Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Relaunching my website!

Just a quick heads-up that I've relaunched my website - http://www.drmarkcheng.com

While there are certainly a whole bunch of updates & content that needs to be refined & organized, that website will be the new portal for all my ventures, explorations, and teachings in the future.

Please do me the honor of bookmarking that page & sharing it via social media.

With great appreciation,
Doc

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Dr. Mark Cheng: Professional resumes, CVs, & a long-overdue clarification

Recently, I've been getting quite a few more requests for different workshops, and occasionally the hosts ask me for a resume or a CV or some other sort of info about me to help them promote the workshops or events.

Over the years, I've written & re-written so many different CVs for different projects & hosts that trying to look through all the different PDFs & files to update them has gotten to be chore that I don't have the bandwidth for, especially when they ask for skill-specific CVs.



Why the difficulty with skill-specific curricula vitae? 

Because my life and my passions are INSEPARABLE from my professional pursuits. The toughest thing is having to explain over & over again that the combat arts are traditionally inseparable from the traditional healing arts as well. While more & more people are clear on that reality, it's always time consuming to have to explain over & over again that my martial arts training (especially with some of my early teachers) is part & parcel of my medical education.



Oh! You're the kettlebell guy! The acupuncture guy! The martial arts guy! The rehab guy! The Tai-Chi guy!.... Actually, step back about 50 feet and take a big picture look at what I do. 

People love to look at specific things to be able to compartmentalize. That gives them a better sense of security, of feeling like they know what something or someone is about. But that's just not who or what I am, how I operate, or how the real world is on a practical level. People who are hardcore specialists are awesome, but I'm a guy who prefers to see life in a multifactorial perspective.

In ancient times, martial arts masters were recognized as such for their practical understanding of the human body. They understood the training methods that made it work better. They understood the techniques to disable or dismember it. To be able to retain students and pass on their teachings, they also understood how to effectively treat and rehabilitate the injuries that occurred in combat training. My whole life has been centered around this reality, and there's no distinction in my heart between strength training, functional movement, manual medicine, acupuncture, herbology, injury rehab, combat sports, and tactical science.

Similarly, the hours that I've spent on studying strength training, movement screening, and diagnostic/rehab methods also fit in perfectly with martial arts by improving performance and reducing downtime from injuries.

Nonetheless, everything I just said still has to meet the public on its level of understanding before changing the paradigm. So I'm still going to post my 2 basic CVs, focusing on:

  1. Human Performance & Rehabilitation (with a sub-section on Strength Training)
  2. Martial Arts & Combatives Research
I'll edit these & update them as errors or omissions are brought to my attention. BIG thanks go to each & every one of you who has reminded me countless times to get this info up online. As someone who is already pretty damn busy with all of my clinical, writing, researching, & teaching.




Human Performance & Rehabilitation
Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine, Santa Monica, CA - Masters Degree Traditional Oriental Medicine (MTOM) 2002
State of California - Acupuncture Licensure (L.Ac. designation) 2003
American Liberty University, Fullerton, CA - Doctorate Degree: Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine (PhD) 2005
Functional Movement Systems, Chatham, VA - Faculty Member 2010-present
Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine & Yosan University - former faculty member (Tui-Na)

Strength Training
Russian Kettlebell Instructor Certification - RKC 2006, personal student of founder, Pavel Tsatsouline
TRX Suspension Training Sports Medicine certification 2012-present
StrongFirst Kettlebell Certification - Senior SFG Instructor 2012-present

Multimedia:
Functional Movement Systems - Kettlebells From the Ground Up 1 & 2
MovementLectures.com - Prehab-Rehab 101: The Groundwork Progressions



Martial Arts & Combatives Research
California Institute of Technology, Assistant Tai Chi Instructor to Prof. Daniel K. Lee 1991-1992
UCLA Kung-Fu Club, Founder 1993-1997
Black Belt Magazine, Contributing Editor 1996 - present
American Combat Shuai-Chiao Association, Black Belt Instructor certification
Gee Yung Sil Lum Fut Ga Martial Arts Association, Instructor certification
Yod Khun Pon Thai Martial Arts Association, Level 1 Instructor certification
Inosanto International Martial Arts Instructors Association, certified Jeet Kune Do & Inosanto Kali Instructor certification 2014

Multimedia:
Dragon Door Publications - Kettlebell Warrior: Applied Combat Kettlebells for Maximum Martial Power
Unique Publications - Combat Tai-Chi
Beachbody - Tai Cheng
Black Belt Publications - Hwa Rang Do: Defend, Take Down, Submit, co-authored with Taejoon Lee
Chen Kuan Book Co., LTD - Chan Chiao: The Art & Science of Combat Shuai-Chiao, assistant translator & editor, authored by David C.K. Lin