HOW MANY REPS?

 By Yang Shuangxing

I have a suggestion for those of you who really want to understand your forms and who have the gumption to undergo a rather tedious process of training. It is simply this: In addition to whatever else you do in your daily training, practice just one of your forms five to eight times a day. Every. Day. For 30 days. Don't skip a day. If you miss a day for any reason, start over from Day One. Want to give it a try?

I can hear some of your starting off with, “But...” If you said that word (“but”), don't bother with this exercise. You're not ready. Not committed to learning. Maybe try it later, sometime.

It's well to do this exercise with your most basic form the first time around. Most of those who object to this type of practice prefer to be “spoon-fed”; they want someone to show and tell them everything that their form contains. They don't want to put up with the tedium and sweat of digging for themselves. Theirs will be a shallow art.

If you do this training exercise with your system's first form, you'll probably be very surprised at how poorly you perform (at first). Many of us, once we've learned that form and passed the basic examination(s) that require it, just toss it to the wayside and ignore it for a very long time. It gets pretty rusty. But it shouldn't.