The Old 8 Ball Of Wing Chun
The 8 Ball Of Wing Chun
It’s a very easy thing for a student to miss a class or two, and, provided they get back to class fairly soon, no harm done.
But in a time of Covid and lockdowns how many classes are actually missed and how bad is it?
When a break like this continues, through no fault of your own I might add, and the absence grows longer, a person can start to feel as though they have missed too much to return to training, or even feel embarrassment, wether that is toward contacting the teacher again or ultimately, walking back through the door of the school.
Stopping training completely is a dangerous thing as you are VERY likely to be missing out on a wonderful part of your life.
But, no teacher of any worth is going make you feel bad for having time off especially under the current situation, and you know what, sometimes taking a break (Break, pool reference get it?) can even be a good thing.
Let me explain (Covid restrictions aside for a moment).
If you’ve ever played pool (or any game for that matter), and then not played for a while, have you ever noticed how when you do have another crack at it, you seem to be awesome and not miss a shot!
Let’s say you’re in a pool bar playing ‘Winner stays on’ and there you are, game after game, still winning, why?
The reason for this is that you have nothing to loose, you don’t care, before you even started the game you’d probably already told them you’d not played for years, so therefore there is no pressure.
Now there’s a word, Pressure, this is what makes us make mistakes.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the moment you start thinking of your shots, planning you strategy and how you’re going to win, perhaps even thinking of the next game, THAT is when it will start to go bell-up, why, because you’ve now started to put pressure on yourself.
Now let’s imagine you’re back in that bar, you’ve only had a few games and the whole thing was lots of fun, everyone is about to leave for the next bar and all you have to do is pot the easy black and grab your coat.
Easy yes?
BUT,
Imagine that just at the moment you are about to take your last shot someone drops $500 on the table, betting that you will miss it, a passing TV crew just happen to see this and quickly set up camera and lighting (it could happen, you never know! LOL).
The point is, that this previously easy black, has suddenly become very tricky and you begin to doubt your abilities.
This can be the same for Chi Sau.
When you were at class before you tried and tried, week after week to get it right, and without knowing it, the more pressure you put on yourself the more you MAY HAVE made mistakes, through tension and over-eagerness.
What I am saying is that if you have missed class for a while there may be positives to draw from this.
Do not think that all is lost and you’ll never get back to where you were, of course you will, and you know what, it MAY have even done you some good with regards your opportunity for Chi Sau progression.
If you have been taught Chi Sau correctly it should be like riding a bike, you never forget, you just loose that edge you may have had previously, depending that is on your mental approach and your ability to take a step back before thinking of moving forward again.
It is important that we take this beginner mentality onboard as this will allow us the opportunity to take a fresh look at our basics again and re-train without the mistakes, rather than returning thinking you are it, as this would be horrific to your training, as even if you were it, before the break, you certainly are not it now.
Return to training humble, take off any expectations and pressures you may put on yourself, and, this could be the golden ticket to propelling you forward and getting you to where you truly want to, and even deserve to be.
Do not return to class a big head, going in all guns blazing and expecting that you will be the same as you were before this crisis hit, otherwise you will quickly hit a ceiling level of which your ego will never allow you to pass.
Happy (return to) training everyone.
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