One time I got to meet Yoda. Well, sort of.

Liu Chan Shan

I used to live in China.  I was teaching at a university, but I was there to learn more about martial arts.  One day while I was training with my teacher, Liu Chan Shan, I was privilidged to meet his teacher, Po Rin Ru.  Grand Master Po was 88 at the time and looked sort of like Yoda, only about twice as tall (4 1/2 feet maybe?). He even walked like Yoda.  I sometimes tell a story about our conversation, but I’ll share that with you later.  I’d rather tell you about what happened after we spoke.

After helping me with the form that I was working on at the time, he asked me to attempt to push him.  I was very hesitant as he was so small and frail, he looked like a stiff wind would blow him over, but he talked me into it.   But try as I might, I could not move him!  And he could make me fly several feet back effortlessly!

After experiencing this first hand I was intrigued.  This ability was something I had heard of, but had previously dismissed as folklore.  I now had something to think about.

It took me over a decade of training, but I eventually began to understand what had happened.  No magic, just applied physics.  Then I met Grand Master George Xu… but that is another story.

Internal Martial Arts use the entire body in a soft, relaxed manner moving like water- fluidly and naturally- instead of being hard and stiff.  After all, stones are ground to sand by a gentle wave, and a tsunami has incredible  force.

By training in Internal Martial Arts you’ll learn to use the body with maximum effieciency and minimal exertion to obtain incredible results.  Though this is great for self defense, it is even more valuable in dealing with the stresses and events of every day life.

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