The Challenger from Texas
By
Sifu Steffan de Graffenried
中 文 按 此
I recently heard a story which took place in early 1977. It was about
one week before Chinese New Year when a man from Texas came to
Grandmaster Wong’s school. At that time the school was on Noriega Street
between 32nd and 33rd Avenue in the Sunset district of San Francisco. It
was late in the evening; after 10 PM and most of his students had gone
home. Ricky Farmer was the only student there for private lesson. He was
teaching Rick the Small Plum Blossom hand form at that time.
The Texan was a redhead with big eyes, a big nose and big sideburns. He
was about 5 feet 10 and weighed around 190 pounds. He said he had an
extensive Asian martial arts background, he didn’t believe in forms
practice. He thought that forms were a waste of time. He believed free
style fighting was the only practical martial arts. He imitated the
ding-ji-ma (bow stance), the nau-ma (twist stance) and the diu-ma (cat
stance) by watching Grandmaster Wong instructing Rick earlier and said
those stances were useless. Grandmaster Wong told him that the stances
were good for strengthening the legs. He said, “Yes, that’s what every
kung fu instructor has told me, but I still think it is a waste of my
time.“ The Texan said, “when it comes to actual fighting, those stances
are useless.“ He told Grandmaster Wong to stand still in a cat stance
position and he would attack Grandmaster Wong to prove the cat stance
was useless.
Grandmaster Wong did what he said. Grandmaster Wong’s arms were folded
in front of his chest and his right foot was in the tiptoe position.
This man rushed into Grandmaster Wong with a football attack and tried
to push Grandmaster Wong over. Grandmaster Wong’s left foot stepped back
and his right leg turned into a slanting position like sieh-ma.
Grandmaster Wong’s arms connected to the man’s arms and turned his waist
and shoulders to the left side at the same time. This man was sent
flying like a kite and tumbled at least 5 meters to Grandmaster Wong’s
left. Ricky Farmer caught his body to keep the Texan from swinging into
the wall.
Grandmaster Wong immediately went back to the same cat stance. The man
stabilized for couple of seconds and said to Grandmaster Wong, “Let me
try one more time?“ Grandmaster Wong said, “Sure.“ This time he used his
right foot did a foot-lifting sweep to Grandmaster Wong’s front foot and
tried to follow with a right palm push into Grandmaster Wong’s chest to
knock him over. Grandmaster Wong quickly picked up his right foot into a
crane stance. When he pushed Grandmaster Wong’s chest at that moment,
Grandmaster Wong put his right foot back down into the same cat stance
position like before; at the same time he used his right hand to perform
a nop-sau (grab) on the man’s right hand and pulled it downward to
Grandmaster Wong’s lower right. The Texan fell down flat on the ground.
Grandmaster Wong’s student Rick helped him to get up.
Grandmaster Wong asked him, “Why did you come to my school since you
didn’t believe in traditional kung fu?“ He replied, “I just like to have
full-contact experience with traditional kung fu instructors to build up
my confidence.“ He continued saying, “but so far I haven’t had anyone
like you who can move so quickly by using kung fu techniques.“ The man
apologized for coming so late in the evening and for causing any
problems and left. A few months later, he sent couple of his friends who
moved to San Francisco from Texas to study from Grandmaster Wong.