Académie Shaolin White Crane Kung Fu Newsletter Un mot du Shifu ...
Académie Shaolin White Crane Kung Fu Newsletter Un mot du Shifu ...
Académie Shaolin White Crane Kung Fu Newsletter Un mot du Shifu ...
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<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
<strong>Un</strong> <strong>mot</strong> <strong>du</strong> <strong>Shifu</strong> / A word from <strong>Shifu</strong><br />
Programme assistant-instructeur /<br />
Assistant-instructor program<br />
Programme élite / Elite program<br />
Summary of Lei Tai tournament 2009<br />
Évènements / events<br />
Octobre 2009
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
<strong>Un</strong> <strong>mot</strong> <strong>du</strong> <strong>Shifu</strong> A word from <strong>Shifu</strong><br />
Cher élèves,<br />
J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre intérêt dans le kung fu de<br />
la grue blanche. J’aimerais également vous offrir quelques<br />
conseils et encouragements :<br />
Pour ceux et celles qui éprouvent de la difficulté, ne vous<br />
découragez pas! Il ne faut pas abandonner. Lorsque j’étais un<br />
jeune homme je n’avais aucune habilité sportive particulière et<br />
pourtant, maintenant, j’ai un certain succès. Ce succès est venu<br />
puisque je m’obstinais à réussir. Je suggère de se créer une<br />
routine d’entraînement et de la suivre strictement. Suivre un<br />
horaire vous aidera beaucoup. Devenir passionné <strong>du</strong> kung fu<br />
de la grue blanche devrait être facile. Avec la pratique<br />
régulière, votre corps devient plus fort et plus sain. Vous fixez<br />
des objectifs et vous les accomplissez. Vous augmentez votre<br />
confiance et vous pouvez vous exprimer à travers un art qui se<br />
pratique seul. Voici un dernier conseil : utilisez bien votre<br />
possession la plus précieuse; votre temps. <strong>Fu</strong>mer, boire,<br />
prendre de la drogue, abuser de la nourriture sont toutes des<br />
habitudes qui consomment énormément d’énergie et offrent<br />
peu de récompenses. Pensez plutôt de rejoindre vos camarades<br />
au Wushu Guan (Gymnase)!<br />
Lorne Bernard<br />
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> kung fu<br />
Programme d’assistant-instructeur<br />
Durant les dernières 27 années, <strong>Shifu</strong> Bernard a consacré la<br />
majorité de son temps à l’étude, la pratique et l’enseignement<br />
<strong>du</strong> style de la grue blanche. Il explique : « Je suis tombé en<br />
amour avec cet art sophistiqué qui conservait encore beaucoup<br />
d’aspects quasi disparus dans les arts martiaux. Le style de la<br />
grue volante avait toujours les 18 armes traditionnelles, le<br />
travail interne, les formes à mains nues ainsi que les formes<br />
avec partenaires. De plus, les élèves pratiquaient régulièrement<br />
le combat et ce, de façon réaliste. L’enseignement de la médecine<br />
chinoise et de la danse de lion faisaient également l’étude<br />
de cet art d’avantage intéressante. Finalement, le fait d’étudier<br />
en Orient de la vieille façon traditionnelle donna vraiment le<br />
sens d’appartenance à une famille ou un clan ».<br />
Désormais, <strong>Shifu</strong> Bernard est le représentant officiel <strong>du</strong><br />
grand-maitre Lee Joo-Chian en Amérique <strong>du</strong> nord et<br />
l’académie Montréalaise est le bureau-chef. Nos objectifs sont<br />
de préserver et de partager cet art précieux.<br />
Octobre 2009<br />
1<br />
Dear students,<br />
It is my great pleasure to thank you for your interest in our<br />
precious white crane kung fu. I would also like to offer some<br />
advice and encouragement:<br />
To those who have difficulty never give up. As a child, I was<br />
never very athletic yet I en<strong>du</strong>red, trained, and now have some<br />
success. I would recommend to everyone to make a training<br />
sche<strong>du</strong>le and follow it religiously. This will really help you<br />
progress. Also falling in love with kung fu is easy, your body<br />
gets stronger and healthier, you have objectives, you gain<br />
confidence and you express yourself through an art form that<br />
can be practiced alone. Please consider not wasting your most<br />
valuable possession: your time. Smoking, drinking, taking<br />
drugs, overeating are all unhealthy, wasteful habits that<br />
consume a great amount of energy and offer little in return.<br />
Why not go to the Wushu Guan and train instead!<br />
Lorne Bernard<br />
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> kung fu<br />
Pour réussir, nous devons impliquer d’avantage les gens, et<br />
créer la prochaine génération d’instructeurs. <strong>Un</strong>e base solide<br />
est déjà en place maintenant la grue blanche va ouvrir ses ailes<br />
et disséminer l’art! Nous recherchons des candidats qui désireraient<br />
devenir instructeurs. Le programme est difficile, mais il<br />
en vaut la peine. Pour ceux et celles qui sont intéressés, veuillez<br />
prendre un rendez-vous avec <strong>Shifu</strong> Bernard afin de faire votre<br />
application pour participer dans le programme<br />
d’assistant-instructeur. Ce programme spécial est la première<br />
étape dans le processus pour devenir un instructeur certifié. Les<br />
programmes sont ouverts à tous ceux et celles qui sont prêt à<br />
travailler fort et ont le désir d’enseigner le kung fu de la grue<br />
blanche.
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Assistant-instructor program<br />
During the last 27 years, <strong>Shifu</strong> Bernard has dedicated most of<br />
his time to the study, practice and dissemination of the extremely<br />
rare flying crane branch of <strong>Fu</strong>jian white crane kung fu.<br />
He explains that “I fell in love with this incredibly sophisticated<br />
art as it still retained many facets of traditional martial arts<br />
that had already disappeared from other systems. It still had all<br />
the traditional weapons (over 18), internal breathing exercises,<br />
hand sets and two person sets. <strong>Fu</strong>rthermore, actual fighting<br />
was a regular part of the curriculum and the fighters were<br />
fierce. Traditional medicine and lion dance were also taught<br />
which definitely made learning martial arts a more complete<br />
and interesting endeavour. Finally, studying in the Orient the<br />
old fashioned way really gave that fulfilling sense of being part<br />
of a larger entity or clan.”<br />
Programme élite / Elite program<br />
Ce programme est disponible à tout élève qui à terminer ses<br />
mouvements de bases (niveau 3). Son objectif est de mieux<br />
aider les gens à améliorer leurs habilitées en formes, armes, et<br />
en combat libre. Les membres de l’équipe elite représenterons<br />
l’école lors de démonstrations et à des compétitions. Pour<br />
devenir membre, parler à <strong>Shifu</strong> ou à un des assistants instructeurs.<br />
Pour être éligible, il faut venir aux cours 3 fois par<br />
semaine et participer aux entraînements spéciaux.<br />
Tous les assistants-instructeurs sont automatiquement dans le<br />
programme élite.<br />
<br />
This program is available to students who have successfully<br />
finished the basic moves and who are interested in specialized<br />
training in forms, weapon sets and free fighting. Members of<br />
the elite team will represent the school in demonstrations and<br />
tournaments. To apply, talk to shifu or one of the assistant<br />
instructors. To be part of the team students must train a<br />
minimum of 3 classes per week and participate in the special<br />
elite team classes.<br />
All assistant instructors are automatically in the elite program.<br />
<br />
Octobre 2009<br />
2<br />
<strong>Shifu</strong> Bernard is now the official representative of Grand-Master<br />
Lee Joo-Chian and the Academy is the North-American<br />
headquarters of the flying crane style. Its objective remains to<br />
preserve and disseminate this great art. To do so, however, we<br />
need to involve people more and create develop the next<br />
generation of instructors. A solid foundation has been laid in<br />
Canada, now it is time to spread our wings. We are looking for<br />
people interested in becoming instructors in the white crane<br />
style. The process is difficult yet the rewards are great. Anyone<br />
seriously interested should make an appointment with <strong>Shifu</strong><br />
Bernard and apply to the assistant-instructor program. This<br />
special program is the first step to becoming a full-fledged<br />
instructor. The program is open to all who work hard, have a<br />
desire to excel in kung fu and want to teach this rare art.<br />
PROGRAMME D’AIDE FINANCIÈRE / FINANCIAL<br />
ASSISTANCE PROGRAM<br />
Si vous avez des difficultés qui font en sorte que vous avez de<br />
la difficulté à payer les frais de scolarité et que vous êtes prêts<br />
à travailler pour aider l’école, demandez à <strong>Shifu</strong> à propos <strong>du</strong><br />
programme d’aide financière pour les élèves.<br />
If you or a friend desperately want to study kung fu but cannot<br />
afford it, inquire with <strong>Shifu</strong> about our financial assistance<br />
program.
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Octobre 2009<br />
Summary of the Lei Tai tournament 2009<br />
Warm up, forms, set-fighting, some applications, and finish<br />
with the some push hands or sparring. That is the routine you<br />
go through in a typical training session at the <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong><br />
<strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> Academy in Montreal. If you are or have been a<br />
student there, you're most likely very familiar with this kind of<br />
traditional training. I've been familiar with it for over six years<br />
now. And after years of such training, a question inevitably<br />
creeps up: how well can I use what I learned in class? You<br />
might say: you just told us you spar in class; shouldn't that be<br />
a good indication of your self-defense abilities? The answer is:<br />
yes you do spar, but in a very friendly environment. It is a<br />
completely different business when you have to defend<br />
yourself from an opponent who wants to knock your head off:<br />
the blows are full power, the stress level usually shoots up, and<br />
your opponent resembles a bull who is in full charge. Luckily,<br />
there is an alternative to bar fights for testing your kung fu<br />
skills in a realistic situation: full contact lei tai competitions.<br />
The lei tai tournament is held <strong>du</strong>ring the annual U.S.<br />
International Kuoshu Championship Tournament in Baltimore.<br />
The lei tai competition takes place on a platform about two feet<br />
above the ground (called the lei tai). There are four ways to<br />
win a match: knock-out (count to ten), 3 knockdowns in a<br />
round, getting the opponent three times off the lei tai in a<br />
round, or winning two out of three rounds in terms of points.<br />
Rounds last a minute and a half for elimination matches (two<br />
minutes for the final match) with 30 second breaks between<br />
rounds (45 seconds for final fights). Because of these short<br />
rounds, the fights are very high intensity and end up in knock<br />
outs fairly often.<br />
It is a Friday afternoon in the end of July. I just had an<br />
11 hour drive from Montreal to Baltimore. In total we're 7<br />
people who drove down in order to assist fujiao lien Etienne<br />
Métayer and Mathew MacLean’s in their lei tai competition.<br />
Etienne has been studying white crane kung fu for over 10<br />
years. He hits like a ton of bricks, is deceivingly fast, and is a<br />
skilled counter fighter. I speak of experience, since I was one<br />
of his sparring partners and have been on the receiving end of<br />
some of his hits, which were quite the stunners considering<br />
they weren't full power. He won gold in his division in the<br />
3<br />
previous year's lei tai tournament. This year, he lost about 20 lbs,<br />
is faster and hits equally hard. Thus he is a good contender for first<br />
place. Our second fighter, Mathew, has about the same experience<br />
level as I do in white crane kung fu. He has good power, good<br />
speed, good kicks, and is good at rushing you with blows. Since it<br />
is his first year, I asked him what his goals were. The answer was:<br />
“I don't care if I don't get first place, I just don't want to fall off the<br />
lei tai. It's so embarrassing to crawl back up onto it.” I first<br />
laughed about it, but soon realized he was serious.<br />
Saturday, 1pm. For two hours, the staff at the competition<br />
has been thoroughly checking the gloves, shoes, and headgear of<br />
the fighters and all this waiting is making even me, the assistant<br />
corner man, nervous and anxious. I can't imagine what it's like for<br />
the fighters. What's more, the first fight of the day is Etienne's<br />
(he's up against a praying mantis fighter from France) and he<br />
sprained his back <strong>du</strong>ring the warm-up practice. We get to the lei<br />
tai, the whistle sounds, and the fight's on. Since both fighters are<br />
nervous, the fight quickly turns into a feat of strength in a hit for<br />
hit battle. As stated before, Etienne hits fast and very hard. This<br />
provides him with en edge over his adversary, and he wins the first<br />
two rounds by split decisions. We're off with a victory, even<br />
though it will cost him a couple of bruises later. Mathew’s up soon<br />
against an experienced fighter from Germany. Surprisingly, he<br />
doesn't seem nervous. It's another hit for hit battle and he holds his<br />
ground against the German. Mathew succeeds in throwing him off<br />
the lei tai and wins the first round by points. But in the middle of<br />
the second round, he walks into a hard punch and is knocked<br />
down. This dazes him and turns the favor to the German, who<br />
wins the next two rounds and thus the match. But, even dazed,<br />
Mathew managed to stay on the lei tai (his main objective) and not<br />
get knocked out for the rest of the match, which is in itself a great<br />
display of determination. Soon enough, Etienne's second fight is<br />
up. He's far less nervous. He is up against a Brazilian who rushes<br />
him right away, but now that the stress is gone, the white crane<br />
techniques start to show. It was one clean jo bu da (side step with<br />
straight punch) after another, so every time his opponent charges<br />
Etienne, he finds him out of the way and is dazed an instant later<br />
by a solid reverse from the side. Soon enough, Etienne starts<br />
attacking more frequently and knocks the guy several times off the<br />
lei tai. He easily wins the first two rounds and the match. Two
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
hours later, Etienne has defeated yet another fighter, a hard<br />
hitting hung gar practitioner, and qualified for the final. Once<br />
again, he dominated the fight by using his technique and speed.<br />
By now, he has already acquired a fierce reputation among the<br />
other fighters and trainers. But the other finalist, the son of the<br />
president of the World Kuoshu Federation (grandmaster<br />
Huang), has also acquired quite a reputation: he knocked out<br />
his previous opponent in about ten seconds and his knock-out<br />
punch shattered his opponent's face protector into pieces. So<br />
Etienne bruised up after three fights in as many hours and with<br />
his back sprain worse than before steps up the lei tai against the<br />
fighter who no one in the tournament wanted to face. The fight<br />
begins well for Etienne. Even though his opponent is of a much<br />
higher caliber than the previous ones, Etienne is still the faster<br />
fighter. None of them charge because they each know they are<br />
facing considerable opponents. The closest way I can describe<br />
it is two cats watching each other and occasionally getting into<br />
short but highly intense attacks. To the surprise of the<br />
audience, Etienne, being faster, has the upper hand. That is<br />
until he gets hit by a full power reverse punch which put him to<br />
the ground and the official decides that he's too dazed to<br />
continue even though Etienne insists to do so. The fight is<br />
called to and end, but Etienne's demand to continue the fight,<br />
bruised up and tired, against an opponent who has just hit him<br />
with the hardest punch he has ever received, speaks in itself for<br />
the determination I admire in Etienne. It is also here that we<br />
realize that in full contact competitions power over speed can<br />
win, which is not necessarily true in real life.<br />
Even if we didn't bring back the gold this year,<br />
Etienne still earned a fierce reputation (the US lei tai team<br />
coach, who had never talked to us, later approached him and<br />
told him how impressed he was), Mathew got a taste of the lei<br />
tai experience (and even managed to stay on the lei tai for the<br />
whole match), and the rest of us got to socialize with many<br />
skilled masters, watch kung fu demos and forms (the lei tai is<br />
only one of the many events of the entire tournament) and have<br />
a well deserved toast to our fighters after the fights. At the end<br />
of the day, the lei tai competition is an experience which allows<br />
you to bond with your sifu, and your kung fu brothers and<br />
sisters, and is likely to be an experience you won't regret or<br />
Octobre 2009<br />
Summary of the Lei Tai tournament 2009<br />
4<br />
forget. I have had that experience twice and would highly<br />
recommend it to any kung fu enthusiast.<br />
Tigran Atoyan
<strong>Académie</strong> <strong>Shaolin</strong> <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Évènements / Events<br />
Octobre 2009<br />
Octobre 2009 Novembre 2009<br />
<strong>Un</strong>e opportunité unique<br />
de s’entraîner avec un<br />
des plus grands combattants<br />
de Buck Sing Choy Lay <strong>Fu</strong>t<br />
venant de Hong Kong,<br />
vivant maintenant<br />
au Canada<br />
<strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Kung</strong> <strong>Fu</strong><br />
<strong>Académie</strong> Laval<br />
1545 Le Corbusier<br />
(Galeries Laval), Laval<br />
H7S 2K6<br />
Tél: 450-681-0546<br />
Sans frais: 1-888-687-0546<br />
$69.99<br />
pour les membres<br />
de l’ECCMAF<br />
$88.99<br />
pour les<br />
non-membres<br />
5<br />
Le séminaire de bâton avec <strong>Shifu</strong> Lorne Bernard est prévu pour<br />
Mardi le 17 Novembre 2009 de 29h30 à 22h30 au YMCA <strong>du</strong> 5550<br />
Avenue <strong>du</strong> Parc. Coût: 50$ en inscription avancée, 70$ à la porte.<br />
Les personnes doivent avoir passé le niveau 1 et être familier avec<br />
les mouvements de base <strong>du</strong> bâton de la Grue Blanche. Amenez<br />
votre propre bâton. Enregistrez-vous tôt, les places sont limitées!<br />
Staff Seminar with <strong>Shifu</strong> Lorne Bernard is confirmed for Tuesday,<br />
November 17th, 20h30-22h30 at the YMCA of 5550 Avenue <strong>du</strong><br />
Parc. $50 in advance, 70$ at the door. Must have passed Level 1 and<br />
be familiar with <strong>White</strong> <strong>Crane</strong> Seven Star Staff basics. Bring/Buy<br />
your own Staff. Register early, Spaces are very Limited.<br />
Décembre 2009<br />
Christmas Party<br />
Party de Noël<br />
Joignez-vous à nous/ Come celebrate!<br />
2009-12-11 21h30<br />
Restaurant Tao (374 Victoria, westmount: 514-369-<br />
1122)<br />
Ouvert à tous/ All welcome