Question: I have heard many people talk about chi, but no one seems to know what it is. Is chi real?

Answer: "Chi" means energy and it is real. In the past, chi was very important in kung-fu training, but today it is absent in most of the kung-fu practiced around the world. Today, it is not found even in kung-fu styles where chi is of utmost importance, like taijiquan. Hence, you have not met someone who can talk about chi from personal experience.

Chi kung is the art where chi is specially trained. But today, chi kung is often practiced as physical exercise where chi, or energy, is absent. Nevertheless, there are still schools today where chi is practiced and experienced. Such practitioners can enjoy benefits that ordinary people may not. For example, they are more powerful than what their physical size suggests, and they can spar for hours without feeling fatigued. Some have used chi to overcome diseases that conventional Western medicine regards as incurable. Others have used chi to open their heart and experience inner joy.

Here is one simple method that may help you experience chi. Stand upright and be relaxed. Close your eyes gently and do not think of anything. Breathe in slowly through your nose and breathe out slowly through your mouth about 20 times. Then keep your mouth gently open and do nothing for about five minutes. If you perform this exercise daily for some time, which may range from a few days to a few weeks, you may feel as if insects are crawling all over your skin, electric charges tingling all over your body, your body expanding or that you are charged with energy. You may find your body gently swaying. These are some of the sensations or effects of chi. More significantly, you will feel calm and filled with vitality.

Question: Some people say that wing choon (chun) kung-fu is different from shaolin. Some say it is part of shaolin. Which side is right?

Answer: Both are right. It depends on one's criteria for reference. The following explanation will make the point clear. Wing choon kung-fu is named after the female kung-fu master Yim Wing Choon (Chun), who learned from the famous shaolin nun Ng Mooi (Mui). What Yim Wing Choon learned was shaolin kung-fu, specializing in that aspect of shaolin kung-fu called flower set. Later, Yim Wing Choon modified some of the shaolin patterns and stances to suit her needs.

For example, instead of using the horse-riding stance for force training at the start of her flower set, she used the narrower goat stance; and instead of using the long bow-and-arrow stance for attack and bringing the leg back to the false-leg stance for defense, she used the four-six stance for both attack and defense. These modifications were made for practical purposes. As the wife of a respected merchant, Yim Wing Choon wore long skirts instead of the trousers worn by working-class women. Using the goat stance and the four-six stance was more practical for her.

Yim Wing Choon also chose hand forms, such as palm thrust and cup fist, that were more suitable for her, rather than "harder" forms such as tiger claws and level punch. She selected these patterns and stances and arranged them into a kung-fu set, which she would practice at the start of her training. For reference, she called this set "siu lin tao," which is literally "little practice beginning," and figuratively means "something to start the practice with." "Siu lin tao," also called "siu lim tao," has become the core of wing choon kung-fu today.

Hence, one may say that wing choon kung-fu is part of shaolin kung-fu because it originated from shaolin kung-fu. In fact, some masters refer to their art as "shaolin wing choon" instead of just "wing choon." It is the same as in many other arts derived from shaolin, such as "shaolin praying mantis," "shaolin hoong ka" and "shaolin choy li fatt."

On the other hand, one may say that wing choon kung-fu is different from shaolin kung-fu because typical wing choon patterns such as "siu lin tao" are different from typical patterns found in characteristic shaolin sets like "five animal set" and "lohan set."

Question: I have practiced kung-fu for three years, but when I spar with my tae kwon do friends I cannot block their kicks. I suppose it is because my hands are shorter and less powerful than their legs. What kung-fu techniques would you advise me to use against the longer and more powerful tae kwon do kicks?

Answer: You have probably not been systematically trained to use kung-fu techniques for combat, and you go straight to free sparring. There are many kung-fu techniques you can use against tae kwon do kicks, but merely knowing them is inadequate; you must be systematically trained to use them skillfully. It is not true that the hands are less powerful than the legs. It is also not necessary to block kicks. There are other, more effective ways to counter them. While the hands may be shorter than the legs, it is not necessarily a disadvantage. If all other things were equal, as hands are more versatile, they are more effective than legs in an attack. Two effective kung-fu techniques against kicks are as follows. When your tae kwon do friend kicks at you, almost irrespective of what type of kicking attack he uses, don't block the kick, but move back or aside slightly and strike his kicking leg with your arm or fist.

Alternatively, as he kicks, without moving your feet but using your bow-and-arrow stance, shift your body backward to avoid the kick. As his kick is spent, shift your body forward to strike him with your fist. You may have to brush his leg aside or guard his leg against a second kick as you shift forward to strike. Sometimes you may have to move your feet forward.

Practice these two techniques with an imaginary opponent kicking you 50 times a day for three months. Then use the techniques whenever your tae kwon do friends attack you with kicks. You will be surprised at the effectiveness of your counters.

Question: I read stories that kung-fu masters in the past could fight for an hour and yet would not be out of breath. Was that true? If that was true, how did they train?

Answer: Yes, it was true that kung-fu masters in the past could fight for an hour or more without being out of breath. I am sure of this because even students who attended my Intensive Shaolin Kung-fu Course and Intensive Taijiquan Course could spar for an hour or more without panting. If you go to my Web site at http://shaolin.org you can find a lot of video clips showing sparring (which often had gone on for more than an hour), and if you observe closely you will see they were not tired or out of breath.

Combatants are tired and out of breath in their sparring or fighting because they are tensed and do not know how to regulate their breathing. If they use mechanical strength, they would have to tense their muscles. If they are not trained in breathing methods, they would soon be out of breath when engaged in fast, vigorous movements. Kung-fu masters in the past used internal force and breath control in their fighting. Hence, they were not tired or out of breath even after fighting for a long time. There were many different training methods, but they all involved the management of energy. By maintaining a smooth energy flow, they could be powerful without having to tense their muscles, and by maintaining a continuous energy flow they would not be out of breath.