18 is the New 42

During a recent meeting the “18 things needed for black belt” were brought up. I don’t exactly remember the context but I do remember it was in relation to memorizing and preparing.

Do I feel like I know and understand these 18 things? Yes, to an extent of course. I’m still striving to do and be better at Kung Fu so I know I could understand and execute them better. Can I list them for you? No. And nor would I if I could.

When talking about these 18 things, take away the notion of an organized, defined list. Lists infer to do, to check something off and to move on. Linear thinking. There is nothing in Kung Fu that can ever be checked off; there are no lists. Only pins, with more pins added daily. What you strive to do is connect the pins in a multitude of ways. The more connections, the more understanding and the more you can see connections you are missing. Like neurons in a brain; we’re striving to build a network, bridges between ideas and concepts in order to increase our capacity to learn and understand. 

Those 18 things are the bridges. They are concepts that increase our understanding of the art we are training in. Think about the concept of center; first, you need to understand what we mean when we say center. You need to feel it and experience it for yourself. Then you can start applying it to what you already know and carry it forward into what you will be learning. You can increase power and efficiency. After a while, you learn how you can manipulate it for your advantage, raising and lowering your own to accomplish specific tasks like lifting or throwing. Then you see you can apply all this knowledge to your opponent; what is true for you is true for them. You can disrupt their center, you can manipulate them to raise or lower it as you desire. Take their power away or take away their grounding. 

That’s a small part of one concept. Tell me, how many bridges can you see? 

There is no memorization, only incremental increases in understanding and ability to utilize our understanding. Kung Fu and those 18 things are about experiencing and learning. There are no lists.

Khona Rybak