Aryana Libris

Author : Park Bok Nam
Title : The fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang Volume 2 The method of Lu Shui-Tien as taught by Park Bok Nam
Year : 1995

Link download : Park_Bok_Nam_-_The_fundamentals_of_Pa_Kua_Chang_Volume_2.zip

Preface It has been three years since I sat down to write the preface to the first volume of this book. In that three years I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot about Pa Kua Chang and I have learned a lot about Park Bok Namʹs system of Pa Kua Chang. Since writing the first volume of this book I have made four trips to mainland China, two trips to Taiwan, and one trip to Hong Kong researching the art of Pa Kua Chang as it is taught by various instructors in China. Shortly after writing the last book, my status in Park Bok Namʹs school also changed from that of being a student to that of being an assistant instructor and then, most recently, a licensed instructor. In making these transitions, my Pa Kua Chang training under Park Bok Nam changed. It was only after I started actually teaching Parkʹs Pa Kua system as an assistant instructor that I really began to appreciate the depth of his art, his teaching style, and his systematic approach to helping his students reach their full potential in the art. Park teaches all students by ʺprescription.ʺ This means that each student is given exactly what he or she needs based on age, sex, physical health, ability, coordination, occupation, size, personality, and goals. When I first began studying with Park, I had about seven years experience in the internal martial arts, I was relatively young and in fairly good shape, and so he began teaching me his Pa Kua Chang pretty much as it was presented in the last volume of this book. For the first six or eight months of training, all of my lessons were private and so I did not get a chance to see how any of the other students were training. I figured that they were being taught about the same thing I was being taught. Later, Park started teaching a group class in Baltimore, Maryland, and I attended those classes. The prerequisite for the class was that the students have a martial arts background. What Park taught there was pretty much the way I had been taught. There were no beginners in the class, everyone was male, and everyone was in about the same age group. Park did not teach beginning level material there. Because everyone there was just gaining a foundation in Parkʹs system, all were taught the same basic material. When I moved to California in late 1992, Park asked me to start a class here. I started teaching a few guys in a local school yard every evening. There were only a few people in the class and they all had a martial arts background. Basically I used the time to do my own workout and these guys followed along. I did not have to do a lot of teaching because they picked it up pretty fast. The way I taught was the way I had been shown. I started by teaching the material that was presented in the first book. The students learned the eight direction rooted stepping, the circle walk, the fan Chang exercises, the palm exercises, etc. Park came out to California about four times that first year and watched what we were practicing, made corrections, and taught some new things. In late 1993, the local kung fu teacher decided he would move out of town the next Spring and he asked if I would be interested in taking over his school when he left in April of 1994. The school was located right across the hall from my publishing office and we had used the school on numerous occasions to host seminars conducted by Park and other visiting instructors. I thought it would be a good opportunity since the old teacher already had a group of students who wanted to continue training. I called Park and asked if he would give me permission to open up a school. He told me that I could open up a school and teach for him as an assistant instructor. He said that I did not have enough experience teaching to be an full instructor on my own. That was fine with me. I figured my small group would just carry on as we had been in the school yard, except for now we would have a place to practice indoors. ...