IGX

The Making of a Butterfly: Traditional Chinese Martial Arts As Taught by Master W. C. Chen (Paperback)



Lots of little Kung Fu lessons, supposedly learned from a teacher who seems right out of a Hollywood script (speaks perfect English, incredible martial artist, precognitive healing abilities, humorous and a brutal taskmaster).

I don't know if it's true or not, but I liked reading it.

The Kung Fu is internal (I know we have some neijia practioners here) and the book is broken into a separate lesson each chapter e.g., the importance of forms and weapons training, believing in oneself, how to set up throws, etc.

I actually trained with Sifu Starr for a couple of years. I have very fond memories of him. Had to drop out due to personal issues requiring dosages of Zoloft and Xanax, but I was always glad of the time I spent in the dojo. He was a very good teacher - practical, earthy, lots of charisma, funnier than hell when he wanted to be, kicked his students asses' with old school traditional kung fu training and seemed to be very skillful. Lots of his senior students were very impressive indeed.

A couple years later when I fucked up my elbow, I dropped by his dojo looking for recommendations for a local acupuncturist, and he said, in essence, screw that, you were my student, come by when the office is open and I will work on you for free. He did more for my elbow in one session than 10 MD and chiropractor visits had accomplished in the 4 months before that.

He's written two more books, "Martial Mechanics" and (just recently) "Martial Maneuvers" that detail his theories of proper fighting technique. I'm very pleased to see he's finally getting some recognition and hopefully some extra income for his golden years.