To the Lower Hutt Nam Wah Pai Kung Fu Web site.

What is Nam Wah Pai?

Nam Wah Pai (which means "Southern Chinese Art") is a Chinese style martial art introduced into New Zealand from Singapore in 1979 by the late Master Steve Kitson, 7th degree Black Belt.

New students learn the external concepts such as flexibility, kicking, punching, katas and free sparring. Senior students additionally learn weapon katas and internal strength, practiced by breaking wooden boards, and concrete slabs and bricks. Tai Chi is practised to provide a soft balance to the hard style of kung fu.

Nam Wah Pai is suitable for everyone, young or old, male or female. As well as being a powerful form of self-defence, with both physical and mental conditioning and relaxation, Nam Wah Pai is also extremely good exercise for the whole body

Training

Scheduled training sessions are up to 1 hour long for beginners through to two hours for seniors. Each class usually starts with a comprehensive warm up including stretching, strength work and cardio.

From there we move onto the basic exercises – which cover stances, blocks, kicks, bag work and punches. We might also incorporate free sparring work – including blocking and punching techniques, combination kicks and punches, all supervised in a controlled manner.

Sessions can alternate between work in grading groups – covering work for your next belt level or work with the whole class learning self-defence techniques and sometimes Tai chi

Syllabus

The New Zealand NWP Standard Syllabus specifies the requirements for each grade up to and including 3rd degree Black Belt. In addition to the Standard Syllabus, there is an Alternate Syllabus for older members and members with permanent injuries or health limitations that prevent them from meeting the requirements of the Standard Syllabus.

Members over the age of 40 years may elect to grade under the Alternate Syllabus, but most continue to grade under the Standard Syllabus until their late forties. The main differences between the Standard and Alternate syllabus are that jumping kicks are not required in the Alternate Syllabus, and Tai Chi is examined at lower belt grades in the Alternate Syllabus

Grading System

Grading is a formal examination process in which students are tested in a group to see if they have attained the necessary skills to advance to the next level or grade.

The required skills for each grade are covered in a formal syllabus.

Grades are indicated by using the following belt system:

Beginner Yellow belt

Yellow belt senior (green tip added to yellow belt)

Intermediate Green belt

Green belt senior (blue tip)

Senior Red belt

Red belt senior (brown tip)

Brown belt

Brown belt senior (black tip)

Black belt Black belt assistant instructor, followed by a series of degrees or Dans, e.g. 1st degree (second level of black belt), 2nd degree, 3rd degree, etc.

There are four grading examinations held each year, but there is no pressure to grade. It is over to you and your instructors to say when the time is right for you to grade.

Senior Grades

At this level you will start to learn to use weapons, external breaking and later, internal breaks.

Weapons

The first weapon in the syllabus is the bo (staff) followed by the broad sword.

Senior students are encouraged to develop skills in other Chinese style weapons of their own choice such as the spear, straight sword, steel whip, fan, pudao and kwan dao. Nunchakus, tonfas and sai, although not traditional Chinese weapons, are also popular choices.

Breaks

From Brown belt onwards we start to learn the correct techniques for breaking objects. This follows two separate concepts, external breaks and internal breaks. External breaks are taught first and involve using the correct technique to break wooden boards or concrete slabs with kicks. From there you progress on to learning to channel internal energy or chi to perform more difficult internal breaks using other parts of the body (e.g iron stomach, iron back and iron hand).

Some iron hand breaks