A father bull and son were on top of a hill looking down at a herd of cows.
The son turns to the Dad and says “Dad, how about we run down this hill and make luv one of those cows.”
His Dad turns and looks at him with a smile and says, “Son, why don’t we walk down there and make luv to them all.”
Hang with me…there is a moral to the story and yes, it does have to do with martial arts.
The moral of the story is the Father Bull was very wise; why run down and expel all your energy on one cow when you can take your time, walk down and have enough energy for all of the cows.
It’s about expelling energy. In the Shaolin Secrets Volume I: Shaolin Feats of Martial Arts there is a passage on “The Principles of Practicing the Gong”. In that passage it list the three essentials, five taboos and seven possible injuries of practicing.
The Third Taboo of practicing – “Do not rush in your practices.”
A great example of this s a nice young man I was working with up until yesterday. He was young, athletic and very strong.
He came from a successful family; his father was a successful type A personality and seemed to be very demanding on the son.
This made the son a super go-getter; he wanted to learn everything N-O-W. If he could, he try to learn everything from white to Black Belt in a day. He had physical talent and skills, too.
He was moving along very quickly in talent and ability, yet it wasn’t going fast enough – for him. He wanted to be double promoted, skip tests for certain levels and fight constantly.
While I am a big believer in promoting and supporting talent, there also has to be a maturity and responsibility that goes along with the rank and talent – and that’s where this young man needed development.
I knew this because like the Yong Bull in the story, he didn’t understand about pacing himself.
Every time this kid would get into train, he wanted to fight. The problem was that when I let him fight, he practically tried to kill whomever he was sparring with and it usually ended up with somebody injured – usually him.
His training partners eventually understood that if they didn’t knock the bejeezus out of him, he was going to hurt them.
Well, that led to beat downs, frustrations and injury. This kid had popped his own knee out twice and was really abusing his body.
I tried to talk to him several times and explain to slow down a bit. Work on drills constantly to hone his timing and skills and fight once in awhile for a progress check.
I even told him about how I had neck surgery in 2004 after years of abuse, car accidents, full-contact training and other sport-related wear and tear. It could have been avoided if I hadn’t gone so hard on myself.
Well, it didn’t work. He left yesterday to train elsewhere so he can get more fighting and “hard-core” training.
I don’t blame him. I didn’t listen when I was his age either – unless it was my U.S. Marine Senior Drill Instructor at Parris Island. They have a way of activating your listening skills.
I wished him well and hope that someday someone will be able to convince that Young Bull to walk down the hill instead of run. He’ll get more enjoyment out of life that way.
That section I mentioned about the “principles of practicing” is just a sliver of the information taught in the Shaolin Secrets Volume I: Shaolin Feats of Martial Arts, available at http://www.shaolinsecrets.com.
Go check it out for yourself today – and learn why you walk down the hill.
Best,
William Huff