David Gallaher's Gung Fu Institute

I hope you enjoy our website! I just want to recap on what was talked about in class last week about the importance of eating right. Fitness training and proper diet go hand in hand. You are what you eat, eventually. So if you are constantly putting processed foods and sugary drinks into your body, you are eventually going to get sick, run down, and feel sluggish. Being overweight is one of the first signs of sickness. Underweight, is obviously the same, unless you have a thyroid issue, which is a 1-2% chance.  If you are carrying more than your ideal weight based on your skeletal system, you are heading for trouble. Your body was made to carry a proper amount of weight, anything over that willl stress out your joints, ligaments,and tendons. If you increase to obesity, then there is a chance of severe sickness, diabetes, heart issues, and many more. A martial artist knows how to control the body’s urges. I suggest doing a 30-day raw diet to get your body back into normal sync. It is a bit extreme, but if you have been eating poorly for the last couple years you might need to go extreme. I’m a firm believer of balance, so after the first 30-days you can go back to a vegetarian diet for the next ten days and then slowly increase to organic,fish, chicken in your diet if you so choose. So many of you ask me how I eat personally and how I stay fit, obviously I work out. Secondly, I eat right.

This is what I ate today, to give an example.

Breakfast: soaked oats  (not cooked) with fresh organic blackberries, blueberries and bananas on top and drizzled with honey and cinnamon.  One large, freshly juiced carrot, apple, ginger, celery juice.

Lunch: Organic romaine lettuce, organic cabbage, freshly homemade salsa, black beans, fresh avacado, fresh cilantro, tomatoes with a lime squeezed over it, light SEA salt & pepper. One large, freshly made smoothie with macadamia nuts, the base being chocolate almond milk, frozen banana, 1 teaspoon fresh coconut oil and a little bit of 100% cocoa (no sugar). I use the magic bullet for convenience.  One Kombucha drink in the late afternoon and two glasses of water (distilled or reverse osmosis).

Dinner: Organic soup & salad and another smoothie. (Which I haven’t eaten yet because I’m still here at the school)

Obviously, you don’t have to be a raw, or vegetarian, but my idea is to eat clean. You may think it is more expensive, or it takes a lot of time. But, expensive is eating out. And when it comes to time, you will be adding time to your life by eating this way. Remember time is all you have, look at it as a football field. When you’re born you are in the first stages of your life, you’re at the 50 yard mark when your in your 40’s and you’re in the endzone after that. I want to stay on the field as long as I can. God Bless You. I encourage you to eat better in your life no matter where you are.

Grandmaster Gallaher

There will no longer be Wing Chun class on Saturday mornings!! We will be adding a Wing Chun class MONDAY NIGHT from 8:30-9:30pm.

Fighting arts have been independently developed all over the world, but the mention of Martial Arts automatically brings to mind the Chinese styles of Kung Fu.  Although the Martial Arts in China have been recorded for thousands of years, the traditional beginnings of Kung Fu started with the Shaolin Temple, founded around the period of 500 AD by a monk called Bodhidharma who introduced Zen Buddhism into China from India.  It was at this time that the Martial Arts became more of a secret knowledge taught only to family or a very few select disciples, so preserving the arts through the generations.
Bodhidharma found that his disciples were not physically prepared for the extensive form of meditation that was an integral part of his teachings. An example of this is that Bodhidharma himself sat in front of a wall and meditated for nine years.  As a person he was said to be very strict and possessed a fierce gaze.

Bodhidharma then devised a set of exercises primarily to prepare his disciples for their lessons, and later these developed self defense principles.  So over the centuries, the Shaolin monks through continual practice and progression developed a formidable fighting style of open hand and weapon techniques.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty there came a period of oppression at the beginning of the 18th Century under the Manchu Emperors and so at this time the monks, became more politically involved and more into the attention of the Government, who rightly feared their Martial ability.

All attempts to destroy the Temple were repelled by the defenses of themonks, and the Emperor’s forces met with little success until they were able to engage the help of a renegade monk, Ma Ning Yee, who not only laid open the plans of the Temple, with its secret passages but helped by starting a revolt inside the Temple and setting fires within.

So the destruction of the Shaolin Temple was brought about and most of the monks and disciples slain: amongst those who escaped were four monks and a nun, elders of the Shaolin Temple and known late as the Venerable Five.  They were Pak Mei, Fung to Tak, Mui Hin, Chi Shin and Ng Mui the nun who was the eldest and most proficient in boxing skills.

Ng Mui instead of leading the revolt against the Manchu Government, preferred to wander the country keeping out of the turmoil that existed after the destruction of the Shaolin Temple.  Finally Ng Mui settled at the White Crane Temple on Tai Leung Mountain.  It was during this period that Ng Mui reflected upon the Shaolin style, now being taught to the Government troops, with its long swinging movements, exotic stances, complex forms and imaginative names, developed for the performances in front of audiences rather than actual practical application.

One day while walking the countryside Ng Mui witnessed a fight between snake and crane, the direct striking of the snake and the simultaneous block and strike of the crane using wing and beak, always facing the opponent square on.  Ng Mui instead of mimicking the animal movements, as with other styles, used more the concepts involved in the contest, directness, simplicity, conservation of energy, avoidance, never strength against strength, with more emphasis on technique than strength.

Ng Mui on visits to the local village for provisions became aquatinted with Yim Yee who sold the bean curd form a stall in the market but also happened to have been a disciple at the Shaolin Temple.  On one such visit Ng Mui sensed that Yim Yee was troubled and upon inquiry found that a local warlord had made known his intentions to marry his daughter, forcibly, if necessary.  Yim Yee’s daughter a beautiful girl by the name of Yim Wing Chun had already been promised to one from their home town of Kwangtung Province, from which they had to flee as Yim Yee had become involved in a court case, and being a Shaolin disciple, even though he had only upheld the law he would have been arrested.  Ng Mui Decided to solve the problem indirectly by taking Yim Wing Chun with her to the White Crane Temple and there she became her first and only disciple and over a period of three years, with Yim Wing Chun studying diligently Ng Mui taught Yim Wing Chun the newly developed fighting style.

After her time at the White Crane Temple, Yim Wing Chun returned to the village and was immediately pestered again by the warlord, this time more seriously, but now Wing Chun was prepared and challenged him to open hand combat, which of course he accepted as all he could see was a frail young woman who would soon be his wife, or so he thought.  Yim Wing Chun totally devastated the warlord and being troubled no more was then free to marry her intended husband, Leung Bok Chuuo who himself was a skilled pugilist and together they would practice this new fighting system, and it was in reverence to his wife that he named the style Wing Chun, or Beautiful Springtime.

     Leung Bok Chau passed the techniques of Wing Chun onto Leung Jan Kwai, an herbalist who took a disciple called Wong Wash Bo who acted in an opera troupe and while working on the Red Junk encountered the poler Leung Yee Tei who had been taught the six and a half pole techniques by Chi Shin who was one of the Venerable Five most skilled in stick and pole work.  Leung Yee Tei became the successor of the Wing Chun system and so the pole techniques were added.

Leung Yee Tei’s disciples who carried Wing Chun on was Leung  Jan a physician of Fatshan in Kwangtung Province of Southern China.  Leung Jan had two sons, Leung Bik the eldest and Leung Tsun, both of which were taught Wing Chun daily, but Leung Jan’s successor was Chan Wah Shun, though not well educated by his determination he mastered this sophisticated system, and being of the market place where life was tough he had the opportunity to refine his fighting skills and so it was to him that the responsibility of Wing Chun was rested.

During the thirty-six years of teaching Wing Chun, Chan Wah Shun only took sixteen disciples.  The last of these was a young man of quick mind and inquisitive intelligence, his name Yip Man, destined to become the Great Grandmaster of Wing Chun.  Yip Man can be considered t be the result of two great teachers, the first Chan Wah Shun the ‘Fighter’ and Leung Bik the ‘Scholar’ whom he met in Hong Kong while attending St. Stephen’s College.

Now the history becomes the present with the legacy that the Grandmaster Yip Man left behind him before his death on the 2nd December 1972 in the form of an eight millimeter  film.  So preserved in this fashion are  all three forms and the 116 wooden dummy techniques, and left in trust with his two sons, Yip Chun the eldest Martial Arts Association and promoting the once secret style to a popular art known throughout the world. Extracted from the book, “The Path of Wing Chun,” by Samuel Kwok (with permission).

Jeet Kune Do is Bruce Lee’s mental, physical, and technical expression of combat in its totality.  Bruce Lee used the yin-yang symbol to represent his view of a living art that is always changing and evolving.  The art must correlate with the human or the art becomes stagnant and artificial.  The yin-yang symbol is a compass or a barometer to balance both the human and the martial art.  Jeet Kune Do is not a fragmented martial art; it is an art that expresses totality in its purest form.  Jeet Kune Do is a style that doesn’t put you in shackles and chains, but gives you the keys to self-liberation. Bruce Lee knew there was nothing to fear but fear itself or the abstract illusion of fear that the mind manifests.  Fear is merely a form of bondage that one must conquer.  Jeet Kune Do leads to self-discovery, which leads to the ability to recognize, which then leads to understanding.

These are some of Bruce Lee’s philosophies. I would like to discuss his view on the physical art of Jeet Kune Do.  If you are new to this art, there are two important issues that are the bulk of Jeet Kune Do.  First is what I have briefly talked about, the philosophy or mental nature of Jeet Kune Do; next are the physical components as well as the biomechanics of this intriguing art.  Bruce stressed that he did not create or invent a new martial art, but found the cause of the ignorance. He knew that all humans have two arms and two legs, but he needed to find the most efficient way to use these weapons.

Bruce researched different ways to enlighten his mind and to cultivate his physical skill.  Bruce came to the realization that simple physics could work in Jeet Kune Do.  He increased his power and strength through weight training and cardiovascular activity.  Bruce realized that mass times velocity gives you pure power at impact if you have a solid structure and good body alignment.

While the bulk of the techniques in Jeet Kune Do are Wing Chun, boxing, and fencing, Jeet Kune Do is also concerned with using the minimum to achieve the maximum, not the other way around.  It was Bruce’s own evaluation of himself that makes Jeet Kune Do so unique.  To me, Jeet Kune Do is Bruce Lee’s personal evolutionary process.  Martial arts masters before Bruce and many after him chose to stay in the traditional and conditional past!  This is an example of what Bruce regarded as the classical mess.  He bucked at the systems of bondage and catapulted himself into freedom and changed the martial art way of thinking forever.  While there are no forms to learn in Jeet Kune Do, all the techniques are straightforward and are geared purely for self-defense and self-perseverance.  All techniques of the techniques are simple and natural for the body and mind to learn.  All wasted movements have been intelligently discarded.  You will not find flowery or mechanical movements in Jeet Kune Do.  Bruce developed his body as a weapon, not just for cosmetic purposes.  My sifu, Ted Wong always said, “David, if you want Bruce Lee results, you need to train like Bruce Lee and put in Bruce Lee hours.”

Jeet Kune Do is the most complete martial art available in the world. Jeet Kune Do is a martial art that you can consider a full circle art.  We practice all logical attack and defense possibilities.  Again, we are a balanced Gung Fu system, we kick, punch, hand trap, throw, and grapple.  Our body becomes whole to the total expression of the human being.  Bruce Lee knew that the human entity is always more important than the established style but all to often the style becomes law.  It’s the Korean Way or the Chinese Way or maybe it’s the Japanese Way.  My friends, be concerned with the root of the tree for it is the root that gives life to the intricate branches and leaves of the tree, and it is the water that is the blood of the tree.  We need to be more like water, always flowing to the least resistant area, but still having the persistence and faith to realize that we need to train hard, realistic, and intelligently.  Set accomplishable goals and train diligently.  It is imperative to seek an authentic instructor, trained under Bruce Lee, or one that has direct lineage to Bruce Lee.  In conclusion, I will leave you with a note from Bruce Lee, “Walk on.”

Best Regards,

David Gallaher