Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Controlling Your Emotions

You learn a lot about yourself when you spar. One important thing I've learned is how hard it is to avoid overreacting to challenges. Things like this come out for everyone to see when you spar. When I first started out, I got hit a lot. I was just learning how to defend myself, so I wasn't concerned about it.

Now, I've progressed to yellow belt, so my master expects me to stop all hand attacks. This adds a new type of pressure and makes getting hit a bigger deal. At first I got down on myself when I was getting hit because I made a blocking mistake. This is not good because it may lead to getting upset with the person you are sparring with for getting in on you. That's the last thing that you should do because that leads to sparring turning into competition rather than a learning experience, and you discourage the person you are fighting if you don't acknowledge their attacks. You can't improve with that kind of attitude.

I learned that if I accept my flaws, I can more quickly fix the problems. I ask questions a lot about how to defend attacks I get hit with. I also ask people who get in on me to throw the same attacks again so I can see what I'm doing wrong. I'm a perfectionist, so this has been an internal struggle, but I'm getting there!