Learning from books

I spent the day today converting my forms into drunken forms and pausing and doing Drunken Kung Fu Yoga and then regular Yoga. Most Americans hear that I started doing Yoga and say, "Oh that's great." But some people may ask why don't you just do Kung Fu? They have stretching and Qi Gong? Maybe the Kung Fu you know isn't that good after all.

I'll tell you why I am doing Yoga.

It's because I am too lazy to do Kung Fu.

Or because I just want to switch it up.

I mean everything I read about Yoga... Yoga and Kung Fu are basically the same thing. But why would I learn Yoga out of a book? I'll tell you I just follow along with the pictures. It's fun to do that I realize. To not think. To not train seriously. Training like that, some people will say it's useless. I say it's a crutch to get you back on the path of real training. So I used it, and I may use it again.

Do I think you could learn Kung Fu from a book? Maybe just the pictures even without being able to read the Chinese words? You know what? I think it is possible as long as you have basics. But say If I were to do that, I guess I should do that with Noah... because when we are learning something together like that, he enjoys it much more than when I am teaching him..

But I wouldn't bother to learn the whole form. That's the whole point of writing it down.. you no longer have to memorize it. You just do the technique (which will invariable be some version of a technique I already know... but still it's fun to do this)  and then you play with it, and move onto the next technique.

Basically by the time you can learn from a book, maybe you don't really need the book anymore...

But actually the goal of my intro classes (those three month classes I have been teaching in JP and Chinatown) is that you will have the basic training and concepts... so that you can learn from a book after my class.