Want And Need In The Martial Arts “I’m not going to give you what you want today, I’m going to give you what you need…..”  Sifu was teaching a seminar to a group of martial artists that had never seen him before. This created a response in Mathew, a studious young man from the group.  “I don’t understand the difference Sifu?” Sifu had already anticipated this response… “Most seminar teachers these days teach seminars for a living, therefore they feel obliged to ‘entertain’ the students and come across as a ‘nice person’.  They are very personable, shake everyone’s hand, have … Continue reading Want And Need In The Martial Arts

Training For Pleasure “With all this work we do to improve, do you think there’s a time that we’ll start getting worse?” We welcomed the break in between Tai Chi classes, apart from the physical break, it gave us the chance to discuss anything from the latest kung fu movies to the deepest Buddhist philosophy with Sifu. Teresa had a stressful job in accounting, worked long hours and would come into class looking tired, sigh with effort at the beginning and end of the class but the years would slip away as she appeared get younger and always seemed to … Continue reading Training For Pleasure

The Green Eyed Monster It was typical locker room room talk…. There’s always one black belt that just can’t control his arrogance.  Duncan was typical of this kind of person; he’d moved in from out of town and therefore hadn’t grown up in the spirit of the dojo.  He couldn’t keep his counsel and had to pontificate on everything.  He was a typical ‘snake oil vendor’ – in that what he said almost made sense until you realised that it was only a game of ‘one upmanship’ and he was shaping his words to gain acolytes and admirers and in … Continue reading The Green Eyed Monster