kung fu fightin'

I love this picture, something my daughter drew some months back, a couple people in gong fu uniforms.

We are still going to gong fu practice together, but since the earthquake in March, our practice time has been limited since many public buildings are closed at night to save energy. Still, we had an excellent class with our teachers last Sunday morning. It was kind of a breakthrough for my daughter. The first two hours were 自主トレ or self-practice, meaning that you are completely on your own to review by yourself, no help from the teacher. For the third hour, we had a lesson with one of the teachers (chang quan or long fist) and it was quite good. My daughter had her long-awaited introduction to the double bladed sword or jian.

More importantly, she worked hard for the first two hours. She loves her teacher and has no passion for self-practice. We tried a couple times at various locales, but being 8 years old, she was not interested unless the teacher was leading the class. So this past Sunday was great. Of course I had to guide her a bit and we did some drills together, but mostly she worked on her own, a big step forward.

Seeing her practice reminds me of my time spent teaching a childrens' karate class many years back. Not sure if she will continue gong fu in the US or not, or whether I will teach kids once back in the US, but it makes me think a lot.