Quintessence

Kung fu has been around for over two thousand years and the majority of my life has been spent building Silent River Kung Fu into an organization that I am proud of. Every year, as more and more of my students achieve black belt status, I reflect upon whether or not my passion, the quintessence of my kung fu, is being adequately passed on to my students.

There will always be marital artists and those who train in the martial arts. I don’t think any traditional martial arts instructor is happy with the state of the martial arts industry today. People training to black belt only to assume they have reached the ultimate goal and move on to other challenges. The number of people who go on to truly master the martial arts are far and few in between.

My goal this year, before the Year of the Dog runs out, is to restructure my school to better reflect what kung fu is really about.

“A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.” ― Miyamoto Musashi (1584 - 1645)