VTM, Introduction to Hek Ki Boen Eng Chun and Fighters Camp, Meng HQ Dayton Oh

[Daniel Duran]

 Kevin, Nitai and I arrived at Sigung's (Master Meng) home a little after 8pm last Thursday evening . We had been on the road since midnight but ecstatic to be there none the less.  Master Meng arrived home shortly thereafter and we began the evening delighting in Vincent Meng's (age 13) latest amazing performances at the WTF (World TKD Federation) National finals.  Vincent took 2nd in forms and unfortunately was disqualified in the Olympic sparring event due to a disqualification for knocking his opponent out! Did you have to read that over again? That’s right, Vincent had cleaned out his division by over whelming his opponents with match scores like 11-2 and 11-3.  He was way ahead in this final match when he threw a left round house kick low then high landing right square on the side of his opponents right cheek sending him quickly into a rocking standing wobble. Only to crumble to the ground dazed and confused. Vincent and his team members are getting primed for AAU National Championships in a month.  Sigung has been producing black belts in many martial arts systems for many decades.  We are now seeing some 3rd and 4th generation blackbelts which simply shows the complete dedication Sigung has to his students. 

Friday we were at the school around 9am and began training immediately. Sigung went into an explanation about the 3 halls of Shaolin.  He explained how the 3 halls do not represent a linear progression of learning. Meanng that once someone experiences and completes First Hall (Basic Exercises) training they 'graduate' into the Second Hall (Basic Movements) and from here move on to the Third Hall  ( Practical, Effective Fighting/Self Defense Application Skills). Never coming back to the previous Halls.  In one sense we must understand that the three halls are more of a circular progression of learning. Meaning that you always cylce back to the First Hall for over all athetic developement, physical conditioning and physical wellbeing, maintaining ones’ body for maximum health and fitness.  In the realiy of combat under stress, ones actions always fall back on the fundamentals from Second Hall Training methods. As martial artists we will always have need to refine our fundamental movements and technical awareness.  Developing these basic movements to the point where they all become second nature only creates the strongest foundation from which to build our skills upon for practical and effective application in the Third Hall.   Once this is achieved then having a specialized skill like that which is developed through the Hek Ki Boen Eng Chun System (Black Flag Wing Chun) becomes real.  Master Meng gave a great analogy describing what the problem is if a student of "Wing Chun" only learns the art from a technique and shape perspective.  He said "... its like if you were to attach a hammer to a person’s hand who never trained in combat a day in their life and they were facing an experienced fighter, the person with the hammer has a significant advantage in one sense in that they have a weapon that is superior. But what are the odds that they can yield this weapon with the exact timing and distance awareness needed to cause real damage? I’d put my money on the experienced fighter..”   
We trained hard for 3 hours straight focusing on our First Hall training methods.  We conditioned our butts off doing various exercises training for explosive power, speed, endurance and hand/eye coordination both for the upper and lower body. 
After lunch we got warmed pretty quickly with some Second Hall basic movements then shifted gears and began some Third Hall training with some light contact sparring drills.  It was amazing working and sparring with the youth black belts. These kids including Vincent will be comprising the Meng’s Martial Arts National Tae Kwon Do Team soon to be competing at the WTF National Championships in a couple of months.  I was so proud of Nitai getting in there and mixing it up with these amazing talents. In Nitia’s own words…” that was one of the funnest time I had getting my butt kicked!...”  He was definitely humbled by the experience but grew from it in a positive light and now has a much clearer understanding of the kind of kung fu skill one can gain with hard work and dedication.  Sigung is blazing a trail for our youth to have some amazing opportunities.   For example, this past year Vincent got to participate in a national Tae Kwon Do training camp at the Olympic Training Center with other elite class athletes and martial arts black belts.   Meng’s Martial Arts has their sights set high on the next Olympic games.   This just means our programs teaching methods are complete to the highest degree in creating champions not just on the mats but champions in life.
We trained for another few hours took a break to go take Vincent to train at Prodigy MMA, Vas Ruten’s Gym, where he does traditional boxing training with an amazing boxing coach named Donnie (?sorry cant remember his last name).  Vincent did a solid hour and 15 minutes worth of training while we were blown away by this amazing training facility. Prodigy MMA is primarily a wrestling school. It’s 10,000 square feet of awesome!! They had a 30ft cage in the center, a full size boxing ring, a complete universal free weight floor, a spinning room with like 20 bikes, a cardio floor lined with tred mills and other cardio monster machines plus about 4,000 sqr ft of open matt space.  Needless to say we are all impressed. However, we were more impressed with Vincent’s work ethic.  He stays focused and gets his licks in and then it’s back to Meng’s for our evening training session. We trained for another 2 hours into the evening with the regular adult and youth class. At this point we called a day, headed back to Sigung’s home for a nice peaceful rest. 

…….to be continued
 

[Daniel Duran]

I have to apologize for lacking certain details, I actually wrote this continuation 3 days ago and until a few moments ago I thought I had saved it.  At this hour after 3 full days of summer camp and evening classes my memory is not as sharp, especially after purging itself a few days ago.
 Saturday was another full day of kung fu life.  This day was our meng’s martial arts fight camp. All branch school owners or their representatives were present. It was a beautiful sight to see, our growing kung fu family.   It was inspiring to see those so dedicated and talented from the advanced seasoned student to folks just getting their feet wet.  We began with a full morning starting with a strong heavy warm up and work out of varied basic movements, drills and then with a brief intro into some (HKB)Black Flag Wing Chun training methods. 
After lunch, Sifu Noaks, Sifu Lambert and myself were asked by Sigung to teach on any topic related to understanding the four ranges of combat.   I choose to discuss a very simple and direct method to develop a strong long kicking range awareness. One of the first extremely insightful analogies I heard when I began training was to not just think of your hands as your weapons for defense and attack.  They must also function as your “radar system” giving you consistent precise awareness of your position in relationship to your opponent.  To begin I emphasized this point and went on to explain knowing your ‘go point’ or being comfortable ‘sitting in the pocket’.  I defined the ‘go point’ as the point when one needs to know you have the angle or bridge of attack and then without hesitation attack.  I defined ‘sitting  in the pocket’ as the point you need to know that if you hesitated or your opponent launches the attack you can be effectively evasive and react in good defense.  Although deferent expressions the “point” or “Pocket” space is one and the same.   Utilizing our basic heaven posture, with a basic two-line concept hand position, one uses the front hand as the main instrument to gauge ones distance.  When ones front hand crosses their opponents extended front hand one knows without having to use any other sense or thought that they are in long/short kicking range. At the same time if one does not take advantage or cannot get a good angle or bridge and ones opponent attacks then one still has enough space to react effectively.   We all drilled some solid rounds then Sifu Noaks took us through some great trapping/grappling range, tackling double leg takedown techniques. He explained in awesome detail some triangle theory in relationship to ones center of gravity.  Then he showed us how to effectively sprawl based on heaven, human, earth concepts.
Next, Sifu Lambert gave a very interesting lecture on the correlation between the four ranges of combat and energy efficiencies.  He explained that the energy factor from Long kicking to trapping range decreases and then starts to increase in grappling range.  Although I agree from the perspective of techniques and the range of motion requiring less energy to execute moving in from Long kicking to trapping range and then for the inexperienced grappler the energy factor would start kicking back up at grappling range. I’ve seen it a million times, folks that think themselves solid athletes burn out after less than 2 minutes rolling through basic ground postures and positions. The name Jujitzu means “the soft way” and when understood properly the grappling range can be very efficient from an energy perspective. 
We concluded the day with a strong focus on “flow” and how to spar properly with flow in all ranges. Kevin and I were like 2 kids in a candy store, all this new energy to play with, It was a blast!!! 

….Sunday, to be continued…     

[Daniel Duran]

That was bit of a delay, I'd hoped I would be able to get back with my final report sooner.  So, where was I, Sunday.  This day was a very enlightening day.  Kevin and I were more formerly introduced to the HKB Black Flag Wing Chun System.  It would be extremely challenging for me to get into much detail about the training methods as I am very neophyte in my understanding and experience. However,  I can at the very least say that I consider myself to be in good physical condition and I was throwing wet noddles around just after the first half hour of physical training.  Training lasted close to 3 solid hours. And from what I understand that is about half of a normal HKB Wing Chun Training session.  Beyond the physical experience what I found to be most profoundly impressive about HKB Wing Chun  is the deeply connected   philosophy living within the system.  It requires that the summation of ones total being; body, mind, intent (spirit) and breath all be realized at every moment.  Realizing the simultaneous oneness and separation of  these as a sentient being requires an immense devotion to developing a meditative state. For me this first step could take a life time but hey that is exactly what I signed up for.  I can't wait to train and learn more about HKB Black Flag Wing Chun. At the end of the  training session Sigung gave me a great opportunity to share our Fists for Life project to all the branch school owners and instructor candidates.  We gained a tremendous amount of support and are set to blaze a trail of compassion, truly embodying the essence of the martial arts: preservation of the harmony, peace and prosperity for all in our communities. 

Monday we were exposed to more details training the HKB Saap Chian Po form in the morning.  After lunch we we back at Prodigy MMA for Vincent's boxing training.  After this we all headed back to the school for evening classes.  On the way to the school Sigung received a phone call from Master Lin. After a brief discussion he offered me the chance to meet Master Lin for he first time via cell phone.  Master Lin spoke so generously, offering his full support and encouragement in joining the HKB Wing Chun family.  I cherished the experience and I am eager to get his personal association. In class we trained our anti-takedown methods from our Heaven, Human, Earth concepts. Focusing on maintaining a strong human posture as we changed levels to harmonize with the Earth attack, with a definite center-line/one-line control, staying very conscious not to break our one-line at the same time maintaining our Heaven space from the Earth attack.  We drilled this methodically and I had a blast training with everyone, especially Sisuk Mike Davis, Sisuk thank you for your time and support doing our Fists for Life interview.  After our evening classes we were bombarded with warm good byes and long embraces as we were set on leaving for home the same evening.  We had a little time to get to know a few more students and then we headed back to Sigung's to pack up the rest of our stuff, get a little rest and hit the road at midnight.

We made it home safe and I left Dayton a different person in the most positive ways.  Thank you Sibak Jeremy for staying up to after 4 am educating Kevin and I on so many levels from business to personal  psycho analysis.  Sibak Jeremy is one of the most amazing persons I have ever met,  he is an endlessly flowing fountain of knowledge and he makes me laugh my butt off,  his presence uplifts the spirit and humbles the mind.  Thank you Sisuk Joe Pryor for all your incredible business advise, encouragement, inspiration and kind mercy.  I felt a great sense of empowerment after our wonderful discussion about Fists for Life, like a trickling, dimming, spark that suddenly erupts into a burning flame illuminating  the darkness of fear and doubt.  And of course Thank you Sigung for everything you have done and continue to do.  You are providing us all with a great shelter from the illusions in our lives, an experience in truth and a path to genuine self-discovery.