Youth Student’s Corner
by Chantal Moylan
Having friends in your Kung-Fu class can be a good thing because they can help you stay motivated and it can be fun to have someone to train with. Sometimes it can be a bad thing though and you can get a little too silly.
Having someone to train with can be really fun and you can push each other to work harder and get better at your Kung Fu. It’s easier to want to practice when you have a buddy or even a few friends in Kung Fu. You should always challenge yourself in class to be the best you can be, but it can also be fun to challenge your friends. You can challenge each other to have lower stances, better pushups and higher kicks. You can also motivate your friends in between classes by making contests to see who gets the most amount of practice done every week or who has the best pushups by the end of the month.
Training together can be great because if a Sifu sees you all practicing together they are more likely to come over and teach you new, exciting techniques. The opposite is also true, if you and your friends never practice, you most likely won’t end up learning anything new.
Having friends in your class can be distracting to you, your teachers, and the rest of your classmates, if you behave silly or talk with them too much. Kung Fu class is a time to learn and get stronger so it’s important that you pay attention because you only have two classes a week to learn. If you start a conversation with your friend it makes it harder for the instructors to teach and this can affect the rest of the class. Being too chatty with friends takes away from everyone else’s time at Kung Fu when the instructors have to stop to remind you to listen.
Sometimes it can be tricky when you know more of a form or sequence than your friend (or the other way around). You might think that it’s a good idea to teach each other more, but it’s actually not. If a friend has just learned a technique, they probably don’t know it very well, so you won’t learn it well either. Also, teaching each other is actually against the rules of our Kung Fu school. If you don’t get taught more of a form or sequence right away from an LT member, a Sifu or Sigung, there is usually a reason for it. You and your friends need to be patient and make sure you practice and ask for help when you need it, rather than teaching each other.
It’s super awesome to have friends in your class so it’s very important to stay focused so you can keep training with them. Behave in class in a way that can help your friends. If you pay attention and try your hardest it will encourage your friends to do the same.