For Closing Doors, Open Arms: Part 1, click here.
In March of 2020, my wife and I were closely monitoring the rapidly evolving COVID 19 Pandemic and were bracing for impact as we saw lockdowns taking place across the world stage. We heard that within our area of Los Angeles, cases were beginning to surge. This was of great concern not only for the general public but also for my school.
During the many years of my studio, Tiger Crane Kung Fu, being in operation, we had a strict rule about not coming to class sick. Despite this, a good portion of both adult and child students would frequently come to class when severely ill. We would even have parents who dropped their sick children off that were so ill, they couldn’t summon the energy to stand during class. What's more, these same parents would refuse to answer their cell phones when I called them to pick up their sick children. With this constant, flagrant disrespect of health regulations, the COVID situation was of tremendous concern.
Therefore, on March 15, 2020, I made the executive decision to close the studio down for a full week without any mandate from local or state government agencies. It was a decision that I did not take lightly, and to be honest, feared my students would be upset about.
However, later that same evening, the lockdown orders came in from our local government that all fitness centers were to be closed for the remainder of the month. It turned out I was ahead of the curve, if only by a few hours. For many including myself, this was the beginning of an unprecedented time that none of us could ever have truly prepared for.
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome
As lockdowns began, I started releasing weekly Kung Fu tutorial videos free to the public on our Youtube channel. This 11-part series evolved into a form which I choreographed called Ying Kuen (Shadow Fist 阴影拳). This series of exercises is tailor made for at home stay during the pandemic and required little space to perform. It is composed of various martial techniques from both the renowned Hung Gar Kuen (Hung Family Fist 洪家拳) and the rare Do Gar (Daoist Family 道家) Kung Fu systems. I even had a “Kung Fu Movie Pick of the Week” segment at the end of each video which shared some of my favorite movies and where to locate them on streaming platforms.
The thought was that it was good for my students to have something new to work on and for the public, it was a way to share the benefits of Kung Fu free of charge to people at one of their most vulnerable times in recent history. It is something that I’m proud of and along with praise from my own students, had individuals reaching out to me from as far as Africa and Australia who watched the videos and practiced the routine.
As quarantine continued, I began to cultivate what would become our online Kung Fu and Tai Chi programs. Like many, I taught live online classes via Zoom. However, I was not satisfied with simply turning the camera on and teaching as if it were a standard business teleconference. Therefore, refinements were made. For instance, it became apparent a single camera angle of me facing the students during a Zoom class was not going to suffice in relaying the intricacies of every maneuver. So, I drew on my time in animation doing storyboarding by finding a way that I could lead their eyes to every important detail, live and direct.
With the help of newly acquired cameras and telephoto lenses, I found that via remote control, I could zoom in and pan to show every detail near or far of the Kung Fu techniques and postures I was teaching. This along with the weekly instructional videos were great, but some students explained that they weren’t always able to join the live streaming sessions.
So, I decided to record each and every live Zoom session and add them to a vast online library of previous classes for students to access. This not only allowed those that missed class to join in on the session retroactively but gave enrolled students who were in attendance the ability to go back and review prior classes on demand.
For more detailed one on one instruction, I accepted videos of students working on their individual forms and techniques and would carefully film and edit my corrections for their viewing. These videos drew upon not just my extensive knowledge of Kung Fu, but film editing as I meticulously planned out every camera angle to maximize their potential for learning.
Another thing missing was the camaraderie and fun of hanging out at the studio, exchanging stories, and bonding with each other as we did in our pre-COVID days. So a “Social Club” meeting was born where we would visit and catch up on what was going on in each other’s personal lives via a live Zoom meeting at the end of every week.
Heavy Is the Head That Wears The Crown
Like many, I applied for government sponsored grants and loans to stay afloat. It was an artform unto itself and one that I had difficulty familiarizing myself with while big corporations like “Shake Shack” and “Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse” had teams of accountants snatching up funding intended for small business owners like myself.
In time I became more familiar with the different aspects of these programs and was fortunate to secure additional funding to weather the storm as even some of my most dedicated students quit amidst the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. Still, a group of loyal students did stay and not only maintained their martial skill but to my surprise, improved it via our online program.
Always cautious and prioritizing health and safety over financial gain, I’d patiently wait a few weeks on the occasions when lockdowns were giving way to looser restrictions in order to get a clear view of the COVID 19 landscape prior to reopening. Time and again, things would close down once more as cases skyrocketed amid premature reopenings in the commercial sector.
Time passed and the combination of our lease ending and the financial hardships associated with not utilizing a commercial space while paying rent for an entire year finally came to a very hard decision.
Don’t Go Against Force
My Sifu, Y.C. Wong always impressed upon me the usefulness of Tai Chi not only as a mind, body, practice, but as a practical means of conflict resolution. In fact, when a bigger, stronger opponent gave me the beating of a lifetime, Sifu encouraged me to take up the practice of Tai Chi push hands to improve my ability to use an opponent’s force against themselves. And within a year of training this, I was indeed able to defeat this very same opponent who not only dominated me in the past but towered over me in size and outmatched me in raw physical strength.
Sifu would tell me “Don’t go against force.”
I would listen and yield to the oncoming strike of a much more physically formidable opponent, borrowing their aggression and transforming it into my own strength to emerge victorious.
And here, in the era of COVID, I faced an opponent that embodied a strength and ferocity far beyond anything I could imagine. It was a faceless crowned entity who ravaged lives and economies with equal abandon and whose very figure cast a shadow across every corner of the globe.
Bills were piling up making it increasingly difficult to make rent at the school. This coupled with the fact that I’ve always run Tiger Crane Kung Fu in the traditional manner of instruction without belt ranks and the associated income producing fees that come with testing, meant the school was constantly teetering on the edge of closing down even before the lockdown and now the situation was ever more dire.
Regulations were still in place forcing businesses like mine to stay closed and should I choose to hold on to the space, I would soon have to sign another lease. Meanwhile, our online program was promising, and it was amazing to see the progress my students were making in this new, virtual landscape.
So, I made the decision to close the physical location of my school and continue teaching online. I decided to not go against force. I yielded to the bigger, stronger opponent, hoping to harness its strength as my own. I negotiated with the landlord to close my studio down and made the announcement to my students.
And then by myself, I moved nearly every piece of furniture and packed up nearly every item that was the interior of the dream and at one point the reality of my studio, Tiger Crane Kung Fu. I put the dream into storage like some special technique taught to me by my master that I might store in the recesses of my mind to call upon in my time of need, in another time, on another day.
The Six Sides to a School
During the first Kung Fu class held at 1733 East Los Angeles Ave in Simi Valley, I spoke to my students about what our school is and what it isn’t. I explained the physical location was just a box with six sides. But what made the box useful was the empty space inside of it. I told them that in the years to come I wanted us to put all the joy, love, passion, and effort into the box that was the school.
Because at the end of the day, the real school is the relationship between teacher and student. Two individuals that learn from each other day in and day out. Year after year. Decade after decade. Spanning generations. That’s way more than a box can contain, let alone, a single lifetime.
I may have left the physical location of my school behind, but what I took with me on the road ahead is something far greater and I carry it with me wherever I go. Anywhere. Anytime.
