When I first started teaching I fell into the "informal" trap, teaching fighting techniques alongside warm-ups, stretch and general coordinations. Now, over thirty years down the line, it could not be more different.

In the past I have enjoyed teaching. I never became a teacher by intent, it just happened by default, you might say. As other would be instructors were talking I took the students that they had liberally invited into our club and gave them something to do. They then looked upon me as their teacher. My sole interest lay within the many things to be discovered within the amazing Chinese Arts. Tradtion was neither known or understood in the nineteen sixties or seventies Britain. Bruce Lee, Jimmy Wang Yu, Carter Wong and scores of others flew across the big screen kicking and punching all sorts of bad guys who used all sorts of Martial Arts. It was the astounding dexterity and brilliance of the fighting skills that struck many young Kungfu fan. Not traditions.

Since those days I have had over two-thousand students. Like most instructors I have seen most of the students drop by the wayside. I have taken on average eight years to train a person up to Assistant Instructor. Since the first, two I discharged for misconduct, others have left for work, family or other personal reasons. Some old friends are amazed when they ask (waving their hands about in a kind of lunatic chopping action), "Are you still doing.... you know...?" I reply with a wry, "Yes", you mean waving my hands about like a lunatic?". "Of course I am!"

It's the "of course..." that gets them. Not many people can imagine studying "Kungfu" for more than a year, a decade at the very most! In fact, Martial Arts practice seems to be like the average marrital relationship; give it a go and if it gets a bit tough, dump it. Never mind the trying to understand it or trying to get it right, no matter how much effort it takes. Patience and perseverance. I remember my father telling me that, "Patience and perseverance, if you have not got that you'll get nowhere with anything". He was a highly respected Motor Engineer.

Recently I have had another reminder of the need for change. A year or so ago I made what I thought might be one of the final changes to the T'ien Ti Tao syllabus. That was to introduce a small clause which says, At 'Club Instructor - Assistant' level, students will be under the supervision of their Master/Chief Instructor for a minimum period of one year. Only those who are invited by the Chief Instructor will be eligible for further training to Full Instructor level and beyond (Closed Door Students).

This is not readily understood by many westerners, who think thay they have the right to take your hard earned knowledge and skills and perhaps claim them as their own. This is not understood in terms of loyalty and respect; Chinese work on family and family are loyal.... mostly. In China the family Kungfu is the family treasure, often having been a tool which has saved the family lives or face. China has a tradition going back over five-thousand years. Britain, having just a one-and-a-half thousand year history of so-called civilisation, has no such values or traditions. We need them, by God we need them. So we should learn from the oldest and generally most mature cultures in the world, the Chinese. After all, who has any respect for blaggards and pillagers.

When students join a club they should do so with respect, honesty and humiliation. Providing the club instructor is genuine then the students should be genuine also. It can take not five, not eight, not even ten years to learn proper Kungfu, not even fifteen, no sir. It will take a student approximately twenty years to become a good student and twenty-five years to begin to make headway and understand the true depth of what she or he is being taught. In the UK, alongside other western countries, we see far, far too many students being disrespectful, dropping out because they think they have learned most of it in two to five years, or falling foul of more basic "street fighting" styles, thinking that there must be something "modern" which Kungfu has overlooked.

The time is right for bringing in much more Chinese Family Traditions into training. Traditionally in China, family is respected. The elder is respected. Even older teachers generally respect younger teachers, if learning from them, and call each other by the correct and respectful title, not "mate", "gaffer", "boss" or other such pointless slang, but "Shirfu" (Teacher).

In the UK everyone wants to be teachers, not students. Many students and junior instructors overlook the most important factors in their training, like studying what they are taught, instead of looking for something new all the time, or like patience and perseverance. If you are fortunate enough to find a good system with a respected teacher then my best advice is, study, study, study. It may take you at least twenty years to realise just what that system has to offer, twenty five to thirty and you may just begin to understand it.

Many students comment on my humble skills as well as the fact that after even twenty-odd years I am teaching them things they have not seen before. There is a reason for this. I am still studying the system, as written in the syllabus, and discovering more breadth, depth and substance to it every day of my life. This is why we need the well tried Chinese traditions, not the "now you see me now you don't" attitude that goes with most. The irony is that for those who always think that the grass is greener on the other side of the hill, they miss the beauty and the glory of the sunrise on the side they just left!

After around forty years of "serious study" and practice I feel like I am almost getting somewhere... but then there is Taijiquan... ah well, another forty years will not hurt!