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The Way of the Mantis
I love everything about this video. The music, the art and animation style. This six-minute video portrays months, if not years of reflection, insight and training.
Welcome friends, brothers and sisters.
I created this blog over a year ago, mostly to snag the name. I wanted to wait until I was ready to begin posting here. Now I feel my training (towards blogging about my training) is complete. My shaolin training, however, will never be complete.
If you want to know about who I am, and what I train, check out the About page.
The path of the martial artist is an interesting one with many stages. The first step is finding a good teacher. The second is to train. Then reflect. Then train more. Then repeat.
Martial arts training does interesting things to a person. I’m going to write on this subject here often. The physical and psychological effects of training are profound.
For example, when I came to the realization that my training in shaolin martial arts was to become a life-long pursuit it erased all feeling of immediacy from my mind in terms of my ability level. It doesn’t matter. I shifted my focus towards my training – my consistency, intensity, technique and relationships with my shaolin brothers. Ability will develop from this.
When you train with a close, dedicated group, one loses all point of reference for ability level. Even my Master improves at a similar rate as his students. It’s interesting. Sparring with one another gets more intense and more fun, and it inspires a greater level of trust and precision. I’m always impressed by how infrequently injuries happen in my club despite the potential for it to happen. We really wail on each other, but we’re also very disciplined and controlled. It’s a beautiful thing and a testament to our skill and compassion.
I wish everyone I know could have the same experience, because it’s a difficult one to put into words.
