Shaolin Kungfu in Ireland

Timberwolf

Hi everyone,

Last weekend I attended the first ever regular course in Ireland of Shaolin Kungfu. It was a great two days for all concerned, both in and out of the training hall. It was held near Castleisland, Co. Kerry, with an instructor coming all the way from Scotland to teach.

The school is Shaolin Wahnam which has qigong, kungfu and tai chi instruction in many countries around the world. Shaolin Wahnam Ireland has offered qigong (chi kung) for many years now and more recently in Dublin, tai chi is now being taught. Now for the first time, people in Ireland will have the opportunity to train in shaolin kungfu.

The next course is planned for January 2007, with one weekend every month from there onwards.

I am not so good with words and passing on information, nor should you take my word as gospel - Take a look at the following links and if it is something that would appeal to you then all the course information is clearly displayed as well as contact details.

Shaolin Wahnam Ireland Site

or

Shaolin Wahnam Main Site

I hope to see a few new faces in January!

Peter Clayton
Student of Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung and Kungfu.

Gyck

...the first ever regular course in Ireland of Shaolin Kungfu

???

Dyr

sweet mother of the divine..a poster with a '98 join date, only 566 posts and they reply with only question remarks? I am both confused and awed :eek:

Timberwolf

Quote:
...the first ever regular course in Ireland of Shaolin Kungfu


???

My mistake, here is a more clearer version .

This will be the first time that Shaolin Kungfu as taught in the Wahnam school is available in Ireland on a regular training basis. There have been previous one weekend intensive courses (kungfu) in the past when Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit has visited these shores but now, from January, there will be regular classes as part of a permanent school within Ireland itself. I hope that makes sense!

If not then please visit the links which may explain things more clearly than I can!

Hope this helps,

Peter.

Gyck

Makes more sense now, thanks.

sweet mother of the divine..a poster with a '98 join date, only 566 posts and they reply with only question remarks? I am both confused and awed

I don't open my mouth too often, I'm the quiet and shy type.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Gyck wrote:

I don't open my mouth too often, I'm the quiet and shy type.

My grandfather used to drill it into me.... "Mairt, you were given two ear's & one mouth so you could listen twice as much as you talk"..

A simple rules I follow too!.

gymrabbit

Mairt wrote:

My grandfather used to drill it into me.... "Mairt, you were given two ear's & one mouth so you could listen twice as much as you talk"..

A simple rules I follow too!.

neither my grandparents nor my parents had this attitude with me. perhaps that's why I post so much on message boards. damn grandparents.

47MartialMan

IMHO, I am prudent and weary of anything labeled "Shaolin", or for that matter "Ultimate".:)

Timberwolf

IMHO, I am prudent and weary of anything labeled "Shaolin", or for that matter "Ultimate".

I don't blame you! :rolleyes: It's one of the sad realities of life that the hardest thing a person will encounter is not their training, but their search for a genuine master / instructor.

Anyway, as I previously stated. Don't take my word for it, or anyone elses for that matter. I just posted the links for people to investigate for themselves and if someone thinks it's for them then great, if not - different strokes for different folks.

As the Buddhist teaching states: "Never accept anything on faith alone".

Actually, as a side note. If you are concerned over the use of 'Shaolin' then visit the main site link. Here you will find the school's lineage from the Venerable Jiang Nan of the Southern Shaolin Temple to Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit (4th generation successor to the former and head of Shaolin Wahnam school).

Best Wishes,

Peter.

paul moran

Lineage is not something anyone should be concerned about. It's only a historical record and no reflection on how good or bad a school is. The main concern should be "how good are the instructors in the local school an as a rsult those students who are training hard there?"

Shaolin is bandied about alot. Could be bull or there could be other explanations like a school tracing itself to the Nanking Institute (and not direcly to the Shaolin temple) where all the masters met and passed on there training/styles in order to preserve their skills/teachings back in 1928! Again this also is only a historical fact and has no bearing on the quality of the school.

YMAA Ireland is also primarily Shaolin based. What styles are trained in your school Peter and who is the instructor? Nice to know there are other schools around the country!

Millionaire

paul moran wrote:

YMAA Ireland is also primarily Shaolin based. !

hi Paul

Were you (YMAA) originally Pai Lum years back, coming from the well know Fire Dragon school?

I used to train in Pai Lum as a teen, before if all broke up. (long long time ago)

47MartialMan

Timberwolf wrote:

I don't blame you! :rolleyes: It's one of the sad realities of life that the hardest thing a person will encounter is not their training, but their search for a genuine master / instructor.

Anyway, as I previously stated. Don't take my word for it, or anyone elses for that matter. I just posted the links for people to investigate for themselves and if someone thinks it's for them then great, if not - different strokes for different folks.

As the Buddhist teaching states: "Never accept anything on faith alone".

Actually, as a side note. If you are concerned over the use of 'Shaolin' then visit the main site link. Here you will find the school's lineage from the Venerable Jiang Nan of the Southern Shaolin Temple to Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit (4th generation successor to the former and head of Shaolin Wahnam school).

Best Wishes,

Peter.

Hey- Dont misundersatnd. I am not stating that he is not a good instructor. I just cant see the use of a name to exploit and give merit or acredidation.

Timberwolf

Hi Martial Man! I didn't take it as questioning the quality of my instuctor(s). I thought you were concerned about the cavalier use of 'Shaolin' so I provided you with a few examples of why we use it in the school title. A better way of describing it would be:

1) We are directly descended from the Southern Shaolin Temple.
2) The school teaches the three Shaolin golden treasures (Shaolin Chi Kung, Shaolin Kungfu and Zen Meditation)
3) Given what the school teaches and stands for it would seem disrespectful not to use it in the title.

Once again though, you are perfectly right to be skeptical. Some people are not skeptical enough!

Hi Paul! Did you ever teach in Galway? I think I had a few lessons from you but I left to go back to England for a while and when I came back, couldn't find the classes anymore! Is there still a YMAA in Galway?

Master Yang is one of the few genuine masters out there. His work in the health sector is commendable.

Of course, I completely agree with you - lineage is no guarantee of quality. The reason I brought it up was to validate the use of 'Shaolin' in the school title.

The style taught is Shaolin Kungfu as descended from the Southern Temple by the Venerable Jiang Nan who fled before it was destroyed.

Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung is an integral part of our kungfu training and can also be trained in by itself for health benefits (it's cured me of a hitaus hernia but that is another story). We do a lot of force training through techniques such as 'one finger shooting zen' and 'golden bridge'. Shaolin Wahnam Taijiquan is taught in Dublin and Kerry.

My teacher, Sifu Joan Browne teaches Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung and Shaolin Wahnam Taijiquan.

Sifu Jamie Robson of Shaolin Wahnam Scotland and Sifu Ronan Sexton of Shaolin Wahnam England have both very kindly decided to travel to Kerry once a month to teach Shaolin Kungfu from beginner level upwards. I am going on the Shaolin Wahnam Scotland syllabus for this - some weapons come about mid way through the syllabus.

The head of our school is Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit. Further intensive Shaolin Kungfu training is available from him in Malaysia and occasionally on his visits. More advanced techniques such as Tiger Claw, Cosmos Palm and Iron Fist are taught at a later stage. There have also been intensive courses in Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung, Shaolin Wahnam Taijiquan, Shaolin Weapons and Lion Dance (Southern Style).

Perhaps you would like to check out or online kwoon / forum? All of the instructors post on it frequently and might be more qualified than me to answer some of your questions!

http://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum

Hope this helps!

Best Wishes,

Peter.

paul moran

Hey Millionaire,

Yep the Pai Lum schools in Dublin and Galway joined YMAA in 1996. There's many a Martial arts school and instructors that originated form the old Fire Dragon school in Georges st. I wasn't involved with the Pai Lum styles for too long as we joined YMAA in the year I began my Kung Fu training!

Hey Timberwolf,
I didn't teach in Galway. If it was a while back you probably had the pleasure of training with Dave Joyce, who was the director of YMAA Galway up until a few years ago. There is still a small group of guys training in Galway but there is no school at present as we need somebody to step up to the plate and run things, this is difficult as most of them have their own jobs and studying to deal with!

At YMAA we train Shaolin Kung Fu but our system consists of to styles of training. One is Shaolin Longfist for long range fighting (using legs as the primary tool), the other is Shaolin Whitecrane for short range fighting (using the arms as the main tool.). Longfist is a northern style and Whitecrane is Southern.

Do you guys have elements of Crane, Snake or Tiger (well you mentioned Tiger claw) in your system considering you are from the Southern systems?

I will check out the forum and have a chat with the Shaolin guys in the UK to learn more.

Best of luck with the training, I know how hard it can be to make in-roads when you don't have an instructor with you all the time, but it can be done as long as you work on the stuff taught between each visit!

Gyck

After all that chin na last night I would have assumed you'd have gone to bed early Paul

paul moran

I tend to be very energised when I get home from training and not a bit sleepy. Maybe I need to train harder:)

Timberwolf

Thanks Paul,

I think Dave Joyce is now running SEAMA? I nearly took up Muay Thai with him there. It all comes back to me now - I remember the styles being Longfist and Whitecrane.

Our style incorporates all of the animal elements (as far as I know). The patterns I am practicing at the moment feature tiger, dragon and snake for example.

There is a major emphasis on leaving each two-day course with all the skills to be able to competently self-train. Thanks to Jamie Sisook I know what, when and how I am to practice till the next class.

The other major emphasis is to train sparring in an efficient manner. How many times do we see two powerful, highly trained martial artists in a match throw all that they have practiced out of the window and spar like children?!

I am guessing you must be from the other school in Dublin? It would be nice to see the movement take off again in Galway. There is an Eagle Claw school there in Westside, I think it is still going but I don't have too much knowledge about it.

Thanks for your kind words about training. In fact just recently I posted on our forum about my new training partner, Joseph the donkey. He keeps trying to bite my ankles when I train in the field and I find this great for not overcommiting when stepping out into bow-arrow so I can retreat swiftly to false-leg stance!

With Shaolin Salute,

Peter.