The Emergence of Shifu Lee

I've picked up three students of my own this weekend. It felt a little strange to have my own personal students; I felt as if somehow I was turning my back on my own school, and yet at the same time there was an element of visceral freedom that came with it. My students are a little younger than when I started, which is cool-that's a couple years earlier than when I started.

What I've found to be both incredibly awesome and insanely difficult was that I could create my own curriculum. At my school I had control and could add my own touch or innovation, but in order to maintain uniformity I kept to the normal workouts. This isn't to say that if I were to start a different kind of routine for warm ups and such that I wouldn't be allowed, my instructor isn't like that, but, because I wasn't teaching everyone, there needed to be a consistency.

Right now I've found it hard to find something that I could call my own instructor-wise, only because of the options available to me. I decided on my type, at least. At my school, I've always been seen as a difficult instructor, one who, if he saw something wrong he'd make you repeat it. One who made you work 5% harder than you could, and ultimately you came out stronger for it. I also wanted to be the kind of instructor that inspired the creativity of my students when it came to applying the techniques they learned. Wushu after all, is an art.

These two styles have become my goal for instructing. This type of thing has always been good for all those involved-the ascertaining of a style, something that grew out of you and became an invaluable strength. Hopefully, I'll have gained even greater insights into training and instructing as a result.

Peace.

A Brief Introduction

So I take kung fu.

Some things you should know about "kung fu":

1.) Kung Fu was used as a blanket term to describe one's mastery in a particular field through hard work. So if someone was a master basket weaver, they would be said to have strong kung fu.

2.) When talking about the martial arts of China, wushu would be the word you'd be looking for. Wushu literally means martial(wu) arts(shu).

The style I'm learning is Eagle Claw, and it consists of breaking, choking, and locking joints to name a few. Recently, because of the snow and my own laziness, my skill level has gone down considerably. I'm definitely not pleased at all. I don't want to say where I think I've dropped to, but it's not good. Regardless, the only solution would be to train until I'm past where I was.

I also take Yang style Taichi. I'm bad at it, and it helps my Eagle Claw training out substantially, but I'm more out of practice with Taichi than I am in Eagle Claw.

Either way, the solution I've come up with was to train. Everyday.