Parent’s Corner
by Sifu Veronica Sas
Fu For You – Winter 2025-26
For the last few newsletters, I’ve shared my reflections on what students at the Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy learn in addition to the physical aspects of Kung Fu. This will be the third and final installment of that series.
Resilience & Perseverance
Perseverance is the ability to keep going, despite difficulties. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and challenges. While training at the Waterloo Kung Fu Academy hopefully your child will grow in both these areas. For example, sometimes a student will struggle with a certain technique or skill. Through perseverance, practice, and with some instruction, they will get better at it. The only way to get better at something is to practice!
Kung Fu gradings are meant to be a challenge. Your child’s perseverance will hopefully grow as they advance in rank. More advanced ranks are expected to know more forms and more difficult techniques, which they will then perform in each grading. Your child’s resilience might also grow during the lead up to a grading. Perhaps your child was hoping to get on the current grading list, but the instructor thought they were not quite ready. It’s difficult when you’re hoping for something, but the answer is no. The easiest thing for your child to do is to “sulk” and perhaps not even want to do Kung Fu anymore. It shows resilience if your child keeps practicing and learns from the experience. Hopefully with the extra practice they will be ready for the next grading and easily pass it.
Patience
Patience is one of those skills that seem hard to improve and can apply to everything. In Kung Fu, new forms and sequences are taught a few moves at a time. Teaching moves a few at a time helps the student remember them in the long term. This can be frustrating when your child must practice those couple of moves repeatedly and not learn anything else until the next class. The time it takes between gradings can also help teach patience. There are a specific minimum class attendance and months required at each rank that must fulfilled before a student can be put on the grading list. Even if your child knows and can perform all their current requirements, if they have not met the time requirement, they will have to wait.
Also, as your child goes up in rank, the techniques they learn will become harder. There is a good chance it will take them longer to be able to properly do them and so the time between gradings will increase. Another way that patience might be tested and improved upon is if your child must miss a scheduled grading due to illness or conflict. The only thing to be done is to wait for the next grading opportunity. Waiting is never easy, but it will teach them patience and hopefully their Kung Fu will be even better for the waiting!
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Read the entire Series:
- What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 1: Discipline | Respect
- What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 2: Responsibility | Self-Confidence
- What Are We Teaching Your Child? Part 3: Resilience & Perseverance | Patience