The good, the bad and the distinctly weird; this is America. This was the US National Chinese Martial Arts Championships in Orlando, Florida, home of Disneyworld. The TCUGB were represented by yours truly with fellow instructors, Peter Yeung and John Hine. A total of seven competitors from Peter's school, my school and the Wu style Academy took part with sole supporter, Geoff Walden, whose constant stream of "jokes" and "witticisms"proved a valuable psychological weapon against the bemused Americans.
Firstly the competitors. Peter Yeung's young charges did very well in the men's Intermediate Section of the competition. Gavin Thomas took 3rd and 2nd place in Middleweight Stationary and Moving Step Pushing Hands respectively. Daimon Lau took 3rd in Traditional Long/Short form and 2nd in Middleweight Moving Step Pushing Hands. Stephen Barbary took 2nd in Soft Style Weapon and Chi Sau and 1st in Middleweight Moving Step Pushing Hands.
In the men's Advanced Section, veteran Joseph Soiza of the London Wu Academy took 3rd in Fixed step and 1st at Moving Step in the Lightweight Pushing Hands. At Middleweight Steve Wooster and Aidan Cochrane took 3rd and 5th respectively in Fixed Step Pushing Hands.
When I saw the first back flip in the Traditional Spear Form event I became convinced that the mushrooms I'd had for breakfast were magic ones. I saw people spin the spear; I saw them throwing it in the air and catching it behind them; I saw them whack the carpet with it; I saw them throw it, catch it and do the splits. Doc Fai Wong's son even spun it round his legs and dropped it. And the crowd - composed almost entirely of fellow competitors went crazy every time anyone did any of the above.
The competitors in the spear event were good gymnasts. They were good jugglers. They were good acrobats. I don't know whether or not they were good weapons men because for the most part they weren't using the spear as a weapon.In all the Traditional Forms events it was the same story. Hung Kuen, Choi Li Fat and Wing Chun are three of the most common Chinese martial arts styles in the West. Yet nobody in the entire competition was doing traditional forms from these styles. The reason was obvious. The audience brought up on a diet of Jackie Chan movies wouldn't have known the real stuff if it had hit them in the face.
Which brings me to the reason Steve Wooster was disqualified in the fixed step pushing hands. His opponent, in an attempt to keep his balance, hit himself in the face. Steve had also committed fouls by using a sudden attack in following up with a push after pulling the opponent off balance; in so-called "double grabbing" twice and in touching the opponent's neck once.
I was told that the rules were designed to prevent litigation in the event of injury. Sam Masich, one of the judges from Canada, told me that he didn't favour these rules himself and indeed he had to be corrected on their implementation by the weighty figure of Jane Hallander on a number of occasions. I have to say that with a few exceptions the judges were scrupulously fair and strict in their interpretation of the rules. It is the rules themselves that are questionable.
Of all the personalities that I met at the Disney Hotel where the competition was held, the one that impressed me most was Goofy the dog, but that was because he licked a prominent member of the TCUGB Executive Committee. Sam Masich seemed a nice chap, but in our little talks I sometimes got to wishing that I knew as much about anything as Sam thinks he knows about everything.
Jane Hallander treated us to a demo of a Tai Chi sabre form during the master's demonstrations. She did it to Frank Sinatra singing Mack the Knife - 'nuff said. Another veteran Tai Chi lady who demonstrated was Pat Rice whom I've met before in both Taiwan and France. Pat is a tall and elegant lady and she has very fine form.
Doctor John Painter, publisher of Internal Arts Magazine was also present. Used to pictures of him in Inside Kung Fu with rippling abs and great pecs, seeing him in the "too too solid flesh" was something of a surprise. For all that the good doctor seemed a most avuncular chap.
Chalk to the good doctor's cheese was the slight figure of Marvin Smallheiser of Tai Chi magazine. Mr. Smallheiser with whom I've corresponded for some years is a very open person who has a genuine desire to promote all aspects of Tai Chi in his magazine even when he himself doesn't agree with a particular approach. He is a real gentleman.
On the business front John Hine attended a seminar given by Anthony Goh on how to run a successful school. One way to do it is to charge $40 for a one and a half hour seminar. This was the cost for each of the more than twenty seminars on offer, although the money raised did go to subsidise the competition. Most of the American kung fu schools demand a full year's fees at one go, I don't think British students would go for that one.
Not since I was in charge of the Kowloon Regional Vice Squad have I seen so many people in slinky silk and satin Chinese pyjamas. These were available for sale at many of the stalls and woe betide the forms competitor who wasn't wearing one. There were crimson and pink numbers that Julian Clary would have killed for.
One man who wasn't doing back flips was Wong Tat-mau, who is one of the leading Chinese martial arts instructors in the USA. I hadn't seen him for about fifteen years. In 1976 we were both members of the Hong Kong full contact kung fu team which fought in the 4th SE Asian Martial Arts championships in Singapore. Tat Mau was one of the best fighters on what was one of the strongest Chinese martial arts teams I've seen in the last 20 years and he won the 75k division. He now runs the biggest Chinese martial arts tournament in America.
We had a chat about the full contact event which, apart from some of the masters demos was one of the few instances of genuine Chinese Kung Fu as opposed to Wu Shu in the entire competition. In addition there was minimal interference from the officials which is not something that could be said of the other events. Tat Mau agreed with me that the gloves at 16 ounces were too big, but again this was to protect the organisers from being sued by injured participants. Of the American fighters on show, Tai Yim's Hung Fat students were by far the best and some of the Brazilians and Mexicans showed good conditioning.
I understand Tat Mau's videos on Choi Li Fat are available from MAM who regularly advertise in Combat. Those interested in this powerful style which is very popular in Hong Kong could not ask for a better guide.
John Hine and I had a chat with Jeff Bolt, the tournament organiser, after the presentation of trophies. He must be congratulated for getting so many prominent martial artists together in one place for four days and getting them to cooperate with one another. No mean feat.
Mr. Bolt himself has a lot of class as his good humoured juggling display at the farewell party showed. He told us that there were plans to make the event somewhat shorter and we agreed that this would be a good move as it got very tedious at times - particularly the numerous time outs taken by judges to discuss the rules.
In America there are many fine traditional martial arts instructors; there are also many fine traditional martial artists. In America there are many fine Wu Shu instructors; there are also many fine Wu Shu practitioners. Apart from the full contact, this wasn't really a tournament for the martial artist. It wasn't the US National Chinese Martial Arts Championships, it was really the US National Wu Shu Championships with a few other odds and ends thrown in.
One of the major reasons for this state of affairs is that America is the land of the litigant. Robert Burns once wrote, "Courts for cowards were erected, churches built to please the priest". Now I know what he meant.