This section is for those who are students at the Wong People Kung Fu Association . Anyone is welcome to view this information however, one may not understand most of it becuase the weekly ideas and themes presented are based on the classroom/school activites that happened during that weeks time frame. Those students who missed class that particular week should contact another member who attended class in order to get the lessons and excercises that support and explain the Kung Fu themes. It is very important to find out what transpired during class each week that brought about each theme or idea because our learning curiculum is based on hands-on daily life situations and encounters. Learning to handle these situations are a true test of our Kung Fu. The information presented is very valuable and the Wong People students should maintain a personal record of them for reference. The information is not from some book or fortune cookie. The information emerged from the result of hands on work involving activties in the school. You can say that this is the Wong People family learning experiences or some would label it "The Secrets of Kung Fu.
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FEBRUARY 28, 2008
Attitude is Very Important to Our Success
Everything we do is important, even if it doesn't always seem like it is. Most important is the way we conduct ourselves at the school. We have to cross every "t" and dot every "i" to show that we're very serious about what we do. Hopefully, it will rub off on others, because everyone else is relying on us to be more serious than they are. If others think we're not serious about what we're doing, they won't take kung fu seriously. Our attitude toward even the small stuff is important. For example, when a young kid comes in because his parents tell him to, and he detects that we're not that serious, he won't want to be serious either. It matters what kind of attitude we project. Sometimes even our regular students come in and talk in a way that diminishes the morale of the class. You should make a decision not to participate in those sorts of conversations and do your part to make sure they are not prolonged.
FEBRUARY 21, 2008
Being Important to the Community
The Wong People tournament is not necessarily the most outstanding thing we do each year. There are a lot of other little things that we do that are more outstanding and more beneficial to the community in general. As long as you're able to offer something to the community, then you'll be important to the community. You'll be important to the life of the community. So should you never do anything for yourself? No, you have to build yourself up first to be strong enough to help others. You should be an asset to the community and not a parasite. The same thing applies to our school. A lot of people come to our school and get the benefits, but don't put much back in.
FEBRUARY 14, 2008
Seniority and rank in Our Organization
In any organization, the higher you go, the more you're trusted with responsibility. In this organization, if Sifu has to constantly watch you and check up on you because you might do something damaging to the school or its reputation, you're probably pretty low in rank. You can't be trusted with authority to carry out the policies of the school.
Many students come here and they don't yet know what the purpose of kung fu or our organization is. Most people join our school with their own purposes adapted from what they've been exposed to, such as the Internet, magazines, and movies. Even though they have their own agendas, we teach them anyway in the hope that they will come to understand the purpose of kung fu and our organization. There are some who have studied with this school for 5, 10, or even 15 years and still haven't come to a reasonable understanding of what the purpose of kung fu is. Anyone can come here and learn the techniques and learn how to use them, but understanding and putting the art into a working perspective in regard to the community and the world is hard to achieve.
January 31, 2008
Control Your Ego
Everyone has ego, and it's not always bad. It can be used in a positive way to channel productivity for the good of the group. But people with ego problems usually need an audience. They will often get involved in some kind of a group so they can get recognition. They always want a trophy, but there are some things in life that need to be done but they don't get you a trophy. People with ego problems appear as if they are helping to build an organization, but they're really building a fan base that can be used later to gratify their ego. The important thing is to do the right thing with your ego. Is it about accomplishing something constructive or just building a fan club so the person with the ego problem can get his fix? It has happened many times in our group when we attain a higher status, and it happens in other groups as well. You can't let your success change your purpose. If you can't control your ego, people can easily prey upon you like you're a drug addict and they're the dealer.
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JANUARY 24, 2008
Understand and Manage Your Distractions
It's easy to get distracted, but we should understand the things that distract us and know when those things are most likely to be a problem. If we know when they're likely to be a problem, we can plan appropriately and take care of business without getting distracted.
If you train with someone whose always going off on tangents and making unnecessary conversation, it will be hard to avoid being distracted. Compulsive talking distracts us from what we're supposed to be doing. Why do some people feel they need to be constantly talking? Why can't there be silence? It's important to stay focused during training. It's hard enough sometimes just to make it to practice. No one needs additional distractions on top of everything else.
Socializing isn't the focus of kung fu training. How do we get conditioned to act a certain way around other people? Is it from TV? It seems like people on TV are always having a conversation, probably because air time is expensive, they don't want to waste time saying what they have to say. TV is a distraction, and by watching TV, it trains us to imitate it and be distracting as well. When you emulate the TV, you become a distraction to others.
People use TV as their role model, because we're lacking role models. How do you become a more powerful role model than TV when the TV people have the most powerful marketers and graphics in the world to distract you? You have to really have your act together as a role model to compete with that. You have to be an A+ person, not a C- person.
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JAUARY 17 2008
Staying Focused Is Not Easy
The hardest thing for all of us is staying focused. We need to figure out ways to keep ourselves and other students focused. They'll probably half-step it a lot of times, but we have to stay on them and maintain quality. There are a lot of distractions out there, but we have to stay on it even if we sound like a broken CD.
We all have problems staying focused at one time or another. None of us are perfect. If your attention is being distracted by things that are affecting your kung fu training, you need to work on them by correcting yourself and avoid bringing those distractions to class. You shouldn't drag down others with you just because you want to make yourself feel better about your wrong doings. Don't let your bad habits rub off on those around you. Constant distractions keep us from growing.
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JANUARY 10, 2008
Being One of the Wongpeople
Being one of the Wongpeople is not just about wearing a red shirt that says "Wong" on it and stopping by the school once in a while. You must fulfill your obligations all year long.
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JANUARY 3, 2008
What does it mean to be one of the Wong People?
What does it mean to be one of the Wongpeople? It represents how we do things here – the traditional way, not taking short cuts, even if it's painful and boring.
You have to get yourself straight and learn what you're supposed to learn. Then maybe you'll be qualified to help the community. A lot of people come through our school, take a few classes, and then assume that they have the right to go tell the community what to do. But people in the community wonder who people like this think they are trying to help the community when they don't even have themselves together.
We have to work on ourselves constantly. What you do makes you a Wong person, not the shirt or shoes you wear, or the drink you drink. It's what you do on a daily basis for 365 days each year. It's not what you do for 25 or 50 days per year. In school, there are six subjects. If you get an A in gym and an F in everything else, you're not an A student. If you went around bragging about the A you got in gym even though you failed everything else, people would laugh at you. Becoming one of the Wong People is based on what you do on a daily basis.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008
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DECEMBER 27 2007
Kung Fu Is a Cultural Art and Not a Sport
We need to continue to promote what we do as cultural education more than as a sport. We will continue to do the sporting aspects, but everyone should understand what the focus is. Sporting fads come and go. Should we take advantage of what's new, hot, and in style? There's nothing wrong with that as long as the fad doesn't change the fundamentals of our kung fu curriculum. If we allow ourselves to be distracted by fads, it shows we don't have the strength to stay focused. If a martial arts fad comes along that doesn't threaten our curriculum and is relevant to what we do, then we can use it. We need to determine if it will help what we're doing or if it will distract us from what we're supposed to be doing. We need to consider not just whether it harms what we do in the classroom, but also if it harms the community and society at large. Most fads are designed to make money, but sometimes you can benefit off someone else's marketing plan and use it for the good of the community.
DECEMBER 20 2007
We Have to Be Persistent to Have a Positive Effect on the Community
Not everybody who studies kung fu gets to the highest level. Some people start from much further behind than others. Some neighborhood kids who come to class have no discipline at all when they start out. It may seem like we don't ever make any progress with them, but when you look at where some of them started, they have actually made some progress. They may not have learned a lot of kung fu, but they have actually made a lot of progress from where they started. We have to be persistent and not give up, especially with the kids who lack discipline. We still can have a positive effect on them and the community.
If we have neighborhood kids coming to class who think they can just do their own thing, because that's what they're used to, we shouldn't let them push us over. They will try to get their way, but we can't just throw up our hands and give up. It may seem hopeless, but we have made progress with them. They may or may not become ideal citizens, but maybe they'll just become pocketbook thieves instead of mass murderers. We've given them something to think about. They realize now that there's a right and a wrong. Even kids who only stayed for one or two classes a couple of years ago may walk by the school and realize we're still here doing it. They'll see that it can be done and that there's another way to be.
DECEMBER 13 2007
The Holiday Season and Kung Fu Principles
The holidays tend to distract us for the wrong reasons. The real principle is about providing for the family and then the community, just like in kung fu. Empower yourself first so that you can empower your family so that they can in turn empower the community. It's about giving and providing for the right reason, which is to empower one to inturn empower the family.
The one special day of giving each year is supposed to remind people to give throughout the year. Commercialization has twisted around the act of giving so that it's about spending money and getting things from people and giving for the wrong reasons. Instead, you should give to supplement someone who has somehow come short, not just to give to show you're a nice guy. By empowering ourselves, then others, we keep the world empowered.
Everything in the world that operates on an infinite principle as kung fu does shares the same purpose. It gets distorted when the focus is on who's getting what gifts, but the question should be whether receiving the gift will spark the person to give to others for the right reason and will this gift empower the person or make the person weak? It's not just about the one day of giving or providing. The one day is just meant to remind you of the other 355 days of the year.
DECEMBER 6
Serving Yourself and Serving the Community
Some people might see us as curators in a museum who are responsible for taking care of all the kung fu knowledge that has been passed on to us. But kung fu knowledge shouldn't be seen like something in a museum. It's not really old or new. It's timeless and unchanging. We are supposed to maintain it for what it's supposed to be. Either you take the responsibility to carry it on or you don't. It's not supposed to be trendy or cool. Some people think you should change it to make it more accessible to people, but if you do that, you're not maintaining the integrity of the art. People might criticize us for not adapting to the times, but some things aren't meant to change. Important things aren't meant to change and many things that go through the series of changes eventually change back into what they originally were. They come full circle.
The issue is why something changed. Did something change just for the purpose of convenience or to accomodate someone's laziness? Did a change just happen naturally or did someone make it happen? Some changes we make because we want convenience, which is not always good. Was it a natural progression change propelled by dilligence and hard work or was it to promote some half-baked or commercial reasons based on personal greed instead of what will empower the family/community?
Does the change serve the community or just yourself? You are always serving yourself since you're part of the community, but you have to pass some of it on to the community. Some people aren't community oriented from the day they're born, but sometime they realize late in life that unless they do something for the community, their life might have been pointless. There's always a self-serving and a community-oriented side. They balance each other out, but sometimes it seems like the greedy side is taking over the world.
Doing something for the community 2 days a year – like feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas – doesn't make you a good person. What about the other 363 days?
We have to endure fads and stay while everything changes. Doing so means you're a person of integrity who can be counted on.
November 29
Our School's Ranking System
Our school uses the traditional kung fu ranking system, which is the same one used by any organization that follows a chain of command. It's a functional ranking system. The sifu runs the school and delegates certain tasks. If the delegated tasks don't get done, then the sifu has to make sure it gets done. The #2 person should have similar qualifications to the #1 person, and so on down the line.
Rank in the school is based on who has the ability to take on all the responsibilities of the #1 person. You have to have leadership capability, be able to pay the bills, do public relations, must have a deep commitment for carrying out the true purpose of the organization, etc, etc Can the #2 person do this? Can the #3 person do this? It's who has the ability to keep things going. It's like the military or the government: it's based on your ability to take responsibility.
First and foremost you must have yourself in proper order in terms of finances, education, family, home, and kung fu practice. Then, you can help others. It's about empowering the community once you empower yourself. But if you cannot handle personal responsiblities then you surely are not a candidate for leading an organization. So, moving up in the kung fu ranking system is a big responsibility. In some schools, you move up in rank when you can do a fancy kick that no one else can do, or if you know a lot of techniques or fight well, but our school uses the traditional ranking system based on your level of responsibility.
NOVEMBER 8
What It Takes to Set the Standard
No one starts kung fu expecting to practice 5-6 days per week. They think they can do it once or twice a week and pretty soon they'll be a kung fu master like in the movies. Once they realize how much is actually required, most people don't stick with it. It's our duty to let them know it takes at least 5-6 days per week.
Kung fu is not like stopping in at Gold's Gym a couple of times each week to "get your workout in." The purpose of kung fu isn't to say "I do something," but to say "I do something 100%." A lot of schools will give you a degree when you have it down 60-70%, but mediocrity is the most dangerous disease out there today. If you produce a lot of half-baked kung fu people, you lower the standard everywhere.
We have a responsibility to maintain the standard of what kung fu is supposed to be. Commercialization more than anything has spread the disease of mediocrity. Most people who come to us with an attitude of mediocrity quit. If we have done our job, they will quit at least knowing what the standard should be. Sometimes people ask if it wouldn't be better to have more members of our school, but it's better to have a lot of people come through and quit, than to keep a lot of people as students by expecting only mediocrity.
Our purpose is to promote kung fu 100%, the way it's supposed to be. Are we really 100% or a bunch of phonies pretending to be 100%? If we can stick with our program 100%, then we can eventually be the standard for others. We want people to take us seriously, but they will only take us seriously if we take our training seriously. You have to give 100%--there's no way around it.
NOVEMBER 3
5-6 Days per Week of Kung Fu Practice
Everyone needs to practice 5-6 days per week, even if it's only for a few minutes at a time at home. Practice can be anything you can do whenever you have a few minutes. For example, try focusing on a particular move whenever you have a spare minute for a couple of days at a time. You don't have to cover everything you know at each practice session. Our main focus as a school right now is to get everybody practicing 5-6 days per week. If you're going to walk the walk of a kung fu person, you need to practice that often.
OCTOBER 26
Forms Need to Improve Each Week
We have to improve our performances to set an example and encourage others. We have to show we can do it better than anyone else.
Get to class early or stay late to improve your forms. Class time is not enough. You have to take the extra time. You have to practice 7 days a week. It's the difference between someone who "takes a little kung fu" and a real kung fu competitor. Each day, always find time to squeeze some practice in.
There are no secrets to being good at kung fu. You just have to spend more time than everyone else. Each year you need to get better. It's not good enough to just maintain your skills; you have to take them to the next level.
To practice your forms, stick to what you are already doing, but just focus on doing it better. Improve on the basics, such as stances. Each week, you need to ask yourself if you've improved over the past 7 days.
OCTOBER 18, 2007
Know Your Real Purpose, Avoid False Purposes
In the old, old days, your purpose was easy to find, because choices were limited. Your sources of information were your family and maybe your village. There was no mass media that manufactured false needs for you to consume. The media tends to be either greedy or foolish, and you should be careful about allowing them to guide your search for your purpose.
You need to find your purpose in infinite things, instead of fleeting, man-made things. Whether you have $1 million or 10 cents, you need a purpose that is deeper and more lasting than just money.
Human inventions are motivated by a desire for power. You have to be connected to the human world and in some way be involved in the struggle for power. You have to interact with people, but without sacrificing your purpose. You have to find balance in your life. You can be competitive to show you have the ability to do what it takes, but you can use it positively, such as to motivate others who don't think they can do it, and not to gratify your ego. You can use competition negatively or positively.
The media feeds us the synthetic goals of easy money with no work required, but this is a false purpose. Find your purpose. Solve the obvious problems that hit you in the face. Don't let the media tell you what problems you should solve. If we set the an example by solving the problems right here in front of us, then maybe others will take the initiative to solve the problems right in front of them. Then movie stars will no longer need to buy $1000 plane tickets so they can fly to some far away country to give someone $5.
For us, doing kung fu 100% is our way to set an example. Mediocrity is an epidemic worse than any disease. We have to set a superior example. If you open a karate school or a bowling alley, what is your purpose other than to make money and be part of a marketing plan? You should make as much money as you can, because you need money to survive, but make sure you keep track of your real purpose in life. You have to be financially stable to set a good example to others, but mediocrity will destroy the earth, family, and everything it touches.
