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Sifu Slaughter’s Chinese Martial Arts school competed in the Zang Invitational Martial Arts Championship on Saturday April 1, 2023.  It was a record attendance for the school, with 8 color belt students and 6 black belt students competing in over 20 different divisions.

For many, it was their first tournament, first time participating in a demo team competition, and first time sparring. Their courage in stepping on to the competition floor for the first-time ever was an inspiration to us all! A big congratulations to our color belts and first timers, who

     The following article was first published in “The Acorn” newsletter (March 2021), by the Sherwood Oaks retirement community where Sifu Slaughter has taught tai chi classes for residents for the past 20 years.

Tai Chi is a slow-motion, low-impact set of movements that benefits the mind and the body. Some of the ways it does so include improved balance and flexi-bility, better focus and concentration, stress reduction, and overall well-being. The movements are done in a slow, relaxed, and coordinated manner that helps increase circulation to the brain and

Sam Everson has been a Kung Fu student with Sifu Slaughter for 12 years. Now a black belt in Kung Fu, Sam is also an accomplished fencer. He is captain of his high school’s fencing team, competes for the Pittsburgh Fencers Club, and was recently among 32 individuals selected out of more than 1,000 nominees for the Positive Athlete of Western Pennsylvania award, a program spearheaded by former Steeler Hines Ward. Sam credits his Kung Fu training for his fencing success. “I had a bit of an advantage coming from

Kung Fu (and any form of martial arts) places a lot of demands on the human body. Your body must be able to perform with speed and strength in both short explosive bursts and for sustained aerobic endurance.  Your body must be able to reposition itself quickly into a wide variety of martial movements requiring extreme flexibility without injury.  None of this is possible without basic conditioning:

Strength and flexibility training through weights and bodyweight exercises (ex: push-ups) and stretches, and,
Aerobic exercise such as kicking, punching, running, cycling, and jumping.

A basic

Strength training is a critical part of any conditioning program, whether you’re doing it to improve your martial arts performance, or just for overall good health. The good news is you don’t need a gym or a lot of space to keep up your routine. Push-ups strengthen arms, shoulders and core. Work your way up to fingertip push-ups to increase hand and finger strength for advanced martial arts movements. Standing on one foot with arms extended holding hand weights not only increases arm, leg and core strength, but also improves

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