Grandmaster Suh, “I Just Punch Him”

One day, at a tournament in Long Beach, many years back, for some reason Grandmaster Suh got into an altercation with another Korean master. It was a very heated moment and we students didn’t quite know how far it was going to go. We were sure, from his history in Korea, that he won’t back down from anything — if it’s a threat. He will take care of a threat right there and now. After fifteen minutes or and the two masters just 18 inches apart at some points, it began to dissipate. Neither one had moved hardly at all except for speaking. They were like two cats in a “stare-off”.

Master Suh’s eyes were squinted to almost closed looking like someone who is squinting in on his next meal. His adversary remained kind of rigid with his eyes wide open. Master Suh, dropped his chest and shoulders some and shifted his weight slightly onto one foot. The other Master was tightening his fist without knowing it.

Our minds raced wondering what Master Suh was going to do here. Would he use Monkey, Dragon, Stork, Diagonal Front-Kick or what? Would he move in and head butt him which is not uncommon in Korean versions of Chinese Kung Fu.

In the next few moments, the other Master lost his nerve, said something in Korean and left. Grandmaster Suh, watched him walk away for a moment and then acted like nothing ever happened. He simply floated from the intensity to his happy self and moved on – in about ten seconds. It took most of us a couple hours to shake that moment off and we weren’t really even in it. He just relaxed, and walked away with no residual effect.

The students were quite enthralled with the encounter and asked him what he had in mind. He knows, literally, thousands of techniques and he was a Presidential Body Guard in Korea and part of the Instructor Staff. One of the students finally asked, “Master Suh, what were you going to do”? He stopped for a second, looked at us all and said, “I just hit him if I have to”.

That’s it? The finest Korean martial artist in the country at the time and “I just hit him if I have to”? That surprised us all. We figured to hear a whole story of all of the stuff he was going to mangle this man with. And in the end, Grandmaster Suh tells us I just hit him.

His mind is free: his spirit is free. He learns everything he can about martial arts but does it in a way not to create any bias what-so-ever as to which techniques he might use at any given time. “I just hit him” is a brilliant answer and one that he knew darn well was going to effect us for years to come.

We learn a lot about Kung Fu. We forget much and then learn it again. We practice it diligently. And, when it comes down to it, we let it flow from us like a sign language without interuption and with the clarity of a conversation. Without prejudice, techniques flow out of us that we never quite expect and yet we trained them to be able to do that. In the end, we’re free too. We are trained. We know technique and we trust it will support our efforts if anything comes up where we really and honestly, need to use them.

Thanks again Grandmaster Suh for another of your amazing lessons of Kung Fu and how to apply its principles.

Kung Fu in Burbank remains alive and well now since the middle sixites; right at 45 years in Burbank!!!