Rowing Upstream

Learning traditional Chinese martial arts is like rowing a boat up stream. If you stop training (rowing), you go backwards very quickly.

On the first day of training, we bring our unique qualities to class, some of which aid us in learning the art while others prove to be a hindrance; these are our strengths and weaknesses. It’s very important, at an early stage in your training, to identify your strengths and weaknesses. This is one way in which martial arts teaches us to develop ourselves; through diligent training, we use our mind to direct the body to overcome our weaknesses. Discipline and tenacity are two very important qualities required during the first year of training. If these are your strengths then you will have an advantage from the start; if they are your weaknesses then must work extra hard to think of ways to overcome them; training with friends outside of class is one such way. The main enemy to overcome is always ourself; martial arts teaches us ways of achieving this across varying levels.

During the early stages of learning kung fu, you need to train frequently and consistently; primarily to build up the inertia required to help you progress beyond the beginner level. Consider how difficult it is, after missing 3 or 4 classes in a row, to get back into training. This is the inertia theory working against you. Many students train for many years but don’t even get past the beginner level of their art. This is because they don’t train frequently and consistently during the early stages. If you stop training, particularly in the first year, you go backwards very quickly, just like you would if you were to stop rowing up a river. In addition to regular supervised training, training on your own or with fellow students is an important part of the learning process. It helps to internalise teachings while highlighting gaps in knowledge and understanding. We have a saying in martial arts that 80 percent of training should be done outside of the training hall.

Trust and Responsibility

I was told by a very reliable source just the other day of a martial arts instructor in my city who was boasting about how he could and would make his female students breakdown as he put them through their training drills in preparation for their black belt test. While the exact definition of 'breakdown' was not given, the fact that this instructor was boasting to his office colleague about how he seemed to enjoy exercising the power, the authority, to engage in this type of behaviour, was very concerning to me.

Make no mistake, there is a clear demarcation line between instructors who push students hard to extend personal boundaries and grow versus doing this to gain some kind of personal satisfaction. Crossing that line reflects poorly on the instructor, the organisation and ultimately the wider martial arts community.

Fortunately, from what I have seen, this type of behaviour is the exception rather than the rule.

Martial arts have been allowed to develop openly in New Zealand for many decades now because society accepts the positive benefits that engaging in this activity bring to society. 

Underlying this concept is the key consideration that martial arts, indeed martial artists, exist because the public allow them to exist. Because there is general support for their place in society, good students can find good teachers and hopefully, after years of study and guidance, the tradition advances. Poor quality instruction, resulting in students becoming poor instructors, which can only undermine the trust and responsibility that the public place in the martial arts.

We as martial artists should remember the duty we have to teach openly, professionally and responsibly and that the publics trust in us is why we can continue to exist.