Trottman’s influences in kungfu began with Bruce Lee as a child and have now settled on his Master, Master You Xiang Lin from Fuzhou, Fujian Province in China. Trottman speaks about Master Lin: "He’s 57 and has an abundance of energy. His aura is humble, when he starts to teach you can see his mastery come out. He puts his silk white suit on and he’s still the character that is Master Lin, but this smoothness takes over.'
Trottman says that it is vital that instructors continue to train and improve themselves; he continues to dedicate himself to gaining more knowledge on his style and related styles of Tiger and Crane from research, by training with Master Lin, and visiting China at least twice a year. "Whatever you do you must train every day, or you’ll loose it," Trottman states. "But be careful of the word ‘training’. It doesn’t necessarily mean hundreds of thousands of leg lifts alone every day; it can also mean reading and researching."
The principles of kungfu are what Trottman gets the most pleasure out of teaching. Principles are what a style is all about, he says: "Anyone can do a technique; you just need to watch a film to try out a technique. But the principles are the blueprint. To teach principles you need to change a person’s mindset. When students first start to train their heads are filled with media hype. It’s my job as an instructor to educate them and show them what kungfu is really about."
Staying in touch with your students is important to Trottman: "You have to have an open mind. You have to just accept everyone with open arms. You’ll be shocked at what your students can do; you’ll learn a lot from them."
Southern Crane Kungfu’s atmosphere is brilliant, Trottman exclaims. Everyone is friendly but he says there is still a lot of respect shown between students and to the instructor. "It comes back down to Ying and Yang," he explains. "If students want to train, I should gain their respect as their instructor, the person that can give them the knowledge I have gained by being a student myself. In return, I will respect them for their humility and dedication to the art, their training and our club."
Teaching for Trottman is about keeping his style as close to the original principles of Tiger Crane as possible. He achieves this by firstly accepting the game of Chinese Whispers that ultimately change and evolve every style of martial art as it is passed from one generation to the next, bar the principles which remain unchanged. The point is keep learning, he says: "My aim is to go to keep going to China to train with my Master, to keep bettering myself, and to pass that knowledge onto this and the next generation of students".
Trottman’s goal is to see his club grow to a phenomenal size. His dream, he tells us, is to watch a sea of black training in front of him with all his students doing their patterns correctly, the way he has taught them. "It’s not about money," he emphatically warns, "Money is irrelevant and is just about paying for our halls. It would make me so proud to see Southern Crane Kungfu increase in size. I just love training, teaching and watching my students grow."
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