Mo Duk Pai kung fu - Other events

Other Events

Mo Duk Pai women attend 2002 PAWMA camp

PAWMA 2002 was held at the picturesque Mount Madonna Center above Monterey Bay in Northern California. The facility was gorgeous and provided beautiful training spaces for the 32 selected teachers. Teachers traveled from as far away as Canada, Germany, Japan and New Zealand.

Saturday and Sunday were each divided into four sessions, each session offering up to eleven different classes such as Kyudo, the art of Japanese archery, firearms, Filipino rope fighting, knife throwing, Taiko drumming, and the basics of Shaolin gung fu to name only a very few.

Testimonials:

Anne Tillinghast
This year, my highlight was Jan Parker’s push hands class, which was basically focused on how to remain in a good position at all times when doing chi sao. She told us that all you have to do is to stay comfortable, meaning that if you find yourself off balance or out of alignment, i.e. uncomfortable, all you need to do is to identify where the discomfort is and adjust accordingly. For some reason, this phrasing helped me to internalize a concept I have been working on for a couple of years. It is great fun when that light bulb finally clicks on.

I have found, through PAWMA, that more I learn about other martial arts, the more I learn about Mo Duk Pai!

Sifu Patty O'Linger
PAWMA camp is always awesome (that's why I haven't missed one in over ten years!). This year I loved learning about Visayan Escrima foundations. It was fascinating to find that the footwork in this Filipino sword art is so similar to our own. When the instructor, Maija Soderholm, talked about always staying on the balls of your feet, the importance of angles, as well as the proper distance between your feet -- I felt the universal connection to other arts that my Sifu is always referencing.

If financial constraints are preventing you from considering PAWMA, look into scholarship and work-study options. Many PAWMA participants contribute to the scholarship fund.