There are two kinds of folks who want to learn kung fu.

The first is people who have had some exposure to kung fu. They are passionate about the abilities that kung fu can offer and are willing to invest years in getting what they are after.

The second is people who need real self defense training. Right Now!

…and sign up without knowing that standard kung fu operating procedure for most kung fu schools is “It’s going to be awhile before you can fight with this.”

The first group of people understand that fighting comes later and don’t mind. In fact, they take it to be a part of the “kung fu experience” and are a little put out if the teacher focuses too much on fighting.

The second group doesn’t understand what’s available in the marketplace for self defense and that different styles have different timeframes for fighting ability.

So they see a kung fu master who has impressive self defense and figure that’s what they need. They haven’t researched self defense much and don’t know that there are kung fu schools where they could get quick and dirty self defense.

So why do most kung fu styles often take so long before it becomes effective for self defense in the first place?

It’s not out of necessity.

Many styles of Kung fu assume a vague “until further notice” probation period for students, which means that the student doesn’t get real kung fu until the instructor deems the student worthy.

By the way, there’s no clear criteria for deeming a student worthy. It tends to be subjective, takes years to happen, and passing the student on to serious training is not the instructor’s top priority.

(many modern instructors don’t even realize this is how they were taught, so they perpetuate this sub-par training without even realizing it.)

The first group of people I talked about are happy to engage in this game of dice. Maybe they’ll get fighting ability, maybe not. It’s about the journey not the destination anyway, right?

The second group doesn’t have time for it.

They need combat skills yesterday.

But the whole situation is unfortunate because everyone is taking the long route to self defense… and there’s only so much time.

However, there is a category of Kung Fu called Kuntao (also known as Old Hand Kung Fu.) These are martial arts systems that migrated south to Indonesia and Malaysia losing many of their superficial traditions and formalities along the way.

Kuntao starts immediately with fighting. It has been refined in a culture where that student probation period we talked about earlier results in dead students.

No one has years to get fighting ability, they need it yesterday.

This doesn’t mean that practitioners level off after they can begin to defend themselves though. The full range of kung fu abilities is still contained in the training, and skills are refined and honed after basic self defense is achieved.

It can be summed up like this:

Most Kung fu refines now and fights later.

Kuntao fights now and refines later.

Master Clear has a Kuntao fighting method that is the best example of this that he has seen. It fights quickly, ferociously, and doesn’t take years (or even weeks) to learn.

Once the basic fighting method is learned, it can be refined to be even more effective, powerful, and sophisticated.

You can learn and become certified in this fighting method during the Clear Defense Certification Workshop which is happening July 14-17. At this workshop you will learn the fighting method and how to use it against a full speed attack.

Register now while you can get the early bird price.

https://www.clearsilat.com/clear-defense-workshop

Or, if you can’t make it then get the training DVD when it goes on sale April 19 – 21.

Stay safe,
Jared Voelker