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Post by Gary Steuer on Jan 12, 2008 4:35:53 GMT -5
I've got a lot of stories about the older days, even some about the present ! Anyway, when I have a little more time I'll share these with you . I'm sure there are lots of other folks with good kung fu related, or not , stories that deserve to be shared.......
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Post by Gary Steuer on Jan 19, 2008 3:05:12 GMT -5
I was in the school on Ord st. with GM Wong one day, almost 30 years ago. We were the only ones there when 2 guys walked up the stairs to check out the school. GM Wong gave them a glance, then looked at me and he didn't say a word. They walked in, looked around and talked together then walked up to the counter and asked GM Wong if that was all there was to the place.. He said yes and they asked him how come there was no makiwara boards for hitting to strengthen the students fists .. He said " Oh oh, you the karate guys. So strong, got the big knuckle ! " They were very proud of their distorted looking hands and told him ,yes they were. They practiced hitting with their knuckles all day long. They had huge calcium deposits on their front two joints.. GM Wong asked them if they wouldn't mind showing his young student ( Me. ) how strong they were and the correct way t strike a bag. They were very happy to demonstrate ! We all walked to the bag rack in the rear and GM Wong started the small bag that was filled with wet sand moving side to side. One of the karate guys gave a blood curdling kiii, and struck the bag with all his force ! The timing was perfect. The bag crossed his front just as he struck it and his calloused knuckle was torn off his hand ! The karate guy screamed, blood was flying from his knuckle and he went into shock , along with his friend . GM Wong broke into a smile and was pointing with his finger and after clearing his throat said " Oh oh, you the karate guy with strong hand and the big knuckle, what happened? " Then he started to laugh as the 2 guys ran out of the school and down the stairs to the street and their escape ! GM Wong just smiled at me and went back to his work behind his desk.
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Post by Gary Steuer on Jan 21, 2008 2:42:47 GMT -5
I know Steeve will like this story !
One day at the school on Ord st. There were a few of us looking at some old photos of GM Wong. One of them was a photo of him standing next to a cinder block that was up on its end, about 20 in. high. There was another photo of him standing on top of the cinder block. We all kinda looked at each other not really seeing what the purpose of the photos were. We asked GM Wong what was going on and he came out from behind his desk and asked us to place a block on its high side and he would show us.
Now, he asked us who was good at jumping. When someone came forward he asked him to stand next to the block and then jump up onto it.. We all kinda smiled because we thought it was going to be some strange sort of thing.... The guy who was going to jump got all prepared for his 20 some odd in. jump and then bent his knees and was all ready t jump when GM Wong said, " Oh,oh , why you bend your knees ? " The boy said he bent his knees because he was going to jump up... GM Wong told him to step aside and he would show how to do it. Wearing a suit and tie GM Wong stood next to the block and then all of a sudden he was on top of the block. His knees never bent ! He smiled at us and then he stepped off the block and said " See, easy ." He went back to his work and left us all standing there looking at each other not believing what we just saw.......................
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steeve
Junior Member
Posts: 58
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Post by steeve on Jan 21, 2008 17:37:37 GMT -5
Well Gary  GM Wong had very powerful Calves and toes spring....  Steeve |
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mic
Full Member
Posts: 137
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Post by mic on Jan 21, 2008 19:24:32 GMT -5
Aborigines of Australia can also spring up without bending their knees when they dance. Quite a sight!
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steeve
Junior Member
Posts: 58
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Post by steeve on Jan 21, 2008 19:34:32 GMT -5
Mic thats because the have some DNA of the Kagoorou  Steeve |
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Post by Gary Steuer on Feb 13, 2008 23:32:06 GMT -5
I was looking over some of the threads and I remembered something we did a long time ago.
Seming, Richard Varela ( Not Vera.) and I went to other schools to teach . GM Wong thought this was a good idea but told us to never use our school name as part of our teaching. Well, Richard and I were asked to go to a karate school in the San Fernando Valley to teach a class on kung fu . The classes went well and everyone liked what we taught. We never taught a whole form to a class, instead we would show combinations of moves and applications. Students asked me what the name of our style was and I told them.... Since it's origins were from a Chinese family named Kang, and the word for family in Mandarin is Gar, and the fact that we were teaching for a Japanese teacher named Bill Rusaki we combined the Japanese name Ryu...... So, without smiling I told them the name of the style they were learning was Kang Gar Ryu................. Nobody ever caught it !
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mic
Full Member
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Post by mic on May 5, 2008 12:16:34 GMT -5
Hi to all, Gary, on your H5 website you mention you don't like rap and I, don't usually like county but... listen/watch this YouTube and tell me you might just like it a bit. ;D Red Crow passed not so long ago, within the last year. What does it have to do with KF... people who fought for their life and survival... that's all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PTy9RlHfxQ |
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jay
Junior Member
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Post by jay on Jul 24, 2008 21:11:01 GMT -5
Hey Gary,
How about some more of your great stories.... Celebrities you have taught like Steve McQueen and what they learned, people who came to Ark Wong's and your school with challenges, etc.
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Post by Gary Steuer on Jul 25, 2008 4:54:07 GMT -5
Wow Jay......... Forgot all those stories.
Steve MCQueen. He came in the studio one day while I was working out with Siggy. He was wearing a complete disguise. He looked like a old homeless man. I was about to ask him to leave when he pulled down the fake beard and took off his glasses and asked me not to say anything about it being him....... He really wanted his privacy. We talked and he kept coming back and we talked some more about his training and what he wanted to learn.. He told me about working out with Bruce Lee and he thought it was really a bunch of crap along with the other phony actors that were at the private school in Chinatown. He was a genuinely nice guy ! He hated his wife. Later on he would come by and we would drive around in his Porshe and he would just talk.. He was pretty lonely... He stopped by the old kung fu school to say goodbye before he left for Mexico for his cancer treatment which probably killed him. We got along because he was a plain guy and he was a former Navy man who did plumbing on ships and it was the asbestosis that got to him and caused the cancer....... If you remember, I was a plumber also, so we had a lot to talk about. I miss him.
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mic
Full Member
Posts: 137
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Post by mic on Jul 25, 2008 11:11:45 GMT -5
How about the story of your broken Mandarin and the elder Chinese men visiting the class?
I thought it was a funny one. Others might like it too!
;-)
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Post by Gary Steuer on Jul 25, 2008 19:56:13 GMT -5
I was working as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant for a friend named Don Lee whose father owned the place. I was also taking classes at UCLA in Mandarin and I also had a private tutor.. So, one day two elderly Chinese walked into our kung fu school . Mistakenly thinking it was a restaurant. Perfect chance to show off my Mandarin.... I invited them in saying " Ching Gin. " Please enter. followed by " Ching Zaw. " Please sit down.
they both looked at me , and then they spit on the floor and walked out. That night I asked my tutor what was the problem. She was a young Chinese girl, new to California.. she asked me to repeat what I said.. the first part was ok, but when I said Ching Zaw, she turned 10 different colors and covered her face........... Ching Zaw should have been Ching Tzaw........ Instead of asking them to sit, I told them to go F**k themselves................
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mic
Full Member
Posts: 137
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Post by mic on Jul 26, 2008 10:46:41 GMT -5
Yup, that's the way I remember the story, Gary. ;D I still crack up reading it. Poor elders, I hope they recovered from it and you learned from your slight mistake.  Ok, I am off to see what Sigy accomplished. I have only been asking for that since... the '80's, huh, Gary? ;-) Thank you both for putting the whole thing together. I can't wait to see it and hope it's for sale before next March... off I go. Happy fruitful training to all.  Mic |
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Post by Gary Steuer on Jan 18, 2009 3:22:57 GMT -5
Did I ever mention the time when we were working out in the old studio on Ord st. when this Huge chicano man joined the school.. This was around 1971 . It was during winter and it was cold . Anyway, I went over basics with this guy and he had a sort of smirk on his face as if , yeah, this'll really work ! So....... After the basic workout, GM wong showed us a technique to practice. The Huge guy was paired off with someone and they were doing the move, but it wouldn't work on him, he was that big ! He said loudly so others could hear "d**n, I don't know why I wasted my time, I knew this crap wouldn't work !"
Well, GM Wong heard this and came over to him. He said , after clearing his throat. " You the big boy, let me show you something so the class can see. " Well, it was cold out and this huge guy was wearing a jacket, a shirt, and an undershirt . GM Wong put his hand on the guy's chest and it didn't look like he did anything at all. He asked the guy " How you feel? " The guy told him he didn't feel anything at all and was still smirking. GM Wong said " Good . " and he walked away to do some work behind his counter. We stood around the new guy and asked what happened ? He said nothing.... Then he got a strange look on his face and he started to sweat. Someone told GM Wong and he came over to look. He told the guy to open his jacket, shirt and to lift his undershirt. Which he did....... He didn't have any body hair so it was easy for us to see that there was the beginning of a perfect hand print starting to show up on the guy's chest .... He said he didn't feel too good...Again, GM Wong said "Good." then told him to sit down for 1 hour or he would die ! GM Wong rubbed some ointment on him and thn walked away..... After an hour the guy got up a little shakey and said that this was crazy... He had a big red welt of a hand print on his chest . He left the qwoon quickly ! GM Wong explained to us later that he used a technique called the " Sucking palm." Which pulls from the inside out and causes a lot of damage. Years later , around 1988 , Jay and I were invited to ride with a Mexican bike club for the day.... Well, it turned out that the president of the club was the guy who had shown up at the scholl and when he saw me he asked us to ride in the front with him rather than ride in the back of the group which is customary. He remembered that night a long time ago and he looked at me and just shook his head as if to say " Unbelievable."
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jay
Junior Member
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Post by jay on Jan 19, 2009 23:19:08 GMT -5
That was definitely a strange day. I remember we waited forever at some guys house in East LA before we left. Can't remember why. It was hot out there where we went (Chino?) and I had electrical problems on the way back. I was lucky my bike made it home.
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