I called the phone number that the kung fu coach had given me, and spoke to his son-in-law. He told me that Mr. Chen was somewhat famous in his home province of Shanxi, China. He said that Mr. Chen had learned kung fu since he was 11 years old, and had persevered through some very hard times during the Cultural Revolution. During that time, he had to practice and learn in secret for fear of persecution by the Red Guard or from being reported by other citizens. Mr. Chen's parents did not really approve of him learning kung fu during that time, and he had to keep it secret from them as well; but the young man's love for Chinese traditional martial art was deep and strong, and his teachers were willing only to teach serious students, because of the risk involved. I would get to see firsthand just how strong and deep his dedication was in the years to come. Mr. Chen had a couple of other students, but no formal class times. Basically I would pick him up at his daughter's house and drive to a place to do our training. The training was 2 hours long, with the first part consisted of the punching and kicking line drills I had seen at the Chinese school, the jibengong, as it is called in Chinese.
Before my first class, I called an old friend of mine and told him about the master I had met. My friend immediately decided to join me in training, and so we had the class ready. Mr. Chen began to teach us a powerful martial arts form that I had never seen. We had no translator, and therefore had no idea what we were learning. After each classs (twice a week), my friend and I would go to the diner and write up notes on what we learned. Over time, it seemed obvious that Mr. Chen taught martial arts differently than any teacher I ever had. Every movement was related to a martial arts application, which we drilled over and over again under his close supervision. The forms and applications had to be performed perfectly in order to avoid the loud "no" that Mr. Chen would immediately say when we made a mistake, followed by a patient correction. Repeated mistakes were followed by less patient corrections, and chronic mistakes were given the Royal Annoyance Treatment where Mr. Chen would throw his arms in the air and shriek "aghh...." while turning his back to us and walking away.
"My father is very strict about martial arts," his daughter told me over the phone. "He believes that martial art should be practiced correctly, and he is not afraid to voice his opinion. Sometimes he will see someone practicing in a park and go up and correct their mistakes. I have to rein him in sometimes, because he is very blunt about it. But he likes you very much. He says you learn quickly, and he enjoys teaching you. He told me to tell you that he wants to teach you this style first, it is called Ba Fan Shou. My father says this is a very old style, and not many people know this traditional style, not even in China. He says it is a very good style to learn because all of the movements are very good for fighting. My father believes strongly that Chinese traditional martial art must be good for fighting use, not just for show."
We were very happy to be learning a rare martial arts form, but I had no idea how rare it was until many years later. My friend and I trained at least twice a week with Mr. Chen and usually I met with him and trained another day or two a week because I couldn't seem to get enough. The Ba Fan Shou (Eight Tumbling Hands) taught us hundreds of ways to punch, grab, throw, trip and change from one application to another. The style was sometimes called "Mother/Son Fist" because each movement followed the next, and included counters and counters to the counters. This style was like an opening door for me because I finally knew that I had learned how to use Chinese Martial arts for real combat.
Mr. Chen liked to use me to demonstrate the martial uses, so I got thrown, kicked, punched and flipped. I got use to being hit pretty much everywhere, and became good at breaking falls to the ground. Mr. Chen did not go lightly on me, but he also never hurt me in practice. Occasionally someone would show up and be slightly challenging toward him in their approach, and he did deal a bit more harshly with them, causing them to never show up again. Mr. Chen was in his 60's at that time but clearly was in great shape and tough as nails. A few mishaps occurred in training, and once he was hit by an errant elbow, squarely in the face--he seemed impervious to pain. He could put his hand on a rock with just his pinky finger out, and he would allow you to smash his finger with your fist. I saw him do this rather disturbing stunt a couple of times, with the result always being the same. Mr. Chen would stare quietly ahead while the person trying to smash his finger would have to stop because they were hurting themselves. He had trained Iron body qigong and Iron Palm as well, and taught me the basics of the palm training. But he did not put emphasis on that training, as it required daily training and close supervision by the teacher (especially the Iron body qigong).
Next: More Training With The Master
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