Da Shifu Sr.

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...