Typically, our training begins with standing meditation and holding postures. Sometimes, (depending on Sifus mood) Sifu will make us do a very deep and difficult horse stance for five minutes. I, personally, am a pansy and usually fall out around the one minute mark. Sometimes others will not make it much longer either, but we have to immediately get back up and resume. Because my kung fu is non-existent, Im not sure ive ever made it past two and a half minutes before collapsing. And when i say collapse, it is exactly that, as breaking posture is one of the biggest no-nos there is in our school. Sifus favorite (it seems) line is the body is allowed to fail, but the mind cannot! Collapsing is permitted, breaking posture is not! For many of you reading, 5 minutes will seem like almost nothing. And for those of you who have kung fu already, Im very happy for you, but i dont care that you can hold horse for fifteen hours without breaking a sweat, but i cant, and its difficult. BUT, Nick did put things into perspective quite well one morning during the last trip. As we were making our ( i say our but mostly i mean me) pathetic attempts at the five minute horse, we were falling out here and there. This time, after a second round of a couple of us collapsing before even reaching the three and a half minute mark Nick squatted down so that we could look at his eyes while we were peeling ourselves back off the floor and getting back into horse stance and said very matter-of-factly Right now theres a 6 year old boy at the Shaolin Temple who did about an hour of this at 6:00 this morning BEFORE starting his training....and he did the last half-hour with one of his mates sitting on his shoulders......
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:15:23 +0000
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