People

Da-Shi Doug Moffett is Chief Instructor of Lung Ch’uan Fa/Dragon’s Fist Martial Arts Kung Fu & Tai Chi Ch’uan, and has over 50+ years of experience in the martial arts. Starting Kung Fu in high school, and adding Tae Kwon Do and Karate training, he joined the U.S. Army for weapons-based training through the infantry. After his active duty, he started his college years, entered the Army Reserve and National Guard in a depot level aviation maintenance facility, and created a sanctioned Kung-Fu club at UCONN. While attending National College in the Chicago area in the 80’s, he was a student of Gm. Hsu Fun Yuen in Tai Chi Ch’uan and Shaolin Kung Fu and created a Soft Style Kung Fu club on campus. After leaving the Chicagoland area in the mid 90’s he moved to the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina. Through his work at the local YMCA, he met his now senior student, Bryan Grayson, who along with other Piedmont Bible College students, became the core of the Dragon’s Fist school he started and is still running there today. Da-Shi opened his Dragon’s Fist Martial Arts School at the Spring Hill RECenter in McLean, VA in 2002, and has offered classes in Kung Fu, Tai Chi Ch’uan, MMA, as well as Fitness classes including Boot Camp, H.I.I.T., Cardio-Kickboxing and several more over the years. Many students have become teachers and instructors as well.

Da-Shi had trained with his present teacher Gm. Steve Clark (Lao Shifu) since the late 90’s after meeting him at the CACMA events in North Carolina. In 2006, he achieved his 9th Higher Level Black Sash, under Ch’uan Fa Grandmaster Steve Clark (see below), and as tradition upholds, became an honorary 10th degree when GM. Clark passed away in 2022.

In addition, he has attended numerous seminars by instructors of other styles to supplement and strengthen the already versatile dragon styled techniques. He draws from his diverse training to improve his own skills and provide well rounded instruction to his students. Da-Shi Moffett was inducted into the U.S. Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2006 as a Kung-Fu Master.

Grandmaster Steve “Lao Shifu” Clark

Lao Shifu (Venerable Teacher – Grandmaster) was a teacher of LCF chief instructor Shi-Fu Doug Moffett. Lao Shifu passed away in 2022 and was a 60+ year practitioner of martial arts, including Karate-do, Jiu-jitsu, Nin-jitsu, Hapkido, San Soo, Wuchia, Shaolin Ch’uan, Wu Tai Chi, Yang Tai Chi, Combat Tai Chi, Emperor’s Tai Chi, Hsing-Yi, Bagua, and other styles and systems. He is an acknowledged representative of best interests of different styles and systems of martial arts from all around the world and was awarded an Honorary Eleventh Level Black Sash/Eleventh Degree Black Belt.

 

Lao Shifu for many years wrote an ongoing column called “Review for Tonight” and offered insights into many aspects of martial arts and asian culture, including “Wu-de” – the Chinese term for acknowledging and maintaining one’s honor and conduct and courtesies. There are many reasons why it is popular to cultivate strength and power in the martial arts. There are just as many or more reasons to seek temperance and control of one’s action when one has the nature or physical capacity to harm or hurt others, even in the name of self-protection or self-defense.

Lao Shifu has taught that as one’s fighting capabilites grow, one’s spirit and mindset also needs to be trained to learn to utilize the acts of diplomacy and communication as first steps in any conflict or confrontation. Although one has the personal power to commit and utilize violent actions, any physical responses should be used judiciously as last resorts in a “force continuum”. Along with the powerful fighting capabilities, as one trains in the martial arts one learns to adopt stronger self-control and seeks to utilize an outlook of cooperation and camaraderie and utilize tools of force sparingly.

Grandmaster Hsu Fun Yuen

Grandmaster Hsu Fun Yuen was a student of Chen Man Ching and an inspirational teacher of Shi-Fu Doug and hundreds of others. See the links below for further information on Gm, Hsu’s chosen successor, Shi-Fu Elizabeth Wenscott.