Supple Dragon
was a kuen (form) originally taught by Daniel Pai.
Although
Hawaiian he originally seems to have taught Goju Ryu, later teaching is own
Chinese art Pai Lum.
At first he
taught in Canada, later moving down into the states.
The earliest
version I can locate is that done by a Canadian.
Canadian version of Lung Le Kuen Supple
Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-668Jx83z4
rnest Rothrock learnt it as he studied Pai Lum, he taught it a green level.
When I was
training with him I saw it performed many, many times.
Roy Blackwell my
first black belt, moved to Texas shortly there after to be with his family who
had moved there.
About a year
later he was able to visit with me for 2 weeks. As a surprise I paid Ernest to
privately teach him the form. Watching the instruction closely, after so many
form studies with Ernest, I taught myself the form.
In December of
1984 an I was leaving Scranton the guy at the Wilkes Barre Pai Lum school
filmed me performing many of my form studies to assist me in the future. Dave
Belsky filmed a walk through of Supple Dragon (Lune Le Kuen) to show what he
was doing.
Dave Belsky - Supple Dragon - 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdh2YvNqRIM
Then in 1985 I moved to Derry, NH and started a youth group and an adult group at the Derry Boys and Girls Club. Eventually I began to teach the form to my advancing adults for fun. Years later Ernest visited Derry, and I asked to give them a clinic on Supple Dragon. This allowed them to see a Pai Lum expert show the form and make adjustments to what they had learned.
At the end of
the clinic Ernest showed the form as a walk through to better understand the
flow of the movements.
Ernest Rothrock Supple Dragon 12 2 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKnIEV8TZfM
We never tried
to be Pai Lum students, as this was more an exercise to understand how another
system trains.
This is Young
Lee performing Supple Dragon, perhaps an Isshinryuized version of the form.
Feb 2011 Young Lee - Lung Le Kuen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ5goAtmkAc
A number of years later I included various forms
from other systems as supplemental form studies, for my students.
These supplemental forms were of
course mandatory, but there initlal purpose was to allow my students to tactically
understand what others were doing in different systems of study.
It also had the purpose of expanding
my student’s range of motion and movement flow beyond the Isshinryu.
But their Isshinryu was the system
they were studying, always.
Later another purpose was revealed,
they would have skilled techniques from other systems to apply their Isshinryu
technique against, and then to work how to defeat.
Those additional forms were:
White belt –
Sho (Fyugata Sho),
Kyozai
(Okinawan taught in the Schools)
Ananku (Carl Long Shorin tradition)
Yellow Belt-
Saifa (Goju)
Brown Belt-
Lung
Lek Kuen (Pai Lum , Supple Dragon)
Nijushiho (Shotokan, Sutrisno family)
No comments:
Post a Comment