Making a Qilin

When I first had kids I really had a separation anxiety from being deprived of my Moh Goon life. I made a lion head out of boxes. My friend laughed when he came over. "Adam do you miss the school?"

The funny thing is I just did the same thing tonight. Only it was a Qilin. I also have a Dragon?Qilin type thing I made before. It didn't turn ut great, but it is salvageable. The first could ones I made ended up being crap. Not a strong enough base because I tried to be cheap. BUt I have to remind myself that whole rolls of masking tape are still cheaper than buying the heads.

I realize that my goals, of making the Kung Fu training more engaging, are actually thing si have been doing for a long time. I had one student who ended up at one point being the only one showing up to class. He had trouble focusing so honestly, I created a lot of games and drills. Hitting pads that I made out of newspapare and duct tape. Hitting them with sticks like jousting. Kicking a soccer ball back and forth.. All sorts of drills.

I am having flash backs to all sorts of martial arts memories I had before I even started at Moh Goon. I would meditate and I would practice just from watching this movie or whatever. Tonight I practiced running in the dark and then doing Kung Fu when nobody was around, and then jogging again when people passed by. I think by to my college years when I did this in the woods. And I think to my friends father, an Uncle (though not by blood) who said that Kung Fu learned in a room is not the same as in nature. You have to do it with the wind and rain.


The first time I did Kung Fu sprinting in the woods I would fall down all the time, tripping on roots.

And even before I started doing that, even in High school, I would practice in the woods.

Had I never gone to Moh Goon, I probably still would have done these things. However, being fornally trained gives me a wide repertoire of things to practice.

You could argue I am past my prime and I should have been fighting in my 20's. My Sifu actually said that by the time he was 20... he had already "Da gaw sai" fought all of the Kung Fu out basically.

But I guess as a child I was never really the fighter type. But still I have (a perhaps unrealistic) dream of doing at least one MMA fight.

Also in the meantime, I think I should learn Jiu JItsu (because people seem to do this without getting hurt too badly regularly) I had gone the boxing route before, at Peter Welch Boxing Club. They said that they were goin gto do MMA too, and there were MMA fighters that went in their for striking. But even though I didn't get super hurt there. I did see black a couple of times. And all the studies are showing that's not good.


Basically, I have shown that I can practice anywhere and through my videos, this blog, and my various classes I can teach anywhere. I just need people who want to learn. Which means I have to recruit if necessary.

But in order for my art not to become stagnant. I mean tonight I ended up doing a lot of traditional drills that I realized would probably work against people shooting in and grappling. However A) it would not be a safe way to do it (unless you were doing it in the octagon) and B) I have nobody to try it on. I would rather lose many times and not hurt the other person (and not get hurt) than  use these techniques and hurt them badly (and get in trouble)

They aren't Eye gouges or anything. It's just I don't have control of those techniques. So that's why Jiu jistu is good. (in theory. Yeah in practice but really it depends. I'm realizing after adding some of that stuff into my practice that all those techniques are like any Kung Fu technique. It doesn't necessarily play out like that in a fight. Just look at the fights that "prove" BJJ is better. And also look at the ones where BJJ lost.)

You can make excuses about MMA's rules or whatever. But rules are good. They keep people alive. And it feels weird to not be participating in MMA as a martial artist. And the path to MMA is Jiu jitsu because that's who set it up.

But I should also be like Helio Gracie. Taking all comers. Not because I am so good. In all honesty my time has passed. But nobody every learned anything by winning all the time. Winning just proves what you parctice is right. When you lose you have an opportunity to adapt change and improve. And before I would always think about legalities when I might get into a fight. Like it was a life and death fight. And that's true, if someone just challenges you on the street to a fight that might involve things other than just martial arts. That is dangerous. And yes you may have to kill them. But in a friendly martial arts fight.. yeah it is dangerous, but mostly because of Ego, because you would rather risk the other person's life than just stop or work on some other drill or whatever.

Now when these sparring become so friendly.. they also become unrealistic. And that is a problem too. But right now, it is not a problem I have.   What I am looking for are people who are my past selves and really want to learn Kung Fu. I realize in a way, right now, I can reach back to kids like me and even far more athletic kids with my same mentality, that want to do Kung Fu and martial arts and lion dance so bad. And I can teach them for extremely cheap or even free. And also because of that, encourage them to do MMA or seek out other career opportunities. In other words. I can improve upon my training for the next generation.

And I'm realizing becoming fixated on a brick and mortar school may very well be a mistake.

I'm not saying I'm still not going to try. But the brick and mortar school is a base. And base can be abandoned. It's not a country. You can move it around. Close up and start new ones no big deal. They are tools, not things to be defended with your life, honor, and sanity or at the cost of all or any of these.

The same goes for equipment. That's why I really have to make my own. And make it from things that are relatively disposable. If someone destroys my head in some sort of gang fight (can't imagine this happening but whatever) I can't get bent out of shape about that. All that matters is human life. Not pretend make believe lion head life. That being said. I will still have pretend things be very much a part of my practice and even expand on them.. creating new creature dances and writing, making up, the legends to go with them to suit me.

My Qilin.. maybe I should call it something different. I made it look like the Qilin's in pictures, not the ones that people dance with. Perhaps I should call it a Burak, and I think for my purposes, because we are low on members, it will have a short tail. I.e., one person can do the dance. And I will use small drums and cymbals that we have and really easy up on what the beats sound like.. as long as whatever is played sounds cool If it is African style then let it be. Who cares? In fact, maybe that way is even better.