Originally Posted by
SKM
My Gung Fu master was highly intellectual as well as powerful. He was a fighting and acupuncture master. His school consisted of a run down building on Geary Avenue in San Francisco which always smelled of dust, sweat, and iron palm medicine. He only taught four Gum Gong, or fighting forms, based upon the fists and footwork of his school, and two weapons- knife and staff. The rest of training was composed of fists and footwork in high repetitions and fighting; always fighting. The students were like chess players trying to figure out how to hit each other without getting hit. At that time, I did not do much sparring. I went away to college and when I came back to the school, it was fighting, always fighting. I was bruised on my entire body all the time. Gum Gong training at that time was brutal, bordering on dangerous.