What is Shadow Claws Martial Arts? Shadow Claws Martial Arts is a hard hitting Kung Fu fighting system that teaches all the Kung Fu fighting animals as one fighting animal. That animal is the White Dragon.

The art of Shadow Claws teaches four simple rules in hand to hand combat that are:

Simplicity, Practicality, Reality and the Body is the Weapon

Shadow Claws teaches Simplicity in a fight. A real fight must become reactional in a person. Training the mind and body on a daily basis is the key to becoming a reactional person and fighter. A person's movements and fighting technique must be simple in a fight to be effective and not confusing. To create the greatest amount of damage to an attacker as quickly as possible and to maintain safety to you and others, as well as setting ones mind that there may be more than one attacker.

Shadow Claws teaches practicality in a fight. A fighter must keep the fight practical. In no way should a fighter try to look fancy or use fancy fight techniques. A fight is very real and should be looked at as so. Extreme, excessive or drastic fighting techniques and gymnastics and high spinning kicks are for the movies and should stay there. The fight techniques used in a fight must be practical and have real use to create real self defense to ones self in a fight.

Shadow Claws teaches reality in a fight. A fight is very real with very real consequences in what can happen to you and what can happen to your attacker. A fight must be looked at as real. Real attacks need real reactions. A real fight needs real self defense techniques that work.

Shadow Claws teaches the body is the only true weapon. The hands and feet are extensions of the body's weapon. If a weapon like a knife or even a stick was to be put into your hand, again, they would only be extensions of the extended hand that is extended from the true weapon, the body. The body works around its natural centerline. The weapons that extend from a body hit at the center line no matter where the target might be. Shadow Claws teaches to become an expert in body motion, always hitting with perfect body motion, perfect body weight and perfect center line.

With these four basic rules of real fighting, anyone can defeat their attacker. People in all sizes, shapes, forms and capabilities can use Shadow Claws to defend themselves against any attacker. Simple fight techniques, practical use and thinking in a fight with real world reality of a fight, using natural body and body weight with center line to create real damage to your attacker or multi-attackers.

Body Vs. Muscle The easiest way to explain that the body is the key is this simple question, how would you move a refrigerator across a room? If a person were to try to hit the refrigerator punch after punch using the biggest strongest person, the refrigerator would move slightly if at all, and their hands would become like jelly quickly.
Now, move the same refrigerator using an average sized person getting up closely to the refrigerator, leaning up onto it using the body's weight to push. The refrigerator would move with ease quickly across the room. So, why wouldn't it make sense to use the same kind of body motion in a fight?

High jumping spinning kicks, yes back in the days of old when a fighter would learn to do high spinning kicks to kick an attacker from their horse as they rode towards them makes sense. However, in today's world it does not apply. It is highly unlikely that an attacker will be riding towards us on a horse to attack. Therefore, there is not much need to jump as high as possible using a spinning kick.

Now, I'm not saying that jump kicks or spinning kicks are not needed at all, nor am I saying that knowing some high kicks are a waste of time. There are a few jumping, spinning, and even high kicks that I use and teach, but in no way is it necessary or practical to think these are the kind of kicks that work in an everyday real world fight. People are being taught that these kinds of kicks are to be used in an everyday real world fight. Yes, there might be times when a high kick might be needed, but rarely. For the most part kicks should remain low. No higher than the groin. If a kick to the head is needed, then bring the head down and then apply the kick.

Control of the fight is what is needed to win. Control of ones actions, body and mind is what is needed to win a fight. Try this thinking for a second. No matter what your attacker is saying, doing, or trying, the fight does not start until you decide to move, nor does the fight end until you stop. You're always in control of the fight. Do not think of your self as the defender, but as the aggressor. Now a punch or a kick is coming at you. Don't block it. Attack it!

Attack the Attack! Don't stop to block then punch, but block as you are punching. Don't hit one at a time, but hit with a non stop flow. One leads into the other until you decide to stop moving. Then only stop moving when you feel the fight is over.

One more food for thought:

Controlled Rage is Fluid Motion.
We all get scared. We all get mad. We all get wrapped up with all kinds of emotions when a fight is starting or when someone starts the disrespect process. Dirty looks, unfriendly body language, staring, yelling, and so on. We all begin to get wrapped up with those uncomfortable, unknowing emotions. Emotions we don't understand. Feeling scared. Feeling angry, feelings that make us freeze up, feelings that we are not used to having. So we react, but only in the ways we know how.

By adding the knowledge and understanding of a fight and how to react, and what someone can and cannot do, we replace the unknown scary feelings with known comfortable feelings. Scared feelings and even the mad feelings become comfortable knowledge that become reactions. We find peace of mind and real world confidence to defend our selves. As a teacher of the Martial Arts it is my job to prepare my students for any and all possibilities in a fight. Everything from what someone can do to you, as well as all the bodies' weaknesses and its strengths.

By knowing and becoming an expert in body motion, knowing what a fight is and how to use what the body is capable of, we replace the unknown feelings and emotions with reality and Controlled rage. We can use the energy and desires we feel when someone tries to put us in an uncomfortable place. If a fight comes our way, we find ourselves in an uncomfortable, unknown place, but by replacing the uncomfortable unknown feelings with knowledge, we find ourselves comfortable and at home in a fight, and the attacker finds themselves in the place where they thought they would put us.