Early days in Jook Lum Southern Praying Mantis

My journey in Southern Praying Mantis began around 1995–1996 with Sifu Ralph Mitchell in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

By that time, I had already been studying Kung Fu for several years and had fallen in love with the idea of Southern Praying Mantis. One of my teachers continually spoke about its effectiveness and described it as a pinnacle of the martial arts. I was hooked before I had even had the opportunity to truly experience it. I just needed to find someone who could teach me.

That opportunity came at a martial arts tournament in New York City’s Chinatown.

I saw Sifu Ralph Mitchell onstage with several of his students demonstrating San Bo Jin—Three-Step Arrow—along with Chi Sao, or sticking hands. His group also demonstrated other arts they trained, including Doce Pares Escrima, Thai boxing, Western boxing, and Savate. But it was the Southern Praying Mantis that captured my attention.

I was impressed, fascinated, and ready to learn.

I grabbed a flyer on my way out and called Sifu Mitchell. From our first conversation, he was welcoming and generous with his time, and he invited me to come down and try a class.

When I first walked up the steps and into his school on Avenue L in Canarsie, I found the experience both intimidating and invigorating. Not long afterward, I met the man who would become my longtime friend and training partner, Nardu Debrah. Nardu had a love for all combat arts , but similar to myself a true Gung Fu man at heart.

And so began a journey together.

We played Chi Sao constantly, developing and refining the sensitivity skills Sifu Mitchell was teaching us. Looking back, it was an extraordinary period of my life. There is something special about being young and having relatively few responsibilities. Before children, homes, businesses, and all the obligations that eventually come with adulthood, you could spend an entire day training and think nothing of it.

And that is often exactly what we did.

While studying with Sifu Mitchell, I was also learning Doce Pares, boxing, kickboxing, and Savate. At the time, I viewed all of these arts as supporting the Southern Praying Mantis I was trying to understand.

The Mantis curriculum itself was not overly complicated. .

It was birthed out of a profound concept . OJT—on-the-job training.

You needed flight time.

You practiced the form. You played Chi Sao. You put in the hours. Over time, you learned to allow the energies and principles contained within the form to emerge naturally through contact with another person.

There was also an incredible amount of freedom in the way Sifu Mitchell taught the art. If you saw an opportunity to sweep, you could sweep. If a kick was available, you could kick. Takedowns were welcomed. There was very little sense of something being "out of bounds."

The art had to be functional.

Sifu Mitchell encouraged self-expression while remaining firmly rooted in the profound principles upon which Southern Praying Mantis is built: 浮、沉、吞、吐 — Float, Sink, Swallow, Spit

That combination had an enormous influence on me.

There was tradition, but tradition was never an excuse for something being impractical. Technique had to be functional. Principles had to survive contact. The practitioner needed the freedom to express the art rather than simply imitate its movements.

To have been exposed to that philosophy at such a young age was a tremendous privilege. It helped shape not only my understanding of Southern Praying Mantis, but also the way I would approach every martial art I studied afterward.

Over the years, I have had exposure to other teachers within the Southern Praying Mantis world, and each experience has given me something valuable. But throughout that journey, Sifu Ralph Mitchell has remained a steady rock of support, skill, and knowledge.

Even today, he continues to provide sage counsel as I navigate the many valleys, questions, and discoveries that come with a lifetime spent studying an art.

Nearly three decades after first walking into that school in Canarsie, I still find myself returning to those lessons: put in the flight time, trust the principles, test what you know, and allow the art to become your own.

I am deeply grateful for those early years, for the countless hours of training, for my friendship and training with Nardu, and especially for the teacher who opened this door for me.

I consider it a tremendous privilege to call myself a student of Sifu Ralph Mitchell.