strength), but with emphasis on breathing in the lower abdomen (dan tian), along with the coordination of mind (Yi), body, and spirit (Shen). This is what positions the Dragon System as more of an internal system rather than an external system. The movements tend to be long, flowing, and continuous, much like we find in the practice of Tai Chi.
“A warrior is not a wrestler: he’s killed the moment his spear and shield are overpowered.” (African Proverb)
For the Crane bird, his beak is his spear and his wings are his shields. The moment these are overpowered, he is dead!
The White Crane System is considered to be (one of) the parent(s) of the Wing Chun System of Kung Fu. This particular style of Crane, like most, places emphasis on deflecting attacks as oppose to forceful blocking techniques, and these deflecting techniques usually also create the opening for an offensive strike to disable the opponents limb or to strike a vital area of the body.
The fact that White Crane Kung Fu was developed by a women whose goal was to exact revenge against the man who killed her father, the reason for the soft yet powerful, internal and pulsing characteristics of this system should become clear. The Crane movements were used to develop control, character, and spirit while also providing the foundation for exercising great power.
Monkey Style Kung Fu is perhaps the style that comes closest to recreating the postures, gestures, and movements of the animal totem of the style. A southern style, agile, flexible, unpredictable, fast, cunning, strong, comical, and dangerous are all terms that can be accurately used to describe Monkey Kung Fu.
The essential aspects of southern styles of Kung Fu generally, and the Monkey Style Kung Fu in particular are to react instinctively, spontaneously to an attack, shower the opponent with a relentless series of blows, but never allowing any limb to be grabbed, and avoiding attempts to throw an opponent.
Part of the effectiveness of the Drunken Monkey is the way it offers the attacker a highly skewed view of the fighter – making them look susceptible. This deception allows them to launch a devastating attack, most often to a susceptible area like the groin or eyes.
A passerby saw a man and a woman training in a park by the lake. Both the man and the woman were quite animated in their movements. Both used their upper limbs in a way that made them seem as though they were close and far away at the same time. Both were moving in strange movements, the man almost looking like he was staggering, while the woman also seemed to stagger but with a more extended posture and graceful forcefulness in her movements. Her legs seem to act both as anchors and as springboards, while the man moved mostly close to the ground. The observer noticed that the man often rolled around on the ground while the woman never did any ground movements. The man seemed to use his arms like clubs and his fists like hammerheads, and his open hands like flat irons. The woman’s arms darted out at strange and unexpected angles and her elbows, wrists, and hands were used like a hinged tool or machine.
After a while the two martial artists turned, faced each other, and bowed, followed by a big hug and a laugh. Although the observer had never been involved in the martial arts, his observations of nature enabled him to approach the couple and say, ‘Never would I have though that I would ever see a monkey and a praying mantis in such beautiful harmony.’
The snake is limbless (a reptile, lizard or amphibian). It has no eyelids. It ‘sees’ its environment by also using its tongue and tactile senses of the skin. Its jaws are capable of considerable extension without sacrificing strength or maneuverability.
The snake movements are used to develop temperament and endurance in the student, assets to be used in every aspect of your life and training. Breathing is done in a slow steady rhythm, sinking the breath deep to the lower abdominal area (Dan Tien) drawing on the wellspring of qi. Soft is silent, silent is invisible, invisible is deadly. In this sense, the Southern Shaolin Snake shares characteristics with Taoist Tai Chi. The snake practitioners’ movements are relaxed, flowing, unending, rippling like the waves of the ocean or the branches of trees rising and falling, swaying right and then left, yielding to the force of the wind.
The Eagle did not receive an invitation to be among the famed Five Animals of Chinese Kung Fu (Tiger, Crane, Dragon, Leopard, and Snake). Nonetheless, it has found a place of significance in Traditional Chinese Kung Fu. The Eagle is the Master of all large flesh eating birds. It has claimed it place as a symbol of strength and grace, characteristics that the Eagle Claw practitioner seeks to bring to the execution of his art. Strength, grace, and speed exude from the student as he or she uses the Ying Zhua (Eagle Claw) in grasping, ripping, and raking movements.
I often say that once the Ying Zhua practitioner grabs you, your only escape will be to leave something behind. Something that is also true of Hu Xing, the Tiger Style. While the talons of the Eagle are being used for grasping, ripping, and raking, the powerful wings of the Eagle are simultaneously being used as powerful defensive strikes, warding-off the opponent (prey) and creating opportunities to attack at the same time. Likewise the Eagle practitioner will use his or her arms and forearms to intercept and deflect an opponent’s attack, while extending the hand for a simultaneous attack.
The Treatise of Master Chang San-Feng on Yang Style Tai Chi is referred to as T’ai Chi Classics I, ca. 1200 C.E. (TCCI)
TCCI.1 states:
Once you begin to move, the entire body must be light and limber. Each part of your body should be connected to every other part.
You might think, ‘Well of course, every part of my body is connected to every other part of my body!’ But, you would probably be wrong! Most of us move about in very disconnected ways from the perspective of uninterrupted energy flow, structure, foundation and rooting, as well as alignment of mind, body, and spirit. The deep wisdom of the Tai Chi Classics should not be taken for granted. Think of a person getting ready to deadlift a heavy weight. If there is not an uninterrupted energy flow, proper body posture (structure), a solid stable foundation (rooting), then the attempt may fail or injury may occur. I know for a fact that you can bend over to pick up a pencil, and if your posture is not correct, you can throw your back out just from a poorly executed movement.
TCCI.2 states:
The internal energy should be extended, vibrated like the beat of a drum. The spirit should be condensed in toward the center of the body.
Tai Chi Chu’an is a form of Qigong, a slow, intricate, and methodical form, but Qigong nonetheless. Therefore, the concept of Qi is a central concept in the practice of both the Longevity Way and Wu-Kung Way. Longevity Way should begin with the not so simple practice of standing. While standing in Wu Chi or Universal stance, your body will begin to communicate to you the strengths and weaknesses of your posture and structure. Indicators like discomfort, shaking, pain, and fatigue during a 10-20 minute period of standing practice is an indication of weaknesses that you need to correct. Most of the time the necessary correction will be something simple, minor, but important.
We stated in our last Post, “We don’t think of the two ‘ways’ as separate and independent of each other. In fact, the Longevity Way is the necessary first step to be effective in learning and developing the Wu-Kung Way.” In this month's Video of the Month I demonstrate three different ways of performing the first few movements of Yang Style Long Form.
TCCI.4 states:
The internal energy, ch’I, roots at the feet, then transfers through the legs and is controlled from the waist, moving eventually through the back to the arms and fingers.
So you have to become more and more relaxed to facilitate that flow of internal energy. View our YouTube Video on The 7 Gates for more understanding of this important point.
Have a great December, and Safe New Year Celebration, and a Wonder-filled 2019!
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It is not simply practice that makes perfect. It is perfect practice and consistent practice that makes perfect.
