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CHENG MING ISRAEL TRIP: MAY 2010

It is Tuesday, 25th May, 2010, 12 noon and I can’t feel my legs. I hear a Black Hawk Helicopter overhead, but that doesn’t drone out the sound of small arms fire and grenade launchers discharging another round. My thoughts return to my legs; they are so sore around the knee area that I find it hard to lift my feet. I slide my foot to the next position as if I’m doing a geriatric shuffle.

My mind is scattered. I can’t concentrate. I’m thinking of my family in Australia, work and dozens of other things that I have swept back into the annals of my mind. I may be suffering jet lag. I contemplate stopping, having a toilet break, even sitting out to watch- no one would mind.

I then have an epiphany, that what is happening to my body, mind and soul is probably happening to the other 150 people I’m training with. I decide to press on.

I’m at the Wingate Institute of Physical Education and Sport in Natanya, Israel. I’m here to experience the Israel Tai Chi Centre’s 5 day Gasshuku which started on Sunday 23rd May, 2010.

This event was organised by Master Nir Mahli, an Inner Room Disciple of Master Wang Fu Lai of Taiwan. The Wingate Institute borders an Israeli army base for Special Forces Ordinance Practice.

Sessions are conducted in either an air conditioned basketball stadium, or a covered basketball court outdoors. I find the outdoor venue and sea breezes to my liking. Thankfully the temperature has been around 25 degrees Celsius, but the forecast for the final day is 40 degrees.

The session plan is simple. Morning session – 4 hours; first a warm up and breathing exercises, (8 pieces brocade), for 15 minutes, followed by half hour Tai Chi practice, then either Hsing I Pi Chuan or Ba Gua Walking , and one element of the Stand Forms. Repeat x 5 times. Anyone that has not completed the form moves to the rear of the class and are assisted by Senior Students.

There are two special needs students who have been practising for over 10 years ; Kuti a double lower arm amputee who is nearly blind as well and can follow only the person close by, and Orli, a young woman with cerebral palsy, who uses a swivel chair to aid mobility and concentrates on arm movements. Both these people were shown dignity – they were never shown pity for which I commend the Israeli Group for their inventiveness and inclusive attitudes.

After morning practise, there is a lunch break. Most people practise other skills in the second hour while they wait for the afternoon session to commence. At 3.45pm Senior Students start “Push Hands” practice and applications. This continues until Master Wang and Master Huang, along with interpreter Eric Hung, come to conduct the sessions.

The afternoon sessions comprise of 45 minutes Hsing I practice, instruction and questions. We work on a different element each day. After a short break, there is Tai Chi practice, instruction and questions. This session lasts 3 hours. The Tai Chi is broken into 4 sections with each day focusing on a different section. The morning session allows revision of the corrections made the day before.

It is day 4, Wednesday 26th May at 8.30pm. The training has finished for the day and Ron Wachtel is driving his Citroen at the legal limit along the expressway toward Tel-Aviv. Ron is carpooling with Itzak and Anat. I turn and ask Itzak how the pain in his lower back and leg is going since Sunday; (an injury prior to the Gasshuku),. He tells me he has had no problem today at all. Anat chimes that she has had chronic hip pain that has disappeared. My inner thigh injury that I’ve carried for 7 weeks has miraculously disappeared. We all laughed and joked about the healing qualities of Tai Chi in the Promised Land, but we knew that over the past 4 days, our bodies and minds and souls had changed for the positive.

It’sThursday, the final day of the Gasshuku. The temperature has dropped from 40 degrees in the morning to the high 20s. The humidity is high and strong winds have brought a dust storm across from Egypt The place resemble a London fog. Dust particles settle all over parts of my sweaty body. My hair feels like straw.

The soreness in my legs has dissipated, my balance steady, timing co-ordinated, my mind clear. This day has brought out more people and the numbers swell to over 200. Ages start as young as 11 and the oldest member was 84.

Today’s challenge is to perform the half hour form in one hour, and for the attendees to demonstrate empty hand and weapon skills. To my surprise, we perform the Tai Chi in 1 hour and 6 minutes. I do not notice the activity from the army base. I have sensed a connection with the 200+ practitioners and everyone’s spirits are high.

The Coup De Gras of the evening is the demonstrations. Special mention should be made of Master Wang’s “Yo Sen San”, Master Huang’s “Tai Chi Tzien”, Master Nir’s “Ba Gua Dao” and Master Eric’s “Ba Gua Goon”.

I would like to thank Master Nir on the content and structure of the Gasshuku. Thanks to Danny, the Business Manager, regarding my entry permission to Israel and organisation. Thanks to the Senior Students for helping make the Gasshuku flow seamlessly. Thank you to Ron Wachtel, the elder Statesman of the group for looking after me during my stay. I would finally like to thank all the Israeli Members for making me feel welcome. I found the 5 day Gasshuku a personal challenge. Shalom.

David Zarb
Chairman Cheng Ming Australia

David Zarb, an insight into the person: An article by Melissa Odgers of Bacchus Marsh (circa 2000)

About $30 buys one of the most valuable things in a Victorian person’s life. It brings joy, excitement and peace of mind; it solves arguments and helps you get to exactly where you want to be in life. So why would anyone want to give their Melways to a complete stranger?

“It’s happened to me twice now,” tells David Zarb. “The last time I was standing in front of a big map with my wife and some others, trying to gristly figure out where we were and then where I had to be. A man came over to me and asked where I wanted to go. He took me to the ticket booth and all the way to the platform I had to be on, which was obviously out of his way.”

No, it wasn’t at Spencer or Flinders Street, it was at Sinjuku station in Japan, which according to David has about six kilometres of platforms. “It changed my whole perspective,” says David. “I’ve given people my Melways since then. Things like that just don’t happen in Australia.”

David was on his third trip to Japan in 15 years, training for Karate. He was never one for playing footy or cricket like most other Aussie kids, “for the simple reason, in team sports you either get blamed or hero status.” David started Karate at the age of 16 and earned his black belt just before his 21st birthday.

His first trip to Japan was about 15 years ago as a second Dan, meaning he had been graded or tested twice after receiving his black belt. He travelled with his teacher and found that he was almost reliant on his companions. “It was amazing,” he said, “I was totally out of my depth.” David and his friends trained every day for three weeks while staying near Tokyo.

After being a driving instructor with the RACV for 16 years, David felt like a change and resigned. “It felt like a whole weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was amazing, exhilarating.” The ‘Art of Defence Australia’, a martial arts organisation was established eight years ago, with David as the director and wife Amelia, secretary. As David recalls, they “did it the hard way” and after taking some marketing advice, “started to kick some goals.” Since then, the number of classes and students have steadily grown. David and Amelia, also a black belt, have classes in Karate, Tai Chi, and Self Defence in Bacchus Marsh, Melton, Carlton and Macedon, amongst other places.

“Being a Virgo, I’m supposed to be very fussy or something, a perfectionist,” says David sceptically, but he says he still enjoys Karate because he hasn’t yet perfected it, although he doesn’t think he ever will. Here is a person that really does enjoy his job because he enjoys interacting with people, something that he considers to be an important requirement of job satisfaction.

In his Self Defence classes, David finds nothing more satisfying than when he sees really placid people actually gain enough confidence to protect themselves. He tells of one woman he once taught who he describes as being “about 55, four feet two and about 120 kilos”. Who was being abused by her husband. One day he tried to harm her, but she had enough self confidence to stand up for herself and that was the last she saw of him. “I thought, you beauty,” smiles David.

It’s a “big buzz,” says David “to see someone really raw make their way to black belt in Karate.” So far he has seen about 25 or 30 of his pupils make it that far, with about 20 of them still training, including Amelia, her 10 year old daughter Gabriella and David’s 17 year old son Peter, who is also National All Styles (NAS) champion.

On his most recent trip to Japan, he was accompanied by Amelia and her two daughters Gabriella and Daniella, and Peter. All were influenced quite profoundly by the people and their culture, especially Peter who was, as David puts it “blown away”. To David, the Japanese people feel like an extended family, as he tells of when Daniella fell ill. Their Sensei took her to the doctor and chemist to get her prescription and wouldn’t accept anything for doing so. “You can walk from one end of a train station to the other, or down a crowded street without being bumped or jostled once,” he says “it’s like you bumping into a member of your family at home. You wouldn’t do it.”

Contrary to what a lot of people think, David says that his teachers aren’t at all mean and nasty as seen in some martial arts movies. Sensei Ohtsuka, one of David’s Japanese teachers, has “an amazing technique of applying humour to a class,” something which David has incorporated into his own method of teaching. “The perfect class is when one or two hours only feels like five minutes.”

Eight year old Kirstin has only one thing to say about David, “Cool!” Another student, 38 year old Donna however thinks he is “absolutely fabulous. It’s very rare to find someone that can keep adults and children occupied at the same time.”
David believes that it is because whether they are adults or kids, they are all persons and those people are all his friends.

“Once they sort out the pecking order, I have no problems with behaviour either. Doing 500 push-ups for talking and another 500 for groaning isn’t discipline,” believes David, “punishment like that isn’t a proactive learning facet. If you want to do Karate, you’ve got to do Karate. Discipline is when the 20 kids in front of you understand the rules and stick to them without any troubles.”

Despite travelling around to various towns for his classes, being to Japan three times, Bali twice, Taiwan and New Zealand, David still feels like there is no place like home and he knows he’s close when he drives through the big overhanging oak trees that form Bacchus Marsh’s spectacular Avenue of Honour. “I actually feel like I’m coming home,” he says, “not just to my house. It’s the only place that’s ever given me that feeling.”

So the next time you’re helplessly lost, ask someone with a Melways for directions. You never know, they might have just got back from Japan.

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Art of Defence Newsletter: May 2010