Melanie Gibson General Martial Arts, Guest Writers, Self-Development and Leadership

Guest Writer: My Kung Fu Journey – My Shaolin Kung Fu Training Story at Tagou

Guest article by Yan Zhijun. For more information about the author and his website, see the bottom of the post.

Yan Zhijun (mid-air, center) with fellow Tagou students after a performance at the Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang, 2000

How It Started

I was not a good student. School bored me. I was restless, mischievous, and had no interest in sitting still long enough to learn anything. My parents looked at my grades, looked at my attitude, and worried — genuinely worried — about what kind of future I was heading toward.

One evening they sat me down and asked a question I was not expecting: Would you consider going to Shaolin?

The idea had come through a connection in our town. Someone my parents knew had a child already training at Tagou. We visited that family, heard their story, saw their photos. Something about it stuck. So in 1998, at the age of sixteen, I packed a bag and headed for Dengfeng.

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Melanie Gibson Class Diaries, Self-Development and Leadership, Work and Martial Arts

Inspired by Greatness (or, What I Learned from a Kung Fu Girl)

female kung fu poses - Google Search | 太極拳, カンフー, 格闘

Last Thursday was one of those taekwondo classes that makes you feel better inside and out. We had that perfect mix of students who take their sport seriously and are there to work hard, even the youngest ones. One younger student, a girl of about ten or eleven, was trying out our dojang for the first time. She had trained in kung fu, and for whatever reason, was looking for a new place to train. She kept up with us perfectly during movement drills and kicking practice. But the real magic happened when she did her form.

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Melanie Gibson General Martial Arts, Guest Writers

Guest Writer: Taijiquan and Chinese Medicine

Martial arts practitioners are fortunate in that they don’t just have access to learning a physical skill when they begin training. They are also exposed to the emotional, spiritual, cultural, and wellness aspects of their chosen martial art. This article provides foundational information about Taijiquan and Chinese medicine, courtesy of Shaolin Shi Yanhao, co-founder of the Taizu Shaolin Kung Fu School.  For more information on the school and its founder, see the end of the article.

If you would like to write a martial arts-related guest post for Little Black Belt, please see submission guidelines here.

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