Frustated with training

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Frustated with training

Postby Urgeist » Sun May 09, 2010 4:47 pm

I study Southern Shaolin Five Animals Kung Fu and I find its really difficult to find real instruction in my city~! All schools are geared towards hobbyists who want a break from their 9-5 job. There simply isn't a place that gives people the opportunity to rigorously study my style! It drives me nuts! I feel as though I have to go to some insane monatery or some stuff like that to really learn Kung Fu.
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Re: Frustated with training

Postby yeniseri » Sun May 09, 2010 7:08 pm

Urgeist wrote:I study Southern Shaolin Five Animals Kung Fu and I find its really difficult to find real instruction in my city~! All schools are geared towards hobbyists who want a break from their 9-5 job. There simply isn't a place that gives people the opportunity to rigorously study my style! It drives me nuts!


What do you mean by real instruction?
If what you are learning is real Southern Five Animals then learn it as best according to the present climate and find someone who can teach the shenfa and jibengong of the system.
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Postby Urgeist » Sun May 09, 2010 8:14 pm

By real instruction I mean a school that offer more than 3-5 1.5 hours classes a week. A school where students are disciplined, passionate, dedicate and GOOD martial artists.

What I find in my city is too much focus on fun, shallow engagement with kung fu philosophy, ego and just general mediocrity.
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Postby John the Monkey mind » Mon May 10, 2010 3:38 am

I get your point but can't you get private lessons to top up your time and what about weekend seminars, 6 hours a day for 2 days tends to do the trick. I can only train formally 3 times a week (classes) however I train on my own everyday. Can you find dedicated training partners who wants to put in the time? Sadly I haven't been able to recently :( although I did used to live with a guy who went to the same wing chun class so we trained all the time for 3 months and improved a lot.

I guess my point is do you need more than normal formal classes if you can practice hard on your own and with partners, use private lessons and seminars to inform that practice?

If you read books like Esoteric Warriors by Alex Kozma you get the feeling that people who are good usual do a lot of back yard training and go to grate lengths to make connections with other dedicated practitioners. Sadly they seem to travel the word a lot to this end so not an easy path.

Its hard to beat long hours of training with dedicated friends.

I am interested to hear other conclusions especially about how to meet dedicated training partners as it IS REALY frustrating finding the opportunity to train properly.
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Postby yeniseri » Tue May 11, 2010 7:21 am

Urgeist wrote:By real instruction I mean a school that offer more than 3-5 1.5 hours classes a week. A school where students are disciplined, passionate, dedicate and GOOD martial artists.

What I find in my city is too much focus on fun, shallow engagement with kung fu philosophy, ego and just general mediocrity.


It is you who extracts the passion, the discipline, etc that translates into real instruction. Today, many teachers end up teaching as they do to retain students so they may be less demanding in order to be around longer, or they MAY water down the curriculum to be seen as more popular.

A hard teacher has few students (they demand alot from their students) and for the Western oriented student, it often translates as a no-nothing teacher based on the few.

My teachers had lots of students and only about 5 students stayed /studied with him for over 15 years. The rest came and went but the classes were usually full! For every 2 hours of teacher time, one usually spends about 10 hours or more of personal practice time until the next class. It means that you get to own the stuff you are learning and take it to heart!
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Postby Josh Young » Thu May 13, 2010 10:05 am

you don't need a teacher or a class to train
just practice and the information of what to practice
you can get all you need for weeks of training in a single class
if you look for the right teacher, you will waste years of time you could be training
what do you want, skill or recognition for your effort?
if you want skill, practice, you will find that teachers and training partners find you if you show the type of dedication you seek.

most teachers just want your money anyway, so they complicate training to make you depend on them, which is not required, so they can depend upon your money
the old masters of China rarely made money teaching martial arts, rather they did martial arts and had regular jobs or duties to sustain themselves, thus they did martial arts out of devotion

those who do things out of devotion always exceed those who do them out of economic necessity, you see for some it is work and thus toil, they see it as a giant staircase leading to some goal, but this is wrong, it should not be anything but a way of life if you wish to obtain true kung-fu. There is no goal, just an unending path, those who find themselves on the path must love walking it, for there is no destination and those who walk it outside of devotion never reach true mastery of self.

Don't wait for the teacher, meet them halfway by training today without them.
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Postby John the Monkey mind » Fri May 14, 2010 4:20 am

Good reply Josh.

About a year back I was attending classes in Tiger Crane, I had poor health at the time and progress was slow however since then I have practised on my own and made good progress. You can't just take the attitude I have only been shown a punch. I watched the instructor and how he moved, were his strength seemed to be, balance and remembered small remarks he said about training and his own training, I have researched pondered and most of all practised. I honestly believe it would be possible make grate gains with one lesson a every 30 days if you really paid attention and you put all your hart into your training.

I would love a master who says "come early every day 6am" and teaches me with true dedication but there are other ways to excel, just look at the history of Yang Taiji or Hising I or Drunken Monkey style, its dedication even when without access to a masters full attention that give results.

Keep in mind the basics and make shore you excel at them and then build on that. :)
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