I was Kung Fu fighting

Kung Fu. Never has a two-word title for a class conjured up as much mystique. David Carradine’s probably to blame for that.
Though lacking the name recognition of Carradine, St. Helens’ own Shaun Kennedy taught me the reality beyond the mythical creations of Hollywood.
Namely, Kung Fu is an applied art that requires great attention to detail and a huge amount of mental recall.
Kennedy is the head instructor at St. Helens Shaolin Kung Fu Club, where he teaches a few different classes to a wide range of students, from white belts to a black belt.
My class? Basics.
Nothing like explaining to a grade-schooler that she knows a lot more about a sport than you.
Then again, all I knew about martial arts I learned from Bruce Lee and Ralph Macchio.
On my first day of class, Jacob Woodruff, a purple belt, took fellow beginner Shawn Kelley and myself aside to teach us the eight basic Kung Fu stances and their eight related movements. This mostly involves punching and kicking to different specific areas.
The younger, more advanced students were working on stringing together these moves and others. Once Jacob taught me to do the walking cat stance across our red and blue mat, the main objective was avoiding the flying fists and feet flittering about the classroom.
I got in on one competition: a knife fight. I took on Eisen White, a yellow belt. He quickly grabbed the “knife” (a piece of chalk) from the center of the mat and proceeded to stall, taking it easy on me. My goal was to get the knife from him or take him off the mat without getting stabbed.
I should have tackled him.
I tried putting to use the stances and moves I’d learned just minutes earlier. It didn’t work. My recall wasn’t so sharp. He easily stabbed me right in the stomach.
After a Q&A session taught me you have to be at least as smart as you are physical to earn your belt in Kung Fu, the day drew to a close. After a day off, it was time for weapons class.
I paired up again with Jacob, and we each drew a wooden sword. The movements were basic: hit, hit, hit, hit. As it turns out, weapons class was a lot of fun and games.
The class was outside with our swords and nunchuks for a game of capture the flag. Kelley and I were the flags. The kids were fast, stabbing each other with their soft swords and trying to stab the generals and the flags.
I was stabbed more often than Kelley was.

Purple belt Cody Woodruff lands a kick on head instructor Shaun Kennedy during our Kung Fu class June 11.

After the game, students sparred for a bit. Cody Woodruff, Jacob’s son, laid plenty of kicks on Kennedy, and black belt Randy Rhoads showed his quick feet and high hops.
Jacob proved that it wasn’t just the youngsters who were full of energy by landing several blows on his instructor.
I returned to more familiar ground – taking pictures of the action.