WHY A TYPICAL SHAOLIN WAHNAM STUDENT NOW TAKES ONLY ONE MONTH TO ATTAIN WHAT I DID IN MY STUDENT'S DAYS IN ONE YEAR
Students now learn in three hours the skills and techniques of Abdominal Breathing what it would normally take other practitioners a year!
I was not an ordinary student in my student’s days. I was quite accomplished. I could handle black-belts quite comfortably, and was never sick or injured. Although I was not as fit and full of vitality at the time when the public acknowledged me as a master, I could run and jump about, and find everyday a joy. In fact, even in my student’s days I was known as a kungfu genius.
But now our typical Shaolin Wahnam students could attain in one month what I did in one year! It does not mean that Shaolin Wahnam students now are as healthy and full of vitality, or as combat efficient as I was when I was a student. These are different issues, but it is a fact that the kungfu and chi kung knowledge and skills they attain in one month, and probably accomplish in practical terms too if they practice daily according to my advice instead of according to what they like, are more than what I learned and accomplished in one year.
Other people may not believe this fact. It is actually quite ridiculous how much we have progressed in our teaching methodology, and how generous we have been in our teaching. I would also like to clarify that this difference, that Shaolin Wahnam students now can attain in one month what I attained in one year, is certainly no fault of my own teachers. I had the best teachers I could find, and they taught me generously and kindly. I am forever grateful to them.
Why, then, can our Shaolin Wahnam students now attain in one month what I did in one year? The reasons are as follows.
We differentiate between skills and techniques. Most practitioners, including masters, don’t. I didn’t during my student’s days. Most practitioners, including me when I was a student, thought that if one practiced the techniques daily and correctly for a required period of time, like three years, he would acquire the art of that practice.
But for those who know, it is not so. It is actually glaring, but most people may not realize it. The techniques practiced by kungfu practitioners are genuine, but most of them cannot use their kungfu for combat! The techniques practice by chi kung practitioners are genuine, but many of them are still weak and sickly. Their techniques are correct, but many of them lack the skills. Most kungfu practitioners do not have the skills to use their kungfu techniques for combat, and many chi kung practitioners do not have the skills to use their chi kung techniques to be healthy.
But some kungfu and chi kung practitioners have developed the necessary skills, and eventually they are regarded as masters – real masters, not “masters” by name. Often they may not realize that it is the skills that make them masters, not the techniques. Hence, they have to take many years to become a master, as their skills developed haphazardly even when they practice their techniques every day.
An example will make this clear. Suppose a person needs 10,000 units of force to become a master. Let us take the case of Iron Palm. One needs 10,000 units of force to break a brick to be called a master of Iron Palm.
Suppose a practitioner develops 100 units of force each time he trains successfully, which means he has both the correct techniques and the correct skills. But unlike our Shaolin Wahnam students who know the required skills, most other practitioners only know the techniques. So, even when they train everyday, they do not develop 100 units of force everyday.
Suppose in one month he is successful in practicing both the right techniques and the right skills three times, on the 10th, the 20th and the 30th of that month. Of course, in reality it may not be 3 times, and may not be on the 10th, the 20th and the 30th, but this supposition gives a clear picture.
But he does not develop 300 units of force in that month because the time between his successful days, which are on the 10th, the 20th and the 30th of that month, is too far apart for his force to be accumulative. The necessary skills are developed incidentally, usually without his knowling. By the 20th of that month, the 100 units of force which he developed on the 10th, would have dissipated to about 10 units. So, he has only 110 units of force on the 20th. He would not have 210 units of force on the 30th, he may have only 120 units.
Similarly, although he develops 120 units of force a month, by the end of that year, even when he practices everyday, he would not have 1440 units of force, he may have only 500 units, because the time of his successful days is still far apart for the force to be accumulative. But gradually as he progresses, his successful days become closer until eventually they are consecutive. Hence, it may take an Iron Palm practitioner a few years to have 10,000 units of force to break a brick.
In my own experience, I could not break a brick after practicing Iron Palm on my own for more than 2 years. But after learning One-Finger Shooting Zen from my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, I could do so after a few months.
For our Shaolin Wahnam students, not only they know the required skills, I transfer the skills from heart to heart to them in my intensive and regional courses. Our certified instructors also transfer the skills to our students in their regular classes, but because the regular classes are much longer, our instructors will take a longer time to transfer the skills, which is for the sake of our students.
Hence, as our students have both the techniques and the skills, they can develop 100 units of force every day in their training. They can develop 10,000 units of force in 100 days, which are about 3 months, whereas other practitioners would take about 3 years.
This example of developing force in Iron Palm also applies to all other aspects of training.
Most other kungfu practitioners cannot apply their kungfu for combat because tbey do not have the skills. Our students are taught the skills systematically and progressively. They are taught, for example, right timing and right spacing, how to cover an opponent, how to “follow-through”, and to apply their sequences in combat. It took me more than a year – in fact, about 20 years – to acquire these skills incidentally .
Most other chi kung practitioners practice genuine chi kung techniques as gentle physical exercise without the necessary skills. Hence, despite practicing chi kung techniques for many years, their chi kung training does not overcome their illness, give them good healty and vitality, as well as spiritual joys. Our students are systematically and progressively taught these skills. Hence, our students now can attain in one month what it took me more than a year when I was a student, when I acquired these skills incidentally.
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
th January 2017
The skills and techniques of countering such a chin-na attack would be kept as top secret, but was taught to students of a chin-na course in China
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