RIPPLES by Daniel Kammerer
O
ne blustery morning at Palo Alto High School, a Chinese student was walking to his first class of the day. It was the same route he took day by day, and there was no reason why this walk should differ from the norm. As he continued to make his way to class, he heard a clatter from several feet back. The moment he turned to see what had caused the commotion, someone came charging at him. The assailant had a crazed look, and didn’t sprint so much as lumber forward. In his hand was something black and silver that glinted in the morning rays.
There was no time to process the object’s identity, only to react. The young defender threw his forearm into a block and repelled the blade driving towards his chest. After disarming the attacker, he quickly planted his right leg behind his knee, wrapped an arm around his torso, and brought him down to the ground with the precision of a dancer. While having complete control over his attacker, he scrunched his hand into a fist and threw a punch with all his might aimed directly at the face – and froze with half an inch to spare. The Chinese student could see the fear and confusion in his assailant’s
eyes, and knew it wasn’t necessary to cause any actual harm. That was more than twenty five years ago, when ‘Kancho’ John Chang was a junior at Palo Alto High School. The entire encounter was the moment John realized that at almost any time, without warning, one’s life could be in immediate jeopardy. “A person can lunge a knife or attack someone for whatever reason. I needed to be much more alert and step up to the program. I realized that I could have died that day.” Today, Kancho (which means ‘founder’ in Japanese) teaches Sho-
tokan based martial arts classes at four different community recreation centers in the Bay Area. His program, Chang Tai Do, is both unique and progressive in that it’s rooted in Shotokan karate but implements techniques from other styles such as kung fu, Taekwondo, and Greco-Roman wrestling. He’s been teaching for more than ten years since the program’s inception in 2003.
is a love for his students and a willingness to give them individualized attention. Interest in the success of individuals is a breath of fresh air in an environment where the student is usually just another body in a group that’s supposed to receive and execute commands without any other interaction. “I believe nowadays people are more disrespectful than they used to be. To me, martial arts is
moved with his family to Palo Alto as he was starting middle school. His father expressly forbade him and his ten siblings from using martial arts on others, even in self-defense. Given that restriction, John joined his middle school’s wrestling team to continue his training, and was a very successful varsity wrestler all the way until leaving high school. He went on to major in International Business at Foothill College.
"a person can lunge a knife or attack someone for whatever reason. I needed to be much more alert and step up to the program.
I realized that I could have died that day." Besides the obvious benefits of teaching kids and adults to defend themselves and imparting to them the core principles of his craft, Kancho represents something greater. There is a fire inside him the likes of which I’ve found to be exceedingly rare in most teachers. His mannerisms and the way he carries himself exude a ‘can-do’ attitude and a quiet, focused sort of ferocity. Wrapped around that core, however,
a great way for these kids to learn about themselves and to be better to others. If you can’t be good to yourself, how can you be good to others? That’s what I believe martial arts teaches you; not just the mental and physical part, but the etiquette. It’s about more than just kicking and punching. To me, it’s a way of life. A philosophy.” John Chang is Chinese by birth, but grew up in Saigon, Vietnam. He
While there, he discovered a shotokan karate class that met regularly. It took him only three months to work his way up to an assistant instructor position, and for the rest of his college career he trained with the Foothill group. His wife Melinda Chang, who at the time was a student in the group, reminisces about her days with the old group with fondness. “We became really close with each other. After all of
“That’s what I believe martial arts teaches you; not just the mental and physical part,
but the etiquette. It’s about more than just kicking and punching.
To me, it’s a way of life.
A philosophy.” our testing on Friday nights, we’d go out, hang out, have dinner, and got to know each other really well.” 2003 was the year John took a chance on launching his dream. Like the ripples of a pebble’s impact on water, Chang Tai Do expanded from one man’s idea into an entirely new martial arts school and style. He’d been taking part in another martial arts club at the Los Altos Hillview Community Center, until the head instructor retired. In order to continue the club, John was selected as the best option to take over. Chu-Yen Do, a veteran of both Chang Tai Do and its predecessor, spoke about John’s stepping in. “He’s a good
man, with good leadership to offer. We met him at the farewell party for my previous sensei. I liked him right away, he was very open, friendly, and easy to talk to. I voted for him to take over, and the club began again as Chang Tai Do.” While taking over the classes at the Los Altos center, Kancho decided that he wanted to reach as many people in the area as possible and started up ‘branches’ at three other community centers in Cupertino, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale. Melinda explained the reasoning behind their strategy of hosting classes through the community center system rather than at a central
location. “If we’d had our own studio, it would have been a lot harder, and with a lot more overhead. We would have had to pay for our own ads, utilities, rent or leasing. Just worry about the money more. By doing it through the recreation center, we work with them, they take a small percentage so we can use the rooms, and we don’t have to worry as much about what we charge our students.” Another decision John had to make about his new endeavor was choosing who exactly to train. There’s a big difference between teaching martial arts to young kids, adolescents, and adults. He even-
tually decided to focus more on children but allow all ages to participate by offering two separate timeslots; an earlier class for tots and a later class for older kids and adults. “I went with youth as my main focus, even though they can be harder to teach. If you raise your voice at them, you become a mean teacher. If you don’t help them enough, you’re a teacher that ignores them, so it’s sort of a double edged situation.” It is immediately clear that Kancho loves to teach kids above all else, especially an intermediate group usually filled with a range of ages between grade schoolers and recent high school graduates. I had an opportunity to observe him teaching this particular class, which meets every Sunday for two hours. It’s a conglomeration of kids from each campus, all of which must be at a certain rank before being able to take part in this faster-paced class. Situated in Las Palmas Park, the Sunnyvale community center building where classes are held seems an odd location for Kancho’s most advanced group. The room, normally a pre-
school classroom, contained items one wouldn’t expect to see in a martial arts studio. The walls were host to numerous colorful posters, intended for kids making their first forays into learning. A plastic play kitchen sat near the windows at the rear of the room. The only hint that the class even met there at all (besides the kids dressed in white uniforms) were three battered gym mats that sat stacked across from the kitchen, typically used for practicing various takedowns and self-defense techniques. “Alright, 6 o’ clock class line up!” Kancho called out to the students returning from their two warm up laps around the park. “Okay, let’s do rows of five. Hinari and Joshua, stand on either side of me. The rest of you line up by rank!” As the two black belt assistant instructors positioned themselves to his right and left, the other students organized themselves according to their ranking, with the highest ranked in the front row. I actually timed their progress, and it only took them forty-five seconds to morph from an amorphous scattering of humans into perfectly aligned columns and rows. “Down-block, kiai!” Kancho shouted suddenly. Fifteen left hands shot into a sweeping lower block as fifteen left feet moved like lightning into a front facing stance. The
group continued working through the routine set of basic movements practiced almost every class, shouting kiai battle cries is they went. John alternated between running through the moves with the kids and walking amongst them, watching their individual movements. His attention to detail was unrelenting, but he would always correct students’ mistakes critically but often with good humor. When he spotted one of the higher-ranked students looking down rather than ahead, he called him out. “Hinari! Where’s your opponent going to be, crawling around on the ground or straight ahead of you? Look forward, man!” By diffusing the situation with humor, John avoids alienating students but still helps them improve their technique. He takes immense pride in seeing their progress not only as martial artists, but as upstanding people of society. “I believe that if they make it through my class, they have the character of a martial artist. I believe that these people have decent hearts, great awareness, and will do the right thing for the future. Not only in my class, but wherever they find themselves. Because of their discipline and our guidance, these young men and women will be able to change the world.” The process of shaping kids into martial artists has always been one of John’s greatest motivations. “I had a student who started with me, a young kid from the Sunnyvale campus. He was a quiet, shy kind of guy. One day, this other kid in class was picking on him, and started choking him out. Realizing what was happening, this young kid grabbed his bully and took him down. Now, I always tell my students they can never hit or attack anyone, especially in class. The young student knew that, and told the other kid “Kancho says we’re not allowed to hit anyone.” So he almost punched him in the face, but pulled
it back at the last second. That was when I knew, that day; this is why I do this. The younger student saved himself, and taught the other kid a lesson not to pick on others. He had the courage to overcome someone. Martial arts means so much to me because of experiences like these; I know that I can help people help themselves.” Starting in about 2007, one of John’s new goals became getting Chang Tai Do more involved with kung fu and the Shaolin. Ever since he was a kid, John viewed the Shaolin Monastery in China as a martial arts mecca. He made his first trip in the summer of 2008 and was amazed by the lifestyle of those that live in the temple. “It’s priceless to go because it allows you to appreciate how hard people train to be so good at the art and what we take for granted here when we do it.” Over time, Kancho
has gradually introduced the elements of other styles, especially kung fu, into the fabric of Chang Tai Do. For nearly a year now, students have been learning techniques with spears and staffs, most of which were from knowledge John gained during his visits to the temple. Because of their overall complexity and peripheral nature compared to the more critical fundamentals of Shotokan, the techniques from the temple are usually taught only to advanced students who’ve been training for more than three or four years. However, class sizes and limits on time tend to make it difficult to teach multiple levels of material to a large group of students. Melinda told me of an ambitious idea she and John have been toying with to solve this. “It’s just a matter of time before we become an official partner of the Shaolin. The other thing in
the future may be getting a main headquarters and having most of our advanced students go there for training. Those are the main things; bridging the gap with the Shaolin temple and getting a headquarters. We’ve been doing this for ten years, so we’re thinking that maybe it’s time to get our own space.” While Melinda told me of the more logistical side of their future plans, John seemed more concerned with the how he hopes his teachings will affect his pupils. “Martial arts is life for me. I want to pass it down to my students, and I hope that out of a few thousand we’ll eventually have a good group to move forward in my place. Who knows how big Chang Tai Do will grow, but I believe first we have to look within ourselves, and we’ll go from there. We’ll grow. Throw the pebble in the pond, and let it ripple.”
“First we have to look within ourselves.
We’ll GROW.
Throw the pebble in the pond,
And let it ripple.”