Since the Coronavirus pandemic began, people have had to stay at home and had little chances to exercise outdoors. Moreover, we haven’t been able to teach or train at our martial arts studio due to the limited gathering restrictions.
The other day, I remembered something my master Chen Sifu told me about 20 years ago where he likened the studying of martial arts to the story of The Tortoise and The Hare. In that, as long as our goal and direction remains true, whether our progress is fast or appears to be slow, one day we will eventually reach our goals. The only challenge then is whether or not we persist with the path and our efforts.
Today it seems that there is an additional challenge to our practice – isolation. For the most part, martial arts practitioners need to have training partners to fight with, condition with, exchange experience, train drills with and much more that cannot be done alone. Even to just bounce ideas and thoughts with another person in conversation requires a second person.
How long can we persist with good practice and spirit if we only practice alone. A month? A year? Although we can increase our knowledge with books and surfing the Internet, have we developed so far that we are able to replace and substitute the experience we gain from the practice with other people?
龜兔賽跑 － 19／4／2020
現在武漢肺炎肆虐,大家大多時間留在家中.到外面運動的機會會少了.又有限聚令因此大家都不能到武館練習了.
回想大約廿年前我的師傅陳師傅曾說,練武就好似龜兔賽跑.只要方向正確,有時候 我們的步伐雖然好像很慢,但仍有到達目標的時候.問題是我們有否堅持努力.今天看來還有一事,就是孤單.練武人大多數時候都要找拍檔練習、對打、拿手靶、拆招、 練抗打,甚至彼此交流練習心得也要另一個人.如果獨自一人練習可以堅持多久呢？一個月？一年？我們看書和上網雖能增長見識,卻不能代替跟人一起的練習吧？
