Master Chen is Back in Town

Master Chen Rong En, head of the Fut Gar style of Kung Fu is back in town. The newer students may wonder what to do when he visits the class (which you can expect him to do very regularly) as it can be an intimidating thing to have him watching what you are doing. As one of his closed door students, I have had quite a bit of experience with him watching me as I train and have probably forgotten that I should actually feel some sort nervousness when performing in front of him...of course I never have been one to be nervous performing no matter who is watching. For those that don't know exactly what to do when he is visiting, here are a few tips:

1. Bow to him as he comes in to show your respect.
   
2. Do the best you can without fear that you are not good enough...he loves our class and wants us to be successful in our training.
3. Be prepared to learn as he will stop you if he sees a mistake.
4. If we decide to run additional seminars, participate if at all possible. Master Chen is one of the most respected instructors around and there are few opportunities to learn directly from him. We are very fortunate to be a school that he visits regularly.
5. Enjoy his love of teaching theories. I have never met anyone else who gets so much joy out of discussing techniques, how they work, how to counter them and how to lead into them.
   

The next 6 months should be filled with many chances to do all of these things. Although I have been teaching Kung Fu for over 20 years now you will definitely see that I am still not done learning from the master.