How to Learn Kung Fu? In this article, we will examine 5 key conditions necessary for successful and effective Kung Fu training.
So, let’s get started.
1. Having Motivation
The main secret to achieving mastery in any field is maintaining a high level of motivation over a long period. There is no definitive answer to how to do this. Each person must have a clear understanding of why they want to train and how much time they are willing to dedicate to achieving results and mastering the art. It’s important to recognize that training will always take a significant amount of time and requires a great deal of involvement from the student. Superficial study will not yield results, no matter how long one has been practicing.
2. The Need for a Mentor (Instructor or Shifu)
The importance of having a mentor for Kung Fu training cannot be overstated. Kung Fu is a vast world with numerous styles, schools, and approaches. Practical knowledge can only be gained with the help of a mentor who already has extensive experience in a particular discipline.
Without a mentor, it is impossible to understand the nuances of movements, the principles of body mechanics, the focus of attention, and to create a unified connection between body and mind. Learning to recognize external and internal manifestations and achieving tangible results from practice are also dependent on having a mentor.
In the learning process, you will most likely have to change many things you were previously accustomed to, analyze and try to understand concepts you had never considered before.
His task is to reveal the world of Kung Fu to you and, as a rule, to elevate you to a higher level of understanding the world and yourself.
The knowledge you gain from a mentor cannot be compared to the knowledge obtained from reading books, watching various videos, or simply conversing. It is much deeper and touches on aspects that go beyond intellectual understanding.
A mentor knows the path you are about to take. Without them, you will be forced to find it on your own without any guidance.
3. Regularity of Practice
In Kung Fu, there is a rule: train for a day—gain for a day; skip a day—lose ten days.
It’s not just a nice phrase from an esoteric book.
From a physiological perspective, through consistent training and a proper approach, new neural connections begin to form. These connections can take years to establish into specific networks to achieve particular results from practice. With regular training, new connections are formed, increasing the number of links in the chain. With an irregular approach, stable neural connections will not be established, and therefore, the results from practice will be poorer or insignificant.
In reality, the processes occurring in the body and mind with regular practice are much more extensive and complex.
Attention (the power of listening) also needs constant training. This is why it is important to practice regularly and daily. By doing so, we prevent our attention and listening ability from atrophying.
By performing the same neigong regularly, we strive to delve deeper into the exercise and to see and recognize more nuances during its execution.
If we practice neigong without the necessary mental engagement, we quickly become bored, lose interest, and the practice becomes tedious, with effects no greater than those of a morning exercise routine.
Regularity is one of the key requirements in Kung Fu practice.
4. Attention and Consciousness. Quality of the Practice
Attention is a tool of consciousness, whose function is to distinguish objects from the background.
The quality of execution directly depends on the amount of attention and listening to the processes happening in the body and consciousness that is invested in the exercise. With a superficial amount of attention, we hear very little, which is why it is so important to learn to maintain attention and expand it, developing the strength of listening.
When performing any exercise or neigong, we can execute it with quality only to the extent that we are aware of it, how much attention we invest in it, and how many processes we can hear and track in the body and consciousness.
Therefore, it is important to strive to invest more attention into neigong, maintain it on the processes for as long as possible, and perceive the ongoing processes as clearly as possible.
These criteria determine the quality of execution.
From the perspective of an untrained person, their body appears chaotic. They may perform various movements, but these movements are generally instinctive and reflexive (automatic) and are largely governed by previously developed habits. This is not conscious movement, and the person does not recognize its nature.
The difference from physical exercises and physical education, for example, in the Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan system, is that a lot of attention is paid to working with the body’s structure.
Consciousness can be developed throughout one’s entire life. If one does not engage in this practice, it can lead to senile dementia in old age because, without the daily formation of new neural connections, consciousness does not develop.
It remains only in the habits and passions formed early in life. Then it becomes amorphous and incapable of action.
If the mind is trained, attention is dense, and the power of recognition is high, then mental strength replaces physical strength, and the force directed at you is recognized in advance before it impacts your stability, structure, and other parameters. You can change, redirect, and use the opponent’s force against them. This is the foundation of the I Liq Chuan training method.
5. The presence of a clear, understandable, and well-defined training system
An effective learning model implies having a clear, understandable, and consistent system. Training in a kung fu school can be compared to school education, where, for example, we have 11 grades of secondary education, each with its own methodically structured curriculum.
For instance, to learn how to read, you first need to learn the alphabet. Then, slowly, syllable by syllable, you start reading and later on develop speed and expressiveness in your reading.
Without knowing the alphabet, you won’t be able to read anything.
The same goes for the Kung Fu system.
For example, in the Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan school, there is an educational system that consists of 11 student levels and 6 instructor levels. Each of these levels has its own curriculum, and through systematic learning, there is a gradual understanding of the system itself.
For instance, without studying the first student level, it will not be possible to understand the training material of the 3rd, 4th, or 5th levels as established by the program.
Therefore, it is crucial for the school to have a consistent teaching methodology that progresses from the simplest concepts to more complex ones step by step.
If these 5 conditions are present in your kung fu practice, then you are highly likely on the right path and will be able to achieve significant results in your practice.
