Tell Us Who You Are!

[admin1]

We would love to get to know you!
Tell us your name
What art(s) you practice
How long you've been practicing
Anything else you want to share!
Post a picture if you're feeling lavish

[BenWillJones]

[chriscrudelli]

Hey Ben welcome buddy! Thanks for joining us

[Kickboxer3rd]

Tell us your name -Mike
What art(s) you practice - kickboxing
How long you've been practicing - 20yrs
Anything else you want to share! I teach to help others
Post a picture if you're feeling lavish

[chriscrudelli]

Yo Mikeeeeee

[Osensei]

Hi all my name is Wayne or osensei as sifu Chris Crudelli has honoured me. I have been a martial artist approx 20 years. I have a 2nd dan black belt in karate and a former sensei with my old club. I currently have a position of England official for WKU and assist in squad training when I can. I currently also train in the compass system under tutelage of Sifu Chris Crudelli on instructor training to bring this awesome system to the public.

[chriscrudelli]

O Sensi, thanks and big welcome

[Levaz87]

[chriscrudelli]

Hey James! thanks for introducing yourself! sounds like a lot of well earned experience right there! Welcome to my forum!

[Neilmccarthy]

]

I retired when I was 30 and was a full time kung fu teacher for ten years. I returned back to employment and now Manage a Social Work Team across the South East of the UK.

I have been lucky to have gained extensive knowledge by travelling through out the world practicing and researching martial arts and self defence concepts and applications. Travels have taken me to to China, Taiwan, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Europe and America. I have both worked and trained in India and America. I return to China regularly to train and also take students with me. Training at the famed Shalon temple is an amazing experience, physically, mentally and spiritually.

]In parallel to this, I have studied and taught internal martial arts specifically directed to health, vitality and fitness. This also includes the study of Chinese medicine, acupuncture and Shiatsu massage, a form of oriental healing and well being. I have been involved in the study and practice of shiatsu since 1995 and is a registered member of the Shiatsu Society, the governing body for Shiatsu in the UK.[

I believe that there is a natural progression with martial arts which leads to a greater understanding of the human body. I therefore combine the understanding of Shiatsu, acupuncture and Kung fu which blends to a sensitive mixture of effective martial and healing techniques.

[chriscrudelli]

[Paul Nulty]

Hi, I'm Paul Nulty, Holistic Health & Lifestyle Coach & Martial Artist, based in North Ayrshire, Scotland. I started out as a gymnast age 5-12, I then got in to Shotokan Karate 1986 and then in my early 20's got in to JKD and Filipino Kali with a few other Mixed Martial Arts around 1998, Also got hooked on Chris Crudelli's Mind Body Kick Ass Moves T.V. Show which I think was on TV around about the same time, (best ever T.V. programme in all of history), Thanks for bringing this to us when you did Chris, it was so inspiring for me, and I'm sure for many others also.

I feel like I've developed good strong foundations in MMA, However; my personal skill progress has been very slow due to intermittent lower back issues over the years which also affected my mental health, Thankfully though, I was able to overcome my back issues and improve over-all Mind Body Wellness after discovering Reiki in 2015, Since then I have been working a lot on self healing practising both Reiki & Qigong while drilling through some of the basics, now I have a keen interest in Shaolin Qigong, Kung Fu and various other styles.

[chriscrudelli]

Great to have you here Paul, thanks for sharing your story with he group, your unique history and experienced will enrich the forum. Great stuff!

[James Tae]

[chriscrudelli]

Hi James thanks for this introduction, you have had a fascinating journey so far in the arts and in life. Your posts, thoughts and insights will be useful to the community here

[Kelvincushman]

Tell us your name Kelvin Cushman
What art(s) you practice Traditional Karate & Combatives
How long you've been practicing 37 Years
Anything else you want to share!
Post a picture if you're feeling lavish

[chriscrudelli]

Hi kelvin thanks for introducing yourself, sounds like you have a long history in the arts! Your comments and posts here will be very meaningful. I look forward to reading them.

[Ade]

Hi guys im Ade ive been training and teaching in Mugnedo for 30 years , also in Thai boxing also trained with Sifu Chris Crudelli for the last 10 yeras in Kung Fu ,ABC Combat system ,Thai Chi ,i also study and practice Healing energy for 10 years ,Reiki which im 3rd degree. This is great site and honored to share this space . Be free train hard,love great . ;-)

[chriscrudelli]

[AndreB]

Tell us your name ...........Andre
What art(s) you practice .............American Kenpo
How long you've been practicing ...............6 months
Anything else you want to share! ................Started at the age of 50, have been a martial arts fan since the 70s
Post a picture if you're feeling lavish ........... not so much yet !!!!

[chriscrudelli]

[Ljgale]

Hi All,

I'm Linda

I have been studying Aikido with the British Ki society for the last 17 years, i started doing a bit of training with this in Europe last year.

I have decided it's time to diversify my studies and train in other arts. After meeting Sifu Chris Crudelli and his compass students last year, I have also started training with them this year. This is in Kung Fu but brings together students from all different arts and been a great learning experience so far.

I am looking for to us all learning from each other.

[chriscrudelli]

Thanks for posting Linda! 17 years is no short amount of time! Your input and insights in posts will be most welcome and useful

[robg]

Hello

I'm Rob,

I started with wado ryu back in the late 80s, and had the great pleasure of learning a little from Dave Rowe, who is amazing. He was the first guy I ever felt real use of chi from in combat. I didn't really know what it was at the time, but I could feel his energy was unique and powerful. I discovered recently he is now a 9th dan wado ryu and a master in t'ai chi. go figure.
So along the way I picked up some goju ryu, shotokan, shaolin, ba gua, and ju jitsu.

Having started with wado ryu I was open to other styles, and less formal moves, doing what works etc. It really is a great style of karate.
At university I founded our first competition karate team, with a group of ringers - the kung fu, tae kwon do, wado, shotokan and kickboxing instructors from campus (and me at lowly blue belt) - we had a blast training together and learning a lot for a few years there. Shortly after that I developed atrial fibrillation and couldn't do the hard training of karate any more. I was gutted.

In 1995 I found t'ai chi - initially Wu form, and later practised Yang form with buddhist monks in Brighton for many years. I have been doing t'ai chi in the garden for over 25 years now, and I practise it subtly in everything I do. In recent years I have transferred to the Daoist society where I study their unique form developed by Master Moy.

I have used T'ai chi on a number of occasions to stop fights before they even happened - humour, misdirection, possessing space, all kinds of witchy stuff. It's the most powerful basis of living and martial practise. Anyone who excels in a martial art will eventually discover its appeal and power. Thanks Chris for bringing awareness of it to martial artists everywhere. You're doing a great service to humanity mate.

Looking forward to reading more stories and seeing how this develops.

[chriscrudelli]

[chriscrudelli]

[robg]

Thanks Chris!
That means a lot coming from a master of the art.
When I watched "mind body" in the early 00's I felt finally someone was explaining to the world what I had always felt about martial arts, the magical reality of the power derived from intention, technique, focus and connection, from not trying, not hating or hurting.
Watching you demonstrating heaviness or chi space (my random names for this stuff) just opened a wellspring of exploration in me.
My son is always amazed when he is out of breath hitting his floor bag with haymakers and I walk up to it rest my fist on it and knock it to the ground with seemingly just a twitch and a shaped shout.
"Chi Is Real" should be a car bumper sticker eh

[MarJay]

Hello all!

My name is Mark and I have been studying Gulao Wing Chun for 16 years. It's an interesting style, it's not like much other Wing Chun I've seen as it's from the Lee Sing lineage which means it has elements of what is referred to as the 'Womans form' in it, so it has more turning, is more tightly defensive of the centre and has more rotation and things like that. My Sifu is absolutely amazing in my eyes, and I could only wish to be half as good as he is. He's very exacting, and will never say that something is good, but I've learned what to take from him as a positive and when to listen to his advice (always!).

I've never had to use it on the street, but as others have mentioned, I've harnessed the confidence and skills I've learned to stop and avoid confrontations previously. I did make one mistake which was when a guy told me he was going to 'tear me apart' I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous. Turns out he didn't think it was ridiculous, but was so taken aback by my response that he didn't know what to do so I took that opportunity to depart.

I am endlessly sad about the decline in Kung Fu and other traditional styles of art. If you believe a large section of YouTube, martial arts are worthless unless you can prove them in the MMA octagon. I always say to this that MMA has rules, pits you in a clean area with no objects or debris against a single trained opponent where both participants are trained in similar fighting techniques. I even saw one of these learned individuals did a video on how Wing Chun can't work because it only teaches how to defend against a small number of specific punches. This pains me, because as with all martial arts Wing Chun merely gives you a toolkit which you must learn to apply to a wide variety of situations. A student in their first year of study will learn to defend against a set number of attacks, but then the advanced student learns to apply those techniques in a wider way. Often the Bruce Lee thing gets brought up, but as I understand it he only learned the first form from Ip Man (maybe the second too?) and so filled in the gaps with his own Jeet Kune Do art. That shows the talent of the man, as he was able to see what was missing from his own Kung Fu and find other things to fill that gap. I only wish I could be so self aware!

Of course there are ropey 'traditional' styles out there, but I believe that comes from the dilution and lack of time and effort available in modern life to study. Lots of teachers wouldn't teach every student the whole system, and there are a lot of bad teachers out there, sadly. Two years of a traditional style is generally not enough time to then go and teach it!

Apologies, this ended up longer than I meant it to be, but I am very much looking forward to engaging with people who (hopefully) won't make broad assumptions about people based on which art they train in. The internet can be a toxic place, so I'm happy to join a group which won't share in that toxicity. Nice work Sifu Chris!

[robg]

"I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous. Turns out he didn't think it was ridiculous, but was so taken aback by my response that he didn't know what to do"

I've experienced the same situations. Misdirection and confusing or humorous reactions to aggression can be developed/ allowed by the confidence that comes from any self-defence training and can see-off a lot of nutjobs. A mixture of humour or odd movements, delivered with a clear calm strong body posture, breathing energy and eyes that say at his subconscious level "don't!" will usually do for most enraged or vindictive people. Health warning - doesn't work on really drunk guys!

[chriscrudelli]

Hey! Thanks for the intro! You are very welcome here !