I am studying at the U.S. Kuoshu Academy in Owings Mills, Maryland. The shih-fu is GrandMaster Huang Chien-Liang. (Note: Many asian cultures list their last name first.) Grandmaster Huang is a 64th generation grandmaster of the Tien Shan Pai style. Since I have just started (or should I say re-restarted,) so many of my forms I am learning are not yet in the Tien Shan Pai style but rather forms from the Chinese Kuoshu Federation. The school also offers Tai Chi, Pa Kua, Hsing I, Chi Kung (aka qigong in Pinyin), and a couple other areas that I am sure I am leaving out.
My first introductory classes for kuoshu was at Grandmaster Huang's Towson school back in 1989. You see I had joined the high school football team and was looking for a martial art that would compliment the skills I needed as a lineman. See I had never played football but my junior varsity coach seemed to think I had a natural talent. So I wanted to give me self an advantage through "cross-training". So my father found this school and took me for introductory lessons. Though I enjoyed what I learned (and surprisingly remembered it later), I didn't see how it would help with my football. I guess I was probably looking for more of a judo or perhaps sumo wrestling type school. I was sure I wouldn't be able to use a kick-punch combo on anyone on the field. The chin-nas I learned would have been a bit over board on the field as well. So I didn't continue after the introductory classes, took the moves I learned and practiced on my own, and just focused on high school and football.
My second introduction to Tien Shan Pai was pure accident.
Through my high SAT scores and grades, I found myself with a small scholarship at UMBC for a college education. Well let's just say that my first year didn't go as I planned. Instead of attending my first day of classes, I attended my grandfather's funeral. You see he is why I was going to college and why I was going to get my degree in mechanical engineering. I think he was also helping my parent's pay for the room and board so I could stay at the university. He and I were also very close. I was his first grandson, and we loved each other greatly but I will save that for another section of this web page. So metaphorically the wind was out of my sails. Instead I embraced the social life of college. I joined a fraternity and the rugby club. After the first year, I had broken a rib while playing rugby, chased tons of college women, drank as much booze and did as much partying as I could, and managed to find myself on probation for my academic scholarship with a measly 2.0 grade point average. (Yeah I know it definitely was not the way to honor my grandfather.) I only tell you this point so you can understand where I was at that time.
Anyway, sometime close to the end of my second year of college (1994-1995) I decided to try and get my life back in order. My broken rib had kept me out of rugby, so with all the booze-hounding and partying I was starting to put on some weight. I went looking for a martial arts program in the area. I found myself in Rick Wheatley's Ellicott city school. Rick Wheatley is a direct disciple of Grandmaster Huang and therefore in the 65th generation of Tien Shan Pai.
Originally I had no idea the school's were connected. Though after the initial introduction I realized this fact. I think I was going through self-defense number one and something in my mind clicked. I stayed with classes for about 6-8 months. I learned much. I wasn't the most dedicated student at the time as I had many other obligations. I would go to class when I could and spend the rest of my time trying to save my scholarship. I never worried about moving up in the ranks (I never even went for my white belt) and just wanted to learn what I could when I could. Unfortunately, sometime that year, I lost my scholarship and was forced to move home. I started working 60 hours a week and had to give up kuoshu.
Now flash forward ten years. I was older, much heavier, out-of shape, and without the hope of flexibility. I had found myself in a decent job in the computer field and started looking at myself again. I didn't like what I saw physically. Neither did my doctor that week that said I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. So one day , driving back from a friend's house after tutoring her daughter in high school math, I saw a sign for U.S.Kuoshu Academy. I thought to myself that it couldn't be the same but I stopped anyway. Walking in I saw the same markings and saw three very familiar words in the school. Tien Shan Pai. I said to myself that this is just fate and signed up again.
I originally started going just one day a week,. That was pretty much what this old body could handle. I told some of my friends that I was getting back into martial arts. Some laughed, some feigned an interest in what I was doing, must just said, "Oh that's nice", but one of my friends seemed really interested. So I made him show up to observe a class and after that made him sign-up for the three intro classes. I really didn't give him a choice. I twisted his arm in the beginning. (I think I used chin na #1). I didn't give him a choice till after his intro classes. He liked it and signed up. (I did have to make him promise not to sing Carl Douglass' "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting" in class.) Since then we make sure we go to class every Monday and Tuesday. Sometime's I try and get in another class during the week but his schedule doesn't allow it on a regular basis. Only special events and seminars get him out other than those two days.
He keeps me going and I keep him going. The buddy system really works when it comes to working out. If one of us misses a class or takes an extra class that week, in no time at all we are telling the other what we did.