How to move into an opponent as well as how to respond to an opponent’s initiate move are two important aspects in combat training, but are often neglected by many martial artists. Two important principles in moving in to attack are to avoid giving "free offers" and to secure the best combat advantages.

At advanced levels, you can also set the pace and nature of the combat, as well as tricking the opponent into making his first move from which you can follow up accordingly. Some martial artists believe that the first one to attack has lost the fight. This is not necessarily true, but it shows that the responder has an advantage over the initiator as he can exploit the initial move. However, if you are skillful, you may turn the table around. Your initial move can be a feint or a “lead”.

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As many martial artists today use Boxing techniques to spar or fight, being able to counter a Boxer?s attacks is essential if we wish to be combat efficient. The forte of Boxing is not its techniques but its skills. In other words, despite his limited techniques, a Boxer can be a formidable fighter.

Even when a kungfu exponent knows the techniques to counter a Boxer’s attacks, in real life he may be unable to do so if the Boxer is skillful. And Boxers are generally skillful. If we wish to apply kungfu for combat, we need to know the techniques against Boxing, otherwise we ourselves would be fighting like Boxers. We have to choose those techniques that are best suited to fight Boxing, then develop our skills to apply them so that although a Boxer may be skillful we still can match or surpass him using our kungfu skills and techniques.

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The video clips in this series show some of the lessons where the “Sun Moon Manifest Glory” set was composed by participants to the Special Shaolin Kungfu Course of September 2005. The set comprises of combat sequences the participants worked out by the participants to counter typical Boxing attacks.

Each participant takes turn to imitate typical Boxing attacks and his training partner demonstrates the kungfu counters against them, while Sifu Wong comments on the strength or weakness of their choices. The video clips are meant as a review for the participants as well as source material for other Shaolin Wahnam members to understand some processes involved in the composition of a kungfu set

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How did kungfu masters in the past spar and fight? Did they practice free sparring? Of course they sparred. Without sparring they would not be able to fight, no matter for how they practiced their solo kungfu sets.

But having undergone appropriate combat application training, performing kungfu sets was an effective way to enhance their fighting. Kungfu masters in the past fought extremely well, and they fought using typical kungfu skills and patterns.

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Why did a kungfu master use a particular pattern and not another pattern, or why a particular pattern in a certain way and not in other ways? It was because that particular pattern in a particular way in a given combat situation gave him certain advantages over his opponent.

Participants to the Special Shaolin Kungfu Course of September 2005 in Malaysia had an experience of this process in kungfu development. They went over the combat sequences they had composed using patterns from their specialized sets. Then Sifu Wong helped them to refine their sequences.

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What should we do if an opponent does not fight the way we want him to? Would our combat sequences still be useful if our opponents do not use the techniques or fight in the order we have planned in our combat sequences.

The combat sequences are still very useful, but we have to make adjustment. The adjustment can be at a technical level or at a sequential level. In our sparring methodology, the technical adjustment corresponds to an ‘addition’, whereas the sequential adjustment corresponds to an “external change” or an “internal change”.

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The real beauty of Shaolin Kungfu lies not in its demonstration, although it is actually beautiful to watch, but in its application, both for combat as well as non-combat purposes. Practicing Shaolin Kungfu correctly gives us good health and vitality enabling us to enjoy our work and play everyday of our life for a long, long time. At its higher level, it gives us spiritual joy.

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At the Special Shaolin Kungfu Course of September 2005, course participants employed patterns form their specialized sets to work out suitable combat sequences based on various themes. After refining their patterns and sequences, the participants linked them together into combat sequence-sets. The video clips here show both their effort and result concerning the Dragon Form Set and the Dragon-Tiger Set.

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Obviously, if your opponent fights haphazardly but you use appropriate techniques, if all other things were equal, you would be a more efficient fighter than he is. If your opponent uses individual techniques but you use combat sequences, you would be more combat efficient.

Then, why do most kungfu practitioners today fight haphazardly? Why don’t they use kungfu techniques or combat sequences? The answer is actually straight-forward. Surprisingly it may be, most of them do not even realize this philosophy. Further, even when they realize it, they lack the methodology to do so.

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As attacks come randomly in free sparring, can pre-arranged sequences be useful? While this is a sensible and logical question, it shows that the many kungfu practitioners, including some masters, who ask this question, have no experience of systematic combat training. The answer is not only that such training is useful, it is necessary if one wishes to be proficient in kungfu sparring.

A failure to understand this philosophy is one major cause of the pathetic low level of kungfu sparring today. It is now an open secret that not only kungfu students but also instructors and even some masters cannot apply their kungfu techniques in sparring or fighting — even though some of them may be formidable fighters using techniques of other martial systems.

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It is ironical that many kungfu practitioners today not only cannot use kungfu in free sparring, they even believe that it is not possible! If nothing drastic is done to arrest this situation, genuine traditional kungfu may be lost forever within the next two generations. We in Shaolin Wahnam are dedicated to do our part to arrest this alarming situation.

We are even ready to teach our sparring methodology to deserving kungfu practitioners, including masters, of other styles without their having to owe allegiance to our school. We are proud that everyone who has learnt kungfu, including Taijiquan of course, from us for longer than half a year can use kungfu for combat. At the same time we realize that while practicing kungfu looses its meaning without its combat function, there are many other more worthwhile benefits from kungfu training besides being able to fight.

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Shaolin Kungfu is very rich in weapons. The most representative of Shaolin weapons is the staff. This “Ho Family Flowing Water Staff” is a legacy transmitted to use from Sigung Ho Fatt Nam. Earlier, this staff set was kept as top secret within the Ho Family. Sigong Ho was the first one to teach it to some inner-chamber disciples outside the Ho Family, and Sifu Wong was one of the few lucky persons to learn it.

It is called “Flowing Water Staff” after the kungfu principle, “Yow kiew kiew seong kor, Mo kiew soon shui lau”, which means If there is a bridge, go along the bridge; If there is no bridge, flow with the water, and which summarizes the combat philosophy of the set.

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