It's rush hour at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and University Boulevard in Kensington, Md. Horns blare, bus drivers jeer and scattered car stereos pump heavy bass. Above the mess is a kung fu school where a grandmaster from Hong Kong teaches his students focus and discipline.
Every week 500 to 600 students of all ages and backgrounds brave the heavy traffic to learn martial arts at Tai Yim Kung Fu School. It is a school that has produced national and international champions. Its students have performed in front of large audiences, and last year shared the stage with hip-hop stars Usher and Mya at Howard University's October homecoming. But students say they go for deeper and far more personal reasons.
"[Kung fu] is not a joke to people at the school," says Meghan Feeley, a sophomore in the School of International Service. "It's not a hobby. It's a way of life."
The school's central focus is to help students overcome their weaknesses and realize their potential, says senior instructor Mike Sutton, a 45-year-old retired policeman. Students are allowed to pick their own paths rather than being cast in a standardized regime. The school is open six days a week and students are encouraged to come as often as they can.
The martial arts school is the only one in America that teaches the Hung Fut fighting system, a fighting style created nearly 400 years ago at the Southern Shaolin Temple in China's Fujian province by Wun Lei, a Shaolin monk and kung fu grandmaster.
The Hung Fut system is "very practical, very beautiful, but at the same time is very balanced," says instructor James Whitley. "It gives you the ability to fight all different types of people."
Students are required to take Basic class, which teaches fundamentals and exercises for stretching and strengthening the muscles. Upon passing Basic, students may take Hand Set, which teaches forms based on the 10 animal styles, and Sparring, in which students apply their skills to fighting situations. Advanced students learn to use staffs, swords and spears in the Weapons class. In addition, the school offers classes in Tai Chi and traditional lion and dragon dancing.
Most students live in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., but Sutton says the school has drawn people from around the globe. One former pupil came from a sister school in England, while a police officer from Seattle learned about the school via the Internet.
Sifu Tai Yim, the eighth generation grandmaster of the Hung Fut system, opened the kung fu school in 1979 and works with the school's advanced students.
"Sifu is my dad, he's my boss, he's my kung fu instructor," says Whitley. "He's somebody to be admired and looked up to. On a daily basis my goal is to try and reach his level if not to hopefully one day surpass."
Yim grew up in Hong Kong. He began studying kung fu at the age of 6, but first encountered Hung Fut at a demonstration when he was 12. The style excited young Yim so much that he began punching along to the performance.
Yim soon became a favorite student of Sifu Hung Yu Chung, Hung Fut's seventh generation grandmaster. Chung adopted Yim as his son and after seven years of training passed Hung Fut's lineage title to his apprentice. Chung died soon after and Yim became the eighth generation grandmaster at the age of 20.
Yim came to America in 1977 in fulfillment of his late teacher's wish to introduce the Hung Fut system to the West. Yim says emigrating was important in order to build ties between American and Chinese culture.
"I think [world nations] just have to get to know each other more and be friends," says Yim. "That would make the world more peaceful."
After looking first in Los Angeles and New York City, Yim moved to Maryland, where he had relatives and says there were "not so many crazy people."
Teaching in English was difficult but Yim says much of the challenge came from working with students whose knowledge of kung fu came from movies.
"People come in and are really honest and say 'I just want to learn how to kick butt,'" he says. "[Today] I like that kind of student, because I know if I teach them for a little while I can change their mind."
When Sutton first entered the school to inquire about lessons, he says Yim allowed him only to watch a class. Sutton again asked to join after two hours of observation, but once more Yim turned him away. The teacher asked him to return in a week if he was still serious about learning.
"So I came back," says Sutton. "It kind of impressed me, because I figured this guy isn't just trying to take our money." He stayed with the school for the next 25 years and won a world championship for full-contact fighting in 1991.
The kung fu school's family atmosphere is its greatest strength, says Sutton. Many of the other instructors have been with the school for over 20 years, and he says he is still close with many people who are no longer there.
"There's a lot of friendship," Sutton says. "We do a lot of things together [outside of kung fu]."
Nathan Ipanig, 12, says the school is like a second family. "Whenever I need advice, whenever I'm in a fight with my parents, I bring it to [Sifu] and he'll help me resolve that problem."
Learning respect for instructors and classmates is an integral part to the system. The first thing the school teaches students is how to bow and salute. They are then introduced to 24 Commandment-like rules of the Shaolin temple and Hung Fut school.
"Before I started coming here, I used to like starting fights," says Ipanig, who joined the school at the age of four. He soon learned that kung fu is not about creating conflict.
Feeley says many martial arts schools in America have forgotten why people should learn how to fight. "It's not to kick the crap out of someone. It's to build yourself and become a better person." Since she joined the school last year, Feeley says kung fu has helped her control her temper and become calmer and happier.
The school teaches self-discipline through repetition. "When you go outside in the world you're going to do the same thing. You have to do good repeatedly and improve it every time you do it. This will give you the upper hand in society."
Ipanig says he has already applied lessons from kung fu to his life. "It's helped me focus on my school work and balance my whole day and week out."
Students also come to the school to improve their health. Whitley, 24, joined the school almost 11 years ago to overcome obesity, asthma and depression. He says he found acceptance at the school and grew stronger in both mind and body. Now he is an instructor, national champion and one of the school's most advanced students.
Whatever their initial reason for joining, even students with busy schedules find it difficult to stay away from the school. Feeley says she went about four days a week last fall, despite a 17-credit schedule at AU and active involvement in the college service fraternity and Latino and American Student Organization.
"The whole school becomes like a second family," says Feeley. "You miss going back there. You miss being there all the time."
Piankhi Zimmerman, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, says he comes to the school as much as his schedule allows.
"Anything I learn there I won't lose over time, because it's something I want to instill in myself," Zimmerman says. "If I take a general education class [in college] that I really don't care about, years down the line I might remember a memory from the class, but I'm not going to remember what I learned."
Yim says he is happy with the school, but stresses he is always looking to improve. "I'm the type of person who, if I want to do something, I really want to do it well."
The school's commitment to growth and excellence is the reason for its success, Whitley says. "If we stop trying to get better, that's where we're going to go wrong"
