Shifu Francis II's blog

To all ye Irish folk, happy St. Patricks day! To the rest of ye, grab a pint o ale an do yer best to be as close ta Irish as you can!

So it's sad that two days after going in to teach a bit (and I mean a little bit) that I am sore two days later... Granted it's been awhile since I worked out, but man how lame is it that helping out for MAYBE an hour could leave me sore....

I think I've found our true roots, Da Shifu Clark and Shun Shifu Weaver would you care to verify?

So do you guys still have a 7:00 PM group?

Hey all, sorry I've been absent from the forum, I got married last month and of course this past week was Thanks Giving. But I'm back and have a good question for SSW or DS Clark. Did Da Shifu ever teach anything to our nations military/federal agencies? Specifically special forces type groups like Delta, Seals or Green Berets? Or perhaps he did some training for our C.I.A. friends? Just curious...

Much shorter blog, I was curious, what is everyones favorite move? Including SSW and DS Clark (Thats a request not a demand sirs) but what is everyones favorite technique and why?

I decided to make this blog about the man who is responsible for our training. My personal exposure and experience with Da Shifu Sr. was VERY limited; a handful of times literally. However I have been trained by several of his favorites and I count that as a blessing. So the purpose of this blog is to sort of share some stories. I must say that I am so unbelievably JEALOUS of Da Shifu Clark, SSW, and Shifu Liz; they had so much more time with him and training. They had the privilage of really knowing "Al" as well as Da Shifu.

The first time I met Da Shifu senior (and Da Shifu Clark for that matter) I was a low orange belt testing for my high orange. I was NERVOUS. Growing uo with stories about both men, I wanted to impress them very much, and of course not look stupid or make my dad look stupid. The first thing Da Shifu Sr ever said to me was "Congratulations" followed by the ceremonious punch; I don't exagerate when I full expected that punch to deprive me of all oxygen and send me to the ground. After him followed Da Shifu (The Shun Shifu) Clark, who was a sixth at them time. His first words to me were "Your Matts son aren't you" "Yes sir" I replied in terror not knowing if this was a good thing or a bad thing. He smiled and sort of nodded, said I used to teach your dad, then punched me (In case anyone is not aware, this is our tradition when a person is promoted) I remember VIVIDLY looking at Da Shifu and Da Shifu Clark and seeing DS Clark pointing at me and and talking to Da Shifu. At the time I didn't know what DS Clark looked like so I had no idea who this man talking to THE MASTER was OR what he was saying. After we closed the test, Da Shifu came over to me and said "How come your dad doesn't come around anymore" in a very acussing tone (Or at least the ignorant low orange belt in me took it that way) I told him "Oh he works too hard and too much sir, but I know he misses you" or something like that. He nodded and walked away. As SSW would say, I rememeber every lesson, every detail entirely; that was the effect Da Shifu had on people. I think we all just assumed that if he was talking, we had better shut up, listen and remember.

Another story, and I'll save the rest for another time, was at camp when I was a high green; now that I think about it, I believe it was his last camp... We were working on the mass and here comes Da Shifu, (no joke, when he walked into your group, you could literally FEEL the black belts teaching, tense up and watch EVERYTHING THEY SAID) He stopped, put his hands on his hips and smiled a smile I have heard described for years. Sort of that "Ha, I know something you don't know" smile that he had. So our Shifu is talking about crossing dragon and Da Shifu says "Excuse me Shifu, may I add something" The black belt sort of laughed (as did we all inside) saying "By ALL MEANS DA SHIFU, ITS YOUR ART" (I always found that funny. the master was asking permission to teach HIS material lol) So Da Shifu proceeds to give us a detail about how to get this kick off correctly, and of course everyone, EVERYONE within 30 ft of him has immediatly stopped talking and is focused on him. Anyways, after giving this detail he sort of slips into this story about "Oh Bob and those kids thought they could run through this kick years ago...So I gave them a tummy ache" LOL are you kidding me!!!Granted whoever "Those kids" were did not have the advantage of growing up with stories about Da Shifu like I did, but still, your actually going to try and run, RUN through one of his kicks?! The dragons tail???!!!! So, sorry for the long stories, but they are so vivid in my mind I thought I'd share a couple. Maybe Da Shifu Clark and SSW will comment! As I said, I had far to few encounters with him but they were impactfull. But I so wish I had more...

So last night, for some reason, I felt compelled to read several forums (most of which were 5 years old) that centered around Shou Shu. Good Lord there are some ignorant people out there. I think when one is reading a public forum such as I read last night they should bear in mind a couple things; some people LOVE to talk tough...On the INTERNET, and some people want to discredit things just because... I'll leave it at that for those silly forums.

So this blog is about one thing I in particular I read: Shou Shu traces its roots to 4,000 years ago to the Shaolin temple.... Ummmmm, that's not what I heard. In fact my understanding was that Da Shifu Sr. DID NOT like the Shaolin style. In fact now that I think about it, I believe Shaolin is a southern(China) style Kung Fu, where as Shou Shu has its roots in the North. I could be wrong on that point but I'm pretty sure. Next to that, if you look at the circles in Shaolin, they are VERY big, broad and sweeping. We don't have that... Well we do if your working the motion into a student, but we all know that we shrink that motion down as the student progresses. So, I'll leave it at that since I'm sure SSW will be all over this one.

So, being a second generation black belt, I grew up with stories of the "Old school" Now I would guess that my dad was towards the end of the old school era, which was followed by the 80's which I've heard described by several people as the "Crazy years" lol into the 90's which doesn't really have a name, and then the modern era which I would personally call the "departure" era, or the "division" era. Sorry, little tangent there... So back to the old school days, the days of Shou Shu lore, where men where men, and then there were Men from Moore's, who beat the other men at will. I would say this was due to many things; Da Shifu was very activly involved in the direct teaching, his presence was noticable, it was a different time, to name a few. But when I was coming up, we just didn't train as a whole the way the old school guys did. I'd like to think I did, down at the studio 16 to 20 hours a week, and not B.S. ing, but actually training, working on bodies, or simple working my blocks stances and weapons over and over and over. I think that's what makes a good Shou Shuist. But one thing I always felt was missing was real time application. Sure I did my share of sparring and reactions, I ALWAYS said "Lets do reactions" When a shifu would aks what should we do tonight? Getting back to my point/question, I have heard the term honorable combat throughout my years. My dad described it as sparring, but more than that. As I understood it, this was one area in particular Da Shifu INSISTED ones ego be left at the door. But I was hoping for a broader definition of the term. What exactly was honorable combat, what was it's purpose, its application. How was it carried out monitered and built upon? I've also heard the term "midnight Shou Shu" which was either in the studio with all the lights turned out, or at Lodi Lake using nothing but cigarettes in hand as visual markers. Da Shifu? SSW? Care to shed some light on these topics?

Watch out for these guys...