There’s a famous quote from Bruce Lee: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” It’s about focus, determination, and the fact that persistence yields results.
You’ve heard this before. “The boring stuff works,” we say. But who decided that repetition and routine are boring?
In a 1967 letter to Taky Kimura, a friend and student, Bruce pointed out a different path. Lee had just opened a new martial arts school in LA, and he’d certified Kimura as his replacement instructor for his existing school in Seattle. In the letter, Bruce guides Taky so he can keep the students engaged.
“Follow this rule and you will NEVER feel like you have to ADD more and more so-called ‘sizzling’ techniques to keep our students interested,” Bruce writes. That rule is the “economy of form.”
The idea is that “each student must attack [in unison] FROM THE BAIJONG without any wasted motion.” Should the student exert too much or undirected effort in this particular technique, called “pak sao” or “slapping hand,” “back to the touching hand position he goes to MINIMIZE his unnecessary motions.” Even after a student has mastered the initial steps, Bruce suggests they should return to the practice position on occasion to maintain economic form.
In his system, Bruce also suggested to master the same technique under various conditions: “1. synchronization of self, 2. synchronization with opponent, 3. under fighting condition.” Therefore, between learning the movement itself, doing it efficiently with consistency, practicing it with an opponent in training, and chaining it together with other movements to have a realistic chance at hitting a real enemy, students will have their work cut out for them—and that’s just one technique!
“Following the above suggestion will give you endless hours of instruction,” Lee writes. It “takes up one heck of a lot of time for perfection,” but it also makes for “a most efficient lesson plan that will bring results to ALL students.” Perhaps most of all, however, Bruce noted that “disregard how LITTLE we show each time [here in LA], the students’ interest is kept up because they have to eliminate the extra motions involved, and they feel great doing it.”
If someone claims to be able to teach you a great variety of things, most of the time, they simply don’t know what they are talking about. True expertise is narrow yet nonetheless fascinating. Stick to the path you know will take you to your goal, and look out for teachers who can make even the mundane engaging and fun. When you walk towards it with the right map, mastery is interesting—just like practicing the same kick 10,000 times.
