The meaning of Kung Fu

'Kung Fu' was originally used as an adjective to mean someone who has accomplished great skill over a long period of time. A craftsman would be described as 'kung fu' at carpentry for example after a life dedicated to perfecting his talents and producing masterpieces. It became applied to martial arts as individuals became masters at mantis for example, after years of dedication and repetition. When martial arts were brought to America it was misunderstood with the thinking that 'kung fu' was the action and not the description the masters. The term became so widely used that now it is the commonly used term back in China as well.

The key point of mentioning this is that kung fu is not used to describe people with natural talent who pick things up quickly, but to describe those that have developed their abilities over time through dedication and practice. The shaolin equation is:

reaction = repetition + time

A movement becomes second nature after repeating the movement countless times over a long period of time. Allowing the body to react to situations without the necessity of the mind slowing you down. This enables you to fight in a state of calm 'no mind' relying on your training rather than trying to focus on offense and defense. There was a great illustration of this in the film 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' - where the young warrior was tested by the older woman dropping a cup of tea by her. The young warrior caught it as it fell without a drop being spilled. She just reacted without thinking and this told the wise older warrior all she needed to know.

A commonly used phrase now is 'muscle memory'. This related to the muscles themselves being familiar with a way of moving through repetition in training to enable that movement to be repeated more easily in the future. The body is fantastic at adapting and enabling you to move in the way you want to move. This can be seen in people who take up sprinting - they develop more red muscle - they literally get more blood supply to the muscle and more mitochondria in the cells as well as the muscle size increasing to enable the runner to get more explosive power from the muscle tissue. The same person taking up long distance running would find the opposite to be true to enable them to sustain and lesser power output over a longer period of time. Also there are propriocepters around the muscles that enable the muscles to communicate with the brain as to where they are moving in space and how they are moving. The fascia surrounding the muscle tissues thickens and strengthens in areas where there is more stress applied to enable easier movement and support in future. So the body adapts to physical movement after repetition to allow the physical body to move easier and involve the mind less to determine how to perform the movement.

What can we learn from all this? Take your time to learn something, this is how your body works and there isn't a shortcut just because we are impatient. It has certainly made me feel more comfortable about the frustrations that I wrote about in my blog postings a few weeks back.

Nick
Yellow stripe sash