Definiting Aims and Objectives

The Importance of Theoretical Knowledge
While many people spend years practising Kung Fu and achieve little, some spend only a third of the time and achieve a great deal. The main reason is that while the first group learn aimlessly, usually by acquiring more and more sets without improving their force or skill, the second group know exactly what they want to get from Kung Fu and pursue their objectives accordingly. This chapter will help to place you in the elite group.
To be able to set the appropriate objectives for getting the most from your training, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the scope and depth of Kung Fu, including its history, philosophy and various styles, as we discussed in the previous three chapters. For example, if you are unaware of the four dimensions of Kung Fu – form, force, application and philosophy – you may carry on learning sets for many years, and perhaps also teach them, but your training will be incomplete. And since form is in many ways the least important aspect of Kung Fu, you will at best achieve less than 28 per cent of what you could have done had you been more informed.
Worse still, people with this superficial knowledge may be mistaken for Kung Fu masters, especially if they are elderly, simply on the basis that they have taught the art for many years. Even if they hide nothing from their students, there is not much the students can learn apart from flowery fists and embroidery kicks'. Such masters may, wittingly or unwittingly, give the impression that they know much more than what they areteaching. If they are asked questions touching on the deeper aspects of Kung Fu, they would often give excuses to cover their lack of knowledge, such as that the answers are too profound or complex for the students to understand. If the students suggest sparring practice, the 'masters' may become angry and reprimand them, warning them that Kung Fu is too dangerous for them to fool around with, or that they should only practise it for their health. Students who are equally uninformed will continue learning from these teachers, and they in turn will succeed them and teach only 'flowery fists and embroidered kicks'. This is in fact what has been happening for a few generations, with the result that much of Kung Pu today has been degraded into a merely demonstrative fbrm.
Having a theoretical understanding of Kung Fu enables you to realize that there is much more to it than merely learning form. Such an under- standing will lead you, if you are still sickly, weak or nervous after some time of training, to ask why. The reasons can be traced to three factors, called the Three Requirements for Attainment, which will be explained in the next section.
Similarly, if you cannot defend yourself despite the fact that all the classics and masters have said what a marvellous martial art Kung Fu is, you have good reason to question what has gone wrong. More importantly; if you have the chance to meet great masters or read good books which expose you to the mental and spiritual aspects of great Kung Fu, you will realize that you are actually in touch with a tremendous opportunity for personal development, where effective fighting becomes comparatively petty, where health and fitness are prerequisites, and where you may' expand your mind and develop your spirit until you reach the greatest achievement any person can attain, ie spiritual fulfilment.

The Three Requirements for Attainment
There are countless reasons why students fail to achieve their objectives in their Kung Fu training, but to help us understand the factors that contribute to success, great masters have from their long years of study and experience, summarized them into what are called the Three Requirements for Attainment. If you have these three requirements, you will succeed in whatever you set out to do, in Kung Fu or any other field. These three requirements are the method, the teacher and the student.
Obviously if you do not have the method you cannot even start training towards your objective. For example, you may like to acquire the art of Iron Palm, but without the method you cannot practise. If you ever acquire the Iron Palm on your own, it will be by sheer luck and will take a very long time. Morever, the result is unlikely to be as good as that developed from the proper method, and you may have harmful effects like deformed palms or damaged tissues. Many students try to apply their form to sparring, but without proper training methods they spar like children, even though they may have spent years learning the form and can perform sets beautifully.
There are usually different methods of achieving similar objectives. Logically, you need to seek the best available method for your abilities and needs. Ifyou are a woman, for example, your method would probably be different from that of a man. Some martial artists proudly claim that in their art a woman can strike or block as powerfully as a strong man. She can, but she does not have to. Because of physiological, psychological and other differences (not inadequacies), she will take longer and need more effort to reach a high level of strength and toughness.
More important than this inefficient use of time and effort is the fact that machismo is not generally regarded as an attractive quality in a woman – and the machismo and brute force of her tough and rough martial training will certainly be reflected in her daily life. It would be better for her to develop in her training those qualities at which women generally excel, such as agility, fluidity and grace. Henee, she should choose a style like Shaolin Flower Fist where her natural qualities can be put to good use, rather than a style hike Shaolin Lohan Kung Fu, where big mus- cles and heavy mass is an advantage.
But more important than the method is the teacher. Nowadays one can read up on many Kung Fu training methods from books, but without the personal instruction of a competent teacher it is difficult though not impossible to get good results, especially in the more advanced, inner arts. There are at least two reasons why a teacher is necessary. First the teacher can explain the finer points and overcome individual problems, both of which cannot be done adequately in books. Even in a simple method like the training for the [ron Palm, which basically consists of striking a sandbag with the palm, without a teacher checking on finer points like relaxing the whole arm when striking, the student may not succeed.
The second reason is, in my opinion, more important, although it is less obvious. The teacher provides the confidence students need, so that they are assured that whatever happens the teacher is around to help, sometimes even save them. It may be difficult for people not involved in Kung Fu training to appreciate the importance of this confidence factor, but my many years of teaching both Kung Fu and Chi Kung have shown me that it is crucial. Many students, for example, have told me how easily they have achieved the desired result when they have trained with me, having already used the same method unsuccessfully for a long time. Some attributed the difference to my effective supervision, others generously said it was due to my charismatic presence. But actually it was due to the confidence I had instilled in them, so that they could totally relax and be perfectly involved in their training, without the slightest trace of doubt or worry.
For advanced arts, there is a third reason why a competent teacher is essential. Advanced skills are not taught or learned, but transmitted from master to student. This idea can be difficult for the uninitiated to comprehend. If you want to learn how a certain Kung Fu technique is applied in combat, for example, you can easily obtain the information from an instructor, or a book. But if you want to acquire the skill of tapping cosmic energy and channelling it to certain parts of your body, as in some advanced Shaolln Kung Fu, you have to practise the proper method together with the teacher, and at the appropriate time, when you are ready, the teacher will transmit the skill to you. Even if the instructions are written out fully and clearly, and even if you have carried them out correctly, without the master's timely initiation, it is unlikely that you will acquire the desired skill. This is one reason why m the past grateful stu- dents prostrated themselves before their teachers.
Taking time choosing a good teacher is highly recommended. Even if you have to pay a higher training fee, learning from a good teacher is always more cost and time effective. But what are the qualities we should look for in good teachers? Here are five guidelines.
1 They must have achieved a reasonably high standard in the art they are teaching. If they are clumsy or irritable, for instance, this indicates tha t they do not practise what they teach, or what they practise is not or a high standard.
2 They must be knowledgeable. If you ask how you can achieve your objectives, or any other relevant questions, they should provide satisfactory' answers.
3 They should preferably be systematic and methodical, and have the means to help you accomplish your objectives. A Kung Fu expert who is haphazard and unorganized does not make a good teacher.
4 Even ifthey have all the other qualities, they must also be generous and willing to teach you, otherwise you must seek another teacher or try to overcome the obstacles that prevent them from teaching you.
5 The most important quality, however, the quality that distinguishes true masters, is that they teach and practise high moral values. Some people may be very competent in their art, and may even teach well, but if they swear and curse, seldom keep their word, glorify aggressive fighting or are fond of sleeping with other people's wives, it is best to steer clear of them.
The most important requirement for attainment in any art, however, is not the teacher but the student. You may have the best method and the best teacher, but if you are unwilling or not ready, you win not achieve the objectives of your training. When you have the right method and a competent teacher, what you need to do is in theory very simple: you merely have to practise regularly and persistently according to the method and teaching. But in reality, regular and persistent practice can be very dif- ficult. Lack of practice, probably more than anything else, is the reason why many students fail in their objectives.
All the established methods ofKung Fu training have been tested over time. If an established method like Iron Shirt prescribes that you can withstand a weapon attack on your body without sustaining injury ifyou practise the training procedure daily for three years, it means that thou- sands of students in the past have tried the method and succeeded. Of course, if you practise the method daily for only three months, or only practise off and on for three years, you cannot expect to acquire the art of Iron Shirt.
It must be borne in mind that Kung Fu training is very demanding, calling for great discipline, endurance, perseverance and determination, as well as time and effort. But the result is very rewarding, and the extent of your reward depends mainly on how much purposeful practice you have put in. Aimless practice, as I said at the start of this chapter, is a waste of time. It is therefore helpful to have some idea of your aims and objectives.

Direction and Purpose
It is helpful to differentiate between aims and objectives. Aims are general in nature and long term in perspective, whereas objectives are specific and immediate. How well we have achieved our aims calls for some sub jectivejudgement, whereas the attainment of our objectives can be determined categorically.
A major aim of Kung Fu training, for instance, is self-defence. This ability to defend ourselves is a general asset, and has long-term benefits. Generally we do not set a specific time frame for acquiring this aim; we adopt the attitude that as long as we keep on practising, we will enhance our ability to defend ourselves. We are clear that ifwe fail to defend our- selves effectively, it means that we failed in our aim. Sometimes we may' set a time frame for our aim, but the period is usually reckoned in years rather than months. But it may not be easy for us to measure objectively how well we have achieved our aim. For example, we can say that we have achieved our aim of self-defence if we can effectively defend ourselves against street fighters; but when we are faced with a martial arts expert we may falter.
On the other hand, we may set an objective to acquire the techniques and skills to defend ourselves against kicks within six months. Hence, our objective is specific: for the time being we limit ourselves to defending ourselves against kicks, leaving defence against other types of attack to be covered by later objectives. We can go a step further and be more specific by deciding on the types of kicks we want to defend ourselves against. As we have set a time frame of six months, our objective is also immediate: we are not pursuing this objective indefinitely. We can easily decide whether we have achieved our objective within our set time. For example, after six months of practice we can ask a few classmates to kick us a number of times using the types of kicks we have defined. If we can successfully defend ourselves against all the kicks, or at least almost all of them, we can safely say we have accomplished our objective.
Although aims and objectives are closely related, an appreciation of the distinction contributes to our monitoring of our Kung Fu practice. Aims and objectives provide us with direction and purpose in our training, thus enabling us to achieve better results more quickly.

Setting Aims for Kung Fu Training
As we saw in Chapter 1, there are five major aims in practising great Kung Fu like Shaolm and Taijiquan, namely:
● self-defence
● health and fitness
● character training
● mind expansion
● spiritual development
The last two ainas may not be found in most other types of Kung Fu, which are basically martial arts; Shaolin Kung Fu and Taijiquan are differ- ent because they originated not as fighting arts but as means to spiritual cultivation. They also benefit greatly from the rich and profound teachings of Buddhism and Taoism.
There are various approaches we can adopt when defining the aims of our Kung Fu training, depending on such factors as available facilities, back-up resources and our immediate needs and lifelong aspirations. We may choose only one aim and leave out the rest, consider all five but emphasize one at a time, or work towards all five simultaneously. But even iffor some reason we choose only one aim, it is advisable to keep in mind all the others so that later, when the time is appropriate, we can work on them. We should regularly review our progress with reference to our set aims.
So an enthusiast who has spent a lifetime practising Kung Fu, includingTaijiquan, may suddenly realize that actually it has consisted solely of 'flowery fists and embroidery kicks'. To remedy the problem, he or she may decide on self-defence as the sole aim of his or her training for the next three years, and set specific objectives to achieve that aim.
Another person, who may not be clinically sick but is nevertheless weak and languid, may choose health and fitness as the major aim of his or her training for the next two years. The objectives set for achieving this aim, as well as the methods used, will be quite different from those of the self-defence enthusiast, even though they may learn from the same teacher.
A father who is having difficulty in disciplining his boisterous son may send him to a Kung Fu master with the primary aim of giving the boy a programme of character development, with the accomplishment of other aims as a secondary consideration. A scientist or scholar may be interested in the mind expansion benefits of Kung Fu. Even if a suitable master is not immediately available, establishing this as an aim will help in the selec tion of a style like Shaolin Kung Fu orTaijiquan which has the potential for deeper study in the future.
The ideal martial artist with the lifelong aim of realizing his or her full potential will consider all five aims, either emphasizing one at each developmental stage, or concentrating on all of them simultaneously but gradually.

Personal Objectives
If you are lucky enough to have a good teacher, he or she will probably work out appropriate objectives with you or for you often without your knowing, which in some cases may be better. When a good teacher is not available, you will have to define your own objectives to make your Kung Fu training fruitful and effective.
We may divide objectives into two categories: personal objectives and course objectives. Personal objectives are those which pertain to our personal needs, whereas course objectives are those obtained from specific courses. Ideally, your personal objectives should coincide with course objectives, ie you should be on a course that satisfies all your Kung Fu needs. But in practice you will often have to make some adjustment between your personal objectives and those of the course.
How we define our personal objectives depends on what we want to get out of our training. Understanding Kung Fu philosophy enables us to define our personal objectives wisely. One important reason why so many people get comparatively little benefit from their training, and why Kung Fu has today deteriorated into 'flowery fists and embroidery kicks' is that they are ignorant of its objectives and philosophy. Ifyou enroll in the first Kung Fu class you come across because you are impressed with a demon- stration you saw on television or because you want to get back at a neigh- bout who has annoyed you, you are unlikely to get the best from your training.
Personal objectives are obviously many and varied, since people's needs and aspirations, as well as their whims and fancies, are countless. The list below, which shows some wholesome personal objectives, gives an idea of the range, and may provide you with some suggestions for forming your own personal objectives.
● To find out from direct experience whether the claims made in Kung Fu classics and by Kung Fu masters are true.
● To experience, albeit in an modern context, the romance of the classical Kung Fu knights or heroes, and to be a part of a worthy tradition that is now becoming rare.
● To study a significant aspect of Eastern culture which provides a good balance .to Western-style living.
● To learn an effective system for promoting health and fitness.
● To cure some illness which conventional medicine and other healing systems have not been able to remedy.
● To enjoy some form of sport or relaxation to break the dull routine of work and watching television.
● To develop Kung Fu force or skills like stamina, internal strength, fast decision-making and clarity, of thought for use in daily life.
● To learn an effective means of defence against various types of attack.
● To learn additional Kung Fu techniques to enrich other forms of marrial arts you already practise.
● To learn Kung Fu sets which are not only beautiful to watch but also enhance poise and movement and contribute to other arts like dancing, gymnastics and drama.
● To acquire agility and quick reflexes.
● To learn classical Kung Fu weapon sets which are exotic and not found in other martial arts.
● To find out how such tantalizing Kung Fu principles or skills as using minimum strength to overcome stronger opponents, breaking bricks without roughening the striking hand, and channelling vital energy, to different parts of the body can be put into practice.
● To overcome particular emotional problems, like nervousness, indecisiveness, anxiety, depression and unreasonable fear.
● To overcome and manage stress.
● To acquire desirable emotional or mental qualities, like cahnness, cheer fulness, optimism, decisiveness, clear thinking and freshness of mind.
● To acquire wholesome qualities for personal development, like humility, perseverance, determination, discipline and tolerance.
● To find out how great Kung Fu like Shaolin andTaijiquan is related to profound philosophies such as those of Buddhism andTaoism.
● To learn and practise effective techniques of meditation to expand the mind.
● To learn and practise effective methods of spiritual cuhivation.

Some of the objectives mentioned above, like the first two, arc fairly gen eral, and could be classified as aims instead of as objectives. They are classified in this way for convenience, and the classification is sometimes arbitrary. 1 refer to them as objectives because we can put them into a time frame and measure quite decisively whether we have achieved them after training for a set period of time. For example, if after five years of Kung Fu training you find that you have become generous, righteous, courageous and helpful – the characteristics of Kung Fu knights – you can reasonably conclude you have achieved the objective of continuing the worthy tradition of those knights.
A Kung Fu knight, xia in Chinese, unlike his Western medieval counterpart, did not have titles conferred on him by the sovereign, nor did he necessarily kill evil dragons and save damsels from burning castles. He was a fi'ee, happy Kung Fu expert, always kind to the old and young and sometimes amorous with unattached and willing damsels. He appreciated poetry and good wine, enjoyed comfortable living whenever he could although he was often penniless because he gave away money to the poor, and was always ready to help the oppressed and suffering.
After defining a main objective, it is useful, and sometimes necessary, to draw up 'sub objectives'. For example, if your objective is effective defence against various attacks, it is useful to define what the various attacks are, as topics for 'sub-objectives' .You may, for instance, spend three months learning to counter throws, then another three months learning how to release yourself from holds and locks.
It is necessary to set a time frame for accomplishing your objectives, and evaluate the success or otherwise of your training with direct reference to them at the end of the period. Needless to say, you must be realistic and reasonable in both your objectives and your rune frames. If you can hardly perform Kung Fu form competently, for example, you cannot expect to learn enough in six months to defeat a black belt. If you are reasonable and realistic but still do not achieve your objective, you should review what had gone wrong in your training programme. This can usually be done by referring to the Three Requirements for Attainment, and asking three basic questions:

● Was my method correct?
● Was my teacher competent?
● Was I a good student?

Course Objectives

Course objectives, on the other hand, depend on the course you follow or the type of Kung Fu
you practise. We may classify course objectives as elementary, intermediate and advanced. This
classification, like most in Kung Fu and other disciplines, is relative and is used for the sake of easy learning. What is advanced to a student can be elementary to a master, or even to another student with a different priority and undergoing a different programme. Below are three examples taken from courses described later in the book.

Course: Shaolin Five Animals
Level: Elementary (for students)
Time: Six months of daily practice

Objectives:
1 to become familiar with some of the basic patterns and ihndamental movements of Shaolin Kung Fu
2 to be introduced to sequences of patterns performed continuously, with reference to breath control and related application
3 to perform a Kung Fu set with accuracy of form, force and speed
4 to lay the foundation for applying the patterns in the set, individually or in sequence, for combat 5 to lay the foundation for studying Kung Fu principles and other theoretical information related to the patterns and set

Course: Combat Application of Shaolin Five Animals
Level: Intermediate (for students)
Time: One year of daily practice

Objectives:
1 to learn and practise the combat application of the individual patterns of the Shaolin Five Animals set
2 to learn some useful variations from the application
3 to apply relevant patterns as specific techniques against particular combat situations
4 to acquire the foundation for progressing from specific techniques to combat sequences
5 to learn and practise combat skills like'spacing, timing, balance and fluidity of movement
6 to lay the foundation for studying relevant Kung Fu principles and other theoretical information related to combat application

Course: Abdominal Breathing
Level: Advanced (for students)
Time: One year of daily practice

Objectives:
1 to be introduced to Shaolin Chi Kung
2 to learn and practise a fundamental Chi Kung breathing technique
3 to develop a field of energy at the abdomen
4 to apply this collected vital energy to Kung Fu as well as to daily life
5 to apply the breath control technique as a means of deep meditation

The advantage of practising Kung Fu with an awareness of course objectives over random practice is obvious.Yet most people, mainly because of lack of theoretical information, practise arduously without knowing clearly why they do so, or wbat benefits they expect. They practise a set, usually because it is the one that their instructor teaches, without knowing why the patterns are chosen to form the set, or why they are linked in that particular way. As a result, despite their devotion to Kung Fu and their practice of the set for many years, their attainment, both in terms of skill and knowledge, is not much higher than that of their first year.
With the right information, you can attain in six months what uninformed students would not attain in many years. If you are successful in accomplishing the course objectives of the set mentioned above, for example, you will understand the significance of the patterns in the set, the specific techniques and combat sequences, and the relevant Kung Fu principles. You will also be able to regulate your breathing and perform the set accurately with some force and reasonable speed.
With the philosophical preparation provided so far we are now ready to proceed to practical work..