----------------------------- Sifu John Allen ---------------------------Sometime around the late 1980's and early 1990's, Green Dragon Studios and their controversial leader Sifu John Allen exploded into the martial arts scene. Opinionated, voiceful, rash, anything but shy, Sifu Allen told things the way he saw them, not worrying about the un-written rules of decorum in the Chinese Martials World and in the process not only stepped on but amputated a few toes, and caused many a Chinese Master to loose face.
Not only was his message, that most Chinese martial artists could not fight, controversial, but his approach unorthodox. Teaching selected forms from as many as 30 or more styles, Green Dragon Studios offered a different option and defied the one style mentality engrained in the Chinese Martial Arts.
Innovative yet staunchly traditional, Green Dragon Studios and Sifu Allen preached the most traditinional of all doctrines, there is no substitute for repetition, practice, HARD WORK, after all the real meaning of Kung Fu.
Green Dragon Studios produced and distributed a series of videos on their interpretation of a wide variety of styles of kung fu and these videos became wildly popular and even today most are fiercely sought after. The videos were home made and edited, of fair to good quality for the time but what made them stand out was the depth and detail of instruction that Sifu Allen put into them. In contrast to most so called instructional videos which are little more than a rushed demonstration of a form, Green Dragon Videos provided enough detail to actually earn the title "instructional" videos. In some cases, GD videos provided more detail than had ever been available on certain sets and styles. Examples are the Stone Warrior, Iron Vest and Iron Palm videos which remain some of the best explained, in depth presentations ever made.
Today, Green Dragon videos are still available, but are mostly multiple generation bootlegs, of degenerated picture and sound quality. They are reportedly still available from Green Dragon Studios themselves, but horror stories abound about the several month delays, no contact infomation, and of course , the price which is as shocking as Sifu Allen's views on oriental masters.
Recently, Shen Martial Arts (http://www.shenmartialarts.com) has gotten into the picture, buying used original copies from the many that have purchased these over the years and re-selling those of good quality at reasonable prices. Shen specializes in unique, hard to find, high impact, training items. In addition, Shen's mission is to perpetuate important and diverse teachings and to make them available to more and more potential Kung Fu practitioners.
Whether you agree or not with the views spoused by Green Dragon Studios, to their approach and their philosophy, credit must be given to their innovative spirit, their penchant for quality and detail in the content of their materials and their courage in going against the grain.
Anyone interested in selling their old collection of Kung Fu training videos can contact Shen Martial Arts via email at shenmartialarts@cox.net. Those that are interested in buying Green Dragon videos can also use this email for their inquiries.
