On Kung Fu and Running

I got a tweet the other day asking me this question. “Does running help Kung Fu or vice versa?”

This got me thinking. I have been studying Wing Chun Kung Fu for approaching eight years now and I got back in to running after many years away from it at about the same time. I was 32 years old and had spent pretty much all of my 20’s partying, smoking and drinking and doing virtually no exercise.

Other than a short spell of Judo as a young child I had never trained in any martial arts, although I was a fan of Bruce Lee and Kung Fu films in general. I always wanted to take up a martial art but just never got round to it. I kept promising myself it would happen and putting it off and putting it off. It was during an evening drink in a pub that I got chatting to an old friend, who was raving about this new Wing Chun class he had started that the opportunity presented itself. Serendipity at work I believe.

My first class was hell, just the warm up nearly killed me. Push ups and burpees in sets of 50 – I hadn’t done a single push up for years – but I loved it and I was hooked. Almost 8 years later and I feel privileged to include my Sihing and classmates among my good friends and running partners.

Back to the question “Does running help Kung Fu or vice versa?”. The short answer is yes and yes.

So what are the common threads? The key link between both arts is simplicity. Running requires nothing more than getting your shoes on getting out the door and doing it. Similarly with Kung Fu, specifically Wing Chun, with a little training and practice one applies a basic set of principles and you just do it. Whilst many of the drills in Wing Chun require a partner, it is combat training after all, the forms (think kata) are practised alone  (like running) and these become  a form of moving meditation (also like running). In this sense both arts offer the practitioner opportunities for self transcendence or mastery over oneself.

Both of course require practice. In running we focus on breathing, rhythm, cadence , footfall and form. With Kung Fu there are endless repetitions of techniques and principles, always seeking some incremental improvement.

A side benefit of both is fitness. This was the primary reason for taking up running again. I initially started by run walking with my dog over short distances of less than a mile. It was hell, painful and I could never see myself being able to run a full mile non stop. It is incredible how quickly fitness improves and that first non stop mile, then 2 and 3 then 5 feel like such an achievement.

One of the key principles of Wing Chun is relaxation, defined in this sense as the absence of tension in the muscles. The concept of ‘dynamic tension’ works on the basis of holding no tension at all in the muscles throughout the range of a strike until the point of impact when you apply tension to the muscles (squeeze) and immediately relax again post strike. It’s hard to explain but imagine trying to throw a cricket ball or pitch a baseball with tension in your biceps. It doesn’t work. The name of the game here is efficiency and economy of motion. The more tension you hold the more quickly you get tired and incredibly to weaker the strike. We can apply this principle to running – relaxed running seems counter intuitive but next time you are out there running you might be surprised to see how much tension you are carrying in your arms and shoulders.  Relax, let it flow and ensure your energy is not being wasted.

Is it any coincidence that many of the runners and martial artists I know are also some of the most highly motivated and driven people I know? Why is that? In both cases there is a link between hard painful training and the achievement of personal goals. I ran my first ½ marathon in St Albans in the UK in June 2006. The weather was unseasonably hot, almost 30 ◦C, people were dropping like flies and at mile 11 I stopped sweating and got cold,( I realise this is the onset of heatstroke and highly dangerous!)  but I carried on. I was going to finish that race or die trying. I am certain that without the tough training (Kung Fu spirit) I would have given up. This approach, this strength of character is common to both runners and martial artists. The ability to keep going at mile 20 in a marathon when your body is screaming “NO!”, or to continue fighting when pumped full of adrenalin and exhausted,  these skills I believe spill over in to normal life and enable the practitioner to better handle unpleasant situations and conflict in work, personal relationships and all sorts of other areas. Two quotes spring to mind  “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”  (from ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’ by Haruki Murakami) and you will often hear martial artists quoting “Pain is just weakness leaving the body” (Source unknown) I think they sum up the essence of what I am driving at here.

Are there any conflicts? I think not, some professional MMA trainers advocate short sharp runs at high intensity rather than long slow distance for conditioning reasons but most of us are not training to fight competitively anyway and regardless it’s still running.

In summary for me running and martial arts go hand in hand. Each complements the other, they are interrelated not interdependent but my life would not be the same in the absence of either or both.

Back to reality

It’s always nasty getting back to work after a holiday. Particularly so this time around as I had a 5:30 am start my first day back and a presentation to deliver to fifty people. England is cold and wet and particularly dark at that time of the morning, nasty!

Tonight was Wing Chun night and I really did need to train. I felt tired and jet lagged most of the day but after an hour and a half of fitness, pad drills and a bit of Chi Sao I feel a million times better. I found out today that I can now apply to start training for my brown sash grading which is quality news and will be a good focus for next year. It was cool a couple of weeks ago that I got to take my first Wing Chun class, it was a real experience and maybe something to consider for the future. It’s amazing how much you have to examine your own Kung Fu when trying to teach others.

I need to get back out on the road now for a run, I didn’t manage much on holiday only about 15 miles over the two weeks but it’s time to start building up some long slow distance towards the end of the year and get some quality speed and hill sessions built in to the program. I am lucky enough next year to be joining the Project Jericho team for the 24 hour Adidas Thunder Run so lots of goals to aim for next year.

I bought myself a little present while on holiday; I replaced my trusty old Garmin Forerunner 201 with a nice new 405 so I am looking forward to taking it for a test run tomorrow night!

Good luck for WUMA

Good luck to all representing Project Jericho tomorrow at the WUMA open event . The last outing was hugely successful so bring back some more silverware guys! I will be with you in spirit and hopefully I can be part of the team for the next competition.

Too tired to sleep

I am so very tired and I should be sleeping. After an eight hour flight that left London Heathrow after six pm on which I slept for about 20 minutes, I can’t sleep on planes, we arrived at Dulles around 20:30 local (my 1.30 am) and had the pleasure of waiting over an hour to clear passport control.

It is ridiculous that there are 50 desks for customs officers and only 5 are manned and most of them are dealing with US citizens only. Then to add insult to injury when you get to the front of the queue the guy just gets up and walks off… ‘I’m closed’.

With two kids (and all my wife’s clothes) we don’t exactly travel light. Four large suitcases plus pushchair, car seat and hand luggage were piled up on the trolley as we approached the customs area. I was pretty disappointed when the CBP officer stopped us and sent us to ‘Desk B’. The sign above the desk refers to ‘inadmissibility’ and ‘impounding of goods and persons’ and once the officer took our passports and told us to take a seat you start thinking this could be a long night. It was now approaching my 3am and tiredness was setting in and tempers were fraying. To be fair to the CBP guys they were pretty cool and didn’t keep us waiting too long. It turns out that the ESTA authorisation for my eldest daughter had been expired early because we had to renew her passport this year and that set alarm bells ringing in their system. I mean come on she’s a 5-year-old travelling with her parents. It all got sorted with a good old-fashioned green visa waiver form and we were finally on our way.

Cut a long story short we finally got to bed at about 1 am (my 6) and I was awake again by 06:30, wide awake. It happens every time. I feel tired but there is no chance of any more sleep this morning.

I’m getting restless and I need to go for a run, looking forward to getting a few US miles under my belt. We are staying with in-laws (outlaws) for a couple of days in Manassas, Va so we have the luxury of people to look after the kids, which means the Mrs and I get to run together which does not happen often. I think I might try to take a visit to Prince William Forest Park early on Monday morning and get a trail run in, I hear it’s nice.

This holiday will also be a good opportunity to catch up and spend a bit of time each day practising my Wing Chun forms, maybe I’ll post a bit more about that later.

Congratulations

Congratulations to my Kamon Wing Chun Kung Fu brother and sister Steve Barson and Susan Mansfield on being awarded their brown sash last night at Covent Garden by Sifu Kevin Chan. The culmination of a year’s long, hard training. Well done guys!

Wing Chun Wednesday

Wing Chun time again…looking forward to a good session tonight. Hopefully a bit of Chi Sao training after no doubt some interesting exercises!

Update – so there was no Chi Sao and no fitness…a proper back to basics session, chain punching,  elbow strikes and really simple feeding techniques. I was training with a student new to Wing Chun and it is amazing how much that makes you focus on your own Kung Fu and think about form and structure and all the little mistakes. A quality session and a nice change.

Wutang Swordship » Blog Archive » Self-protection

I found this little gem on the web…

Wutang Swordship » Blog Archive » Self-protection.

I particularly like the paragraph about Kung Fu and Running…sums it all up really. Why fight if you can run?

WEC: Varner vs. Cerrone video blog

WEC: Varner vs. Cerrone video blog.

Nice Kung Fu session last night, little bit of fitness and lots of pad work and a bit of touch sparring. Good to be back after a couple of weeks and no sign of shoulder injury until I picked my bag up at the end of the session…how does that work then?

Early start tomorrow, drag my arse out of bed at 6 for 6 miles fartlek then in to the office. No doubt it will be raining!

Pragmatic Martial Arts

I love what this guy is doing. Adam Chan at Pragmatic Martial Arts in Canada, awesome speed and power, take a look!