July & August 2025 Newsletter
No Classes Saturday July 5!
Enjoy the late night Fourth of July celebrations the night before with family and friends!
Mexican Fiesta Demonstration
(Tentative): Saturday August 23 at noon at Maier’s Park (Summerfest Grounds) at the sports stage. Join us for almost 2 decades of partnering with Mexican Fiesta and demonstrating our kung fu, kenpo and tai chi forms, self defense, weapons, sparring and breaking boards at Mexican Fiesta. Students and at least one parent will receive a ticket to enter the fiesta free. Be sure you make at least one of the two rehearsals: Thursday August 21 at 5:30 pm. and/or Saturday August 23 at 10 a.m.
Silver City Demonstration
Saturday September 6th 2025 Rising Dragon Martial Arts students can perform at the Silver City festival held at National between 33 and 35th street. We will have a demo rehearsal that morning from 10-11:30 a.m. and then students can walk (or drive) the 2 blocks over to the park. Our demonstration is near 33rd street end.
Testing
Friday August 22 at 5 p.m. Awards Ceremony 6:00 p.m. Higher rank testing will start earlier usually around 3 p.m.
Fun & Games Week
August 25 – 28. Not just fun classes – but challenging fun – for mind and body! This special training is special fun to end the summer!
No Classes Labor Day Weekend
There are no classes Saturday August 30 and Monday September 1. Happy Labor Day weekend!
Dragon’s Breath:
Last issue we finished the year long series on protocols (see Sigung if you would like a copy of all 6 Dragon Breaths on the subject. Our next series starting with this one is to begin to understand the history of our art called “Pai Lum” or in English, “White Dragon.” So what is Pai Lum? Let’s start with what are martial arts. Martial means “war” and art means the “science and beauty” of expression – in this case the expression of protecting oneself and others. Every culture has had its own unique expression of protecting oneself. Our art Pai Lum derives from Shaolin Kung Fu in China which sought its expression through the study of how various animals fought and protected themselves. The primary animals are Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake and Dragon.
While Pai Lum is primarily focused on the “Dragon,” we teach forms and self defense based on all 5 of those animals and several others such as monkey and praying mantis. And while Pai Lum has many theories such as waist whipping, coiling and expanding (like a dragon) as we delve deeper into what Pai Lum is we will see, in fact, that Grandmaster Pai was very ‘eclectic’ in borrowing, learning and teaching many concepts from other animals and even other arts outside of China. His philosophy was to take and adapt for oneself anything that worked from any system. Dragon’s basic concept was wisdom and balance so they could change shapes to become to elements of victory. So while they could fight as a dragon they might be wise to see they would be better as a leopard or tiger at times, or in modern vernacular – they might become an available bottle to smash on your head or a ‘car’ to run you over.
In this same way Pai Lum has collected many ways to fight from many systems, including MMA full contact, many weapons, the are of locking (Chi Na), throwing, ground fighting, modern weapons, and so on. While the Pai Lum practitioner is diverse and strong in the many arts of fighting, they also had codes on when and why to fight. Next issue we will look at some of the Pai Lum heritage and codes that make it the martial art that develops what it means to be a dragon warrior in the Pai Lum family.
– Sigungs Steve and Melodie
Xeung Lum / Feng Huang
Upcoming Events
- No Classes Saturday July 5 for Independence Day
- Testing Block 1 Friday August 22 5 p.m. Awards 6:00
- Mexican Fiesta Demo: (tentative) Sat. Aug 23 at 12 p.m.
- No Classes Labor Day Weekend Sat. Aug 30 & Mon Sept 1
- Silver City Demo Sat Sept 6 at 12:15 p.m 33rd & National
Block 1 Focus
- Week 1 (July 1 – July 5): Basics
- Week 2 (July 7 – 12): Forms
- Week 3 (July 14 -19): Sparring
- Week 4 (July 21 – 26): Fist Sets
- Week 5 (July 28-Aug 2) Weapons
- Week 1 (August 4-9): Sparring and Info
- Week 2 (August 11-16): Basics and Form Beads
- Week 3 (August 18-23): Fist Set & Weapon Beads
- Week 4 (August 25-30) Game Week!
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