Week 1
About this Course
Welcome to the Tiger – Crane art – Nam Yang’s fighting Kung Fu!
You will find key information here:
Key Resources: Tiger Crane Combination Kung Fu, Sum Chien.
Before you start you should also read this short article about our fighting strategy.
How This course works.
This course will take at least 12 weeks to complete. At the start of each week you will receive access to the week’s training program. Each week’s lessons are spread across 5 days – we thought that most people would have one or two days a week when they were not able to train. Ideally take each lesson on a different day.
You will see below that we recommend that you exercise physically most days too. We will suggest a different exercise program each month.
Some of the lessons have tests afterwards which you should try to pass. Most of the questions will form part of the examination at the end of the course which you will need to pass.
How do I progress?
We stick with the time tested approach that has made kung fu so successful over so many generations. In other words you train hard in order to meet the high standards required to pass a grading – a martial arts examination. Once you have passed you will receive your certificate, your profile will be updated to show that your grade has risen and you will be able to access higher level training.
What sort of grading system do we have?
You can view the information about our grading system here. There are 11 grades through which you can progress. Grade 8 is about the equivalent of a black belt. The absolute minimum time that it will take you to get to here through training online is 2 years and 10 months if you work really hard. It will usually take longer. There are a further 4 special grades for senior instructors only, making 15 altogether.
To work you way up through the grading system you will need to study your kung fu hard so that you can perform it well. You will also have to study the history of our association and kung fu philosophy and ethics.
To earn a grade with Nam Yang you need to do more than just pay a fee. You need to work on your art and work on your self. This way the grades actually mean something!
How do I take a grading?
When you get to week 10 of this course you will be invited to take the examination. You can try as many times as you need to pass. Once you pass you will be invited to book a pregrading. This is effectively an online tuition session during which a senior instructor – most likely the examiner who will take your grading – will take a look at your kung fu and give you advice and feedback and ask you some questions to make sure that you know enough about our arts and our association that you are ready to take the grading. If the examiner thinks that you are ready they will tell you what you need to practise and study for the next 2 weeks and will help you book your grading in 2 weeks time.
The grading will be done over a video call. So long as the examiner thinks that you are good enough to pass then they will promote you to the next level.
What do I have to do to pass my first grading?
Your training program:
This consists of two parts: physical training and video tutorials.
Physical training.
Tiger – Crane Kung Fu: spend about 30 minutes a day practising your stances and the Sum Chien routine. You should practise Sum Chien fairly gently trying to get your techniques precise and to get a flow of energy through the routine. You can still grip fairly hard when you compress your tan tien. There is no need to do Sum Chien more than 100 times each day – quality beats quantity!
Vein – Tendon Chi Kung: take the ‘Bodhidharma’s Vein-Tendon Chi Kung’ course and practise the exercises at least three days a week.
Stretching: take the stretching course (it may take a while for you to finish it) and stretch for about 15 minutes a day.
Fighting techniques. Take the fighting course and practise fighting techniques – including some pad and bag work if possible – for about 10 minutes a day.
This training program takes about 65 minutes a day. Clearly it is not possible to do everything in such a short time so we have just selected the most important things for you to practise. If you have more time to spend that is great – do more. Try to get some strength and fitness building exercises done as well. To help you we will be posting a fitness training program each month.