::Lectures from Sifu Starr, founder of Yilichuan Kung Fu::

THE SHIAI

Believe it or not, I was around when the first karate tournament was held on American soil.  The year was 1963 and the tournament was conducted in Chicago by a Mr. John Keehan (who would later become known as “Count Dante”, but that’s another story) of the United States Karate Association.  To say that it [...]

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THE SPIRIT OF STOICISM

In most traditional martial arts schools there are certain attitudes that are relatively common but which are never explained to students and never discussed with “outsiders.”  They are aspects of the budo (“wudao” in Chinese) that are to be learned through a kind of “social osmosis” and it is generally felt that those who are [...]

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THE MASK

When I began writing my first book, "The Making Of A Butterfly", my wife and I were living in the tiny hamlet of Unionville, Iowa.  This town of about a hundred people (dogs, cats, and chicken not included) is, as you’ve no doubt guessed, a rural village that is nestled unobtrusively in the rolling hills [...]

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TOLL BRIDGES ON THE PATH

Most of us have seen a photograph of the “Father of Japanese Karate”, Gichin Funakoshi.  Sitting in a very straight posture, he is dressed in formal Japanese attire, holding a fan and looking rather severe.  He is a revered figure in the martial arts; the man who brought karate from Okinawa to Japan and single-handedly [...]

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CREATING YOUR FORM…

I imagine that the heading of this lecture has already confused a number of you.  Those of you who have trained with me know how I feel about the homemade forms that are presented at various competitions in the hopes of winning shiny trophies or fat checks.  And that’s NOT what this lecture is about.  [...]

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