Continual Improvement

“Ask yourself three times a day, what am I doing wrong.” – Confucius

We should continually return to the basic practices, or foundation movements, of our chosen arts.

Confucius also said “Wen Gu Er Zhi Xin.” This means you always have a better, deeper understanding when you review and practice the old things you have studied.

Zhang Jie, in his book Liu Bin’s Zhuang Gong Bagua Zhang, says after you have a strong foundation, and if you can keep up your practice of the basics, then you are ready to learn more. But please remember that the purpose of studying more is to help you understand the foundations more deeply.

In our Tong Long we say, when you’re in trouble return to the basics. In this instance your basics better be second nature to you, very powerful, and effective in their outcome. The modern day student often wants to learn more and more, but as Bruce Lee said, I fear not the man who was practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

So strive for continual improvement through repetitive practice, diligent and committed training, and much perseverance and patience as you dissect techniques and applications.