sifu power

arturo, my sifu (see-foo), took me on over to where he takes his lessons, to his sifu.
it's this tiny-ass place near downtown redmond.
the guy works out of his house.
he's got a store-front kinda place, with a small room in front where he does all the paperwork. then you go out back, which is actually just a long garage (like amidy's: it fits two cars longways, not side-by-side).
so when there's more than like 3 people, he takes the classes out to this drive-way area where the pavement is really bumpy and you have to watch for the occasional passing car.
goddamn, i'm glad we have our upstairs "ballet" room at the pool. that place blew.

so i watched arturo's sifu's students. they all sucked.
yeah, they know the forms. and they know more than i do in quantity, but their quality sucks ass.
they do the moves with such weak ambition that you can't feel the power in the movement.
it's almost like a waste of time. you know how to do it. but you don't know why.
so it's rather empty.
arturo, when he teaches, he makes sure you know the application and tries to point out the difficult subtleties. he'll say.
"throw a punch."
and when you do, he kicks your ass with the move.
it's actually probably the best demonstration possible because it can help you form your movements when you know the objective.
but these students lacked that. it's almost like they're drowning, flailing for no real reason.
if they got in a real fight, their moves would be like a limp-wristed bitch slap.
no power.

so i was very skeptical of the teacher. but after everyone in his class was done, and they all left. the sifu had me show my set. the first one i learned.
arturo said he was very impressed. because i have arturo's vigor.

he did have a few pointers for me. and that's when i realized that he actually knew what he was doing. i don't know why he doesn't pass this knowledge down to his students. maybe he's lazy. maybe he doesn't care. maybe he's been doing this for 30 years. and for somethings, maybe he doesn't know.
for arturo, kung fu is his life. it's his passion. he masters every move with wicked amounts of repetition.
for this other guy, kung fu is his means of support (however he did once appear on stat trek: TNG, he's got picutres).

i think what it comes down to is this. star trek guy knows quantity, arturo knows quality. this guy could show you any set, but arturo could kick your ass with any single move.

i'd so rather be arturo's student. there's meaning behind the moves.
so as i said i showed the guy my moves, but i got nervous. cuz i don't know him.
and when i get nervous, i don't breathe.

after the fact arturo gave me one of the best compliments i've ever got.
he told me,
"i could see that you put everything you had into those moves. and even though you couldn't find the power you needed becuase you were holding your breath, you kept looking for it. that shows your true personality. you may be shy, but when you need to overcome something, you put everything into it. and you got through it before you turned blue!"

what'd i tell you? this guy is everything a sifu/sensei/guru could be... with a sense of humor.
so my hat's off to arturo. i didn't want to go see that guy all the way over in redmond, but now that i have, i'm greatful for the experience.