Chow Gar Philosophy
Chow Gar was a style designed to take a common man and train him to effectively combat a seasoned soldier on the battlefield in a short amount of time. The underlying methods are to strike hard and fast to inflict maximum damage with minimal time and effort. This methodology has proven to retain its effectiveness for the confrontations of today. There are no flashy movements or wasted motion. We train to never retract before striking. We strike starting from where ever our hands happen to be when the confrontation begins and ends. We also follow a yin yang type principle within the art. Our methods are fast hard and brutal while we adhere to the four main principles of swallow, spit, sink, and float. We train with the idea on a very high moral foundation that is detailed in a poem.
“From my heart come my hands.
If you don’t come I won’t start.”
The basic meaning behind this poem is that as long as you do not try to do me harm I will not attack you. If I must attack I will come at you with my full heart guiding my techniques.
Chow Gar is a very aggressive style without many if any blocking actions. We do not block, we attack the offending limb. Every motion within the Chow Gar system is 100% all the time. We train very heavily for sensitivity because at the speeds and ranges we focus on there is no time to defend in the classical sense. If I stun or shock your arms, you cannot make a fist or raise an arm then you are not a threat. If I do the same to your legs and you cannot stand, you are not a threat and I no longer need to continue. This is the guiding principle in Chow Gar.