Kung Fu retreat

This weekend a Si Hing from Chicago was visiting the Kung Fu school. This meant that Grace gave me permission to do a whole day of Kung Fu. This turned out to be half a day, but still I haven't done that much Kung Fu, uninterrupted. I practiced to the point where, even though I felt like I could keep going, from past experience I knew that I should probably take a break to prevent injuries or just overdoing it. At this point I meditated. Meditating after practicing to this point is really great. Immediately I felt my body revitalizing itself. Much more than if I were to say, just sit on the couch. I mentally even decided to run through some of the forms I hadn't gotten a chance to do physically. It was actually pretty difficult in a way. Visualizing yourself doing a stick form is in some ways harder than just getting up and doing it. It's easier to get lost. Or if you lose focus, since the form is only being done in your mind, you totally lose the whole thing. Whereas if you lose focus during a physical form you might just end up doing the whole thing on autopilot. Of course it is easier to injure yourself when you are fatigued and doing complicated motions on autopilot. After a little mediation I felt refreshed again and did a few more forms. I started to realize that I used to practice a lot. Maybe even too much.
I also realized that if you practice or do anything with that kind of focus... i.e. doing it, and then when taking your breaks, meditating and running through it mentally, you will probably improve at a very fast rate. Whereas if you just practice by going to a class and getting it over with, almost having the Kung Fu or yoga or piano practice being done to you, how good can you get?
I remember watching a few documentaries on circuses on PBS. They did one in China, one in New England, and then one in Mexico. Now the kids in China were good. They did amazingly difficult things in there practices and classes. Of course there was a lot of crying and scolding, and lecturing by now overweight instructors, about diet, and practice. The kid were getting injured and generally looked unhappy, and during their breaks they were playing cheap video games on watches, and cellphones. They were talented and everyone was forced to be a certain level. But when they performed the show seemed cheesy, and lacking. Not in the maneuvers, but the general spirit of the thing. It made you wonder whether all the torture was worth it.
The New England Smirkus, had mostly older kids. But they were all good too. They were pushed but not forced. If they couldn't hack it they were out. They only chose out of the top. They worked really hard but it was different. Seemed fun even though it was extremely rigorous and difficult. What's more is the older kids, in their free time, would talk and joke about their acts and talk about improving upon and creating new acts to perform. They were into what they did. A lot of those kids went on to Cirque du Soleil, but a lot also ended up going to places like MIT.  The circus kids in China seemed to have education as part of the camp too. The family circus in Mexico had kids that could barely read, and those kids seemed to really envy normal kids who went to school, and then got to be free for the rest of the day. They were always working. Setting up, breaking down, practicing. And they didn't really want it.
Now I didn't see all the acts exactly next to each other. But the Smirkus kids didn't seem inferior at all.

Kung Fu is similarly a physical skill. It can be taught to you, but ultimately the skills and improvement have to come from you. You can be taught how to train, but you have to be into it. If you are in Shaolin Temple practicing 12 hours a day but your heart isn't in it, you will be good. Alright. Adequate. You will be able to do some pretty cool moves. But ultimately when you throw a basic punch, people who know will see that you are lacking, despite the splits and back flips.