Why Rush?
It always seems to be the case that when a student is developing, they always want to move on too fast.
Running before they can walk.
Now this is understandable of course, after all it is human nature, and, with peoples busy lifestyles, and the fact that they’re paying for something, they want tomorrows results yesterday.
However, it is vital that if you do move on, try to remember that ‘What you will be learning next is as well as, not instead of’.
This happens in nearly every beginner course I have ever given.
It’s the easiest thing for a beginner to follow the first lesson, showing total interest, copying the movements such as the bow, the basic stance (Yee Gee Kim Yuen Mar) and Tan Sau, only to be left alone to drill these points and only five minutes later you see at least one of them standing around, watching the rest of the class and day dreaming.
When approached on why they have stopped drilling, their attitude is simply, “Yeah I’ve done that now, what’s next?”
Shocking really isn’t it.
Ok so maybe person believes themselves to be intelligent and perhaps it didn’t take a huge amount of grey matter in order for them to follow a few positions, and maybe I can see why they want to get on to the punches and the more exciting stuff, but again I have to remind them, ‘What you will be learning next is going to be as well as, not instead of’’.
As the lessons move on there will be new techniques to learn, different blocking positions, stances, stepping, kicking and so on, with these being designed to have a continuing flow from the previous lesson, and with less and less grey matter available to you, it is then that you will wish you’d spent more time drilling the body mechanics and muscle memory of that early stuff in order to mentally be able to take on the new stuff.
“If ever there is a problem with an advanced technique the answer is always in your basics.”
Dan Chi Sau for instance is one of my favorite drills, there is SO MUCH stuff in there, little hidden gems that will save your skin in so may ways and so many times over, but because it’s some that a beginner saw in their 3rd lesson, it simple gets pushed under the carpet like a boring and unnecessary routine.
IT IS NOT!
So stay in the moment.
This is the exact same mentality you need for playing Chi Sau so you may as well start getting used to it as early as possible.
If your teacher has asked you to drill something, there is probably a very good reason.
It may be so important it needs extra work, or perhaps it’s something that you are still not doing right and struggling with, in fact there’s every likelihood that it’s both.
Unfortunately, occasionally there may be reason to question.
Again unfortunately, it may actually be that the teacher is just not very good and cannot move you forward because they themselves do not have the skills or the knowledge to do so?
This does sometimes happened.
So do feel free to question the reason for repetition, but please do it politely eh?
It is also a good thing to remember, that if you do not respect that person as a teacher, you cannot expect them to respect you as a student.
Oh, and if you’re still not sure of the answer, why not run it by us?
That’s what we’re here for!