Acting drunk on Mill Avenue or like a monkey in the Student Recreation Complex would likely land a student in jail.
But for ASU students studying at the Chinese Shao-lin Center at the northwest corner of Apache Boulevard and Dorsey Lane, it is training for forms of a martial art more than 1,500 years old.
Shaolin kung fu incorporates hundreds of coordinated movements of punches, kicks and blocks, called forms.
Many of these forms imitate animal movements, such as a monkey, tiger or crane, while others imitate drunken movements. As students progress in belt level, they accrue more forms -- each level increasing in difficulty and complexity.
"You're required to use your memory a lot," said John Ouelett, a housing and urban development senior and first-degree brown belt.
The center trains about 15 ASU graduate and undergraduate students, as well as teaching assistants and professors. Students train from one to 16 hours per week, depending on their schedules. In the future, black belt assistant instructors of the Tempe school intend to start a kung fu recreation program at the SRC.
While students of Shaolin kung fu are no longer training 18-hour days as they were long ago, the center retains many of the ancient traditions -- from the customary garb denoting rank and experience to the multitude of fighting styles and postures -- even tai chi.
"You can't really get that in any other discipline," said second-degree brown belt Philip Trinidad, an electrical engineering senior.
Head instructor at the center is former Sun Devil and second-degree black belt Jacob Ryberg, who double majored in justice studies and Chinese.
He said he has been to China twice with the Shao-lin Center, visiting various temples and landmarks where Shaolin kung fu began.
"It doesn't just have the physical [aspect]," said kinesiology freshman Zachery Muehlenwed. "It has the internal, the history, the culture and everything."
Some students are interested in the traditions of kung fu, but some also joined to do something out of the ordinary.
"It's a change of pace," said ecology graduate student, teaching assistant and blue belt Ben Campbell. "I was a runner and a swimmer all through college, and I wanted to try a different form of athletics."
Reach the editor at darren.todd@asu.edu.
