William A. & Brian Kennedy both have great articles in the latest Kung FU Tai Chi magazine (Nov-Dec).
Cheers guys!
Jake

Really? Holy Cow I never got the heads up! Thanks Jake.

I think Brian Kennedy lives in my town and possibly has connections to my university. I am in Chico CA now.

there was an article in the Chico News and Review about him and the CHinese New Year.

Hey Brian,

Do you live near Chico California now?
Did you ever?

Shane

Guys Brian lives in Taiwan!

Good article.

Brian lives here now.

Hi Folks,
I am still here on the Isle of Formosa but that could change by the end of this week or early next week. I had hoped to be back in California by now but various factors are slowing down the Great Exodus.

I will first be in San Diego for about a week to check on my brother and then I will move up to Chico California. It is kind of a small college town north of Sacramento. The reason for that choice is, my brother and I co-own our grandparents house up there and I think Chico would be a perfect place for Liz and I. Although the initial problem is me getting up there and finding work. Downside of small town is small number of available jobs. What I am aiming for is a job with the District Attorneys Office, we shall see how things unfold. Liz will follow me once I get settled in.

I actually went to 7th grade in Chico way back in 1970, although since then I have only stepped foot in Chico once and that was in the mid 1980s and only for a few days. In any event, Chico will be well stocked with traditional Chinese martial arts as there is another “Taiwan veteran” named Kent Howard who lives there.

I have not seen the article but I presume it is the one about drilling fist/uppercuts in xingyi. I really enjoy working with Gene Ching, the editor. I have a lot of respect for him as a person. I think highly of the charity work that he does via the Tiger Claw Foundation and he is good people to work for.

Take care,
Brian

I used to train with Seth Weils who teaches Jeet Kune do and some muay thai when he still shared the floor with the boxing gym here. But after a while he had a fallout with the boxing gym owner and opened his own place up that is a lot more expensive. Does the Taiwanese guy have his own place he teaches and if so how much does he charge? btw there is a lot of places to go out to and drink here and I live the night life like almost every day. Only problem is all the homeless people/transients who carry knives and other weapons and can be dangerous when heavily intoxicated/drugged at late night. I already wrote a story about an encounter I had with on but in general this is a nice town.

Hey Brian,

I saw another article by you and Elizabeth in Dragon Times I believe, about the Chinese Big Saber Units. Very well done.

I hope to see you when you move back to the States.

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the good words on the Big Saber Units piece. That is an interesting part of modern Chinese martial arts history.

And I look forward to seeing you and the rest of the Shen Wu crew soon.

take care,
Brian

Howdy Brian, Jake,

I just got copy of the KTM, I love the articles you guys wrote they are pretty cool! . I loved the Big Saber article that Brian wrote too, I actually suscribed to the magazine because of his writings.

Regarding Jake's article on the Dragon techniques. I have always wonder what might have influenced the Japanese to develop more elaborate ground fighting techniques, if there is so much CMA influence in them. Was it more of a social type of influence (I think I read somewhere that the Chinese considered figthing on the ground as something low class); any comments?

Thanks

I have been told by just about every Shuai Chiao teacher I have trained with in NA (David Lin / Dave Pickens / John Wang / Hu Xi Lin) that the Chinese believed ground fighting was akin to "dogs rolling in the dirt." I have also found that many Chinese stylists are quite arrogant in their technique stating that the throw itself would be so devastating that it would "kill or mame" your opponent! Obviously this is BS and ego coming through, but that is what many believe!

Cheers
Jake

Dogs can be very dangerous.