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“I am glad my instructors taught me in the traditional way. Even those who treated me cruelly, who seemed to care nothing about my feelings, and who appeared to pay no attention to me — they all taught me the same lesson: to think for myself. They forced me to practice and make mistakes on my own.

“If my teachers always practiced alongside me, how could they see my errors and correct my mistakes? They had plenty of time to watch me. When I reached a certain point and truly needed my teachers’ help, they were always there. When I really needed to see them perform a movement, they would demonstrate it for me — and because it was so rare, I learned to observe their movements very carefully.

“This kind of training later helped me in actual fighting, because I could watch my opponent’s movements, memorize them, and be ready to counterattack.

“Should I use the old methods to teach my students? Or should I spoon-feed them like puppies and simply ask them to copy my movements? If they only copied me, it would damage their potential and kill their creativity. If my school produced nothing but students whose kung fu looked exactly like mine, could you still call it a martial art? No — it would only be the cheapest kind of consumer goods.”

Excerpted from “Life Is Too Short For Bad Kung Fu,” by the Academy’s Grandteacher, Sifu Adam Hsu, and published by our sister press, Plum Publications . To read more about the book, or to purchase, click the image or the link above.

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