Você pode tentar “brincar” de ser um praticante de artes marciais, se esconder atrás do que temos chamado de “combate simbólico”, para não se levantar e praticar... Um dia porém, e não precisará ser numa situação extrema, você vai ser convidado a mostrar o que vem fazendo, o que vem trabalhando...O que voce terá para mostrar?
Bom, costuma ser assim... E lá estava eu, de pé, diante dos postes de madeira que chamamos de Geuk Jong[腳樁]. Antes disso, quando levantei-me, não era só o Thiago que se levantava. Não... Ali era o “Si Hing Pereira”, “O Si Fu”, “O Mestre”, “O Líder de Família”.... Percebi então naqueles segundos enquanto todos olhavam com expectativa[foto acima], que quanto mais adentramos o círculo marcial, mais coisas nos tornamos... Porém, a única coisa que me incomoda ser, é “o cara da Cultura chinesa”...
Ali, eu queria mostrar para quem estivesse vendo e para mim mesmo, que eu sou mais do que isso... Eu não queria só executar os movimentos sem travar...Eu queria executá-los de uma maneira que ninguém ali, pensaria em executar.... Porque o dia que eu deixar de buscar ser o artista marcial, vou estar traindo o que eu vim buscar aos quatorze anos de idade... - “Muita boa a estratégia!” - Disse Si Fu ao final da demonstração. - “Contrariar o consenso... Consegui...” - Pensei. E um sentimento involuntário de satisfação me tomou... Afinal, a escolha da estratégia que usei para fazer os movimentos durante o Geuk Jong[腳樁], foram inspirados em uma experiência que havia vivido muitos anos antes...
You can try to "play" at being a martial arts practitioner, hide behind what we have called "symbolic combat", so as not to get up and practice... One day however, and it won't have to be in an extreme situation, you will be invited to show what you've been doing, what you've been working on... What will you have to show?
Well, that's how it usually is... And there I was, standing in front of the wooden pillars we call Geuk Jong[腳樁]. Before that, when I got up, it wasn't just Thiago who got up. No... There was "Si Hing Pereira", "O Si Fu", "The Master", "The Family Leader".... I realized then in those seconds while everyone looked expectantly [photo above], that as we enter deeper and deeper the martial arts circles, more things we become... However, the only thing that bothers me is being "the Chinese Culture guy"...
There, I wanted to show anyone who was watching and myself that I am more than that... I didn't just want to execute the movements without getting stuck... I wanted to execute them in a way that nobody there would think of execute.... Because the day I stop trying to be a martial artist, I'll be betraying what I came to look for when I was fourteen years old... - "A very good strategy!" - Said Si Fu at the end of the demonstration. - “Contrary to the consensus... I did it...” - I thought. And an involuntary feeling of satisfaction took over me... After all, the choice of strategy I used to make the movements during Geuk Jong[腳樁] was inspired by an experience I had lived many years before...
Fui informado, que o trabalho a ser feito seria o “Chi Geuk[黐腳]”. Fui até o Mo Gun e encontrei esse rapaz. Estávamos apenas nós dois e resolvi fazer todo o trabalho em silencio. Não achei que tivesse nada de importante para acrescentar a ele, mas que poderia estar ali praticando, até que ele ficasse bom ou que me substituíssem por outra pessoa. O Si Fu dizia - “ ...Uma boa aula é dada em silencio...”. As semanas foram passando e ele não faltava, ninguém me substituía, e eu vi que o artifício do silencio estava se esgotando.
Então numa noite de Terça, presenciei Si Fu explicando com muita clareza os conceitos de Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] e do Huen Ma[圈馬]. Pensando bem, não sei se ele estava falando para que eu ouvisse. Mas ele destrinchou o “Chi Geuk[黐腳]” para aquelas praticantes que o ouviam, mas acredito que eu fosse o mais compenetrado da sala. Eu queria absorver cada detalhe, para poder fazer um trabalho mais consciente com meu irmão Kung Fu mais novo nas tardes de Quinta... Eu havia tido acesso ao “Cham Kiu” em 2001, mas foi só ali sete anos depois que tomei consciencia do Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] e do Huen Ma[圈馬]. Eu achava que o “Chi Geuk[黐腳]” fosse apenas uma disputa de força...
In the mid-2000s, my Si Suk Ursula Lima [photo] worked at the School directed by my Si Fu. She was not yet a Master, and she acted there professionally as a manager, under his supervision. Once, she gave me a ride to the house where I used to live with my mother, and just before I could get out of the car, she asked if I could take over the job with a younger Kung Fu brother. These classes would take place on Thursday afternoons and only I would be there. She commented that she had already tried with two other tutors without success, but that she believed that I could get along with him. This practitioner was sixteen years old and was practicing Cham Kiu. I accepted, but not knowing how I could be of any help if the people who tried before were so much more experienced than I was.
I was informed, that the work to be done would be the “Chi Geuk[黐腳]”. I went to the Mo Gun and found this guy. It was just the two of us and I decided to do all the work in silence. I didn't think I had anything important to add to him, but that I could be there practicing until he got better or they replaced me with someone else. Si Fu used to say - "...A good class is conducted in silence...". The weeks went by and he was never absent, nobody replaced me, and I saw that the artifice of silence was wearing out.
So on a Tuesday night, I witnessed Si Fu very clearly explaining the concepts of Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] and Huen Ma[圈馬]. Now that I think about it, I don't know if he was speaking for me to hear. But he explained “Chi Geuk[黐腳]” to those practitioners who were listening to him, but I believe I was the most thoughtful in the room. I wanted to absorb every detail, to be able to do more conscious work with my younger Kung Fu brother on Thursday afternoons... I had access to “Cham Kiu” in 2001, but it was only there seven years later that I became aware of the Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] and Huen Ma[圈馬]. I thought “Chi Geuk[黐腳]” was just a contest of strength…
Como praticante, foi uma grande conquista, de um ciclo que se fechava. O ciclo do Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] e Huen Ma[圈馬]. Se eu tivesse dito “não” ao convite para cuidar do Arion, talvez não fosse capaz de fazer o que fiz... E se o Si Fu tivesse me dito cada detalhe de como trabalhar com o Arion, eu também não iria buscar por mim mesmo... Essa é a magia do Kung Fu. Um dia, uma vida.
Years later, I believed when I got up for my demo, that no one would think of performing the Geuk Jong[腳樁] sequence just using Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] and Huen Ma[圈馬] in that room. Because these movements have a nature of conformation with what is in front of your leg, not sheltering that the foot leaves the ground much more than a few centimeters, and everyone usually thinks about kicking the posts. Si Fu said that "...You can do the Geuk Jong[腳樁] movement sequence however you want, but there's only one right way to do it..." - He told me that, in a break between the end of a morning of practice and lunch during an event of our school in the early 2000's. That was the moment when he gave me access to this device, as there was one at Si Suk Ines Braconnot's house. So, invoking my awareness of that day in 2008 and of all the moments with the dear Arion Lucas on Thursday afternoons between 2008 and 2010 and with other practitioners that followed. I did my best to amend Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] and Huen Ma[圈馬] until I lost the engendering...
As a practictioner, it was a great achievement, of a cycle that ended. The cycle of Saam Gok Ma[三角馬] and Huen Ma[圈馬]. If I had said "no" to the invitation to take care of Arion, I might not have been able to do what I did... And if Si Fu had told me every detail of how to work with Arion, I wouldn't have gone looking for myself either really... That's the magic of Kung Fu. One day, one life.