In the beginning...

I started my martial arts path at 31 years old, and it changed my whole path in life. I was finishing up Jr. college, a single mom in the 90's, working at an infamous biker bar. It was a busy time and the job demanded I learn some basic martial arts. My first day in class I was the only female, a double car garage converted to a mma dojo, the smell of the mat tinged the air. There I was at 5ft. 1in. in between men ranging from 5ft 7in to 6ft 5in. I didn't know what to expect, the style was one I had never heard of and to this day not many in mainstream society have. We stretched and started, each of us with a partner would start with a basic sparring technique and our job was to do said technique and follow up with strike of our own imagination. We would transition to the next technique to learn, forms, and then ground fighting, class ending with a 3min sparring bout to apply what we learned with our partners. And that was my introduction to San Shou (Soo) Kungfu.