Let me explain the Cantonese expression "Tek Gwoon " (in Mandarin, "Tie Guan"). Tek means kick; Gwoon is hall or in this context (martial arts) school. Tek Gwoon, or Kick School is where an individual or group goes to another school to make or at least offer some form of physical challenge. Kick School is not just visiting another school to spar, to do Tui Shou or Chi Sau; it is not a game. Kick School is a matter of honour and often a matter of dishonour. Women are usually too sensible to believe in such matters; it's a male thing.
One particular internal martial arts teacher in Tokyo constantly had karate black belts come to his school to challenge him until he made it known he would no longer fight third or fourth dans but would in his turn go straight to challenge the heads of their systems. It stopped.
Kick School is a very serious matter. It can involve the constabulary; it can make or break reputations overnight. I teach at a sports centre in Central London. Eleven years ago, a Chinese master came to kick my school with a posse of his students. At that time he ran a full time school in London. Now he doesn't.
In the same sports centre there has long been a class run by Larry Francois, a very able martial artist and Chinese full contact champion. Some years ago a Chinese master of Kung Fu who also taught there interrupted Larry's class and sent in his students to Kick School while he filmed them. He picked the wrong guy. Not only was the Chinese master unsuccessful, but the police were called in and he was banned from the sports centre.
A few years ago I read a report in the Tai Chi Union magazine about the "Empty Force" (force without touching) skills of a Chinese Grandmaster. Both he and his students testified to his skills and claimed he could use Empty Force to knock people down, make them perform somersaults and to make them roll out of rooms. I wrote in to the magazine poking some mild fun at the said Chinese Grandmaster. His students responded by inviting me to attend a five day course given by their Grandmaster and costing about £350. They said they would return my money, if I was not fully satisfied.
I have related what then transpired in the pages of a previous issue of this magazine in an article entitled "The Water Margin". Suffice it to say that I accepted the invitation, went to the start of the course and poured more than one litre of Evian water over the Chinese Grandmaster, drenching him. Of course that doesn't show he is unable to use empty force, but only that he did not do so on that occasion, or maybe he did, but I wasn't sensitive enough to feel his energy. The whole episode almost caused my expulsion from the Tai Chi Union and came close to involving lawyers, guns and money.
I give you this prologue because I received a letter the other day, anonymous, handwritten and in a plain brown envelope. It said (spelling & grammar as given):-
"Dear Dan Docherty,
Tai Chi students shows your article "THE WATER MARGIN" to MASTER John Ding (a EMPTY FORCE and TAI CHI MASTER)
After reading your article, MASTER JOHN
DING angrily said "Why don't Dan Docherty try me ?!!
"Dan
Docherty Tai Chi is still at a low level. Dan Docherty can't really fight, he
just a bully and a COWARD!!
Well Dan
Docherty you've NO excuse now but to come and meet MASTER JOHN Ding personally.
To see him demostrate Empty Force. And pour a bottle of water on him!!
You may come
on any
WEDNESDAYS
- 8 to 10 pm
OR
FRIDAYS - 7 to 8.30pm
At the JOHN
Ding International Academy of T.C.C. station SOUTH WOODFORD.
If you don't
come , it means you've accepted the fact that you're a COWARD!"
I've always
considered that excessive use of capitals and exclamation marks indicates a
compulsive onanist. Aside from
this there is very much a "my dad says he can beat your dad" spirit
in the letter, though the writer doesn't give his name so maybe he is
illegitimate.
I've never met John
Ding and know very little about him. He may or may not have said the things
attributed to him in the letter, in any case he is entitled to his opinion. I
think that it is unlikely that a professional teacher would either write or
cause to be written such a letter. The possibilities are then that either it
was written by one of his loyal students or by someone who wishes him ill. In
any case I've no intention of putting myself in the wrong by rushing over to
South Woodford or indeed anywhere else to KIck School.
I recently met
American Liverpudlian Qi Gong master Jim MacRitchie and we discussed Empty
Force. I've decided that since Chinese masters (and Grandmasters) make so much
money out of Empty Force, it's time that I started making money out of it also.
I propose introducing an Empty Force Challenge category to the British Open Tai
Chi Championships and Festival of Chinese Martial Arts in April next year.
We'll keep it very simple in the beginning. Competitors will be allowed to warm
up using Empty Force against their own students, before using it against
heavyweight Chinese full contact competitors and then finally against me. A
panel of three judges will mark them out of 10 taking into account artistic
impression of the Empty Force Master (or Grandmaster) and of the student/
heavyweight full contact competitor/me. As far as I am aware this would be the
first event of its kind in the world.
I am writing
along these lines to John Ding; as I do not believe he initiated these
proceedings, he is quite justified in making no reply.
As for the anonymous, possibly
illegitimate, compulsive onanist who wrote the letter, I don't believe your dad
can beat my dad, but so long as you believe it and believe all the other things
you say then they are all true - for you, And since your truth makes me a
coward, I look forward to you coming to Kick School with me - anonymously of
course.
POSTSCRIPT
I received the
following reply from Master John Ding:-
Dan Docherty
Practical Tai
Chi Chuan International
15th August
1999
Dear Mr.
Docherty,
Thank you for
your letter dated the 11th August 1999 and bringing to my attention a situation
of which I was unaware.
Wishing you the
very best in your endeavours.
Yours,
Sifu Ding