K.F.B.s

Loyalty / 忠誠 (Zhōng chéng). What’s it mean to you? It’s often spoken of when people try to think about higher ideals they wish to ascribe to, martial virtues, when you see a plaque on the wall of the guǎn (training hall), but how many people make the cut? I feel that when you have a good group of friends within your training-world or even one for that matter you are a lucky person. If they stand by you consistently through good times then you are fortunate; through bad times,… then treasure those people.

The specific relevance in martial arts is typically ascribed to the student-teacher relationship, but I feel there is an unsung hero oft forgot; the good training partner. If you want to be a great martial artist you’ll need –more than anything else, even more than a great teacher- a good training partner.

For me a good training partner is one that turns up when he dosen’t feel like training, turns up when he feels like training, is able to focus on the task at hand and is open to working through ideas he thinks unfeasible, stupid or slightly dangerous (to you). He should strive for a great level of control over his attacks, able to pull the punch that got through your defence instead of busting your nose for the sake of it. That lesson can still get taught with a pulled blow: You should learn to tell when -if it had landed- it would have been nasty for you, not have to rely on your partner being over-zealous to land a ‘live’ shot. The more people like you that work at being good training partners, the better your chances of you finding one.

It can be easy to see why loyalty to one’s teacher has been stressed through history but take a second to look around you and see who else contributes to lifting up your game. Maybe it’s the nice lady/man who sorts out the paperwork for the school so you have a place to train and under a teacher who’s not then frustrated with non-martial matters, maybe it’s your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/(parents even!) who makes it possible for you to get out and make that class/lesson you love. Take a moment and give thanks to them.

I count every one of them as one of my K.F.B.s (Kung Fu Brothers).