by Sifu Charlie Romeo
Fu For You Winter 2024

The Kung Fu journey is a path filled with challenges, successes, and personal growth. However, there may come a time when you find yourself held back due to obstacles out of your control. Whether it be an injury, health complications, or other personal issues, it’s important to navigate these challenges with a positive mindset. Here are some strategies to help you stay motivated in your Kung Fu journey, even if you are faced with setbacks.

1. Reflect on Your Progress: Think back and assess how far you’ve come in your journey. Have you had a set back before? If so, what did you do to keep yourself motivated and push through? Reflect on the skills you’ve developed in these setbacks and use them to keep you focused.
2. Set New Goals: Perhaps your setback has prevented you from reaching a previously attainable goal, such as an upcoming grading. Rather than thinking about the unfairness of this setback, set new goals that will keep you focused on your Kung Fu journey. Be sure to set goals that are realistic and celebrate every small and large victory along the way!
3. Adapt and Modify: Kung Fu is a dynamic discipline, and sometimes setbacks can be opportunities for adaptation and modification. If you’re facing a physical injury, communicate this with your instructors and modify your training so you can continue your journey while avoiding further injury. Working through a setback not only keeps your body strong, but also strengthens your mind and improves your discipline – a crucial aspect of Kung Fu.
4. Embrace the Process: Understand that setbacks are an inherent part of the learning process. Learning Kung Fu takes time, dedication, and patience. Embrace the journey – the highs and the lows – as opportunities for personal growth. The setbacks you encounter today can become the steppingstones for future success.
5. Take Breaks When Needed: Recognize that taking a break is not an act of weakness. Sometimes, stepping back for a brief period can provide the mental and physical rest needed to return with renewed energy and determination. Rest does not equal failure; it’s a strategic pause to ensure sustainable progress.I recall a time where I was faced with the biggest setback of my journey at that point. For personal reasons, I was forced to miss a grading that I had been training for for many weeks. As a youth student at the time, this was very discouraging; not only was I disappointed that I would have to wait to test for my next rank, but I was also discouraged by my friends moving up to their next rank while I was not. It’s clear now that I had the wrong mindset – instead of being discouraged, I should have set new goals for myself and continued on my own personal journey. After all, even though Kung Fu is about working together, everybody’s journey is different and it’s important to move at a pace that makes sense for you.

Read more posts about patience.

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by Sifu Charlie Romeo
Fu For You Fall 2023

We are quickly approaching autumn, which means that we can soon expect to see more rainy days and cooler weather. While many people see a rainy day as an opportunity to stay in and relax, I prefer to see it as an opportunity to get ahead. In this article, I’ll discuss the benefits of seizing the opportunities given by rainy days with the hope that you can benefit as well.

Don’t look at rainy days as an excuse to kick back and relax, turn on the TV and enjoy. This may sound great, but it’s a very surface-level pleasure. Instead of following the majority by relaxing on these days, why not take the opportunity to get ahead? While everybody else is being unproductive, you could be working your forms, blocks, or push-ups. Alternatively, you could be working on a potential essay for your next belt or sash. There are so many things you could be doing at home to improve your Kung Fu while the rest of your friends and family waste the day away.

If you usually take advantage of outdoor space to practice your Kung Fu, rain can present an interesting challenge that will make you have to think creatively. Try to find a place in your home that you’re able to practice, even a small space. Doing this will develop your creative thinking skills, as you’ll have to work through the challenges of training with little room to move. Alternatively, you could also take advantage of the challenges raised by enduring the rain and practicing outside. This can help to develop discipline and improve balance and stability, by having to navigate through the wet and possibly slippery area. The ability to endure through rain is one that I’ve personally developed through both Kung Fu and work, and it’s a skill I encourage you to develop.

Rainy days are the perfect opportunity to get the most out of your Kung Fu classes. In my experience, very rainy days have significantly lower student attendance than the average class on a sunny day (this goes back to the idea that people like to relax on rainy days). However, this fact can work in your favour. Many people don’t see the extreme benefits of attending a small class, the primary benefit being more one-on-one time with an instructor. While we always do our best to assist every student in classes, it’s not always possible to work with students one-on-one every class. This one-on-one time you can receive on a rainy day is extremely valuable and can help you to progress much faster than if you had simply stayed home. Attending class regularly is important, but attending when many others are not willing can result in immense improvement.

Rain may be inconvenient for things like practicing your Kung Fu, but it shouldn’t halt it. Developing good practicing patterns, rain or shine, will help you to progress in your journey at a faster and more effective pace, so don’t let the weather slow you down!

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by Sifu Charlie Romeo

Kung Fu is a way of life that emphasizes not just physical discipline, but also the development of a strong martial attitude—an important aspect of our training. This attitude is something that we as martial artists must embody to continue our journey in effectively learning Kung Fu. Let’s explore some of the important components of the martial attitude.

Humility

Humility is a crucial element of the martial attitude in Kung Fu. It is the understanding that we are not perfect, and that there is always room for improvement. In Kung Fu, students are taught to understand that we are all on a journey of self-improvement, as we try to be the best version of ourselves, rather than trying to be better than others. Humility is also about controlling our ego and not being arrogant about our own abilities. This part can be difficult to understand because in Kung Fu we are taught confidence in ourselves and in our abilities; however, overconfidence to the point of arrogance goes against the values of Kung Fu. If you find yourself thinking things like “I bet I could beat that person in a sparring match”, you may want to re-evaluate your martial attitude. Remember, Kung Fu emphasizes community and working together, rather than trying to be better than everyone else.

Respect

Respect is another fundamental component of the martial attitude in Kung Fu. Respect is shown to one’s teachers, as well as to fellow students. At WKFA, there are many traditions upheld that emphasize respect such as bowing and saying hello to your instructors, bowing into and out of the Kwoon, and responding to your instructors with a confident “yes Sifu!” It is also important to treat your classmates with respect, which can be done by bowing and by showing appropriate control when participating in partner drills. Traditions of respect have been a part of Kung Fu from the very beginning, and it’s crucial that we hold onto them.

Patience

Patience is a critical aspect of the martial attitude in Kung Fu. Kung Fu is not a martial art that can be learned overnight; it takes time, dedication, and hard work to master. One could potentially learn all the requirements to earn their red sash within a two-week timespan, but would the expected quality, intent, and deep understanding be present? Definitely not. Every step in your Kung Fu journey takes time and patience. It’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to progress slowly. Patience is about taking the time to learn and grow, knowing that it will lead to success in the long run. These three components are essential to the marital attitude in Kung Fu, and we are taught to embody them both in and outside of class.

By developing the qualities discussed above, we as martial artists become not only more skilled in our art, but also become well-rounded individuals who can navigate life’s challenges with the teachings we learn in Kung Fu.

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By Sifu Rebecca Knapp

Adult Student’s Corner

We live in a world of instant gratification. There was a time not long ago when we had to wait for just about everything. Dinner wasn’t instantly there. (no drive-through, delivery, or microwave). Information wasn’t at the tip of a button—answers took time—and sometimes many different sources—to find. When you shopped, you actually had to go to a store! Can you imagine?? J People had to wait for things; and wait they did.

Patience isn’t just about waiting though. It’s about fully experiencing the moment, staying completely present, and not focusing precious energy on what you want, or are striving for, but what you have RIGHT NOW. It’s about letting go, and recognizing that there’s no need to rush, no need to let your needs or desires consume your thoughts and energy, and that the beauty of everything is in the journey, not the destination. This last point in particular resonates for me in terms of my training in Kung Fu.

I get it—it’s easy to get focused on the goal. We have a ranking system that outlines requirements we need to meet, and we test for each level. As well, we have a large proportion of “competitive personalities”, shall we say. People often try to push through forms quickly in order to make the grading list. While having goals is important, you can easily forget that the quality of the achievement is only as good as the quality of the path there.

If you are rushing, if you are impatient, or not fully present in the moment, you also run the risk of missing valuable information.

You gain a lot more ground in your training when you stay in the now instead of focusing on what’s ahead. You give more energy to the present moment when you are not thinking about the next move or the last, but only the one you are doing at that point in time. You may find that if you train patiently, and don’t impose deadlines on when you will have “mastered” something, and instead just focus on learning, then it will come to you faster, more precisely, and with greater appreciation because you were 100% present to enjoy the process of getting there.

Ultimately, being patient in the martial arts is about calm endurance—it’s about giving yourself time to actively work towards a goal without setting a limit on how long you will work at it. The time limit itself restricts your progress and your productivity because the weight of it takes away energy and focus that could be given to the thing you are trying to accomplish in the first place. Learn to focus on the process of learning/doing the thing, not the completion of it. When you actually accomplish what you set out to do, it will be more gratifying because you were fully and completely THERE on every moment it took you to make your destination.

The post Patience Takes You Far: Why We Need Patience in Kung Fu appeared first on Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy.

By Sifu Lloyd Fridenburg

Editorial

When you first learn how to cook there is nothing more important than the recipe. You likely don’t know how to select complimentary ingredients or understand which ingredients enhance, or even define the dish. In the beginning we follow the recipe exactly, and hope that the result will be everything that the recipe promised. We don’t alter ingredients, add additional herbs or spices, and we use the exact amount of each ingredient in the recipe. Until you have some experience and have gained some culinary expertise, following the recipe provides an element of security and consistency.

Your Kung Fu training is no different! You need to follow the recipe. In this case, the recipe is our curriculum, which provides the basic skills necessary to advance your Kung Fu career. Our curriculum has evolved over the past 30 years and is something we should all be proud of, because it is not common within martial arts circles. We have a very defined curriculum with new techniques, forms, and self-defense, taught at each rank and we insist that instructors teach, and students learn, the prescribed curriculum. Many martial arts facilities function as a club and a lot of things seem to be taught in a random manner, according to the proficiency of the instructor. We have always functioned as a school with well-defined expectations of both our students and our instructors.

As you become familiar with seasoning, balance, and technique you begin to experiment and to make the recipe your own. Sometimes it turns out great; at other times it is a bust, but you can always return to the basic recipe and build from there. The same thing applies as your Kung Fu expertise grows. Your knowledge and variety of “ingredients” increases but you can always return to the proven basics.

No matter how much additional knowledge instructors gain over the years, they only teach the basic recipe to students. That way you will eventually discover your own pathway. Attaining a Black Sash is not the end; it’s only the end of the beginning.

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