A Christmas Training Session

By Louis Pontillo

Peter Yates (left) and Louis Pontillo (right) in Peter's backyard, Christmas Eve 2011. Photograph courtesy of the author.

As is my custom during the holiday season, I headed back to my place of origin to visit with friends and family. One person I'm always sure to pay a visit to when I'm in town is my long-time friend and mentor, Peter Yates. Peter and I spent a couple of hours together on Christmas Eve working on my Chen Style Tai Ji Quan in his backyard, just one of several styles of martial arts that are encompassed by the Wu De Guan system of Kung Fu.

Now you may say,“Tai Ji Quan! Isn't that the slow moving stuff?...that's a martial art?!” Oh yeah! The truth is...that's what the “quan” means; in Chinese that's “boxing, or fighting with a fist.” Tai Chi, as it is commonly referred to, has become popularized as a method of maintaining health and vitality (which it is), but each of its movements is a technique or sometimes a series of techniques that can be used to by the proficient individual to defend against attack.

Mind you, Tai Chi, if taught for self-defense, doesn't merely stop at “shadow boxing,” but rather involves partner drills as well as demonstration and practice of application. The “shadow boxing” form then becomes, as Peter would say, “a catalog of moves.” Most, if not all of those movements, have multiple applications which may include strikes, deflections, joint locks, take-downs, and other manuevers. It should be noted here that it takes a great deal of practice and proper tutelage to become proficient at such an art, and few are those who take-up Tai Chi as a martial art who haven't practiced other “hard” martial arts beforehand.

Peter demonstrates one of his moves. Ouch! Photograph courtesy of the author.

Although Tai Chi is a great martial art, it might leave you to wonder why I would spend Christmas Eve training. Quite simply, it was the only time I had in which I could go train with Peter, and I value such a session so highly that it seemed to me an easy choice. In a world where most martial arts schools start kids with “power ranger” classes, and much of the populous thinks that the best position to be in during a fight is on your back, you just don't find instructors of the quality and caliber of Peter Yates very often.

Here's an example: I met Peter when I was in school studying acupuncture and Chinese medicine. He had recently moved from where he had been living for the prior fifteen years in Japan. I asked him if he studied martial arts, and he replied that he did. I asked him what his primary style was, and he told me Xing Yi Quan. When I asked him what that was he said, “It's an internal martial art, like Tai Chi, but it looks more linear”. I immediately asked him if he would be willing to teach me some of the style. He told me flatly,“No.” When the end of the semester came, I asked Peter once again if he would teach me some moves of Xing Yi Quan. He was still unwilling.

I attended classes with Peter for two more consecutive semesters during which I would often express my interest in studying martial arts with him. Finally, at the end of the third semester, he told me to meet him on the Tai Chi deck during my free time. He showed me a stance called San Ti, and he had me hold this stance starting with a duration of ten minutes. I would quiver and sweat during the session, and he would instruct me to “relax into it.” Peter also explained to me that it would take my nervous system time to adjust.

Here's a simultaneous deflection strike. Photograph courtesy of the author.

After teaching me how to perform the San Ti stance, Peter told me to practice it every day and slowly build my time up. After fifteen weeks of standing still, he sat me down and said, “I'm not going to be your teacher, but you can come to my place in Brooklyn and train with me on the roof.” Ahh, those were the good old days; “Tar Beach” we called it, and it was hot as hell in the summer.

Truth be told, during those three semesters, Peter was observing me, trying to be absolutely certain of who exactly he was taking on, and of what moral character I was. It's right there in the name of his training crew, “Wu De Guan.” This translates something like “House of Virtuous Warriors” or “Group of Martial Morality.” I have had many martial arts teachers and coaches in my life, but none have embodied the code of martial arts (as I see it) as much as Peter Yates has.

You would think that those standing sessions were just another test (and they were), but that's how we would begin every training session. We would warm-up, then go into a standing meditation usually for close to thirty minutes...sounds tranquil, doesn't it? Always outside, in baking sun and bitter cold, I remember many a session in which our warm-up consisted of shoveling the snow out of an area large enough to train in. No storefront, no belts, no B.S., just good martial arts training! In my heyday under his tutelage we had three sessions per week at about three hours a session. That lasted (for me) about ten years before the needs of my household swept me away. Now, if I can slip in an hour or two on Christmas Eve...I'll take it.

About The Author

Louis executes a "single whip" move. Photograph courtesy of the author.

Louis Pontillo is a certified personal trainer, licensed acupuncturist and lifelong martial artist. He became interested in the martial arts and physical culture in his early youth, and pursued predominantly calisthenics until the age of eleven when he discovered an older brother's dusty weight set. An avid wrestler, weight lifter, and karateka through his high school years, Louis took up Yoga and tai ji quan in his early twenties, as well as kung fu. He holds the rank of “black sash” in the Wu De Guan system of kung fu, and the rank of nidan in seito gojuryu karatedo. Louis offers classes in his local community in tai ji & qigong, as well as kung fu. Now at age 38, Louis lives close to nature in Montville, Maine with his wife and three children.