HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF
BLACK TIGER STEALS HEART
Kungfu students in the past took many years before they could use kungfu patterns spontaneously for combat. When Grandmaster Wong first taught Shaolin Kungfu in the 1980s at Shaolin Wahnam Association in Sungai Petani, Malaysia, he helped students to shorten this training period by devising 12 combat sequences for them. You can view these original combat sequences here.
Grandmaster Wong left the association because of policy difference and established Shaolin Wahnam Institute in the 1990s to offer intensive courses in Malaysia as well as taught overseas. To enable students attending the Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course to be able to use Shaolin Kungfu spontaneously for combat, Grandmaster Wong improved the original 12 combat sequences to 20 combat sequences, which were more systematically devised, as follows:
- Sequences 1 to 4 -- Strikes using mainly the left mode
- Sequences 5 to 8 -- Strikes using mainly the right mode
- Sequences 9 to 12 -- Kicks
- Sequences 13 to 16 -- Felling techniques
- Sequences 17 to 20 -- Chin-na.
However at a time when learning from videos beforehand over the internet was unknown, early students of the Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course managed to learn only up to Sequence 12, and with improvement in the teaching methodology later students managed to learn up to Sequence 16. As chin-na techniques are also found in Sequences 13 to 16, Grandmaster Wong decided to use Sequences 1 to 16 as the basic material to teach Shaolin combat application, leaving Sequences 17 to 20 for selective courses. To help students remember these sequences better, these combat sequences were linked together to form kungfu sets.
"Black Tiger Steals Heart" is formed from Sequences 1 to 4, using the most widely used pattern to name the set. The selected patterns represent strikes from four main directions, namely top, middle, bottom and sides, and their typical defence. The patterns are relatively simple as the main aim of practicing these four combat sequences is to train basic combat skills, like good timing, good spacing and spontaneous response. When students are proficient with these four combat sequences, they can counter any hand attacks.
Black Tiger Steals Heart in Pictures
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