Does your sifu hold back knowledge from you?


In China, my sifu's sifu trained a student for years before electing to show real knowledge. Because the training was all for free, my sifu's sifu could do as he pleased. It was my kung fu style's family tradition to withhold principles from the students until they proved themselves in the sifu's eyes.

However, my sifu thought it was detrimental to the quality of his kung fu. He's observed how students of his sifu (including himself for a while) ended up getting the wrong impression of the style and even hurt themselves (especially in the knees and ankles) as a result. So he's been very careful to tell me why I must do things a certain way in order to avoid injury and misinterpretation.

Of course, there are things that I'm not ready for yet and so I'm not jumping the gun to do them. But whenever I ask a question, I get a totally straight answer.


How about you guys?