Question 6
Is it alright if someone does not perform chi kung perfectly?
— Charlie, United Kingdom
Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
Yes, in our school it is alright if a practitioner does not perform perfectly in his chi kung practice.
In fact, it is recommended not to practice perfectly in order to prevent over-training! That is why we recommend that our students practice at 30% or less of their potential. In other words, they purposely do not perform their chi kung perfectly. If they perform perfectly, which is at their potential, they may over-train.
This paradigm may appear strange to many people. Many people, if they are dedicated to their practice, perform perfectly, or attempt to perform perfectly even if they actually don’t. In our school, students are recommended not to perform perfectly!
Why is this so? We really do not mean to belittle other schools, nor glamorize ourselves, but most other schools do not practice chi kung even when they honestly think they do. They perform their chi kung techniques as gentle physical exercise, not as chi kung or energy exercise. Hence they do not derive chi kung benefits. Even when they perform their chi kung techniques perfectly as gentle physical exercise, they will only get physical benefits, and not any chi kung benefits.
On the other hand, we have become so ridiculously effective that we have to purposely not to perform our chi kung techniques perfectly as chi kung so as not to over-train. Two excellent ways to avoid over-training are to cut down the time of practice or the intensity of practice. As we practice our chi kung for only about 10 minutes, we cut down our intensity by not going deeply into a chi kung state of mind.
It is worthwhile to mention that we may not practice perfectly, but we practice correctly. We use chi kung techniques to practice chi kung. Many other people may practice perfectly but not correctly. They use chi kung techniques to practice gentle physical exercise, just like many people use Taijiquan techniques to practice external Taiji forms.
If you have any questions, please e-mail them to Grandmaster Wong via his Secretary at secretary@shaolin.org stating your name, country and e-mail address.
Shaolin Wahnam Kuala Lumpur 