Originally posted by ndmmxiaomayi:
I didn't mean all at one time.
Okay, so then I guess you are seriously curious then...Here goes (and remember, you asked for it
)
After learning some
TKD from age 9 - 11, and going to the library and doing research on martial arts in general, I realized that chinese martial arts was what I mainly wanted. So I searched.
I could only find mainly "Tai Chi" listings. So finally I went to a teacher who taught Chinese stuff (listing was for some different Tai Chi styles and a bunch of different qigongs, but I didn't know much about it then).
I began studying different qigongs there for awhile.
I then found out he also taught
Northern Shaolin (hereafter referred to as
BSL [BeiShaolin, Bak Siu Lam, etc.]), so I began learning BSL at just before my 12th birthday.
From about age 12 - 18, it was mainly BSL & Qigong, and a little bit of basic yangjia taijiquan, but my teacher would often take us to train with teachers of different styles from time to time, to get exposure of different styles. Here I was introduced to ChoyLayFut, Southern Preying Mantis, Taijiquan (yang & chen), Hop Gar, ChangQuan, YingJowPai (Eagle Claw), Shorinji Karate, various grappling, and contemporary modern wushu.
Immediately after finishing High School (this is all happening in the USA - I think it is called secondary school here, but not sure of all the different education levels here - quite confusing for me to understand actually), I was debating on whether or not to move to California and go to a Traditional Chinese Medicine School, as I had studied some basics during my BSL & qigong training. So for about six months (age is about 18.5 - 19.25 yrs.) I did not train my BSL, as my teacher told me to take time off for thinking on my TCM decision. During this time I found
Capoeira, and went regularly to training, and also actually some
7-Star northern preying mantis. I was not considering this to be serious training, but just for enjoyment and exposure.
After this time (and decided not to go to TCM), I moved into my
BSL teacher's home/school and attended junior college. He was working with his FT-job, publishing a book, and doing some seminars ard the country so was quite busy. I was then left, along with some other senior students, to lead the classes. During this time, believe it or not, I actually also went back to
TKD (so many people in class were insulting it, so I wanted to go back in and see for myself, now that I was older & a bit more experienced).
After a while, I decided to go to University, which was about an hour and a half away, so I moved there and went to school. My BSL teacher allowed me to teach "Introduction to Chinese Martial Arts" (JiBenGong), our BSL style up to a certain point, some of the basic qigongs, and basic-level introductory yang jia taijiquan.
I had a car though, so was able to travel between these two cities when I wanted, which was usually about twice per week.
So in Athens - the city where my University was - I practiced what I was taught, I began teaching, and was taking University classes too of course
. In Atlanta - my hometown - I continued my BSL learning, I began learning
Hung Gar, and more Yangjia Taijiquan. I revisited
Hop Gar and trained with them on/off for while, coming once in a while, but practicing what I had learned at home. I revisited the
Southern Preying Mantis style & qigong, and continued learning that for a while (maybe about a year max).
After awhile, I stopped Hung Gar & played with
Chenjia Taijiquan (just a short while of exposure), while learning
Gao Baguazhang and
HsingYi Quan.
Throughout the years, my student-base grew, and I moved back to Atlanta, but kept driving back to Athens to teach (I later taught in both cities).
Here in Singapore, I have had a bit of exposure, but I've not been able to dedicate myself to a school yet.
So, anyway there it is - a lot of exposure, with real learning in a few styles, but most learning was in BSL & qigong.