Kung Fu training consists of the obligate warm-up, technical, fighting and fitness exercises, but to a much bigger part of the so called forms. Forms, practiced with or without weapons, represent a fight against one or more imaginary opponents. They are mainstays of every traditional Kung Fu style. Forms can be compared with a library which contains all the important and secret elements of the style. Therefore they are taught unchanged from master to student over generations to save the knowledge about the style-specific techniques. By practicing forms you can prepare yourself physically and mentally for fighting situations. They improve flexibility, power, breathing, as well as the coordination and rapidity of your moves. That is why forms also rate highly in Kung Fu training.

Practicing Hung Choy Kung Fu (Zhou Jia Quan), the student is introduced to the basic stances, punches, blocks and kicks. After that some traditional hand forms are an important matter of the training. As an advanced student he is taught the handling of the traditional Kung Fu weapons such as stick, broad sword, spear, knives etc. By learning from his Sifu he learns to decode the forms and gains access to the 'library' of the style.


The Tradition in Chinese Kung Fu

Since their beginnings, the Chinese martial arts are linked with the certain rules and principles, which were delivered from generation to generation especially in traditional Kung Fu schools. The responsible dealing with nature and people, but especially the respect to the ancestors, masters, instructors and the other students plays the most important role. It is expressed in certain rules concerning etiquette and behavior, which the students have to maintain.

That way everyone who wants to learn Kung Fu is first of all carefully examined of his personality and responsibility, before being introduced to the secrets of this martial art. The physical development should go along with the mental development in order to make the student a better human being, who can use his knowledge and abilities in a responsible manner.

Another difference to other sports and martial arts is the family structure in the traditional Kung Fu. This is a rudiment from times, when Kung Fu was really only inherited from father to son. If an outsider wanted to learn Kung Fu from a strange master, he was adopted into the family with the obligation to preserve the family art. According to this tradition nowadays novices are included into the Kung Fu family as the youngest brother / sister of the family. For all students who start training after him / her, he / she is the older brother / sister.