On March 3rd, 2009 was the inaugural class of the Nine Dragon Academy (Jiǔ Lóng Pài 九龍派). Da Shi Xiong (Dà Shī Xiōng 大師兄) Kevin Sears and myself have been working diligently for the past several months to finalize the details necessary to open our school. It has been a dream of ours for many years to open a school together to teach Kung Fu. We wanted to create a school that could help people realize their inner potential and to promote success in their lives through their practice of the martial arts. Eventually we hope that this school will grow and be able to provide many learning opportunities through not only martial practice, but also cultural and language studies of China’s unique culture and history.
Da Shi Xiong Sears and myself have studied martial arts for many years and have accumulated many different styles of Kung Fu including Qigong and Tai Ji. We have been working to create a curriculum for the Nine Dragon Academy that incorporates all of the knowledge we have learned. Our vision is to provide the material in such a way that anyone can participate in the parts of the curriculum that interest them most and that we can offer something that will appeal to everyone.
We both come from very strong traditional training back grounds and in most of our classes we teach in a manner that encourages development and discipline in the students. We are both Buddhist as well and though we do not pressure students to study or be Buddhist in our school, we do incorporate the philosophy and Buddhist tradition in what we teach. This helps the students development by giving them appropriate guidance on how their Kung Fu can benefit themselves and others if it is used appropriately. For us the practice of Buddhism and Kung Fu cannot be separated, they are one and the same thing.
At the Nine Dragon Academy we are first and foremost focused on the development of the students. Every instructor’s primary concern is with the growth and progress of the students. We strive to help every student become the best practitioner that they can be and do our best to aid them in overcoming the difficult spots that every martial artist faces along their journey. The quality of our students can only be judged as a reflection of their instruction.
We are excited to offer a curriculum that incorporates Temple Arts, Combatives, Qigong and Meditation, Yang Shi Tai Ji, and Traditional Chinese Lion Dancing. There are other programs in the works as well and we will expand our curriculum to include them when we can. We will both continue learning and expanding our martial skills as well and as we travel further in our journey we will work to share the knowledge that we acquire.
There has been a lot of hard work over the past few months to make sure that the Nine Dragon Academy was ready to open on 3/3/09. We made our target opening date and while there is still much to do we were able to start on time. I want to thank the family and friends who have been very supportive of these efforts and the students whose excitement and enthusiasm have made this endeavor worthwhile. I also would like to specially thank Apex Training Center, without the generosity of letting us work out of their facility, their accommodating nature, and overall graciousness we would not have been able to start this school.
There is still a lot of work to be done to achieve the goals we have for the Nine Dragon Academy. It will take a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but it is a labor of love and we are ready to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
