new website

[ironfenix]

Happy holidays everyone. Here is my new website. Enjoy!

israel flores

[ironfenix]

My school just turned a year old. Even took the guys to a local competition. Nothing like what we do in class though. Continous point sparring. I should post some fight clips later.

www.floreskungfu.com

[Chief Fox]

Nice site. I've got a couple questions. How many students do you have? How many did you start with a year ago? How do you get new students?

The school I attend is having some trouble recently getting new students (we just moved to a new area). I'm worried that if things don't change soon, there won't be a school.

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays.

[mooyingmantis]

What style of PM is that represented in the video on your site?
Thanks in advance!
Mooying

[racerX]

It looks like wahlum,the mantis set has little open gate in it,done diffrently then i had learned it.Old way? Mabey new way not sure some others folks here will know.

[K.Brazier]

Thanks for putting up the clips on the site.

It looks like a lot of time was spent training the forms and apps.

I noticed the wah Lum Stick form.

The empty hand form looked a bit like meihua or northern mantis with some Wah Lum too.

What is that empty hand form?

Kevin

[mantid1]

The hand form is without a doubt the wl little open gate "frame work" with the tjmh apps and body movement.

Who ever put it together did allot of hard work on it.

I like this take in the form.

[Ou Ji]

K.Brazier
Guess it's been awhile since you've seen you first Sifu Art D., maybe you didn't recognize him in the Chen video.

That appears to be the direction Sifu Art D. took his Wah Lum training. He's merging it with TJMH Mantis.

[K.Brazier]

Mantid 1,
Yes, you are right. A lot of things were done to tha little open gate form. I have not done it in many years, but after I read yours I thought about the form and watched it. They did a nice job. The man is talented. Usually I recall only seeing relative beginners doing that form and it never looked so nice.

Uo Ji,
I really appreciate your bringing it to my attention.
The video was too grainy to recognize my Shifu Art.

When I saw that Taiji vid I was a bit perplexed.
I thought to myself, "he does it just like my shifu..."

It is nice to know that it actually WAS my shifu.
Now that I think of it, the little open gate is done in a way making me think they got a lot of inspration from my shifu, cuz I saw some unique "Art"ness to it.

Kevin

[Oso]

congratulations and good job on the website.

[-N-]

I like the hand form. The movement in the first line in particular is close to our line's preferred method of application.

N.

[Oso]

You know, mantis is pretty widespread already. If we can continue towards uniting vs. dividing then we could have a pretty huge US organization of mantis styles.

what spurred this thought was the connectivity between people:

Shifu Flores is a student of Shifu Art D.

I'm training under Shifu Jim Smyer and Shifu John Scolaro.

Jim was Shifu Art D.'s student at one time...not sure of the rest of the Pong Lai'ers who have trained WL except Kevin who also trained under Shifu Art D.

Here in Asheville Shifu Frank Paollilo teaches. Though I have yet to meet him I probably will here shortly. IF I remember what Jim said at one time, Shifu Paollilo was Shifu Art's teacher.

that's just really too big of an interconnectivity to disregard.



:) pardon the random touchy feely shiat there...just some thoughts.

btw, i liked the form as well.

[Hua Lin Laoshi]

All these guys have previously trained in Wah Lum.

Frank Paolillo
Art D.
John Scolaro (Pong Lai)
Kevin Brazier (Tianan Mantis)
Steve Otaviano (18 Elders)
Jim Smyers (Yu Shan)

I believe Israel Flores came from Pablo Zamora before hooking up with Art D.

It's amazing how many ex-WL guys are out there.

As I understand it the whole Tampa group was a close bunch of friends back in the day. John, Jim, Steve O., Steve R., Art, Leroy, Kevin, Tom and Cynthia.

I kinda feel bad that I never got to know these guys back then. I was always too busy with my own training to socialize very much.

[Ou Ji]

Yep, that's a modified Little Open Gate and you can see Art's influence in the opening moves. I'm still trying to get that flavor in the White Monkey set. It's a bit different than how I normally play it but it was interesting to learn a different approach.

Sifu Art prefers short, tight movements which is a big contrast to the WL way. Very evident in the hand set.

[ironfenix]

hey all. Sorry about not replying. Holidays and all.

Chief Fox, I started with 3 students. My wife, an old student, and the grandson of the land lady. The way i recruit new students is by demonstrations, show & tells, student refferals, and most importantly person to person recruitment. I never believed in newspaper and big phone book ads because the returns are just not there. When recruiting people face to face, I give out these flyers that answer a lot of questions and then lead them through the door. I have seen people do some bait & switch (offer stuff like a free month and not have it free). I offer a free class but give some extra incentives when signing up. Now I have 55 active students which isn't a lot but its pretty good I guess. If any of you guys want some more info pm me.

The stick form is like rt hand stick but I cut the ending. The way I am doing it now is longer and cooler I guess than how it was taught to me in the beginning. The form is Little Open Gate but I have not cleared that one with my shifu. I wanted to put a form on the site but not the ones that my shifu has taught me. I guess I just changed it a little with movements from the other sets. It was kind of a spur of the moment type of thing. I taught the set at a seminar that I gave at my one year aniversary party. Thanks to all of you that liked the set.

I have some video of my shifu doing other sets but only on 8 mm and I don't have the capabilities to change it. I can just record him next time. I think that man is truly blessed with incredible movement. The way he explains things as simple as a straight punch are beyond anything I had ever thought before. His kung fu really is "very high skill". By the way, he is doing 9 sectional whip chain in the end of march at his farm.

by the way, does anyone have the chinese name of little open gate. I knew it before but that was a while ago.

[-N-]

Would the name be something like, Siu Hoi Moon? Just guessing here.

N.

[yu shan]

Matt

Good observation about the interconnection. I think about this quite a bit. D`Agostino put out some good students, a great testimony about Shifu Art. But I also think that these students were of high quality to begin with. He drove us to the edge, pretty d a m n intense classes, just the hour long bai fut sow were enough to weed out the weak. Earlier in the year we had an Italian dinner together, Art John Steve O Israel and a big group of our students, it was night of good food great friends and lots of laughs. Yea we were all pretty tight back in the day, it is unfortunate that we have grown apart. It would be nice to have a reunion some day. Maybe someone can look into this.;) I would like to attend Shifu Art`s whip seminar, maybe we can all get together for this. You up for it Oso?

Shifu Art: Kevin Brazier, Steve Robinson, Leroy Kautz, John Scolaro, Yegor, Cynthia Haase, Bruce Cowan, Steve Ottaviano and many after that.

I understand Pablo Zamora put out some good students as well.

[Oso]

just seems too much of a loss of time and energy.

i've recently talked with my old teacher and will be staying in better contact with him.

hopefully he'll be down for the tourney in Feb and you will be able to meet him.



I've just emailed Shifu John about coming down late March. I'm still pretty much out of commission from the shoulder and even in march I won't be able to do two person very hard.

I'd love to visit Shifu Art and the Farm looks awesome. But, if I can get some more Pong Lai then that's where I gotta be.

I have a 9 day break from the 18-26...maybe it can all happen.

[ironfenix]

Yu Shan,
I think it would be great if all of you come up for the whip. Great chance to share ideas and goals. Plus it gives me a chance to see the older kung fu brothers. Did i tell you i have a video of you and 18 elders doing some solo and two man sets?
When is the next gathering going to be? Where is it going to be? Ideas anyone? Oved what about you brother? How are those training manuals coming along? Sign me up for a copy.

israel

[Oso]

you all could come to the tourney I'm hosting in Feb. :D

www.ashevillemartialarts.com/SACMAT