Daniel Land (born in 1984, in Bournemouth UK) is a Birmingham UK based empty-handed martial artist most notable for his proficiency with sticking hands and for his endorsement of dance as a training exercise for martial artists.
Daniel practiced Okinawan Kempo Karate Do at Kings Heath Kempo Karate Club in Northampton, under Sensei Les Fisher, from the age of 6 until 13 (1991-1998, several times per week); and was awarded a black belt at the age of 9 (in 1994), shortly after winning a local karate kata tournament for 1st Kue (brown belts) & above. Before leaving Kings Heath, Daniel won a range of tropheys & medals in local & national kata tournaments, but was never comfortable with sparring.
At Kings Heath Kempo Karate Club I got a lot of practice at doing basics in thin air. For basic kicks and stance work, this was good practice. And it was also useful for developing hand speed, leg flexibility and stamina. What I did in karate was not very special from a technical point of view, compared to what I do these days. But Sensei Les taught me a lot about the traditional karate spirit and about being involved with the local community. When I was about 10 years old, Les suggested that I should inherit the club when I'm older, which was quite honourable, but was not my cup of tea.
In 2003 (aged 18), while studying at the University of Salford in Manchester, Daniel practiced Ninjutsu for a couple of months (weekly), and Wing Chun Kung Fu for 6 months (several times per week) under Sifu Billy Davidson (representative of Samuel Kwok), training on University campus in Salford and at the Ching Mo Centre in Picadilly.
Master Billy Davidson was my first Wing Chun Kung Fu teacher, and I could see from the word "go" that this was the kind of stuff I wanted to learn. Having previously practiced Karate for 7 years, I could see that Wing Chun was comparatively "sensitive" and thus "made sense". But Kung Fu literally means Hard Work, and as such Billy was keen to see me develop some serious muscle by training harder, and albeit often fun & lighthearted, I was usually more interested in the sensitive stuff.
In June 2004 Daniel moved to Birmingham, and from Feb' 2005 Daniel practiced Wing Chun for about 1 year (once or twice per month) under Sifu Steve Dyde (representative of Samuel Kwok) in Nuneaton, and for 3 years (weekly, for a year in Hall Green and a couple of years in Solihull) under Sifu Shaun Rawcliffe (former bodyguard for Jackie Chan) in & around Birmingham.
When I moved down to the Midlands I wanted to pick up training again under the same Wing Chun association as Billy's school in Manchester. Master Stephen Dyde in Nuneaton was the closest I could find, and I was quite satisfied with my training in Nuneaton. Steve placed a lot of emphasis on stamina and conditioning, and alongside learning new techniques it was a good experience even if a lot of work with commuting & all.
Master Steve Dyde was quick to encouraged me to train with his old teacher in Birmingham. Steve's old teacher, Master Shaun Rawcliffe, had a big club in Birmingham with a similar style to the Wing Chun I was familiar with. Shaun had an interesting way to quickly route out the less committed students that joined his club, involving boring repetition of basics, day-in, day-out. The very first class was nothing other than 2 hours of standing on a spot doing punch after punch after punch, all the same. But by the time I'd done 3 years with Shaun I reached a point where I knew most of the basic techniques like the back of my hand. Thanks to training for 3 years with Master Shaun Rawcliffe in Birmingham, it got to the point where I'd accumulated so much repetitive practice that I felt confident about disagreeing with the way some basic techniques were done, not just in his club but in most clubs around the world. But I tried not to argue. I said thanks for the skills that I'd gained in 3 years, and left.
In July 2007, Daniel started taking private lessons near Blackpool with Sifu Samuel Kwok. Daniel still trains with Grandmaster Kwok these days, from time to time.
I first met Grandmaster Samuel Kwok in a seminar hosted by Billy Davidson in Manchester, and a year later in a similar seminar hosted by Stephen Dyde in Nuneaton. Sam was clearly a grandmaster of his art and I wanted to learn it directly from him. After just a few private lessons with Master Kwok, my Sticking Hands reached a whole new level. I was easily able to beat those whom I was previously evenly matched with, although I'd left Master Rawcliffe's club before many people noticed. Grandmaster Samuel Kwok is one of the most experienced Wing Chun exponents in the world, and possibly the world's leading authority on Yip Family Wing Chun outside of Hong Kong. After a few years of training with Grandmaster Kwok, I felt confident about areas where we might disagree, and for every new lesson that he was teaching me, I was sharing some of my own insight in return. Master Kwok sometimes asked how I managed to hit him so easily between circling hands, which I had no reply for back then, but now I guess it was down to rhythm & timing; and he asked how I was able to generate such powerful punches, which I think somehow comes down to full-body balance. I still look forward to training more with Grandmaster Kwok in future, because he has much more left to teach me about Wing Chun, in some ways.
Since springtime 2008, when Daniel saw perfect Wing-Chun-style moves performed by Suleman Mirza (Michael Jackson dance tribute artist) in Britain's Got Talent, Daniel has suggested that the world's best dance movements are identical to the world's best martial arts techniques, and that we should look up to dancers like Michael Jackson alongside martial artists like Bruce Lee for example.
In June 2009, Daniel joined Sifu Yan Long Jiang's Northern Wu Style Taiji Quan classes in Birmingham City Centre, where Daniel still trains today from time to time (although training has been much less frequent since late 2010).
Master Yan Long Jiang is very good at some moves which seem akin to Judo moves. And his hands might not be very fast at blocking punches from the point of no contact, but when sticking hands in a Pushing Hands exercise he's usually got the upper hand over me! Well worth training with for Pushing Hands practice, and to pick up a traditional Chinese Tai Chi take on the odd Judo-style move.
Since 2009, Daniel has been known to let his fingernails grow quite long, sometimes reaching 1 or 2 cms beyond the fingertip. This prevents him from making a fully-clenched fist, and is representative of his general comfortability in empty-handed combat.
From February 2010, Daniel trained at the NIA Aikido Club in Birmingham City Centre, where he trained about twice a month for about 6 months.
I only attended about a dozen of Master Kevin Christie's classes at the Birmingham NIA Aikido Club, but in the time I was there, Aikido grew on me. There were a few things I wasn't entirely comfortable with, such as tucking the toes in before rolling backwards, but as in this example, when the assistant instructor had no solution, Sensei Christie was often able to provide an alternative way of doing things that I didn't have such an issue with. Indeed, there was a noticable difference in the quality of Aikido being taught from one teacher to the next at the Birmingham NIA Aikido Club, but what remained consistent was the commitment of all the confident teachers towards delivering a high standard of class. I was especially impressed with Sensei Christie's attitude of ensuring his serious students achieved as much as they could during their time at the club.
It was a difficult decision to stop going there, but circumstances didn't lend favourably to my continued attendance, because I decided to stop cutting my fingernails for good, and Sensei Christie made it clear that this was not acceptable. I also felt like my poor attendance pattern, alongside my question-asking tendency and distaste for certain moves, was a bit of a menace to the discipline & formality of the club, and this reminded me of the reasons why I left Sifu Shaun Rawcliffe's Wing Chun club a few years ago after having trained there for some years.
Since July 2010, Daniel has been looking at setting up the Shaolin monastery of the next generation – the Lao Shaolin Village – going back to the method of the peak of the Shaolin, not just striking poses in orange suits and touring the globe doing gymnastics!
In 2010, Daniel stopped cutting his hair. His fringe has since grown over his eyes, nose & mouth.
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