自然门 (Ziranmen)

What is Ziranmen?
It is a style of Chinese Martial Arts that I practice. That's been going on for about 7 months now (ROFL). I wish it was longer but yeah.

Before I met anybody that practiced this style, my friend, Jason, talked about it. He himself loves Southern martial arts and practices Hop Gar (Knight's Fist). I'll write more about his hero complex someday. It's pretty amusing to see a modern day hero actually. Some comic books are quite accurate. I digress. Anways, Jason talked about how Ziranmen was a style that was a rare and secretive style. (I find this to be quite false). He talked about how the fighting style was very unique in that it was a cross between boxing and long fist. And most importantly, it was known as a style that could fight.

In my last year of college, I happened to meet my first teacher and friend, Rudy Ibarra. He and a small group of people happened to be practicing on the right side of the Main Mall. For what reason I don't know, but I went up and talked to them. I watched them the first time and chatted for awhile. I was always interested in meeting people of different styles and chatting for a bit. Anyways, Rudy invited me to come train with them and see how it goes.

The first month, all that we trained were kicks, and a few sets of moves. Simple stuff. It was all just hard labor. For two long hours, it was always the same thing over and over again. At that time, I figured that the exercise would be good for me anyways, but I never really saw what my friend Jason told me about. The material at the first month was the same as every other martial arts out there.

After the first month is when things became interesting. Rudy finally showed me the stance that Ziranmen is known for. It's called the SiLiuBu. It's very different from what I'd seen before and when Rudy showed me, I really went blank with a "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!" (That phrase has been repeated a couple of times in the last 7 months for the exact same reason) Before this, I'd seen other martial arts teachers move and I'd see them do just about the same stuff. I don't think anything could have prepared me for what I saw Rudy do. I'd never seen a person move like that before. It was like watching a person imitate a ghost float back and forth. Another analogy would be like watching a person imitate a snake, praying mantis and monkey at the same time. From that point on, I was fully convinced and intend to stick with it.

Fast forward, 7 months later, I'm in FuZhou and learning under Rudy's master. ShiFu just got back from a month trip in the US a couple night ago.

While correcting our SiLiuBu, he put my hands in a line. And told me that I need to be more full, less empty in the stance. There's supposed some resistance the second a person comes forward, but no forward force. Kind of like a lightsaber. (Yes, don't say it).

Last night was another (WTH was that!?!) moment when I saw Shifu move. He seems to be able to defy the laws of physics in his movements. His body doesn't seem like there's a spine or something. I'm really at a loss for understanding of his movement.

Anyways, what's really cool is that I saw ShiFu move. He matched my stance and then proceed to make his body dance while not moving his arms, kinda like how pop-lock dancers do certain moves. Darryl suggested that ShiFu started pop-locking. ROFL! The usage of this movement I don't understand too well, but it has something to do with a ghost head attitude.

ShiFu also showed some of his ShenFa and moved up and down in the SiLiuBu. I've never seen anybody move down and back up so fast, and was so connected doing so.