Monday, February 02, 2015

Safety Is Paramount

My teacher places a lot of emphasis on safety during lessons. After all, no one comes to class wanting to get injured.

When someone gets injured, three parties are at fault. The person who caused hurt, for not being able to control his own actions. The person who was injured, for not being more aware of what is going on and thus avoiding getting hurt. And the teacher, who failed to create an environment in which the students value the safety of each other.

When we started learning weapon forms, my teacher would stress on safety. How to hold the weapons, how to walk around and being aware, so that you don't hit other people or get cut by others. And when training in unison, he would emphasise that we move together, so that we don't end up getting in each other's way. Questions should be left to the end of the practice, not during, since the rest of the class is still moving even if you decide to stop and ask a question. And that is very dangerous.

And all the more in pushing hands, he stressed the importance of respecting your training partner. Causing hurt is not the aim of pushing hands. Learning from each other, learning about yourself, that is the reason why we push hands. Which was why he allowed himself to be pushed instead of causing harm to his opponent.

Be safe, stay safe. If you can't even stay safe in practice, how to stay safe in a real fight?


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