In general, the number one enemy to a serious martial artist is the high fat and sugar content in food. Majority of these types of food are very tasty; like rich smooth chocolates, matured cheese, creamy cakes, crispy prawns, spicy chicken, roasted lamb, crispy duck and the list is endless. In addition, there are plenty of good drinks and beverages; drinks like hot brewed cup of tea, percolated coffee, creamy hot chocolate, ice cold beer, vintage red or white wine and many others.
The second nemesis is the lay back or lazy attitudes which can destroy the art due to the lack of, or no training. Thirdly, incorrectly select a martial art that is not suitable to one’s physique or age. Fourthly, injuries or illnesses can influence the learning process and finally the natural deterioration of the body (i.e. aging) that can affect one’s performance.
Let’s take a closer look at these down falls in turn:
Personally, I found delicious food and enticing drinks most difficult to resist, but resist I must. Over indulge in can ruined one’s health; and certainly your martial art(s) will suffer! For example, if a person ate too much, he or she would have stretched the stomach which resulted in a bigger appetite and eventually became obese. Obesity increase the risk of having type II diabetes (a condition where a person does not produce enough insulin in the body to regulate the sugar level in the blood), the excess fat in the body can block arteries, cause shortness of breath, sluggishness, anxiety, etc. Incidentally, type I diabetes is hereditary whereby stronger medical drugs are used to control its symptoms. On the other hand, drink too much can seriously harm the body in particular the liver, affecting cognitive functions, creates anti-social behaviour and may become an alcoholic if left un-checked. No family would want an alcoholic, no matter where you are in the World. Apart from hereditary diabetes where you have no control apart from taking medicine, the others are more out of personal choice.
Yes, all the above so called ‘enemies’ can be very enjoyable especially when one is in good company. It is part of life’s pleasure or temptation and perhaps what we lived for. However, too much can cause problems, too little may cause disappointment, frustration, even depression. Well, why not have both but in moderation. This required a huge amount of discipline, in a similar way that a person is dedicated to his or her art (for e.g. martial arts, cooking art, dress making and so on).
In my view, a light breakfast (e.g. poach egg, toast and a cup of tea), medium size lunch, a main nutritious dinner and the occasional fruits between meals would suffice. Try not to snack and avoid fizzy drinks like cola (huge amount of sugar content or powerful artificial sweetener), instead drink quality water. When learning Chinese martial arts, the above safe guards are still not enough, even with regular weekly martial art training. Normally, a martial art session last on average between 1-2 hours and at best, only 2/3 of its duration
actually involves with intense physical work. A human body utilize energy from food rather too well: it does not burn off much. For example, a person probably need to do half an hour of intense exercise just to burn off few hundreds of calories; whereas a normal Coleman sandwich may contains almost a thousand calories! Any excess glucose that is not used by the body is then converted back to cholesterol (fat) and deposited anywhere in the body: there is no conscious control to its final destination. Now, that you can see why a couple of hours of intense training does not even come close in balancing out the whole week’s food intake (even minus the energy normally required for all the bodily functions). This means a serious practitioner will need to do more in a week, especially for our Wing Chun Sifus and dedicated students. Alternatively, the martial artist must do some other moderate activities to maintain this energy balance (e.g.. an hour swim or half an hour run or an hour cycling once in every other day). DO NOT GO OVER BOARD with these activities, they are just secondary aids to Wing Chun: otherwise, you may over develops the ‘wrong’ type of muscle groups which can poorly affect the Wing Chun techniques.
The second nemesis is laziness which I found it unforgivable and disgusted: utterly destroy the very nature of learning martial arts and other worthwhile pursuit. To be wrapped in a cocoon of comfort is no way to embrace life and you will never reach your full potential or any standard for that matter. I would rather have a not so bright student but willing to learn than a lazy one. Normally, such behaviour will not be tolerated and if not corrected, expulsion from the class or Association is mandatory. Traditional Chinese martial art has no place for this kind of attitude.
Thirdly, when an individual choose a martial art, bear in mind of the age and physique and choose what is best for YOU. Do not based your decision on the grounds of popularity or because your friends does it. For example, a bulky person cannot do arts that involve a lot of jumping high kicks or somersaults. Likewise, a smaller person cannot wrestle a big guy on the floor. Young men and women with average body built can choose almost any martial arts, but those who are middle aged tend to choose a softer style of martial arts. This is a normal trend due to aging, well everyone gets old except one. Arts like Wing Chun offers an intelligent approach to deal with an adversary which minimized the use of brutal force (older bones tends to be more brittle- Wing Chun practitioners NEVER rely on heavy clashes) and it is a good choice if you still want to retain the combat elements of the art. Others may choose an even more softer style like ‘Tai Chi’ where the art is aimed for health more than combat these days (interestingly, when it was first introduced millennium ago in ancient China, it was based on its martial merits rather than its health quality).
Finally, illness and injuries can cause delay in the learning process and usually they are temporary setbacks. If a pupil has the will to continue, he or she will overcome such difficulties. Just need to be patience. Recently, I was approach by someone who has epilepsy (a neurological condition where there is a sudden disturbance of electrical activity inside the brain which result the
person in having a temporary seizure), but wish to learn Wing Chun. For a coach, it is unusual to receive such a pupil, and as an instructor one should be thorough in understanding how to deal with an epileptic fit. In my opinion, if someone has this type of illness or any other controllable illness and yet still has the desire to learn Wing Chun, is most commendable.
Although aging is inevitable, but performing Wing Chun to the best of your ability can be very challenging and fulfilling. In addition, the body will become stronger, better shape, the mind is calmer and clearer and you will most likely look younger and healthier!
In learning any martial arts, remember to do it step by step ; do not rush the learning process or you won’t get the full benefit of your chosen art. Be sensible, be patience, train hard and be smart!