Who am I and how I got to Shaolin Cat Boxing?

My name is Shao.  I was born in a village in Moldova, North-East Romania, and ever since I know myself I loved to climb trees and play with sticks and bows in the forest.  Every summer we also used to build tents out of small trees.  

At age 8, my parents decided to send me to the city to study in better schools. Being very skinny and also coming from the countryside brought me a lot of troubles with my school mates and with other people around the neighbourhoods I was living in. Unlike other kids, I didn’t have a big brother or a cousin to call in case of emergency. Actually, my big brother used to hit me as well. 

So then, at age 9 I started to practice martial arts and fell in love with them ever since. First time, I practiced Kwan Qi Do. I loved the black suits and all the weapons that were displayed during trainings. Also, there were lots of kids around my age there so I had a great opportunity to make new friends – only this time we had more in common than just our school. 

Unfortunately, I had to change schools quite often because my host families couldn’t keep me for very long periods of time.  This way, I lost contact with the gym where I was training. 

A bit later, when I was about  11 years old, I went to practice rugby with some school mates, hoping that this would make me stronger.  I really loved rugby, except that I was way too weak for those trainings and the body conditioning exercises that were practiced there didn’t help me to get fit enough to actually enjoy the game. 

Soon after I turned 13, I found a Shotokan Karate Club where the trainings were led by a riot police officer. Although this martial art style was non-contact, the trainings were quite harsh. Sometimes, we also used to train at the riot police headquarters which was an immense joy for us since we had the chance to kick the military sand bags and some of the soldiers were always cleaning the gym for us.  I got into some quarrels in school and in the neighbourhood and I noticed that my training was not good enough for what happens in a real combat situation. 

Happily,  a friend of mine from Shotokan had another friend who practiced Vietnamese martial arts – Vovinam Viet Vo Dao and, after I fought with him, I was accepted to train with them during the weekends in the local parks.  We exchanged lots of techniques there and I got to learn from them how to use the nunchucks , which helped me escape and protect myself when I was attacked by multiple opponents in my neighbourhood (a football team, to be more precise). 

Together, we started to study Ninjutsu and Jeet Kune Do and we planned to bring more training partners into our club, preferably from different martial arts so we can exchange more skills.

As I wasn’t satisfied with my sparring performance, I decided to go to a Full Contact Isshinryu Karate Club. This was the first time I actually became a bit more confident when having to defend myself in real combat situations.  This style was way more realistic, although it wasn’t as fancy as all the martial arts movies we were watching.  Here I also got the chance to practice Kobudo and play with some traditional Okinawian weapons.

In the meantime, we gathered lots of other practitioners, from different kung fu styles, aikido, boxing, to train and spar with during the weekends. 

Soon, we discovered a Shaolin Club in our city and after I saw one traditional form I totally fell in love with the style.  The form was the very first that was teached there: Wu Bu Quan – or five stances boxing. As far as I know, this form was created so people can practice the five fundamental stances from Shaolin, which would enable them to build a strong body conditioning and to go to more advanced forms and techniques. 

Although I didn’t want to leave the Karate Club, I had to choose between the two, so I chose Shaolin.

I trained there for two or three years, until our master couldn’t manage the club anymore due to lack of students. After our master left, me and my friends continued to train together in the park, or in different other gyms and exchange more knowledge with different other practitioners from different styles – boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, kung fu, capoeira. 

But, after I discovered Parkour, I left the martial arts trainings for a while and got really crazy about climbing buildings and doing flips. This got me lots of injuries, because although I was quite fit from the martial arts training, at that time I didn’t develop a sustainable way of training, so many times I used to skip the warming up and stretching was only practiced when I was too lazy to do anything else.  For about 6 years – during my Bachelors and Master’s Degree studies (Political Sciences & Political Philosophy at the Al. I. Cuza Univesity from Iasi), I practiced Parkour & FreeRunning. 

Before finishing my University studies, I started practicing Capoeira, since I felt very attracted to the anthropology researches about the South American Indians and got very passionate about what was going on in that part of the world. Capoeira was really fun and I totally fell in love with playing in the roda. Finally, I was discovering a way to spar against people without knocking each other out. Although it is sometimes perceived as more of a dance than a martial art, capoeira has very practical techniques and it teaches you a very important lesson which you don’t always learn at the traditional martial arts schools and that is to move according with your opponent. During the traditional oriental martial arts classes, we would practice a single technique hundreds of times until we would get bored of it, but when in a fight we wouldn’t know how to set up that technique and use it. In Capoeira, you have to use your spontaneity more often and know the weak and strong points of your body a bit more.

About that time, after I finished University and left Romania together with my girlfriend in order to go and live in Amsterdam for the next 4 years,  I decided that I have to continue practicing martial arts for the rest of my life, as a main activity and I started to hope that one day, I may be able to share all this with as many people as possible.

 Although I was crazy about martial arts ever since I was a kid, my parents soon forbade me to train as they didn’t like the idea of me having such a strong passion, since this may hinder my school studies.  What they didn’t notice was that ever since I started practicing martial arts I had better grades at school and my body was getting stronger. I was generally happier, more satisfied about myself and  started to have more friends. Living in the city and being from the countryside no longer made me a paria, it made me special and blessed. Since at the countryside I was having just the right environment and tools to practice traditional trainings and lots of my training partners used to envy me for that. 

 Also, my general knowledge had expanded, since with each martial art style I was encountering I was also learning more about the geography and history of the home region of that martial art.

Unfortunately, I got a very bad ankle injury while doing a side flip – which was aggravated by an elevator crash - and soon afterwards I was so unlucky as to get some confusing skin irritations which  led me to anti-inflammatory pills and incorrectly subscribed antibiotics. For the next 2 years I did all sorts of medical research  and followed lots of pill based treatments and even got into a failed laser surgery for haemorrhoids during a trip to Romania.  I had the feeling that I was getting more and more sick with each visit I pay to the doctor.  

So then, I turned from vegetarian to vegan, to get rid of all the toxic foods and only use clean food. It was only then that I started to notice more the link between what I was eating and how I was feeling and how much energy I had. 

Also, I had to quit Capoeira, because I was in such a weak condition that watching the games in the roda only made me more frustrated.  I was so inpatient to get better as I was just getting more skilful at playing in the roda. Capoeira didn’t have any training for somebody like me – injured, stressed, sick.

Then I started to remember about Shaolin. I remembered there were some exercises, called Qigong, which I never had the patience to do as a teenager, although they seemed pretty cool back then.  These exercises are supposed to help you recover from injuries and sicknesses and maintain your internal balance while healthy, as well as strengthen your nervous and immune systems in order to prevent illnesses. 

Slowly I started doing some Qigong every morning and every evening and got more curious about it. I was very interested to see if it actually works or if it is just a myth, or if it only works for the Shaolin monks as they may keep the secrets for themselves and only show empty movements to the rest of the world.  Many people regard Qigong as being superstitious and they think that the benefits only come as a placebo effect. So, since I was so disappointed with the modern medicine I was very eager to test it. I also learned some Dao Yin Qigong  and other forms of qigong, but later on I sticked to Shaolin Qigong and Tai Chi. 

Then, I saw that there are actually a series of scientific researches performed on qigong practitioners that prove the medical benefits of this kind of training and that in China you can actually find a proper institute where such ancient medical practices are studied and tested, so they can be used in order to complete the conventional medicine. 

I was recommended by my Shaolin teacher at that time to go and try Chinese Acupuncture so I can heal my inflamed liver, the haemorrhoids, the urinary infections and my injured ankle. At that point I was still very inpatient and desperate to recover, scared that I may end up being crippled and dependent on pills for the rest of my life. I can honestly say that the treatment I received there saved my life! There, I was also recommended to start meditating so I can calm down my highly irritated nervous system. Although I was very curious about meditation ever since I was practicing Karate, I was sceptical about trying it at that time, while the haemorrhoids were causing me so much pain that I couldn’t even sit to drink a cup of tea. My acupuncturist friend told me to use a classical meditation stance and I felt quite comfortable with it, regardless of the haemorrhoidal pain. I also noticed that some pain I had in my wrists was gone... Then I became more confident about it and started practicing it on a daily basis.  Breathing slowly helps your heart to calm down and rest. Sometimes, you can even hear your heartbeat. Your blood flows more peacefully so your veins can benefit from this. You oxygenate your lungs, your brain and all your cells in your body. All your body is at rest and it can enter a recovery process. It can acknowledge what is going wrong and it has time to repair itself, since the rest of the day we use our bodies and at night we don’t always get a good sleep, because of physical conditions – pain in the body,  heat, mosquitoes, etc., or because of psychological conditions – stress, traumas, nightmares, noise, etc.  Your body reacts to all this, and your reactions damage your nervous system. During meditation, you observe your reactions but you don’t support them, so they cannot harm you. You also become aware of more and more of your thoughts, how you distort your memories, your likes and dislikes, your hypocrisies, your thinking process, your reactions. You start to know yourself better. Therefore you can understand yourself and feel at peace easier generally, and also when getting in trouble.  For me, meditation is more of a medical practice than of a spiritual one. I know nothing about spirituality... of course, I read some books, watched some documentaries, talked to some wise people. But this is all second hand knowledge. I haven’t discovered anything spiritual on my own.

Around that time, I also quit using all the medication that the doctors recommended me.  Slowly slowly I got better and I was more and more able to practice Shaolin Qigong and even Shaolin Kung Fu. 

It was then when I learned, on my own, how important it is to warm up and stretch before every training. Slowly, I have found more confidence in myself and developed my own training rhythm. 

I was also recommended by my acupuncturist friend to practice Tai Chi in order to enhance my health recovery.  Again, I was a bit sceptical about Tai Chi, since I was used to more full contact martial arts. But, there was something at that training that helped my ankle injury a lot. When you move fast,  most of the movement is performed by your muscles and your joints just start and end the movement, which puts a lot of pressure on them. Also, many sports and modern physiotherapy practices don’t have such complex knowledge about the link between breath and movement. Breathing with the movement helps you stay more focused and puts all your body into the movement. It also creates an internal effect that can influence the flow of blood and energy.  Moving slowly allows your joints to “learn” how to move so they can align themselves anatomically correct. 

After I left Amsterdam, my health was almost completely recovered but since I wasn’t fortunate enough to arrive to a stable material situation, it deteriorated a bit. Here in Romania I have nowhere to go to receive acupuncture treatment and I only use conventional medicine very very rarely or not at all (for example, buying an anti-fungus cream to clean a skin infection).  My only treatment consists of martial arts training, meditation, vegan food and self-massage and happily I can declare that my health continues its recovery. 

I have learned since a teenager that traditional martial arts training is not enough for real combat situations, so I chose to also learn boxing and continue the Parkour training. I love boxing not just for its highly practical use, but especially for its simplicity. And although so simple, it is not simple at all to actually put it into practice. A sparring fight is different from a real fight. Some people may be very good at sparring, but they might not be so good at fighting. The mind sets are different. When you spar you know that the risks are limited, when you fight the risks are unlimited. This is why it is very important to know yourself, know your capacities, know your fears and learn some more advanced fighting techniques. Because, just to defend yourself is not very difficult. In an extreme situation, while feeling threatened, almost anybody can defend himself, but the attacker may get crippled or even die. And that doesn’t resonate at all to a peaceful loving mindset.  So, when you learn traditional martial arts, you have the opportunity to learn advanced techniques so you can easily deflect the attacks and stop your opponent, without inflicting too much damage. He may even get a chance to realize what he’s doing and stop by himself. This is a level I haven’t yet reached and this is what I call true martial arts!

At this point, I would love to continue my training and sharpen my skills, learn more, inspire myself and others and share what I already practice with as many people as possible, since I have seen on my own what a great therapeutic  tool the consistent martial arts training represents.

Wish you peace!