Philadelphia Jook Lum Southern Praying Mantis

In the late 1990s, I had the privilege of studying Southern Praying Mantis with Sifu Louis Jackman in Philadelphia.

At the time, information about traditional Chinese martial arts was nothing like it is today. There was no YouTube and very little information available online. If you wanted to find a traditional teacher, very often you had to hear about someone through another martial artist, find a telephone number, and go looking.

Around that time, Roger Hagood had put out a free pamphlet about Southern Praying Mantis. Sifu Louis was one of the teachers featured in it. What immediately caught my attention was that he was openly teaching non-Chinese students and teaching Southern Praying Mantis in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia was about three hours from where I lived, but that didn't matter much to me. I wanted to learn.

So once a week, after work, I would get into my car and make the drive to Philadelphia's Chinatown.

The Journey Was Part of the Training

I can still remember the excitement of those trips.

There was something romantic about driving several hours to Chinatown to study an old Chinese martial art. You were leaving your everyday world behind for a few hours and entering a very different environment.

When I arrived, I found Sifu Louie to be remarkably forthcoming with his knowledge. He didn't seem particularly interested in holding things back. If you were there to learn and willing to put in the work, he was willing to teach.

He was also a kind man with a genuine and very deep love for martial arts.

One of the images that has always stayed with me is seeing him off in the corner practicing his Kung Fu, sometimes with a cigarette in his hand or mouth, simply doing his thing.

There wasn't much bravado surrounding him. He didn't seem concerned with presenting himself as some intimidating Kung Fu master. He practiced because he loved Kung Fu. It was something he had done for most of his life, and you could feel that.

There is something about that quality that I appreciate even more today than I did as a young martial artist.

Learning Through Touch

His senior student, Maurice Tunstall, was equally generous with his knowledge and his love for Kwan Sai Jook Lum Tong Long Pai.

Week after week, I had the opportunity to train with them and experience their expression of the system.

Eventually, Sifu Louie began teaching me privately in the park.

That was both an incredible opportunity and, at times, a challenge. There was a significant language barrier between us. Long verbal explanations weren't always possible.

But martial arts has its own language.

Much of what Sifu Louie emphasized with me involved two-person sensitivity drills. Instead of trying to explain every concept intellectually, he could put his hands on you and allow you to feel what was happening.

Pressure.

Timing.

Structure.

Sensitivity.

Receiving force and responding to it.

Through repetition, the body begins to understand things that words often have difficulty explaining.

That sensitivity-based training became one of the aspects of his expression of Southern Praying Mantis that made the greatest impression on me.

Philadelphia Chinatown

My time with Sifu Louis wasn't limited to regular training.

I also had the privilege of helping him during Chinese New Year celebrations in Philadelphia's Chinatown, participating in lion dancing and performing forms as part of the festivities.

Those experiences gave me another connection to the cultural environment surrounding the martial art.

I had already spent time around New York City's Chinatown, but Philadelphia's Chinatown had a character of its own. It was much smaller and had a distinctly different feeling. For a young martial artist traveling there specifically to study Kung Fu, it became a special place for me.

Looking Back

Decades later, what I remember most isn't a particular technique.

I remember the drive.

I remember Chinatown.

I remember training in the park despite the language barrier.

I remember Sifu Louie quietly practicing in the corner because practicing Kung Fu was simply something he loved to do.

And I remember the generosity that both he and Maurice showed me.

Traditional martial arts are often discussed in terms of styles, techniques and lineages. Those things are important. But a lineage ultimately survives because one person is willing to give something to another person, and that person values it enough to continue carrying it forward.

I remain grateful to Sifu Louie Jackman and Maurice Tunstall for sharing their Southern Praying Mantis with me during that period of my life.

It was an honor to be their student, and those weekly drives to Philadelphia remain an important part of my martial arts journey.