Kung Fu Tai Chi July - August 2016

publisher’s corner

In the beginning of April, we crossed half a million likes on our facebook page. I’m rather proud of this because we’ve never paid to promote our posts there. It was all done by providing a continual stream of likable content. We now have four unique major web platforms on the web: KungFuMagazine.com, which publishes exclusive weekly content and bi-weekly sweepstakes, our KungFuMagazine.com forum, which has nearly 23,000 members contributing to the online discussion 24/7, our YouTube channel, which has over 500 exclusive videos and counting, and our facebook page, which posts a lot of photos (for every photo you see in our magazine here, there are dozens that we didn’t use; now we post them in our facebook albums). We also have Twitter, MySpace and Google+ platforms, but those…

nandu, clap kickers, day packs and polypropylena swords

This year, the July+August issue falls in an awkward gap. The submission deadline is just prior to our tournament, the Tiger Claw Elite Championships, which will have already occurred by the time this issue reaches the newsstands. Of course, we’ll have an extensive report in our next issue like we always do. Through the power of Kung Fu Tai Chi and our various web platforms, the Tiger Claw Elite Championships is the most extensively covered U.S. martial arts event. Beyond that September-October report, we will be posting photo albums on both of our official Facebook sites (KungFuMagazine.com and Tiger Claw), as well as numerous videos on our official KungFuMagazine.com YouTube channel. That content will be published in the immediate wake of the Tiger Claw Elite Championships, so be sure to…

web fu

Return of the Kung Fu Stewardesses In our September+October 2015 installment of Web Fu, the Chengdu Aviation Training Institute Stewardesses were showcased. Recently, another report of hundreds of flight attendants studying Wing Chun in Sichuan appeared in the Chinese news. The report claimed it was in response to surveillance footage of a woman being attacked at the Yitel Hotel in Beijing that went viral. The report was met with skepticism because the women appearing in the photos were dressed in skimpy halter tops and daisy duke shorts. www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread. php?60046-Kung-Fu-Stew ardesses&p=1292798#po st1292798 The World’s Largest Guan Yu Statue The largest Guan Yu statue will be unveiled later this year in Jinzhou, Henan Province. Created of steel and bronze, the statue will stand over 190 feet tall and weigh some 1,200 tons. Guan Yu is legendary…

marching into the storm

On a rainy March Saturday, competitors gathered again for the West Coast’s longest standing Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. Berkeley was enduring the ravages of El Nino, nicknamed “Bruce Lee” by some weather forecasters for its destructive potential. And while it paled in comparison to storms experienced in the rest of the nation, California has been in a drought for years, leaving the parched land as vulnerable to the torrential rainfall as one of Han’s militia before Bruce’s nunchucks. California’s punishing dry spell left the dirt too tough, the ground too hard, and the rainfall caused minor floods, sinkholes, and downed trees across the state. The foul weather took its toll on U.C. Berkeley’s 24th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. In past years, they reached their competitor cap of 500+ prior…

wushu, weight training and you

Toward's the end of Victor Migalchan's performance at the 2015 KUNJG FU TAl CHI DAy, he did something you don't often see at a martial arts demonstration. He suddenly removed his shirt to show the audience what years of training and conditioning had accomplished. On the Tiger C l aw video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXumKD38Coc]/you can hear the appreciative whistles and catcalls garnered by .Migalchan's chiseled body. He looked like a bodybuilder as he switched from Tai Chi to performing /slanquan (southern fist). And truth be told/ he is a bodybuilder. It's an essential part of his routine. Migalchan grew up in Chernivtsi, a city on the western edge of Ukraine. He'd wanted to do Wushu since the age of four, but the Soviet Union had outlawed Wushu in the Ukraine, wanting athletes to…

shaolin’s ultimate in strength training

The history of the Guan Gong Da Dao (關公大 刀) can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Originally it was used only by high-ranking government officials in ceremonies, as it was deemed too heavy for battlefield use. Later on, it was discovered to have utility for cavalry and infantry alike, as an antipersonnel weapon and in battle. This article focuses on a version of the Guan Gong Da Dao made of solid steel and weighing 90 pounds, the shaft being as thick as a can of Coca Cola. Historically it was made of iron, but in modern times it is forged from steel. Master Shi Yanshuang (釋延雙) began to study the solid-steel 90-pound Guan Gong Da Dao after already training in the Shaolin arts for over 15 years. Master…