Patience and Repetition

Warning: special training secret revealed!

Photo by Jim Bailey http://bailey.aros.net/nature/Scenery.htm

Let’s start this essay with a simple question:

You sit by the edge of a running river.
The water is roaring down smashing everything in its way. Nothing seems to stop the water, and it carries away anything that happens to fall into it.
As you watch the raging water, you notice that down river is a large rock protruding above the water line. This rock is right in the middle of the river, and as the water passes the water spills over it, and pounds against it.
Crash after crash, the water hits the rock with unyielding fury.

So which is stronger the water or the rock?
Which one would you rather be?

First of all, there is no 100% correct answer. However, which decision you make says a lot about the type of person you are.

Most people pick the rock since it causes the raging water to go over and around it. They figure that this object has the strength to move the water, and hold its place against the fury of the river. After all, all other objects are quickly swept away by the water.

Of course this answer is only correct if one examines the situation at a basic level, so lets examine an alternate answer.

Have you ever seen pictures of the Grand Canyon in Arizona? If so, you see what ranging water can do to rocks given the right amount of time. Yes, it takes years, even millenniums, but sooner or later the water will wear the rock away.

Chip by chip, sooner or later the rock with all its initial defiance will be worn away. Yes, the rock may be stronger at first, but by being unyielding, unable to move and flow with the energy of the raging water, the rock is defeated.

So is the water or the rock stronger?

Like I said initially, there is no 100% correct answer. However, since this story is intended to teach the ideal of patience and repetition, the stronger force is the water. Given time, patience and repetition (the water), will win over brute force (the rock).

While many other martial art principles can be expressed using this story (such as flowing around one’s opponent, engulfing one’s opponent, and/or wearing your opponent down before going for the kill) the lesson of patience and repetition is the most important.

Repetition, the act of doing something over and over is what martial arts training is all about. It’s the SECRET. There is no other.

Of course having the ability to do repetition after repetition requires a lot of patience, and that is why it’s said: Patience is a virtue.