August 2025 Newsletter

Hello students & parents,

We hope you all are enjoying your summer, and happiest birthday to our Shimu Shin and Ashton, Mariano and Ally! Please welcome Lauren as well to our Taiji classes.

Here are the focuses this month. Please double-check the days off for your classes:

• Morning Taiji: 5 Animals Qigong

• Evening Taiji: Taiji 28 (No Class on Wednesday night, Aug 20th)

• Beginner Gongfu: Sanda Summer Showdown (All classes are with Advanced Class in Aug)

  • Shorts and school/gym shirts for August's sparring unless you have the uniform

• Kid's Gongfu: Sanda Summer Showdown

  • Shorts and school/gym shirts for August's sparring unless you have the uniform

• Advanced Gongfu: Sanda Summer Showdown (Classes on Aug 19th will be led by Disciples)

For all classes, please stay hydrated before class and/or bring your own pre-filled water bottle; our water-bottle refiller station at the studio is having problems (the bane of our existence since we've first opened up) and may not work at all times.

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The Two Pillars of Our Gongfu Practice: Taolu & Sanda

In the world of gongfu, two main disciplines stand side by side: taolu (forms) and sanda (Chinese style sparring/kickboxing). While they may look vastly different on the surface, both are essential to becoming a more well-rounded Chinese martial artist.

It’s easy to assume that sanda, with its true-to-reality fighting skills, power, timing, and reflex is the “real” gongfu -the street-ready application - the backbone of self-defense. And it's true that sparring hones your instincts, builds courage, tests your technique in motion and is the roots to learning martial arts in the first place - to protect ourselves. It keeps us honest and not in the land of people who watch too many kungfu movies. It reminds us that gongfu isn’t just theory. It's survival, movement, and adaptability under pressure.

And then are our taolu - some flashy, some very traditional, some very performative. But to dismiss forms as merely “performance” is to miss half the story.

Forms train us in ways sparring never could:

• Endurance: A full form demands stamina, just like a real fight.

• Timing & Coordination: Every motion teaches rhythm and control.

• Precision: Perfection isn’t just aesthetic. It's functional.

• Mental Discipline: You can’t “wing it” through a form. It's dedication to the minute details for that .01 point, much like the Olympics.

• Tradition & Culture: Each movement carries the legacy of Chinese martial arts heritage, passed down through generations having learned the same forms.

  
  

We're not here to create brawlers; will all respect, there are plenty of other great sports that do a much better job at that, whether boxing, kickboxing, MMA, etc. We're also not here to perform overly-acrobatic wushu style forms made purely for a performance and less of fighting applications. Many schools have unfortunately fallen to the status of "McDojo," meaning a low-grade martial arts school that doesn't know how to fight, teaches unrealistic/fantasy based theory (like shooting energy balls from our hands...) and focuses purely on money and not quality. We refuse to ever get recognized as such.

Our goal has always been to create a strong, basic gongfu foundation for our students, and learning both sanda and taolu are equally important to have a firm understanding of Chinese martial arts. From that point on, it's up to the student to figure out how they want to continue their journey, akin to going to a college/academy.

Forms aren't just about looking good. They really are the soul of gongfu. This is where our culture, values, and attention to detail live. This is where we hone our movements between sparring sessions. When done right, they condition the body, focus the mind, and refine the spirit. They are training without a partner, a few with 2-people, but with a higher standard: perfection.

We spar to stay sharp and realistic. We perform forms to stay true to the spirit of gongfu. And through both, we honor the full spectrum of Chinese martial arts, not just as fighters but as scholarly guardians of an ancient tradition.

-Shifu Lei

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

• Remember you can always check the school schedule on the app, which is much faster than checking social media or these newsletters for the calendar. To save from excessive printing, calendars are no longer printed on report cards.

• Report cards will only be given when you're near testing for your next sash. To save the trees and printing, a digital version that will be located on your school portal is currently being tested.

• All gongfu classes, USE your training booklet. Even for 5 minutes on break or after classes. Track how much you're growing as a martial artist. Every day I want you to recognize one thing that you did better than the last class and make goals. Write it down, train with purpose, and watch discipline turn wishes & dreams into results.

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SCHOOL SCHEDULE