Kung Fu Conversations Podcast

It is with a heavy heart that I share the passing of my Si-Baak, Leung Kwok Wah.

I will always remember my time with him in Hong Kong with great fondness. In 2014, I had the honor of traveling with him and my students to mainland China, an experience I will never forget. And in 2015, I was privileged to invite him for his one and only big seminar in the United States.

Rest in peace, Si-Baak. Your knowledge, your spirit, and your generosity will not be forgotten.

Yes, the Goju-Ryu course is twelve levels.

Each level is approximately three months, which means the entire curriculum is presented over about three years.

Could we slow that down and stretch each course out longer? Of course. We could spend six months, nine months, or a year on a single portion of the curriculum if we wanted to. But I am not convinced that artificially limiting what a student is allowed to learn produces better practitioners.

Our preference is to give students the whole toolbox as efficiently as we reasonably can.

That does not mean we believe three months is enough time to master everything contained in a level. Far from it. Learning a kata is not the same thing as mastering a kata. Learning a drill is not the same thing as developing the timing, sensitivity, coordination, judgment, and adaptability that the drill is intended to produce.

There is an important difference between being introduced to material, becoming familiar with it, becoming competent with it, and truly owning it.

For that reason, in our program, certification is deliberately divorced from what you are allowed to study.

You do not have to prove that you have completely mastered Level 1 before you are permitted to see Level 2. We would rather continue teaching you, continue expanding your understanding, and allow the earlier material to mature alongside the later material.

Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the student.

We all have different lives. Different schedules. Different bodies. Different training partners. Different amounts of time available for practice. Some people absorb certain material very quickly. Other material may take them years. Readiness is highly variable, and pretending otherwise does not make the process more rigorous.

I think of it somewhat like earning a law degree and taking the bar exam.

Law school provides the education. It exposes you to the body of knowledge, teaches you how to work with it, and gives you the opportunity to develop the necessary skills.

The bar exam is a separate question: Can you demonstrate the required level of competence?

Those two things are related, but they are not the same event.

Our Goju-Ryu curriculum works much the same way.

The courses provide the education. Practice provides the development. Certification demonstrates the standard.

There is no reason those three things have to move at exactly the same speed for every student.

Our job is to put the whole toolbox in your hands.

What you build with it, how deeply you understand each tool, and when you are ready to demonstrate mastery of it ultimately depends on you.

Contact us for details on getting started.

Latest post, available to the public, about our newest program:
https://www.patreon.com/MartialForest/posts/burinkan-goju-170192918