Wu Hsin Kuen - no thought fighting

Many martial arts use Bruce Lee's name to promote themselves. However, not that many are really following his footsteps and philosophy under an unbroken lineage of certified instructors. This article brings forth some of the work sifu Jon Rister, the founder of Wu Hsin Kuen Academy of Martial Arts, has done over the decades of his martial arts career. Going through past and present, differences and similarities, we hope to explain what Wu Hsin Kuen is all about with sifu Rister's own words.

The martial arts in Wu Hsin Kuen

At the academy we teach Kali, Jun Fan kung fu, Wing Chun kung fu and Muay Thai. We asked sifu Jon Rister, the founder of Wu Hsin Kuen Academy of Martial Arts, what were the main reasons for selecting these styles:

"All these styles fall right in the line with the functional martial art. There is a lot of different martial art systems but Jun Fan was founded in late 60's by Bruce Lee. It is a combination of different systems and it is all very functional. Kali has been an art of warfare; it is not a martial sport, it is a martial art. So training Kali falls in the same line with its functionality. Muay Thai is a ring art and as far as all the ring art its probably the most deadly. Wing Chun is good for close range fighting. So I am focusing the whole concept behind the school which is to give the person ability to use the knowledge they are given and to have wide variety of tools."

The arts trained in Wu Hsin Kuen seem to be very different, is this so?

"Actually no, they are all very similar. On the outside they seem different but when you break down the material, yes the training drills are different, but they all have a common goal and that is functionality. The common goal of these systems is to give the person ability to react naturally as opposed to give him 75 or 100 techniques which they have to plan out. We teach person to flow and all of these systems teach that. Just in different ways."

Wu Hsin Kuen is functional

Wu Hsin Kuen offers tools for both mental growth and street effective self-defence. Sifu Rister sums up the idea behind the academy:

"The main idea was to teach functional martial art. The name Wu Hsin Kuen means fighting without thought. So really teaching functional martial arts is basicly what fighting without thought means, if you can't do it without thinking then it's not going to be functional."

The training in Wu Hsin Kuen involves quite a bit of exercises such as hubud and sumbrada. How does drilling help students in real self defence situation?

"Drilling is more important than anything else but you have to have a correct mindset and prepare yourself mentally. Drilling puts technical process aside although it is in there. When drilling the student responds to a stimulus in a little more relaxed way and actually in kind of unconscious and conscious fashion. When you drill and do sumbradas or hubuds over and over again your body reaches the point that when a some sort of contact takes place, your body will automatically respond the way you have drilled."

"When you only teach the technique and another technique the thought process will be involved. But when you drill the thought processes is replaced and the limbs themselves work automatically and naturally. So you are able to maintain your mental focus on the big picture and not on where individual stimuli are occurring. If someone slashes you with a knife you do not want to limit your focus on the knife because the person might kick or punch at you. You want to focus on the whole picture - what is going on - and let your body, your hands, arms and feet deal with the weapon. Let your mind stay more on tactical and strategic level, not so much on technique, but on action."

Martial art - not sport

Wu Hsin Kuen is based on skills that can be used in self-defence situations. Sifu Rister describes what kind of qualities are important in such confrontations:

"Number one thing would be timing and that is why we drill so often and with so many different types of weapons, there are also different types of punches and kicks. Timing is very important and that is why you have to train constantly to keep that in a high level. Distance awareness, knowing the angle and distance to place yourself and to move to where the person would have to move to reach you and will have to adjust themselves in order to hit you. Distance awareness and timing are the most important elements, the skill part would be third or fourth. There are many aspects like mental toughness, stamina and all those kind of things involved."

How can one prepare for a violent situation?

"The physical drilling and the constant training you are going through are really preparation for that. Mentally you should visualize and when practicing your thoughts should be on fighting. Just a physical training is not enough if mental aspects are not there."

"You do not have even a tenth of a second to prepare yourself when a situation arises. You have to be able to react automatically. And that is why we drill the way we do and that is why flow is so important, among footwork and distance awareness, because you cannot prepare yourself for every situation. You have to train to know yourself. Many times there will be a weapon involved and you will not see it. And that is why training is a long process, re-evaluating yourself during the constant growing."

"You cannot really say to yourself: 'Well if the guy has the knife I'll do this.' Because you might never see it."

Footwork emphasized in weapon training

In Wu Hsin Kuen we study a wide variety of weaponry. Sifu Rister compares how our training differs from other styles:

"There is not a lot of difference in the weapon itself. The main difference is that we do not focus on one or two aspects; we have very wide base in weapons training. In other words, a lot of systems might focus only on single stick, empty hands against weapon or one aspect which might be knife fighting. We focus on a generality. We do single and double sticks (swords), stick (sword) and dagger, single and double dagger and empty hands training. We do not focus only on one thing. That gives the student ability and tools to protect themselves on all levels."

"Systems might focus on weapon itself or a speed or reaction time, we focus on footwork, distance, timing and awareness. Unfortunately footwork is not emphasized in many schools - we do it very heavily. I would not call it unique, but that's something people have tendency to leave out. And that is one of our big focuses. Footwork gets the job done when everything else fails."

When teaching police officers, where do you concentrate most?

"Pretty much the same I do with the other students. A lot of drilling, a lot of sticks and edged weapon with police officers, and how to deal with it when somebody approaches them with an edged weapon. Because that is typically a part of their job. But mainly I try to get them to flow and that is the same with all of my students."

Wu Hsin Kuen belt tests

Sifu Rister tells about the key points of our belt tests:

"The basic principle is to focus on basic body mechanics, being able to punch, kick, elbow and knee, focusing on flow, energy, that type of things. When the student is taking a test I mainly want to see does he have the body mechanics and the undertanding how to apply what he is doing. I do not just look at how students punch. I am looking at footwork and dedication and efficiency of execution; not necessarily the hand itself and the line of the punch but mainly the wholeness. I want students to understand the applications to what they are doing, how effortless it is and do they understand the meaning. This is not limited to technical aspects - everybody jabs differently - but I look their skill level, their body type and can they apply the tool."

So even when different techniques are tested they do not play the main part?

"I think that is a big difference in our school. We do not focus on the form or technique but again the ability of a student to apply the tool. Our belt test is like brick wall; it is built evenly and then remains stagnant. You do not build the wall one brick at the time straight up but you build it across then build another row and another row. Our belt system includes lot of basics of a lot of different things as opposed to focusing just on one set technique. There are aspects of punching, kicking, trapping, grappling, etc as opposed to having students performing techniques. It is really about their interpretation of everything they have been taught."

The belt tests are modified every once in a while, why is that?

"I feel it has to change. I change it every three or four years, otherwise you just grow stale. You have to evolve it as you evolve. As I evolve as an instructor and as I see different needs of how I change or the school and the students requiring different things. Years ago I took some of the Wing Chun forms out of the belt system. Then I later decided to put those back in because I saw the students didn't have all certain things that I wanted them to have. So I change it from the basis of need and growth."

The early years of Wu Hsin Kuen

The Wu Hsin Kuen Academy was founded in 1987. A little earlier, sifu Rister had began training Kali and Jun Fan under guro Inosanto. Then he had also met sifu Francis Fong from whom he started to learn Wing Chun. He also studied Jun Fan grappling with sifu Larry Hartsell and Muay Thai with ajarn Surachai Sirisute.

Competing mostly beneficial

In the yearly 90's sifu Rister competed in full contact kickboxing under T.A.C.K.A Association and full contact stick fighting under the W.E.K.A.F. Because Wu Hsin Kuen is a martial art and not a sport we asked his opinions on competing and ring fighting:

"I think for the most part competing is good. It gives you a chance to practice your skill in a controlled situation against somebody you do not know as opposite to spar inside the school, where you train with most of the people. Yet I think some of the competitions are bad for martial arts. A lot of no hold barred fights make no sense to me. It has been reduced to 'biggest and strongest wins' without the martial art skill. But mostly I think competing is beneficial. You just need to find the right environment for it."

"Competing taught me a lot about the need to be well prepared physically in a sense of conditioning. The number one thing in competing is that you want to be able to outlast your opponent. Having the skill - punching, kicking whatever - is presumed. You are assuming that but the stamina is very important and I have learned a lot through competing just about having stamina. Skill and all that are very important too but you have to condition yourself properly both mentally and physically."

Good teachers and students

The values of sifu Rister have been greatly influenced by his teachers and students. A good martial art teacher is something more than a skillful martial artist. On guro Dan Inosanto he said the following:

"I see him first as a human being. I think he is a very important person. His martial artist skill is unequaled. You cannot really never know the vastness of his knowledge and talent because he has so many different systems and so many different talents. But as a person he is so humble which really makes me want to train with him. He does not come across as arrogant, yet he has more skill than most of people that I have ever met in martial arts. Really a rare individual. I think it would do good for anybody to train with him."

And what about sifu Francis Fong?

"What I have learned most from him has really been re-enforcing of what I already knew and getting a different perspective. Some of the main goals he has in teaching are those that I started out with. His teaching falls hand in hand with mine. It is just a different approach he has; the internal side and how it affects the external side has really made me grow as a martial artist and that is what I am looking for from him. The Wing Chun system is excellent and I like learning that. Sifu Fong is a truly amazing source of knowledge and inspiration - unbelievable."

How about students? What is a good student like?

"More than talent or skill that can be developed inside the school, the number one thing for me is loyalty and open mindness. Come with an open mind and willing to learn, to experience. Some people who have prior training have an attitude they want to show you more than learn and that slows down their training. Attitude is the most important thing."

When you think about sifu Rister's background and teachers it is easy to believe that loyalty and open mindness are the qualities that have helped him to go this far. There are many technically skillful martial artists. But if one, as the saying goes, 'does not empty the cup' the lifetime journey from a skillful one towards mastery may fall half-way short.

Wu Hsin Kuen in 2004

After 17 years of teaching, sifu Rister is going stronger than ever, constantly growing mentally and skillwise. He is a certified instructor under sifu Fong and guro Inosanto. About the certification under guro Inosanto he told the following:

"It was a long time goal to reach that level and to become recognized by him as a martial artist. I think it is an extraordinary happening itself. It is a reaffirmation of my own training, where I have come and where I am going. It came as a kind of suprise. I had been given advice to seek someone close to him and I did it. Then I did not hear anything back for a while, until the certificate came in the mail one day. It was quite a suprise and a good one. I did not push or pursue for it. I guess I should have, like many others do but I came my way and I am grateful for that."

Nowadays, sifu Rister concetrates also more on Wing Chun:

"Really the main reason is the instructor sifu Francis Fong who I am training with. His teaching style is very unique - a very unique way of expressing his art. It's not so much the Wing Chun, altough I see the structure of that to help the other styles I train and teach. But really it is the man, not the art."

In 2001 Finland became a yearly resort for sifu Rister as his student sifu Risto Hietala brought Wu Hsin Kuen to Oulu. After visiting and teaching in Finland several times he has only positive things to say:

"The first impression was that the people are hard working and honest. I would not say that they are not proud, but there is no arrogance. People are very down to earth. There is no pretending. I have only been to Finland in summer time and the country is beautiful, altough people are quite reserved. It is a very nice place."

"I think it is a really good experience from all points of view. To train with people who are as dedicated as they are and to train with people who appreciate the art like they do. It is a great opportunity and a pleasure for me to teach those people. Every time I go over there they impress me with their level of dedication and effort they put into their training."

Final words

All in all, certain concepts and principles are definitely more of concern than individual techniques:

"The key elements what I would like to see in a student are understanding of distance, developing footwork and timing, understanding sectoring and zoning and protecting the centerline, those type of qualities. Understand and know that the training process does not end when you get a black belt, it really begins in a new way. It is about constantly re-evaluating oneself - and eventually bringing it to a new level. However, in the end the physical fighting part of martial arts is only a small portion of the entire goal. Understanding yourself and how you interact with other people and your place in the world is really a goal that some people never become to realize. There's much more honor in healing and helping somebody than kicking their ass off."

The article is based on an interview with sifu Rister in 2004.