There aren't many Choy Lee Fut books available that can truly teach us something in a deeper and more understandable way. Perhaps because writing books, let alone books with deeper and more useful contents, is difficult; or perhaps there is a kind of resistance to publicly sharing knowledge due to secular secrecy or modern commercial strategies. However, I am free of these particularities, and I believe that sharing is a necessary attitude for people in positions of authority and expertise in today's world. Nowadays, everything is just a click away, and information is everywhere; and if it is available, let it be as it should be, so that everyone can benefit.
My newest publication, "Choy Lee Fut Single and Double-headed Staff, the Complete Form," kicks off a new series of technical books with the goal of providing a kind of manual that can supplement training in the academy, helping to provide the necessary support for a deeper understanding of Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu. The book is easy to understand and interpret. It begins with a brief theoretical introduction, with generalities that place the reader in the right environment for a better framing of this weapon in the general universe of martial arts, and of course, Kung Fu in particular; then comes the technical section, which is the book's heart, with a detailed description of one of the most important forms of weapons in Choy Lee Fut, the staff, and its best known form "Seung Gaap Daan Gwan," which is the name of the weapon. This staff teaches how to use one head, two heads, or both, in a very long form composed of various combinations in different directions with different strategies.
The choreography itself is the raison d'être of the book, and special attention has been paid to its presentation: images always oriented in the same direction, original characters and their transcription, a detailed explanation of each movement, auxiliary graphics, and displacement diagrams comprise the set of vectors that will facilitate the tracking of the sequence without significant difficulty.
However, it should be noted that this book is not, and is not intended to be, a comprehensive and complete guide to the use of the staff. It is, rather, a detailed presentation of a fundamental choreography within the broad spectrum of weapons practice in Chinese martial arts, specifically the Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu system. In this sense, it serves practitioners of this system directly, who will likely see it as a standardized model or a technical reference guide, but it also serves enthusiasts of other martial arts who are curious about the dynamics of a weapon that, dare I say, is transversal to any oriental or western martial art.
For those who want to take their practice of this form and weapon to the next level, the best advice I can give is to find an expert in the Choy Lee Fut system who has included this choreography in his curriculum and work with him to mature a more detailed practice, which will always be far beyond what a simple book, no matter how detailed, can convey. I also believe that mastery of a weapon is only complete when the application of its techniques in a more realistic context supplements the training of choreographies, so this is a topic that should always be brought up for those who want to broaden their understanding of these more specific and specialized areas of martial arts.
Nonetheless, despite the fact that a book does not replace an individual's instruction and has limitations on how people can learn from it, the support it provides is critical for serious martial arts enthusiasts and lovers. With this in mind, I wrote this book, and I honestly believe it contains valuable content that can help many people all over the world, and many of them will undoubtedly be enraptured by a type of knowledge that, unfortunately, not even their instructors can access! They now have...
| CHOY LEE FUT SINGLE AND DOUBLE-HEADED STAFF, THE COMPLETE FORM |
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| BOOK CONTENTS |
| Table of contents |
| About the author |
| Acknowledgements |
| Note on translation |
| Introduction |
| CHAPTER 1 - ABOUT CHOY LEE FUT KUNG FU |
| Brief notes on history |
| Choy Lee Fut, a southern system |
| The vast curriculum of Choy Lee Fut |
| CHAPTER 2 - THE STAFF ON CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS |
| Historical overview |
| The Shaolin monks |
| The Staff in Choy Lee Fut |
| Materials, dimensions and weight |
| The training methodology |
| CHAPTER 3 - SINGLE AND DOUBLE-HEADED STAFF complete form |
| Introduction |
| The Seung Gaap Daan Gwan |
| What you need to know before the practise |
| Interpreting the pictures and illustrations |
| Seung Gaap Daan Gwan complete form |
| AFTERWARD |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY |
| INDEX |