San Rafael champion says Kung Fu saved his life
By Scott Silveri
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 11/14/2011 06:42:34 PM PST
STRENGTH AND flexibility are two benefits to becoming an expert in the marial art of Kung Fu. Scott Jensen believes those qualities saved his life — twice.
The 49-year-old San Rafael resident survived two major car accidents before he turned 25. The first crash stopped his heart and broke his pelvis, the second sprained nearly all his vertabrae. With the help of his martial arts training, he recovered. Now, 25 years later, Jensen is considered a Kung Fu master and credits his physical health to his devotion to the art.
"One of the reasons I got good at all this stuff and some of my friends have told me I should write a book, 'I Can't Stop,'" said Jensen, who lives with his wife of five years, Rachel, and his 14-year-old son, Connor. "Because if I keep training, I keep doing the Tai Chi and the Kung Fu, I feel great and I'm super athletic, I can do what I want. If I stop for a couple months, I'll start feeling terrible and I'll start having pain again in my back and I'll sort of lose the tone and alignment of my whole body."
Last month, Jensen competed in the World International Martial Arts Championship held at Wu Dang Mountain, China. There were over 1,200 competitors and Jensen won a gold medal for his performance of the Yang Family Style of Tai Chi Chuan. He also won a silver medal for his performance of the Plum Blossom Double Straight Swords.
The Yang Family Style is the most common worldwide and it's a long sequence of movements of different martial arts techniques. The Double Straight Swords form is a rare, difficult and fast sequence. Jensen was the only competitor to use that particular form.
"I feel especially good about my silver medal in the weapons form because I had some really stiff competition," he said. "I was competing against a lot of people that were 20 years younger than I was."
Jensen's wife Rachel, a native of Taiwan, accompanied him to Wu Dang Mountain, a place of great significance in the martial arts world. She served as his translator.
"I knew of the history and the background a little bit already," said Rachel, who met Scott after taking one of his martial arts classes. "But being there, I was just in awe of the surroundings, the setting of the whole place. The energy of the place is just amazing."
Jensen has had quite a few great martial arts instructors during his years of training, but credits Grandmaster Wong Jackman, for having a great influence on his passion for Kung Fu. Jackman is considered to be a living legend in San Francisco's Chinatown and in the martial arts world, according to Jensen.
Jackman is best known for a secret duel with Bruce Lee, the movie star considered to be the most famous Kung Fu expert. With some of Jensen's instructors retiring from teaching Kung Fu, he feels a responsibility now that he must take it upon himself to teach and keep the art alive.
"There's only a couple people like me in those arts that can pass it on," Jensen said. "My intention is that I'm dedicating the next 10, maybe 15 years and I'm going to start with the kids. "... (After) a few more years we're going to have some really good Kung Fu competitors coming out of Marin and a few more we'll have a whole crop of instructors as well. I'm really on this sort of mission to do this."
Jensen, who is known as Sifu (Chinese for "father of secret knowledge"), operates the 10,000 Victories School of Chinese Kung Fu and Tai Chi. He holds classes in Marin and the East Bay. The reference "10,000 Victories" is a double sabre form in Kung Fu and also was a well-known body guard company in China.
"It's not just about winning medals or trophies," Jensen said. "It's really people becoming healthier or stronger and more capable, more confident, being able to be leaders in their own lives. To me, that's really the kind of victories we're trying to create."
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