Open training. I almost always go with clear intent as to what I want to accomplish. Case in point, yesterday I wanted to polish up some moves with my Tiger Fork. Now that my shoulders have started feeling "better", I wanted to swing/spin it a little to test my muscle memory. Started out fine, felt good, but then there was just no more room for me to do this. But this, of course, is a good thing. That means open training has lots of students there. So I switch to my stick cause that is much more friendly to practice with when space is limited. But here is the rub.
As soon as I got my stick out to practice, a white belt came over with their stick and started to ask some questions. So my focus was now on answering the questions posed to me, and then next thing I knew, I had two junior students asking me questions. Well I can see where this is going, and this is just plain awesome. A teaching opportunity has just arisen and I will gladly step into this role and do my best to help them out.
So we spend the next 25ish minutes going over Stick 1 with a dabble into Stick 2. We cover stances, intent, projection, recovery, etc. Great, I have hopefully answered the questions, I hope I hope I hope. And even better, if they only take away one thing from this interaction between us, my day is 100% better.
I love the fact that my fellow Kung Fu enthusiast feel comfortable enough to come to me for council. That interaction outside of structured class is so important for my training. I mean really, how can I give instructions without understanding what I am talking about. And I will also freely admit when the question is beyond my knowledge, which drives me to get the answer to my void of understanding. It really does test both my skill and confidence, forcing me to understand both my intent and that student's intent, if that is even possible.
So open training, two words with the infinite opportunity for growth in both skill and spirit. This is why I go.
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