Nabi Su

Nabi Su is a Chinese style modern hybrid martial art comprising Chinese, Korean, and Japanese elements. Nabi Su was originally known as the Yun Mu Kwan Karate Institute, which was started in 1956 in the West Village area of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its Greenwich Village location, its mix of Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Tai Kwan Do, Karate and Zazen, as well as its enigmatic creator, Min Q Pai, resulted in a school that generated interest in its continually evolving combination of martial arts practices. In particular, its early intense "karate" style and sparring were the subject of an investigative article in Popular Science, while its later fusion with Tai Chi and Zen meditation was portrayed in detail in Lawrence Shainberg's memoir ″Ambivalent Zen.″ The developing combination of Zen with Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Karate was examined by Fairpress reporter Bill Adler, who underwent a demonstration of "Zen healing" by Min Pai. The Nabi Su Martial Arts school has also been a proponent of the physical benefits of martial arts, particularly the focus, coordination and awareness developing aspects of Kung Fu and the relaxing and calming aspects of Tai Chi.
Etymology
"Nabi" means butterfly in Korean, and "Su" can be translated as way, means, possibility, water, river or move, as in chess. The word "Su" implies not a physical move, such as a hand movement, rather, it is indicative of chess-like strategy, flow or way. Nabi Su can be interpreted as "Butterfly Way" or "Butterfly Strategy."
History
Developed by Min Q Pai, Nabi Su evolved out of Yun Mu Kwan, a Korean martial art that Pai learned in Korea and later combined with Chinese Kung-Fu (including Wing Chun and T'ai Chi Ch'uan) and Zazen. The resulting Nabi Su martial style came to bear little resemblance to its early beginnings.
Beginnings
Yun Mu Kwan (sometimes spelled "Yun Moo Kwan" and later called Jidokwan) is a Korean martial art that eventually became part of the modern Korean combat sport of Taekwondo ("Foot Fist Way"). Trained in that classical Korean system, Pai began teaching Yun Mu Kwan in the United States in the mid-1950s.
At that time, most strike-based empty-hand fighting arts originating in east Asia were known generically in the United States and in much of the world as "karate," a Japanese term meaning "empty hand" (denoting weaponless combat). This term applied both to fighting systems native to Japan itself (and its dependency, Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands) and to those systems transplanted to Korea from Japan by Koreans who had picked up the Japanese martial arts while studying at several Japanese universities during Japan's occupation of Korea before and during World War II.
The Koreans retained the karate training format they had been taught as well as its basic movements (called "kihon"), forms ("kata", practice uniforms (the "gi") and the color belt ranking system (culminating in the black belt or "kuro obi") as well as the Japanese art's general reliance on strikes and kicks. The primary innovation introduced by the Koreans was to place significantly greater emphasis on higher, more extended kicking techniques, making use of larger bodily movements and wider arcs to amplify the body's momentum and power their kicks and strikes.
Following his early training, and the naming conventions of the time, Pai originally named his martial arts school in New York the "Yun Mu Kwan Karate Institute." The early period, when Min Pai's Yun Mu Kwan meant hard techniques and high kicks was documented by Ramon Korff, a staff photographer for El Nuevo Día newspaper in 1964, and later, in 1968, by Robert Gannon, a reporter for Popular Science magazine. In describing his martial art to Gannon in that article, Pai was quoted as saying that "Your hand is an arrow in flight; it has no energy. But when it strikes, then it penetrates. Your body is a whip -- weak in itself but strong when focused." himself a student of Yang Chengfu, grandson of the founder of Yang style t'ai chi, Yang Lu-chan. Unlike traditional karate, including classic Yun Mu Kwan, T'ai Chi Ch'uan relies on softness and sensitivity while using a method of practice that is generally slow, relaxed and meditative. The t'ai chi principles came to dominate and color all the other elements Pai gradually built into his system, creating, in essence, a new kind of "karate" which Pai finally recognized in the late eighties when he chose a new name for his school and the kind of martial art he was teaching.
Pai sanctioned two of his black belts as Masters, Tom Rivers and Jim Stewart. Tom Rivers is no longer active but Jim Stewart still practices in Stamford, Connecticut with Jason Perri.
Evolution of Nabi Su
Nabi Su's evolution from Yun Mu Kwan occurred from the late 1960s through the 1980s. By the early 1970s, Pai's assimilation of elements of Kung Fu from nearby Chinatown practitioners and his study of Tai Chi with Cheng Man-ch'ing was starting to change his Yun Mu Kwan Karate into a new Chinese style hybrid martial art. At the same time, Pai's Zazen practice with Eido Tai Shimano Roshi of the New York Zendo Shobo-Ji was coming to fruition. In 1972, Eido Roshi made one of several visits to the Yun Mu Kwan Karate Institute, as documented by photographer Ramon Korff. Fairpress reporter Bill Adler received a demonstration of the developing martial art, writing "Master Min Pai demonstrates the ancient Zen art of healing, which stems from the disciplines of Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Karate.... Kneeling in perfect silence and stillness... Master Pai achieved the transfer of energy...."
Physical Development, Coordination and Focus
Nabi Su, like most martial arts training, develops physical strength, coordination and focus. Strengthening in Nabi Su is most evident in the core, back and leg muscles. Weight training is not used in this system; rather, strength development is achieved through the practice of kicks, punches and forms. Coordination is increased through foot work, weight shifts, body mechanics and breathing, with particular attention paid to the position of the shoulders, elbows and feet. Focus is developed by copying varying positions and methodically learning forms.
An increase in focus has also been noted in children. Nabi Su Kung Fu and Nabi Su Adaptive Kung Fu can be taught to children with attention disorders and physical disabilities. New York Times reporter Susan Saulny reported on the perceived benefits of martial arts training with children with attention disorders by interviewing doctors and parents. One interviewee, Dr. John J. Ratey, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School, said "The martial arts demand a kind of concentration that forces coordination of the attention centers in the brain: the frontal cortex, the cerebellum and the limbic system. That coordination skill is erratic when individuals have attention disorders. The martial arts, which are repetitive, slow, structured and individualistic, facilitate a learning of the coordination skill that is digestible for those with attention disorders." Quoting a parent, Saulny writes, "'It's sort of a known fact in communities with people who have these issues,' said Lynne-Ann Walsh, whose son Christopher, 8, has an attention disorder. He studies kung fu at Nabi Su martial arts school in SoHo to help him focus on coordination, concentration and to overcome fidgeting." Saulny continues that " said that the benefits of martial arts study were manifold, augmenting medical treatment by specifically focusing on the aspects of personality that A.D.D. affects -- most importantly, the ability to concentrate."
Perri holds a 5th Degree Black Belt in Budongchan Li and a 4th Degree Black Belt in Nabi Su. He also teaches a modified Yang style Tai Chi Chuan and Push Hands, which he learned from Min Pai. Perri competed in an international push hands competition in Boston, MA in 2011 and won two Gold medals and a Silver in three separate weight classes.
Nabi Su Style Today
The Nabi Su style contains in-fighting techniques similar to elements of Wing Chun, as well as kicks and expansive strikes suited to fighting at a greater distance from the opponent. All of these movements are anchored in the signature Nabi Su hand, arm and posture alignment. The Nabi Su style as a whole stresses maintaining one's center in relation to the opponent, the close interrelation of blocking and striking, and the inherent strength that arises from Nabi Su's precise techniques and body mechanics.
Teaching and training include elemental drills, shadow hands, sticking hands, forms, and sparring, all of which occur in regular classes and intensive seminars. At every stage of development, students are encouraged to work from a fundamental principle of self defense, awareness and response.
Having worked with Pai since 1973, long-time student Carolyn Campora assumed leadership of the school in New York City in 1992. Pai, founder of Wellspring Zen Monastery in Pound Ridge, New York, moved full-time to his monastery and eventually separated himself from the school in New York City. Carolyn Campora, a 5th Degree Black Belt under Min Pai, is Master of the Nabi Su school in New York City, where she continues to teach and develop the school.

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