What does kung fu mean;

According to the Chinese it means,

Excellence obtained over a period of time.
A while back, My Teacher wrote about kung fu being for sale. I received a lot of questions about that article and I think we should look at the meanings that Sifu meant in the article.

At one point Sifu mentions about boxing and trainers. The best boxers are not the best trainers. The same goes in martial arts. Some of the best trainers are hidden away in small towns and villages, though out the world. Men and women who have seen the passing of time and conflicts, in there own lives and who wish to finish there days quietly and peacefully. There are many movie stars out there showing you all kinds of fancy moves on the TV screen. But few have ever really fought using there martial arts skills. Still there are others out there that have great martial art skills, yet they choose to use the flashy TV screen moves to win over great audiences of people for the money.

For those who try to keep up, it is impossible to do so. Allow me to go a little farther. About two years ago a martial arts magazine did an article on Jacky Chan and a few other great movie stars from China. Jackie was asked if he would use what he does in the movie in a real fight and he said NO. It does not work in real life. Jackie Chan and Samoa Hung Michele Yoi and many other great movie star all studied Chinese opera for many years to perform in the opera and their careers led them to the cinema screen.

Everybody loves Billy Banks and his new Tao Bow workouts and they are good. Billy Banks has stared in several movies and second in many more. Yet few know that his 7 years of world championship, were in Forms, Not fighting, He is good but you must think about money.

Therefore: we can say, the good are not always the good. Lets look a little deeper still. In boxing, Mohammed Ali was the greatest for many years. Yet who trained him? This is where the truth is. Who trained the best fighter? It was a short little old man who Ali could have most likely killed with a back hand slap. This is our point here. You need to look deeper in who is teaching you and the why.

Lets talk about lineage next, and it is a tough one to look at. Lineage in martial arts, is the goal for many, because it is suppose to mean you came from a good background and therefore you know, or should have good knowledge of your style. Yet this is not true! There are many teachers out there that have learn the basics from someone who has learned from someone who has been taught by the Great Grand Master of a certain style.

Also remember; just because HE KNOWS THE STYLE FROM BEGINNING TO END DOES NOT MAKE HIM A GOOD TEACHER. He could be a good fighter but a lousy teacher. So when you look for a teacher do not look at the pedigree, look at the person and see what is there, and does it fit what you want.

The second part of this is about certificates, My teacher is correct here also. We have both been over seas, we have both been to Hong Kong, and I have been a few places my teacher has not been, and I agree with him. There are a lot of people who go over seas to BUY there certificates. You must remember that overseas money talks above all else. Many teachers give out certificates if you know the forms only. Some guys received certificates a few years ago from a couple of grandmasters. It was all written in Chinese. When they came home to America and had the certificates translated, they said absolutely nothing.

Part three is the teacher himself, as My Teacher says don’t be fooled by the teacher because he is oriental. There are many poor teachers in the oriental also. America does not have exclusive rights to people being ripped off. There are many seminars going on all over America every month they are charging very large prices for two or three days at four to six hours a day. If you are lucky you might get to shake hands with the main man. This is the fast food kung fu that is being talking about. You are paying large prices and learning nothing, you get a certificate to show you have been there and you didn’t learn anything. I have been to several of these and they taught me nothing new.

In Denver the average class is $100.00 to $250.00 each month with a one year contract. In California the average class can be high as $1000.00 a month or even more. And some of the teachers teach in the parks because the rent is to high. Now let us go the other way. If classes are $10.00 to $20.00 a month in a large city. Here it is to cheap, what are you really learning. Basically you are learning nothing.

There are teachers out there who don’t care about the money. They need to charge a fair price to teach you and keep the school open. You as a person need to look at the time involved in learning kung fu and this now brings us back to kung fu and its true meaning. It boils down to time and training,
IT TAKES TIME TO TRAIN :
AND TRAINING TO BE GOOD TAKES TIME.

Kung fu is more than a martial arts, its part of life. And it helps to keep you disciplined and healthy. All of this is a long period of time. ( a life time ). The oriental figured it out a long time ago, That nothing beats experience, it takes time to grow in experience, experience produces excellence in time.

I hope this clears up a lot of the questions that have come to me. If I have not, I will try to answer your questions personally.

May God Bless you

Sifu Howard Unrein