“I have been teaching martial arts for more than 40 years. I have taught many types of people -- wealthy and poor, intelligent and stupid, cunning and honest. The problems I have encountered are many, yet times of happiness have also been frequent.

Now allow me to list my students attitude towards studying and their experience. Students have the following attitudes:

1. 1. They hope the more they study the better: There are too many styles of Wushu, needless to say the different schools are many and varied. The Forms in our school are very many. With all the time in the world they are hard to perfect, but students want their teacher to teach them something new everyday. To learn a new thing every day is bad for the student. If one day he is faced by an attacker, because his techniques are all over the place then he will be badly hurt. Students must learn each set well, without the desire for gain and with patience. The student should study well the foundation and the skill, and only then will he be able to use it.
   
   
2. 2. They hope to reach the secrets through study: The greatest secret of martial arts is perseverance ... only with regular practise, regular study and regular research can results be made. The majority of teachers hope that their disciples will quickly progress and achieve good success. They unceasingly correct and instruct, but do the students have the perseverance? If they do not then the greatest secret will be of no use. Actually the secret is only practise makes perfect and nothing more. It is only through the experience of studying. If a student can unceasingly practice and research, then he can discover many secrets. One of the most important secrets is to correctly practise the Sets.
   
   
3. 3. Loafing on the job and resorting to trickery: There are a few intelligent students of above average ability who very quickly learn the basics and always ask the teacher in the hope he will tell them how to use the techniques, and think they have it all once they get a superficial interpretation. I know it, I know how to use it, and that's enough. But what they have is just the surface. Then one day he crosses arms with another student and realizes his level is too low, and blames the teacher for not teaching him the secrets.
   
   
4. 4. Not having a speciality: Today study Shaolin, tomorrow Taiji, the next day study Bagua. This type of student obtains an undeserved reputation. People say that teacher is good and he says he has studied with him. They say another teacher's gong fu is terrific and he says he is his shifu. Everyday he has a new shifu and new gong fu. In the end this kind of person will achieve nothing.
   
   
5. 5. Not able to 'eat bitter' Real gong fu is hard work; stance, training gong, training the qi, sparring all includes suffering. It is hard work and difficult to study, but if when you practise you loaf about, quit practising and deliberately shirk, eventually you will have nothing -- so how can you have real gong fu.
   
   

So students, the most important thing is to be sincere, diligent, able to endure suffering and seek excellence. Step by step make progress, gong fu is Not talking about it, it is practised through physical effort and suffering. The reason the gong fu of people of ages past was so profound was because they studied with such effort. The people of today study for a few years and consider it enough. This is a real pity."