“If you want to learn how to fight, don’t study kata.  The only way to learn how to fight is to engage in the ‘real’ thing.”  

This opinion is often expressed by those who hold Karate in low regard.  Their opinion is often formed from movies, online videos, or some out of context training. The statement is as naïve as thinking that a boxer goes into a ring to fight with his skipping rope.

You could say that a martial artist is not a ‘fighter’ as ‘fight’ intimates a struggle between two people, a martial artist is a ‘peacekeeper’.  His function is to re-establish a peaceful environment through long and arduous training.

Peace is earned, if your mind and emotions are weak, you are more likely to cause violence or respond negatively to it.  People that have to respond to violence on a regular basis such as police officers and security personnel are taught to remain calm and to deal with a situation ‘appropriately’ to re-establish and keep the ‘Queens Peace’ and a martial artist’s response should be the same.

The problem with people that constantly create ‘aggressive and violent situations’ in which to train is that they are still not ‘real’ – you know it’s your mate acting, and if anything engenders fear of the ‘real’ thing, and makes people neurotic by focusing solely on ‘reality based’ training.

This interview was conducted in 2008

Eagle Claw Kung Fu is one of those styles that you could easily build a martial arts movie about.  It has the lineage and history that any martial artist will enjoy reading.  The words Kung Fu mean ‘time and effort’ and Julian Dale has certainly put in the time and effort required to attain a level of mastery in the art.  He has sought out the top instructors in the Eagle Claw lineage and travelled to get the required instruction from them.

His story along with that of Eagle Claw makes fascinating reading…

SR  Hi Julian, welcome to the Martial Arts Standard, it would be great today if we could get the readers to understand what’s involved in Eagle Claw Kung Fu.

JD  Hi – I’ll do my best to help.

SR How long have you been involved in Chinese Martial Arts?

JD  I’ve been practicing Chinese Martial Arts since the age of 17, I am now 41.

SR Where did you start learning Kung Fu?

JD I initially started learning in England, and then began travelling over to Hong Kong in 1991.

SR How did you meet and begin learning with your current Sifu?

David Rubens is a rare breed of martial artist.  A London boy destined for trouble, he broadened his horizons by travelling the world, he lived in a kibbutz, joined the Israeli Army and became one of their elite parachute regiment.  He then went to Japan, trained at the renowned Yoshinkan Honbu becoming an uchi deshi  (live in student) under the famous Aikido Master Gozo Shioda, undergoing the hard Tokyo Riot Police Squad training programme.  He returned home to found the famous Meidokan Dojo in London. 

Tempered by his training, he turned to the world of security and utilizing the skills and determination he had gained, rose to the top to become an International Security Consultant to governments, top institutions and multi national companies. 

David is an inspiration to anyone following the hard road of traditional training and has been a leader in forging international relationships through both business and the Martial Arts using the etiquette and respect learned at the Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo. 

SR  Hi Dave – can we start with you telling us a bit about your background? 

DR  Certainly, to begin with, I left England when I was seventeen to become an ‘adventurer’ and ended up in Israel, spending two and a half years in the Israeli Army, completing the training and serving in the parachute regiment. 

Men are born soft and supple;

Dead they are stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant;

Dead they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

Is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

Is a disciple of life. 

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail….

- Tao Te Ching

When your body is pressed it will want to close and contract – making it weak and unstable.  We have to train our mind, breath and body to encourage the ‘myofascial bodysuit’ and joints to soften and open enabling the spine, arms and legs to ‘bow’ properly for power transmission.

My previous blogs of ‘Continuous Neigong’, ‘The Language of the Body’, ‘The Art of Listening’ and ‘Connecting Hands and Feet’ deal with the training of these skills.

I noticed that most Martial Artists are unable to access their legs and feet properly to gain any root or stability, on many seminars I have shown long term practitioners how unstable they are and how when they think they have most of their weight in their front leg, they actually have it in the back.  This is because as they start to put their weight into the front leg and the foot presses to the floor, the muscles contract and throw the body backwards.

The skill starts in the neigong and standing exercises teaching the myofascia to soften, lengthen and open to accept the bodyweight expanding and ballooning as a result.  The joints are then disengaged and open to function effectively. Posture training starts with ‘suspending the crown of the head’ to gently open the body and joints from head to feet to allow a free flow of energy through the myofascial tissue and in and around the skeleton.