Heather Mclean on Southern Crane Kungfu

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By Pete Mills, on 25-01-2008 18:13

Heather Mclean is a very busy woman. Alongside running her own media business and working as a freelance journalist, she dedicates a great deal of her time to studying, practising and teaching tiger crane combination style Kungfu. One particular role Heather fulfils is as the assistant children’s instructor at the Southern Crane Kungfu club, run by Darren Trottman in Surrey.

Heather’s first contact with the martial arts world was at the age of 17 when she took up kickboxing. Here she learned the basics of sparring and fitness training that was a mixture of a number of martial arts, all with quite a strong western influence. It was also here where she was first exposed to Kungfu. She comments: “The animal forms and precision and complexity of Kungfu stood out for me.”

This interest in Kungfu followed Heather for some years. She eventually decided to take up the study of Kungfu at the age of 28. She had been looking for, she says: “A style with genuine Chinese connections,” which she found at Southern Crane Kungfu that teaches tiger crane combination. Through this fusion of the strong stances and flowing movements of Crane style and the powerful Tiger style, Heather aims to be: “Able to move with precision, grace, flow and subtlety to strike, manipulate and redirect blows, while being solid and strong on the inside, which will make me capable of major destruction and of absorbing powerful blows.”

Kungfu Lifestyle

Kungfu suits Heather as it, is, she says: “a vast and complex area,” which covers many different elements including both hard and soft (Tai Chi) forms, weapons and sparring. Heather is uncompromising in her approach to sparring as she practises full contact and dislikes, “the way some martial arts have watered down what they do in order to attract women and to encourage men and women to spar.” She further describes Kungfu as, “an intelligent martial art, also known as the scholar’s art,” which complements this smart young woman’s intellect and offers her the challenge she desires as it will, “take many, many years for me to get as good as I would like to become at Kungfu; it’s a lifelong journey.”

Along with many martial arts, the Southern Crane style has also become a lifestyle choice for Heather as its holistic nature, “rubbed off into every other area of my life.” As her training progressed she found that, “Kungfu sneaks in when you’re not looking and before you know it, you can’t stand the smell of a smoky pub and a takeaway is just plain greasy and horrible.” Apart from the obvious health and fitness benefits, Heather has found that Kungfu has, “also made me more focused on my work,” which is partway to explaining this hardworking woman’s career success as well.

Female Origins

The origins of the Tiger Crane style of Kungfu are fascinating and according to Heather is, “perfect for women,” as the Crane aspect of this style of Chinese martial art was developed by a woman called Tee Eng Choon which when combined with her husband’s style of Tiger, became Tiger Crane . The feminine basis for Kungfu is further emphasised by, “a woman known as Fang Chi-Niang who created the overall White Crane style, it is said.” Therefore, Tiger Crane style Kungfu is an ideal martial art for women of all ages to be involved in as, “using the female connection, and how slight Chinese women are, the style evolved into a system that would allow a woman to defeat men.” The long and medium fighting combination of Crane’s, “precise and deadly pressure point strikes,” including, “many vicious strikes including a beautiful, very strong hand movement that will remove the breast of your opponent in one swift go;” is the ideal companion to the Tiger’s short range, “ripping and slashing,” that complements, “the fluidity of movement that women tend to be able to cultivate through their lack of bulky muscle,” that, “results in a tight, springing delivery once they have developed the overall strength the style requires.”

However, what can annoy Heather when speaking of women’s involvement in the martial arts is the automatic association of self-defence which she describes as, “wildly overused,” as it is assumed this is the only reason women take up Kungfu, or any other martial art. She explains this well when she speaks of women being, “interesting in defending themselves, but so are men. I am just as interested in the hard study of Kungfu, plus the health, fitness and fighting aspects as the men in our club.” Yet there is still a need for more women in Kungfu as although there are female masters in China, Heather finds nothing, “more frustrating than turning up to a competition after months of preparation to be told that you’ve been bumped into a higher weight category to make up numbers.” Heather would like to see more women to take up Kungfu and to make it part of their daily routine and this starts with, “more top quality female instructors who will be able to act as role models for other women to encourage them to start training.”

Teaching

Indeed, as an instructor herself and in particular her involvement in teaching children, Heather has found that, “my Kungfu improved in leaps and bounds” as she, “had to work with the kids on all the basic movements, cementing everything into my foundation training.” Heather’s teaching style includes having to, “break movements and philosophies down into tiny, digestible pieces,” that, “give me a far greater insight into what I am actually doing in terms of the principles and techniques of our style, as well as boosting my confidence.”

Overall, Heather Mclean is an excellent example of a woman who trains purely because of her love of Kungfu and has achieved a great deal within her martial art. She does not do this because or despite of being female, but because she is first and foremost, a martial artist. Heather sums this up well when she says:

“I find that women who excel in Kungfu tend to learn very quickly, are hard on themselves and so constantly strive to achieve perfection, lack ego and are dedicated students.”

And I couldn’t agree more when she describes Kungfu as, “not for the feint hearted.”

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