Monthly Newsletter
Table of Contents
Master's Notepad
This month’s surprise Master Club Class is Ground Fighting. The Ground Fighting Class begins with techniques designed to teach you how to move effectively on the ground and defend yourself. The first two techniques you will learn are the Spider Run and Crab Walk. These two motion exercises help you move quickly toward or away from your opponent for an offensive technique. Next, you’ll learn the fighting strategies from the ground. We’ll cover the simple palm blocks, eagle claw grabs, and the flower leg. You’ll also learn several kicking techniques, including the Front Heel Kick and Side Cutting Kick. Keep an eye out for the days these classes are offered in your Academy.
Invite your friends to a class this month. When they get started, you’ll get a FREE Kung Fu top. It is the traditional top but with shorter sleeves. The top comes in green, red, and black trim with a white top or a black top with red trim—YOUR CHOICE!
We also have an excellent special for September: Buy any 3 products and save 15%. You can easily mix and match any products. For example, you can purchase a staff, shoes, and a T-shirt. Need T-shirts? Buy 3 of them—your choice.
The new school year is in full swing. The most important thing is ensuring your child is ready for new challenges. For that, they will need extraordinary discipline and focus.
In this month's children’s classes, we will teach them self-discipline. Our main goal this month is to ensure they do their homework daily without being told. We have a great article about Self-Discipline for adults and children.
CLOSED. We will be closed for Labor Day from Saturday, September 5th, to Monday, September 7th. Classes will resume on Tuesday, September 8th.
"Most people quit because they look how far they have to go, not how far they have come.”
Kid's Corner
Animal of the Month - The Snake (She)
Several Chinese martial arts are known as Snake Boxing or Fanged Snake Style, and they imitate the movements of snakes. It is a style of Shaolin Boxing. Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they wouldn't expect in an offensive movement. Snake style is said to lend itself especially to applications with the Chinese straight sword. The Snake is also one of the animals imitated in Yang family Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and Xingyiquan. The sinuous, fluid motion of the Snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies the "soft" martial arts. The Snake develops temperance and endurance. Breathing is developed through the techniques, and the movements appear flowing and rippling, with emphasis on the fingers.
Q: Why are fish so smart?
A: Because they live in schools!
Why did the student eat his homework?
The teacher told him it was a piece of cake!
Focus
Focus: To direct one's Thoughts or Efforts
Focus is the ability to direct attention to the task at hand while blocking out distracting or unrelated stimuli. This includes insignificant sounds, visual input, and most importantly, wandering or irrelevant thoughts. When focus is at optimal levels, work is easier, more readily remembered, takes less time, and we tend to make fewer mistakes.
Focus is one of the most powerful mental tools at our disposal - and yet, so few people actually know how to use it to its full potential. That’s why this month’s lesson is about focus.
There are so many areas in our lives where we need to focus. Sometimes, we need to focus on someone else, such as our children, even though we also need to focus on ourselves. It’s essential to focus on our children’s needs and on the development of their minds and bodies to help them succeed in school and to raise them to be independent, responsible adults.
A person’s sustainable level of focus depends on a combination of factors, including dedication or commitment to the task at hand, interest in the task, skill and ability to perform the task, a content emotional and physical state, and an appropriate environment with few distractions.
You can help at home by setting the proper atmosphere. For example, children will concentrate better while studying if you turn off the radio and television to remove distractions. Then set reasonable and clear time expectations for them to complete an activity, no matter the task.
Make sure they get plenty of sleep. When children don’t get enough sleep, they tend to have more difficulty concentrating than when they are well rested. Let them run around and get lots of exercise; this increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates hormonal responses that boost mental sharpness.
Keep them in kung fu classes. We offer a great place to learn and practice focus skills. Students will have many opportunities to learn how to channel and shape their thoughts and achieve their goals as effectively as possible.
Joint Flexibility
Joint flexibility keeps your joints healthy and loose. Inflexible joints can lead to arthritis, nerve damage, stiffness, and joint damage. Healthy joints require rotation, flexibility, and strength.
The full-range circular moves +of Kung Fu and Tai Chi rotate the joints as you build strength and improve your flexibility. That keeps your joints healthy and increases blood flow.
Since everything on your body is circular, circular movements are the best way to keep your body healthy. Plus, this is the way your body moves naturally. Therefore, straight and linear actions are less beneficial for your body.
As I mentioned, the Yin/Yang has two components: light and dark, strong and flexible. Therefore, a healthy body requires that you keep these two opposites in harmony.
Groundfighting
Ground Fighting involves a variety of techniques to defend yourself on the ground. Kung Fu teaches you to avoid getting knocked down to the ground. Kung Fu uses a variety of footwork, postures, angles, and critical distance. However, you can never predict when a confrontation might end on the ground. Kung Fu has many techniques to defend yourself on the ground.
This month's special Master's club class is ground fighting. The first two techniques you will learn in a ground fighting class are the Spider Run and Crab Walk. These two ground exercises let you move quickly toward or away from your opponent to attack.
Next, you'll learn the fighting strategies from the ground. For example, we covered simple palm blocks, eagle claw grabs, and the flower leg technique in kung fu. You also learn several kicking techniques, including the Front Heel Kick and Side Cutting Kick.
Next, you explore how to sweep an opponent to the floor. You can use sweeps from the ground-fighting position or from a standing position. Some of these sweeps include the Reverse Sweep, the Forward Sweep, the Iron Broom Sweep, and the full Circle Reverse Sweep; they are always a lot of fun! Once you get this arsenal of weapons down, you'll have more strategies and techniques from the ground, or you can sweep your opponent to the ground.
Suppose you find yourself in a self-defense situation and an attacker moves in quickly. You drop and sweep his legs from under him, and down he goes. That allows you to leave the area and avoid further conflict. More advanced strategies include using the third leg to unbalance the opponent to drive him to the ground. Once on the ground, you have opportunities for various locks.
Welcome New Members
Ray Kain
Amari Hameen
Cathy Jackson
Ryan Anderson
Susan Anderson
John Tierney
Arrow Kuhn
Vickie Pan
Mahmoud Ghamry
Harish Palani
Riley Gallagher
Kyle Bennett
Rachel Jones
Doug Schulte
Sanjana Rajan
Kwaku Koram
Jason Lehman
Gina Rooker
Leonnard Kondetti
Brooks Berry
Leroy Kondetti
Timothy Janeway
Corey Bodzin
Kathryn Bodzin
Kat Thomas
Alex Armstrong
Isabella Puleo
Pacifico Stella
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Anne Sipos
Camilla Rodeghiero
Andrea Lafoca
Barbara Brazon
Cathleen DeGrazia
Courtney Bartosh
Jen Lachina
Chirstopher Blair
Roberta Muto-Criley
J Pounds
Sophia Christy
Asher Moody
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