The Mantis Master Arrives:

As we were about to break for lunch Master Sui, Daniel’s mother in law, and an unassuming stranger walked into the hall. There they observed us and talked amongst one another. They always do that. Whether it’s the guard, Master Sui, the mother in law,  or the cook, they talk and nod knowingly back and forth. It makes Tom and I pretty paranoid: we imagine they must be talking about the poor technique of the weakling westerner’s.

They watched me standing in the Yue Jia pose for a few moments more before Andy beckoned me over. We all exited the hall and walked over to the rec-room. Andy asked then asked me if I wanted to keep studying Yue Jia Chuan, or if I still wanted to learn Mantis Fist. I told him I was definitely impressed by Yue Jia Chuan, but I was still set on Mantis. “Ok,” he said, “this is your Mantis master.” He was stopping by the camp before the holidays began to talk, and set up a training plan for me while he was away.

I was in high spirits. The Mantis master looked like Wu Jing and smiled a lot, he assured me it was a good idea to train in Mantis style. Spirits declined a bit, however, as the master explained that I should mentally prepare myself and not shirk. His training plan is as follows: 50 laps around the camp, 500 sit-ups, 200 push-ups, and 100 squats, per day, until he returns next Monday. He informed me that afterwards my body will feel “really good” and I’ll be ready to train. I didn’t believe him at all, but chose not to argue. Next he asked if I’d ever trained martial arts before, and invited me to describe it to him. I told him about the concepts of the center-line, forward pressure, sensing pressure, and reaction time (or lack thereof) I learned from Master Smith. He seemed familiar with the ideas and asked if my old master was Chinese. I said no, he wasn’t, but that he learned from a Chinese man named Fook Yueng.

I expect training with this man to be grueling, but I have reason to look forwards. Bernard says that, while he never actually trained with my master, his old Mantis Fist master trained together with mine when they were young. Apparently he has ten plus years of experience in the Shaolin Temple, in addition to his other training, and is officially a monk with several styles under his belt. Perhaps best of all, I am his only student for the time being, so it’ll be one hundred percent one on one time, which is awesome.