I have committed the crime too many times of talking to my friends about martial arts, way, WAY too much. 

When I started training in 1999, I was so excited to tell all my classmates about it. Just like one of those nerdy kids obsessed with something and never really shutting up.

Well, that hasn’t changed. 

I felt it was my responsibility to bring my friends on the holy journey of becoming a Shaolin monk and there is absolutely nothing better than that. Times have shifted indeed, and now instead of luring them to the Chinese mountains, I keep explaining why the mats are the best place to be. 

They still give me the same look as in 1999. 

But since YOU are listening now, let me tell you why I love training kung fu so much.

1. Martial arts introduced me to the best people I have met in my life. Disciplined, responsible, hard-working, dreamers, helpful, kind, and true.

2. There is the moment when you train and suddenly your body moves with ease and as if you were following some trajectories and trails, that you put down by the endless repetitions. And there, you are in the zone, here and now, and your movement is correct and beautiful. 

3. No matter if I was happy or going through tough times, I felt like my practice was there, not dependent on anything or anyone else. Purely my practice, a place within time, that makes me happy or takes pain away.

4. Watching my body change over time in the way I love, is empowering. Looking at myself in the mirror and seeing that I become stronger, stand straighter, and hold myself up, is an amazing experience.

5. Techniques have specific requirements, and standards, to be correct. It’s not like a dance move, but there are angles and lines. Getting closer and closer to that standard feels like getting closer to a finish in a race. 

6. Putting techniques together. The knowledge that those make sense from the logical point of view, and at the same time feeling the smooth connection between them, is an aesthetics in motion. 

7. Belonging to a community of practitioners is like having another family. No matter if I train with that guy daily, or if he is a visiting friend of my teacher, he is part of the family. 

8. Learning about my body and mind and how to take care of them. Being smart with training, exploring my limits, and learning that rest is not bad.

9. Fighting is a very primal activity. Animals fight or fight play, too. Fighting, or training a fight (as I always say not everyone need to actually step into a ring, and that’s totally OK) puts me in a place where I can touch the most central part of me, the primal part, and see who I am. 

10. There are no shortcuts. Kung fu, mastery achieved over time by hard work, is exactly that. You can train smart, but you still need to train. What you achieve is yours only, and nobody can take it away from you.