Handstands, Structure and Kung Fu

Remember what it was like learning to walk?  Neither does anyone else.  Alright, well you remember learning to walk on your hands, right?

Enough cute questions.  The point is this: both learning to walk and learning to walk on your hands requires a ton of falling.  Falling that teaches us proper posture.  See that toddler tilting his head too far forward?  They’re going to fall over.  See that Kung Fu student not kicking their feet up high enough?  They’re going to fall over.

Somehow we got back to the cute questions.  Structure.  Handstands.  Hand balancing is a humbling way for most folks to get back in touch with the truly difficult job of figuring out how to hold the body upright with as little effort as possible – that’s good structure.

What’s it got to do with Kung Fu?  Learning to keep your balance while throwing kicks and punches is an equally difficult task.  If you reach too far and your opponent will pull you off balance.  If you don’t reach far enough you won’t land your strike.  It’s a tough skill to learn and just like learning to walk, you’ve got to fall down a lot to figure it out.

Good thing we’ve got soft pads in the training area.