On Becoming an Expert Student, part II

25 09 2024


This is a continuation of this article, which focused on learning accelerators. Today, we will discuss the barriers to learning. This philosophy is covered in my upcoming book on the process of teaching the martial arts. Stay tuned and subscribe if you’d like to receive updates!

When studying the martial arts, we must look out for pitfalls that prevent us from learning–or slow down our progress. Please take care not to feel attacked if any of this applies to you, and equally, do not be quick to deny that any of this applies to you as most of it applies to most of us. As you read this article, please ponder if perhaps you have encountered these barriers to learning.

  • The Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE) – Is perhaps one of the biggest barriers to learning, especially if we have had experience in the martial arts and either wish to learn more or wish to access the higher levels of the art. DKE is a cognitive bias that leads to most people overestimating their competence and level of knowledge. According to Psychologists Drs. Justin Kruger and David Dunning, the less we know, the more we tend to overestimate ourselves when self-assessing. In line with the saying that one “knows just enough to hurt themselves”, we often assume that the limited knowledge we possess represents a much higher level of knowledge in the field. Additionally, our untested limited ability is assumed to be much more proficient than it really is. There are really only two solutions or cures to DKE: A painful failure which can crush one’s ego, or to simply learn more. In a graph illustrating how this bias affects us, it shows that we begin the learning process understanding that we know very little. As we learn more, we quickly develop the belief that we know a lot. If we quit learning at this point, we go through life stuck in the delusion. This is where we end up as those eternal yellow belters who pretend to everyone around them that they are nearly experts in the martial arts. However, if we continue learning, we soon discover how much we don’t know and become humbled. As we continue learning, our self-assessment is more accurate and increases as our knowledge increases. We must understand this one thing: DKE affects all of us. This is why it is important to be assessed, to develop a thick skin about the feedback concerning our skill, and to submit ourselves to the guidance of our teachers, mentors, and the opinions and knowledge shared by our peers. Keep learning, and learn as much as you can. This is the only way to combat the bias affecting a vast majority of the martial arts world.
  • Fear – This is another barrier that most of us would deny that we have. Perhaps I could have used another term–like anxiety, nervousness, apprehension–but they all result in the same emotion. We have egos that are more fragile than we’d like to admit having. None of us want to be embarrassed, nor do we want to be seen as failures, or the painful realization that we just aren’t as good as we think we are. This is the #1 think that kept most of us from competing. Sure, we say we aren’t in it for trophies, but neither are most of those of us who do compete. Competition is a test outside our walls, uncontrolled by the safety of our teachers, against “unfriendlies”–opponents who are not our classmates and who could care less about hurting our feelings. What we fear about competition isn’t getting hurt–it is the fear of losing. This is the same emotion that keeps wall flowers from getting on the dance floor, what keeps bashful men from asking the pretty girl on a date, what keeps starving salesmen from making “cold” sales calls. We are afraid of rejection, afraid of failure, afraid of the idea that we simply aren’t as good as we imagine that we are. By first acknowledging this emotion, we can then conquer it and move past it. Once you become courageous–which isn’t exactly fearlessness, but the strength to face our fears–we can then elevate to the higher levels of knowledge and experience.
  • Cognitive Biases – This is a psychological phenomenon where we process information erroneously in order to adhere to a belief that is more comfortable and pleasing to whatever we would like to believe. There are many forms of bias and many motivations for it. In simple terms, we hold a belief about a subject then either ignore information that may contradict or challenge that belief, we gravitate towards information that confirm that belief, and/or we interpret information that confirms our beliefs while simultaneously refute what we don’t belief. The biggest thing about cognitive biases is that we do not consider truth in any of it. What we think, what we like, must always be the result of what we learn. So if a my belief is that a particular style or technique is superior, I will ignore or misinterpret anything that may be better–and I will only seek out sources that confirm that idea. This is why some Chinese martial artists will refuse to read anything written by Karate practitioners, and why some Filipino martial artists will avoid studying with a Caucasian FMA teacher. This is why some practitioners will only go to seminars and gatherings where familiar practitioners go while avoiding tournaments or gatherings where he may be surrounded by practitioners of other arts. The solution to this is to understand that perhaps your best learning experiences will come from being challenged and tested, even if you are being doubted. It is the most realistic test one can encounter, and it tells you if you truly believe in your school of thought. Learn from sources that confirm your belief as well as those that counter your beliefs. Interact with the like-minded as well as those who think differently. Allow yourself to be questioned, doubted, tested, and challenged. Avoid seeking comfort.
  • Lack of Discipline – We tend to think of ourselves as being disciplined and focus, but if you reflect closely you might realize that you aren’t as disciplined and focused as you think. We can all learn to become more disciplined. Doing so will ensure that you will make a lot of progress and do it faster and further than you realize. There are many forms of discipline and all of us can benefit by getting more of it. It may be our consistency, our attention span, even our level of intensity. Some of us may experience lazy days or become easily distracted. We cheat on diets, or skip items on our training regimen. We may not work as hard as we’d like to if we had a bad day at work. Whatever it may be, a good, honest self-assessment never hurts. Once you identify the areas you lack discipline, make sure you hold yourself accountable.
  • Peer Pressure – We might think of this as a teenager’s affliction, but all of us may be subject to peer pressure, also called groupthink. It goes something like this. We all belong to a group of some sort: political ideology, religions, martial arts styles, forms practitioners or forms haters, sparring heads or streetfighters, we belong to specific lineages of the arts, or we follow the lead of a particular master or grandmaster. The possibilities are endless. Once we look around in whatever group we are in, even if only online, you might notice certain slogans and phrases everyone uses. There are those who are “in”, meaning they are part of the group to which we belong–or those “others”…. you know, the assholes who have an unrealistic view of the martial arts who have no idea what real martial arts are. Traditional versus modern, purists versus cross trainers, the list goes on. Surely, at some point in your training, you will come to a crossroads where you will think differently than the group. Perhaps you like to do forms. Or you dislike certain types of forms. Maybe you see the value in an art or training method that the group likes to ridicule. Or that teacher everyone calls a fraud–he looks like he knows what he is doing and you’d like to pick his brain or learn his art. Going against the group is very difficult, and very few of us can bring ourselves to disagree with classmates, friends, or lineage brothers and sisters. If you are to have full access to the knowledge available to you, you must be capable of being impervious to the ideas of the group and not giving in to peer pressure. Here is a painful thought: You might even one day disagree with your own teacher and come up with your own ideas. Are you strong enough to do so? Or will your growth and access be affected and limited by the beliefs of the pack?
  • No Bullseye – What are your goals in the art? As a beginner, you need not have a specific goal; learning is a lofty enough goal. Once you progress through the ranks–especially once you become a teacher or expert of the art–it is vital that you have a specific goal or set of goals defined. There are many directions to go in the art, and they consist of many levels that are much more difficult to achieve than the Black Belt itself. Whether or not you achieve any of them depends on whether it is a stated goal or just a general direction. If you recall in the last installment, we discussed deliberate practice, which is a goal-specific purpose in training. When you were a student, you simply wanted to learn and achieve proficiency. As an expert, you may want to achieve something much more specialized, such as full-contact fighting, mastery of the art, or creativity in creating a new art/improved art/a second art. Having an internal compass guiding your journey will ensure that you at least get close to achieving those goals. Not having them is almost a guarantee that you will flounder for years and achieve very little.

My book is scheduled to be released in late 2025, and is entitled The Master-Teacher Handbook. It is a treatise on how to teach the martial arts. It is my hope that everyone who reads it will become a much more effective teacher in the long run. If you’d like to learn more and receive updates, please subscribe to this blog and check in with us regularly. We have hundreds of articles on this blog, bookmark this page and see what we have in the archives. If you like anything on this blog, please share and invite others! Thank you for visiting the DC Jow Ga Federation.


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Categories : Kung Fu Philosophy

On Becoming an Expert Student…

25 09 2024

“The first step to becoming a good teacher of the art is to first become a good student of the art…”

My upcoming book is on the art of teaching the martial arts, and I have a chapter dedicated to the art of learning the martial arts. This is something we often overlook because too much attention is spent looking forward. From the time most of us enter a school, there is talk about rank promotions and of course–the ultimate promotion: Achieving the Black Belt or its equivalent, certified teachers of the art. There is no fault in pursing rank, we all do it. However, focus must be on learning and excelling at the art first. If we place our priority on achieving rank, we risk skipping skill altogether as an endeavor and place all our emphasis on certificates and acquiring new knowledge.

By the way, a note: Acquiring new knowledge is not the same as achieving skill, nor does it mean one has excelled at those skills.

See, in growing organizations, we teachers of the art can often be in a rush to promote the next wave of teachers. This is the good fight. But in doing so, we may also promote new generations prematurely, and it becomes a quantity over quality dilemma… We may have plenty of chapters and grand-students under many certified teachers, but their skill is mediocre at best and they do not represent the best we can produce. This has been my criticism of the Traditional Chinese martial arts community for decades–that we have a lot of people doing a lot of TCMA styles, but so few are doing them well. Generations of certified instructors turn over with the change of the seasons, which can be good for business while not being good for much else in the way of martial culture.

As you read this entry, I want you to consider your own goals and practices in how you learn as well as how you teach. Hopefully the result will not offend but inform, will not feel accusatory but inspire, and will give you more ammunition to achieving your goals in the martial arts in the best way possible. Grab a cup of coffee and possibly a pad and pencil, as this article will run long. Look out for part II.

In the study of any new skill, we will all be faced with learning accelerators and learning barriers. The quality of your learning experience will be based on how much you grasp from the learning accelerators and how much you avoid the barriers.

Learning Accelerators

Learning accelerators refer to practices that help the student gain the most out of their learning, whether learning in a class or learning through media.

  • Intellectual humility – A key element to learning, this is what is meant by the “empty your cup” expression. When learning, we must have both the belief that there is much to learn as well as understanding that we don’t know much about the subject we are studying. If we lack this humility, we bring with us many things that will block us from learning–prejudgments, biases, even having low regard for knowledge that can be beneficial. In the martial arts we often proclaim ourselves humble, while arrogantly declaring that we are learning said martial arts with a stated desire to only learn this part or that part. With the “Absorb what is useful” attitude, we determine that we can decide with little to no knowledge of this art we are learning, what is useful and what is not useful. When we are intellectually humble, we shed ourselves of this notion and learn as a novice–even though we may have plenty of prior experience in the art. Several times in my life, I have undertaken new styles after achieving instructorship in other arts, and found very valuable gems of knowledge in their basics. Surely, I would have missed this information if I was too arrogant to even pay attention to the basics. Understand there is wisdom in every art, every school, and under every teacher–and if we are patient and open to learning, we will be taught that wisdom. We must also understand that we do not possess all knowledge, nor do we have knowledge of all arts. If you truly understand these two things, then you are ready for learning. If you do not, you will most likely close your eyes, ears, and mind to the information when it is presented to you. You might also alienate those who have the information and might otherwise be willing to teach it to you. True to the saying, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear–having this attitude demonstrates that you are ready.
  • Patience – It would seem that we shouldn’t need to mention this accelerator, but you would be surprised. We often imagine that one could acquire great skill after a few lessons or a short period of time. Take for example, the movie Karate Kid (or any other victim learns martial arts then beats the bully movie), where a young Daniel San spends a short amount of time with Miyagi Sensei, and then is able to defeat longtime practitioners of the art. The more you learn the art, the faster you may expect to learn new arts (or new skills). There is a name for this bias–and I don’t remember the name–and patience is the remedy for it. Just as you didn’t learn any other skill the first time you took a lesson, don’t expect it to happen in the martial arts. Understand that some skills may come easy, others will take some time. Give yourself this freedom; give yourself time to learn, understand, practice, and become proficient. Lacking patience in learning is like being impatient in gardening; one wouldn’t plant a seed and then expect fruiting the next day. Good things take time.
  • Deliberate practice – There is a saying that practice makes perfect. I disagree. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. As with the last accelerator, give yourself time to rehearse and learn new skills, and then don’t neglect the need for deliberate practice: Mindful, goal-oriented, and detailed practice. This requires that every skill you practice is broken down into the most minute of details and each piece is developed deliberately with each practice. This is quite different than regular practice, where one is pursuing overall skill through higher repetitions. Rather, deliberate practice demands that each practice session has a specific goal in mind–perhaps training for speed, balance, minute pieces of the technique, endurance, etc. Not everyone has the patience nor the wisdom to practice this way, and it is considered a higher level activity. Add it to your repertoire, and you will see your development increase with leaps and bounds.
  • Distraction-Free Environment – While practice should be performed in a distraction-free environment, learning often is not. We learn in classes where there is small talk, music, spectators, classmates, even environmental distractions like outside traffic and noises. If this is the case, we must develop our own versions of blinders and ear plugs–mentally block those things out, position yourself in the classroom closer to the teacher, become “that guy” who doesn’t engage in small talk, etc. If learning at home, I would recommend that you scheduled your time in study and practice. Have a designated place for your practice. Let your family know that you are not to be interrupted between the hours of your learning time. Shut off the phone, opt out of music, don’t even record yourself unless you are doing so for a specific reason. Doing this may be ritualistic, but it tells your brain to put 100% of its energy on one thing. It allows you to take note of every aspect of your practice, every word of the instruction, to notice details you may otherwise have overlooked and missed. Even if it improves your learning by 5%, that is 5% better than you would have learned otherwise.
  • Rinse Your Cottage Cheese – This is a term coined by author Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, to describe a philosophy of fierce discipline and a commitment to even the smallest of details. In his studies of greatness, Collins recalled an interview with an Iron Man athlete who, in spite of burning 5,000 calories a day, still rinsed his cottage cheese before eating it. Rinsing cottage cheese rids it of a very small amount of fat, and most people would likely see it as a waste of time to save such a small benefit. However, if one is so committed that he would rinse his cottage cheese–his level of commitment is several levels above what others have, and this gives him an edge. In your own martial arts education, what small details do you look over? Perhaps you may find many areas that are even of a tiny benefit to your education, but it is a benefit nonetheless. We may be looking at consistency in training, amount of practice time, areas we focus on in our practice, small mistakes and shortcomings we live with rather than eliminate (see Kaizen, next item), adding resistance or more repetition, the possibilities are endless.
  • Kaizen – A Japanese term for “improvement”, normally a business term but can be applied anywhere. Kaizen is a commitment to improving every day, regardless of how small. An example of Kaizen can be shrinking parking spaces in a parking lot by several inches (and designating spaces for large vehicles elsewhere) in order to fit 30 more parking spaces for more vehicles. In the martial arts, we have shortcomings that we often live with. Think of each time you heard a longtime practitioner talk of not being a good kicker, or wishing to gain some muscle for more power, or how kata isn’t his strong point. Imagine if these martial artists endeavored every day to eliminate those shortcomings and weaknesses; how good would he or she be a year from now if they worked on those things 365 days even if only 5 minutes a day! 5 minutes may not sound like much, but in a year that is 1,825 minutes spent on that one thing–or 30 hours of practice. A small amount goes a long way if you understand commitment and consistency.
  • Develop Thick Skin – One of the things the martial arts is supposed to do is make us tough. We might develop strong bodies, but if our feelings are easily hurt, can we really call ourselves “tough”? Part of the learning process involves receiving feedback–negative feedback–that may come in the form of criticism, corrections, or the knowledge that we are not as good as we think we are. It is important, then, that we are receptive to information both negative and positive that will help us in our journey to learning. Sometimes, we can handle constructive criticism from our teachers, but not classmates or onlookers. We may also receive this feedback from judges in a competition in the form of a loss or kind suggestions on how to improve our performance. For those of us who are on social media, we may receive criticism from commenters. Notice that I called them “commenters” and not “haters”, as they are often called. If we are easily offended, we may miss some valuable insight that would help us improve, even if they come from a “hater” on YouTube. The key here is to accept assistance from whatever source it comes from, even if it is from a source that we dislike.
  • Get Mentorship – It is said that the only shortcut in the pursuit of mastery was to have a mentor. A mentor have traveled the road we are traveling, made the mistakes that we will make (or are making), and they can guide us to help us avoid pitfalls and barriers as we learn. Mentors do not necessarily need to be teachers, nor do they need to be someone who studies the same system we do. They can be classmates, older peers in other schools and systems, anyone who has knowledge that we do not, can help us in our journey. They can be with us for a part of our journey, or they can be one of several people helping us with our journey. Refer back to the last entry to get the most out of this accelerator. We need not submit ourselves to everything they offer, but beware if you reject any of it because you might be making a mistake. As with our teachers, we must also exercise intellectual humility with our mentors as well.
  • Make Use of Private Instruction – Group learning is good, but we should also make use of one on one, private instruction. This will give you focused, detailed learning you most likely wouldn’t receive in a group. All of the teacher’s focus will be on you and your needs, and gives you a good opportunity to ask questions at will as well as tailor the learning towards your goals. Even if you have to pay extra, this is highly recommended and will put you several steps ahead of where you might land if you hadn’t.
  • Get a Training Partner – For a training partner it is recommended that you find someone who has had the same training you have, whether they have had more or less learning than you have. If you are engaged in distance or at-home learning, a training partner is vital to this process. Training partners give you real, hands-on practice as well as a second set of eyes/ears/hands/feet/brain on your education. This is a second set of notes, a second perspective on the material learned, a second opinion, instant feedback, and at least one additional set of skills to hone your learning on. Having a training partner also has an additional benefit: You now have someone holding you accountable for what you do outside the classroom. Left to your own devices, it will be too easy to skip practices or tone down the intensity of your practice. With a training partner, you will find it easier to stay motivated and to keep the intensity high. You also have someone to keep you sharp and someone to compete with. However, you cannot have just anyone for a training partner–iron sharpens iron but stone sharpens iron just as well. The key is to have someone just as committed, just as intense, and just as motivated to self-improve and excel.
  • Journal – This is a must-have: Document your journey! Record your output in practices, keep notes on things you have learned, ideas to pursue, goals you have set for yourself, everything. Journals are important (again) to hold you accountable, remind you of how far you have come, to serve as a map to guide you for the future, and a motivator. As a teacher, this will be an invaluable resource as it will be your reference for when you put your students through the program to duplicate what your training has done for you. In the area of training plans and class curriculums, you will have concrete evidence of what it took to give you the skill level you have achieved–and whether or not any changes should be made. One day, when you are old and a revered master, your journals might be a treasured heirloom for your students and grandstudents.

Stay tuned for part II, where we will discuss the barriers to learning. Thank you for visiting my blog.


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Categories : Kung Fu Philosophy

On Kung Fu’s “Bastard Children”

29 04 2024

AKA, The Bastard Sons of Kung Fu, blah blah blah…

Times sure have changed.

Back in my day, a guy enrolled in one school and he stuck with that school till he either quit–therefore quitting from all martial arts study altogether–or he got hurt and couldn’t continue, or he achieved instructor/black belt/black sash status. In the two former events, he’d be obligated to forever call himself a student of that school, continue training on his own or just talking about it, pretend to his friends and family that he was some type of expert, and constantly promise his Sifu that he’d one day return to training, although he knows damn well he wouldn’t. If he achieved advanced ranking or instructorship, he was free to go train wherever he’d like for a second and third credential in another art. That is, unless his Sifu didn’t approve–in which case he must ask for permission to go train elsewhere. You see, back in the day, we practiced Wu De, we had manners and respect for our teachers, and knew something about loyalty. We were so lucky our teachers accepted us as students, we were indebted to them for life and owed them allegiance, honor, and edification. Those who broke from traditions were “kicked out” of their respective schools and systems, were “Sifuless”, Chinese martial arts ronin, unguidable, disgraced. Basically, they were Bastard Sons of Kung Fu. A damned shame.

Today, students know nothing of this level of pride, loyalty, and self esteem. They hop from school to school, teacher to teacher, system from system. Damn them if they dared study Kung Fu and some godless, non-Chinese martial arts. I once knew a guy who studied Jow Ga, boxed, fenced, did Judo, AND Filipino martial arts. Completely disgusting. God forbid, if this guy opened a school to have some students address him as Sifu, Guro, and by his nickname, “Moe”. So is this a dojo? A kwoon? A bothoan? Dude make up your mind! These days, students weave in and out of schools, studying a little of this and a little of that. Even if they do acquire instructorship, will they be Sifus or Senseis? Who do they think they are, Bruce Lee? Holy hell, some of these guys even learn by reading books, buying DVD courses, or *gasp* online classes! How dare these guys try and learn without pledging their loyalty, those bastards! They are robbing authentic Sifus (with authentic Chinese lineages) the honor of kicking them out the school and banning them from learning the art!

I hope you are at least bilingual and speak some sarcasm, I’m pretty fluent at it myself.

This is dedicated to the students who take a non-traditional route to learning the martial arts. Some do not live in areas where weekly study in a school is possible; they may not have Kung Fu systems, or the system they want to learn, near them. Some may work a schedule that is not conducive to full-time, in-person study. Some lack the finances or lifestyle that will afford them such a luxury. I have had students who traveled from other parts of the state, out of state, even out of the country, to learn from me. I have also had students who were enrolled in other schools but wanted to learn from me–but were bound by loyalty, guilt, contracts, or enough income to train in two schools. Some have inquired for years and finally traveled to learn for just a weekend, one for several weeks. I have more than ten students I teach online because of logistics. All were also students of other teachers. Some of them are “Bastard Sons”–Sifuless because of estranged relationships or autodidactism.

Ahem.

Autodidactism: The practice of study without the guidance of a teacher or formal education

The above is a rather simplistic definition for a very old, very common, very effective, and very valid form of education. Somehow in the modern day, we have come to believe that martial arts students must join schools and stay for years under one teacher, not change what he has learned lest he bastardizes the art, and remain under that tutelage until released from that teacher’s mentorship. Allow me to offer another view to this belief… Most of the masters that we admire did not learn this way. They learned from whatever sources were available: Uncles, village masters, traveling practitioners passing through, sparring partners, chance meetings with other practitioners and trading knowledge, books and manuals, even watching practitioners train and copying what they saw. Many of these were fleeting periods of time; the founders of many systems had very short educations. They learned for a few years or even months, then practiced for years, and eventually forged their own methods based on the hands-on experience they gained. I once met a man teaching Arnis who told me that his total Arnis education totaled about 60 days worth of classes. He had learned more in solitary practice and from sparring opponents than he had actually learned formally from teachers. I won’t mention his name because of his reputation, but he taught me his system in about 12 months. I can assure you that his art is more solid than most systems I’ve encountered. If you look into the history of many of the arts we admire today, the founders received minimal instruction compared to the way we learn today. Some of them credit one or several teachers. Many learned from so many sources they cannot give a lineal ancestry for their arts. I’ve met a few men, and I am one, who cannot remember the names of everyone they learned from. Many decades and generations before us, before those artificial virtues and moral codes we throw around existed–martial artists learned from whatever sources they could gain access to, and they did so much with it that a century later we are still in awe of them and their creations. Today’s Bastard Children of Kung Fu may be in step with our own Kung Fu ancestors.

Times have changed, we must accept that. I recall being criticized and ridiculed by my own Kung Fu brothers because another Kung Fu brother and I dared to teach a Sifu of another system our first form through videos and YouTube videos. The crazy thing is that he was so talented and athletic (not to mention his already-deep knowledge of Kung Fu), that within 6 months he could perform that form better than most of those who have been practicing our art for years! Today, after the lockdowns, nearly everyone is teaching online, including those who heckled us from the sidelines and those close to them.

20+ years ago I remember hearing martial artists ridicule those who authored books on their systems, saying that “you can’t learn from a book”. Yet we all have our own libraries of various arts and years ago we had subscriptions to magazines. Were we learning from them or not? Just reading for the hell of it? Were the books you read in high school and college helpful or were they for entertainment as well? Face it, each generation of whatever field we are looking at will criticize those who use the new technology as technology evolves. A decade ago we ridiculed online learning, today we utilize it. Even those of us who went through traditional training years ago, will supplement our knowledge with video, books, seminars. and online sources today. It’s just a matter of keeping up with the times.

I’d like to switch gears and address the ugly side of this “Bastard Son” thing: Estranged relationships in the martial arts. We are all human, and we are all adults. Even Sifus and masters of the art. We are all susceptible to personalities and their flaws. Jealousy. Insecurity. Conflicts of interest. Conflicts of personality. Power plays. Boredom. Differences of philosophy or virtues. Often, we will find ourselves in disagreement with classmates, students, teachers, school and system leaders. If this occurs, what should you do with your already acquired knowledge of the arts–or your love for the arts–discard them? In the 1990s I received a letter from the Philippines, involving two acquaintances–one the master, the other his student. In the 2000s on two occasions, I received emails (both from friends in fact) with the same situation: The master severing ties with the student over personal and/or business matters. I can’t remember how many times, I was notified of a student severing ties with his teacher. Most of the time, the breakup was somewhat civil but on a few occasions they were ugly and nasty. In each case, the students simply moved on and started their own lineages, sometimes after learning from and/or accepting rank from another teacher. These are what I would call the Prodigal Sons of Kung Fu–not necessarily because of anything to do with money, but because it’s similarity to the plot of Yuen Biao’s character in the movie “The Prodigal Son”: The son leaves from his father’s household to study and pursue real Kung Fu. Often, because the Sifu is only human, it is nearly impossible to obtain the best of martial arts study. So these Bastards must leave father’s house in order to learn what is out there waiting for him. In cases where the Bastard Son (or Daughter) achieves greatness, the bastard will be celebrated and welcomed back into the loving arms of the Sifu and school they left… even though armed with an art completely different than what was taught by the Sifu.

Bruce Lee has just entered the chat. But I digress.

And finally, we arrive to my favorite Bastard Sons. These are the students who actually have no clear Sifu. They learn from whomever will teach them. They pick up books, watch videos, practice with the students of other Sifus. Many who are formal students of recognized masters may look condescendingly upon these bastards. Many will laugh and ridicule. Look at that idiot, learning from a green belter in someone’s garage or back yard. Training himself and posting videos. He can’t even claim a single art that he’s really learning. Or worse–he’s learning from a DVD! But be careful. While you laugh, many of these bastards train a lot more than you do. Yes, you attend classes three hours a week. But my bastard friend is training 12 hours every weekend and putting in hundreds of repetitions. Many an establish master has been put on his ass by a nameless, wandering, unconnected, unallied practitioner. Don’t get me wrong, I believe strongly in attending classes and paying your dues on the floor with sweat blood and tears. Just don’t think that that is the only way to learn. Many of these bastards would make great students if they had the finances to afford monthly tuition or if they lived in a city where Kung Fu is being taught. They travel to learn from whoever is willing to share with them. And they practice just as much, if not more than, you. The way I see it, you are paying your dues to the art in one way, they pay their dues in another. Perhaps one method is better than the other. But in my opinion they are both valid. Remember that.

To close I’d like to share a story. A young man is learning Kung Fu from his uncle. His uncle is old, and he is sick. He studies for a few years, some say it was only a few months. The uncle dies. He and his brothers seek another, local master of a different system. They study with that teacher for also a short period of time–either months or a couple of years. While still a teenager, he travels to another country looking for work. While abroad, he gets into fights, and eventually learns yet another style from a master there. Not knowing how long he was in this country before his education began, we do know this: He was in this country just three short years. He returns home and he and his brothers train together, combining the limited knowledge from all three systems–when a job is announced. A call has been put out for a combat trainer for the military, but he must compete against other candidates for the post. He enters a 100 man contest, beating all his opponents and being awarded the job. By age 29, he is dead and his teachings live on. Today, 100 years later, the art created by this young man is practiced all over the world by countless thousands of practitioners on every continent except Antarctica. Don’t discount those who didn’t study the way you think your students should have studied.

Thank you for visiting the DC Jow Ga Federation.


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