Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing
Kung Fu
BRIDLINGTON KUNG FU
(Age 10+) Tuesdays 6pm-7pm
CELESTIAL DRAGON TEMPLE BOXING (KUNG FU)
Hand of the Wind and the Intercepting Fist
Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing kung fu preserves and incorporates ancient tradition open palm Lee family style Hand of the Wind kung fu and T'ai Chi, plus Tan Tui, and Bruce Lee’s modern approach to kung fu known as the Way of the Intercepting Fist.
Students are graded from beginner to Black Sash in Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing Kung Fu. There are two main routes or paths of progression in Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing Kung Fu.
1 ~ Celestial Dragon YANG path (with Phoenix Rising Yin elements): Feng Shou Hand of The Wind Kung Fu and Jeet Kune Do (with T'ai Chi elements forming this path's Yin aspect).
Black Sash Instructors must know, and demonstrate to a good standard, all of the Lee family style Feng Shou Hand of the Wind syllabus up to TengChi grade, (and Lee family style T'ai Chi short form - moves 1-50, as this path's Yin aspect). Plus, Tan Tui forms and applications, and (Bruce Lee's) Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do principles, philosophy and core techniques.
2 ~ Phoenix Rising YIN path (with Celestial Dragon Yang elements): T'ai Chi Supreme Ultimate (with Yang aspect Kung Fu elements).
This includes (but is not limited to) Nurturing the Dragon - Nei Gung, and Lee family style T'ai Chi up to move 102 (while working towards the full Lee style T'ai Chi long form of 140 moves). Black Sash Instructors must be able to demonstrate those 102 moves and principles, not only as a form but in martial art/self defence applications and situations. Plus, Feng Shou Kung Fu Elements, Tan Tui forms and applications, and (Bruce Lee's) Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do principles, philosophy and core techniques (which form this path's Yang aspect).
Ultimately, both approaches meet at the higher levels and become as one. This takes several years of regular, dedicated training at our classes. Meditation, chi cultivation and spiritual development are also important aspects of both routes.
The combination and utilisation of both 'the straight line and the curve' principles, is an all-embracing yet integrated method of training, and it crystallises in the Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing art.
When you reach Black Sash level, you will have enough experience to realise you have not reached the end, but a new beginning - the Path never ends...!
Feng Shou - Hand of the Wind
Feng Shou (Mandarin) or Fung Sau (Cantonese) Hand of the Wind is the traditional Lee family Taoist style of kung fu, preserved within the Lee family group for over 2000 years, and originating from Wei Hei Wei, Shandong province, on the coast of China. It was taught to Master Chee Soo by the founder of the International Wu-Shu Association, Master Chan Kam Lee. It is a soft or internal art, and therefore uses speed, skill and inner power, instead of physical strength. Stances and ch’i sau – the adhering hand, and the principle of turning the opponent’s strength back on themselves, are integral to the art, and primary hand strikes are made with the open hand or palm, although, it also uses other hand strikes including spear hand, sword hand, hammer fist and closed fist punch. Its primary kicking techniques, or foot patterns, utilise various straight leg kicks, as well as other techniques including stamping side kicks and snap kicks. Evasions, roll-aways, ward offs and parries form its primary defence aspects. Locks and break outs, arm controls, pressure point application and throws, as well as an array of traditional martial arts weapons such as staff and sword, are also practiced within the Lee style.
Jeet Kune Do – Way of the Intercepting Fist
Jeet Kune Do, the Way of the Intercepting Fist, is an approach to kung fu created and developed by martial artist and big screen legend, Bruce Lee. Having initially trained in Wing Chun kung fu, he went on to develop and modify his knowledge, approach and philosophy by incorporating principles and techniques from many other martial arts and related subjects, including Western boxing and fencing. Simplicity, speed, agility, skill and physical strength are key factors in his Jeet Kune Do legacy. Intercepting the opponent before or during their striking action forms an important part of this approach, and closed fist punches, often held vertically, plus finger strikes, and an array of leg swing, snap and side kicks, including stop-kicks, are foundational.
Tan Tui – Springing Leg
Several documented traditions place Tan Tui, often translated as Springing Leg, squarely within the martial culture of northern China, especially Shandong. The art involves long, extended punches, deep, stable stances, straight line stepping patterns, repetitive drilling to build endurance, and snapping, spring like kicks, and straight leg swing kicks (Northern Shaolin).
Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing students will also discover how all of the techniques can be applied using inner power instead of, or in addition to, physical strength.
TAI CHI FOR HEALTH & RELAXATION
If students just want to train in Tai Chi for health, relaxation and wellbeing (without martial arts/self defence application), we do have Phoenix Rising Tai Chi classes specifically for that (on Tuesdays at 7pm, after the 6pm Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing class; also Tai Chi on Wednesday Mornings at 10am; and Tai Chi on Thursdays at 7.30pm. Those separate classes, although part of the Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing syllabus (and can therefore be applied within the Kung Fu class training), are also standalone - purely for health, relaxation and wellbeing - and are therefore suitable for all people. Those classes are aligned to, and part of, Chinese Arts Lee Style, and they include Taoist Breathing and Taoist Yoga.
Beginners Always Welcome
Kung fu (for adults and young people) is on Tuesdays from 6pm-7pm
All Ages from 10+
Location: St. John’s Burlington Methodist Church,
St John Street, Bridlington, YO16 7JS
(please use the side entrance)
Complementary Approaches To
Kung Fu
Traditional & Modern
“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is essentially your own.” - Bruce Lee.
"Wise words, from one of the most influential, insightful, forward-thinking, and skilful martial artists to have ever lived.
"But, don’t be mistaken by thinking it might be a good idea to reject a particular style (or parts of it) before you’ve really had a good look at it – because you do need to look first, to be able to see what is useful to you. And, even then, can you be sure you have looked hard enough? If you’re not careful, by dismissing the teachings of a particular martial arts style before you have truly experienced its fundamental principles (and this takes place over time, by proper application of what is taught, and with a great deal of effort), it’s possible to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. This can happen simply because you may not, at first, fully understand what has been taught to you. There are degrees of realisation, and the student needs to have patience so that through continuous practice, application, effort and experience, he or she reaches those deeper levels of understanding. A good teacher can point you in the right direction, thereby helping you to achieve those realisations for yourself. But they cannot do the work for you. You are also likely to find that there is no end to the levels of enlightenment and unfoldment of knowledge, so in that sense the art, which you have committed yourself to, can last you a lifetime.
"So, it’s easy to see that at any stage of realisation, the most effective and appropriate principles and techniques that you are presently aware of, from your point of view, may differ to what was obvious to you at a previous stage; and they may differ from, or be but a foreshadowing of, that which may become obvious to you in the future. The point of power is the present, so use what you know now, and don’t be trapped in outworn forms (ie your attitudes based on old, incomplete realisations). Yet, trust also that the style you have chosen (if it is working well for you, and if it is effective in real situations) contains layer upon layer of wisdom and understanding, and apply the knowledge appropriate to the stage you are at, knowing it will be enriched as time goes by.
"Over the years, I have come to the realisation that it all has relevance, and therefore there is nothing I would leave out.
Yes, in a given situation I would use only what is relevant at that time. But as a whole, circumstances might on occasion call for a different response to your usual, finely-tuned, stripped down approach. In my experience, everything in the Lee family arts prepares you for such eventualities, so I leave nothing from that out of the training. For example, every stance has its purpose and you have to learn each one properly to understand its use and to be effective. Only then can you go beyond those forms and be fluid in the Celestial Dragon stance, which is 'no stance, yet all stances'.
"Like the shifting form of a dragon manifesting in clouds or water, Celestial Dragon stance represents fluidity of posture. Previously conditioned by form (stability gained by the numerous stances learnt, understood and mastered throughout the course of training), the student is now in a position to free himself – to ‘break the mould’ – and is able to continuously adjust his posture in subtle ways to best suit the needs of the moment. Like a dragon in the clouds, he cannot be pinned down to one shape. Just when you think you see him, he changes before your eyes to something you may not even recognise, yet still he is present in the invisible wind, the shadows of bamboo, the swaying of strong-rooted trees, the thunder and lightning, the spiralling of a tornado – with it’s inherent stillness at the centre of the storm, the rain and the rivers, and the warmth and light of the sun.
"Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do enables you to add to and enhance all of that. It teaches you to be aware of the need to make the right choice of response in any given situation, and not to get flowery or blasé, but to use only what is necessary at that instant, to be adaptive, to not be bound or limited by old forms, but to flow with the moment and like water fill the cup whatever its current shape, then, as Bruce Lee said, the water becomes the cup; Jeet Kune Do teaches you to not only adapt, but to become the form that is necessary at any given moment. It teaches you to be the most effective - because your life may indeed depend on it.
"That is why I practice the Lee family style, complete as it was taught by Chee Soo, and I support its preservation, because it has great depth and value born from thousands of years of tradition - and it is highly effective. Yet, at the same time, paradoxical as it may seem, I find great value in the approach and techniques of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do and its philosophy of ‘no style’. To understand and reconcile that paradox, is to understand the nature of the Celestial Dragon."
By Hsien Sheng Neil Brown, The Art of Celestial Dragon Temple Boxing.
