The One Thing




Two years ago I finished learning the movements in the system of Gao Bagua and was very excited to begin my journey of developing. Learning all of the movements is only the beginning of our quest. I have spent all of my recent time refining and perfecting all of the techniques. The sword, spear, footwork, combat, conditioning have all been a daily routine for me in finding my understanding of the art fully. I have mapped out new training techniques and ideas that will revolutionize the way people train or perceive the martial arts. My training has been going very well but progress as always has been slow and steady.

I have trained everything that my master showed me. Well, almost everything. There is this one exercise that I just hated practicing. It made every part of me ache so much that I didn't have energy to do the rest of my workout. I have never been a lazy person, but this one exercise just took everything out of me. So every time I have set up my workout schedule for the day, this technique was "forgotten". Later when I started teaching my own classes about six months ago, I had to teach this technique to my students. My style of teaching is to go through the pain with the students no matter what the exercise is. So of course I am giving myself a good dose of this technique that I have been avoiding. Slowly the pain of the technique starts to subside, I am able to almost relax while I am doing it. I found a way to get through it and eventually made my peace with the technique.

After practicing this technique I found that everything that I was trying to develop had taken an explosive jump. Techniques that I felt I could never do completely correctly felt so simple. I was much faster, stronger and even discovered a few "lost techniques". It turned out that this techinique was the last piece in puzzle I needed to level up.

Even when we are diligent in our pursuit for truth we can often put off the things that we need the most to complete us. It is always the one thing that seems unnecessary that we put to the side that is the very thing we need the most. Sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and do the one thing that we hate in order to get to the next level. It might be doing a job, it might be quitting a job, but whatever it is it isn't easy. One step closer to being a better man, one step closer to becoming a master.

Comments

Nelson Chang said…
Hi, Fox, reading your blogs has been interesting and insightful. It seems you are very devoted into bagua zhan in Taiwan. Keep up the good work! I'm a Taiwanese student studying in the states and hope one day when I get back to Taiwan I can attend your lesson to learn from you a bit of the system. I'm right now currently learning 8 steps praying mantis (babu tanglang quan) in South Dakota, it's also another interesting system. Anyway, my name is Nelson, looking forward to more of your post on MA.
Thank you very much for your comment Nelson. Good luch with your training in Praying Mantis. Hope to see you soon.
Colin Norman said…
Hey Fox, my name's Colin. I've done Shao-lin for 8 years in the states, but I've just moved to Taipei to teach English. Your experience with Ba Gua seem incredible. Do you know of anyone accepting foreign students in Taipei? Thanks for the help!
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Bernard Kwan said…
Hi Warren,

Interesting post - would you mind letting me know which technique you are talking about? Please feel free to e-mail me privately should you so wish. Sifu and I are still talking about going to Taiwan in March with my Sibak. Hope to see you more in 2010.
Mr Norman if you are in Taiwan you can find my master at Xin Dian High School every Sunday at 3:30pm. I also have my class every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30am at Sun Yet Sun Memorial Hall. Stop by anytime.
EG said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
EG said…
It was always said me... Work on what you are good at, and it will improve. Work on what you are bad at, and everything will improve. All pieces of the whole.

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