The Fellowship of Tears

Well-Honed but Shallow

Blink wanted to take Hubr out on a stroll, but the little boy tried to object. To Hubr, anything that had nothing to do with martial arts training was a huge waste of time.

As his teacher, Blink reminded him that martial arts should not be confined to the narrow discipline of rigid training and should be discovered in everything that moves as well as in the most common activities of man.

Blink looked at his nephew who now looked rather cute with his brows furrowed in puzzlement. Hubr initially nodded as if to say he understood yet his face kept that confounded look.

“I don’t understand what you meant just now, Nangku,” he finally admitted.

“You don’t understand yet,” Blink said emphasizing the last word.

“I’m sure I would understand those things by practicing my martial arts techniques,” Hubr concluded.

Blink had to smile at his nephew’s insistence.

“Your understanding of martial arts right now is very narrow,” Blink stated gently. “And if you keep on like this, your martial arts will turn out to be well-honed but very shallow.”

Once again, Hubr gave Blink a look which told his uncle that he was talking in riddles.

Blink tried his best to explain an important principle he had gained along his martial arts journey.

“In your lonely journey towards martial arts excellence, you’ll need a thousand and one enlightenments. Practice is not always the best method to gain enlightenment even though it is the best way to hone the products of your enlightenment.”

Obviously, with such a profound explanation, Hubr could only scratch his head.

Blink was stomped. He wanted to convince his nephew that there are a lot of other ways to understand martial arts, but he realized that Hubr was simply too young to even understand his words.

In the end, he simply said: “All right, no more talk. Let’s just go on a stroll right now!”

Hubr obediently followed his uncle and didn’t utter a single word of complaint.

As they were walking back, a strong wind blew and shook the leaves of a tree in front of them.

“Look at that tree,” Blink pointed out to Hubr. “Look at how its leaves sway along with the wind instead of stubbornly resisting.”

“Is this related to martial arts, Nangku,” Hubr said.

“It could be.”

Hubr had an uncomprehending look on his face.

“The wind is like a force that is impossible to resist and the leaves could be a martial artist whose power is inferior to resist such a force if he were to only rely on his own force.”

“I’m sorry, Nangku, but I can’t understand.”

“You can’t understand yet. You must always think in those terms. Just because you cannot understand something today does not mean that you won’t be able to understand it tomorrow.”

Looking at his nephew’s blank expression, Blink sighed and shook his head. He had just realized that he was talking to a seven-year old child of things that maybe even a young man his age might not necessarily understand.

“All right, let’s go home,” he declared.

Hubr was only too happy to oblige.

Along the way, they passed by two dogs that were playfully pawing at each other. The smaller of the two dogs seemed to always get the upper hand by swerving around the larger dog’s paws before trying to grab at the latter’s neck. Sometimes, the smaller dog would duck under the larger dog’s paws then try to grab the latter from the rear. In both instances, the larger dog was forced to hop away.

Blink tried to prick Hubr’s interest in the smaller dog’s display of evading an attack and seizing the initiative. Hubr did watch the dogs but obviously could not understand what was so interesting about the little dog’s actions except that it always managed to almost get the better of the bigger dog.

“And what does that tell you?” Blink asked.

Hubr stared hard at the dogs but had nothing to say.

Blink could only let it go in helplessness.

In the large common room of their house, which served as the practice area for Hubr, Blink made his nephew demonstrate the two movements of the palm technique he had taught Hubr. He noted a number of minor mistakes that he asked Hubr to correct anyway.

After three rounds of demonstration, Blink asked his nephew to block his punch with an open palm. Blink controlled the punch, but the boy was still pushed backward by several steps.

“That is called resisting force with force. It doesn’t work, right?”

Next, he asked Hubr to block the punch by slapping his hand sideways. Blink’s arm got redirected and did not connect to its target.

“That is called redirecting the force. It works, right?”

Hubr nodded his head.

“Think about it. I am the stronger force. When you tried to directly resist my force with your own force, you got pushed back. In a real fight, that would have sent you in a lot of trouble. But when you redirected my force with a slapping palm block, you were able to create an opening. Utilizing the moves from the second movement of the palm technique, you could easily have struck me right after the block.”

The two of them went over every possibility after the slapping palm block such as a palm strike to ear, a kick to the shin or ankle, a hammer fist strike to the temple using the same hand used for the block, and a few other possibilities that are simple yet effective.

With that, Blink went over the practical application of the second movement of the palm technique in a real fight.

Somehow, Blink realized that he needed to give a name to the first and second movement of his palm technique. In fact, even the palm technique should also have a name.

Blink also felt the urgency of getting Hubr a sparring partner sooner rather than later. His nephew’s application of martial arts skills is a bit too rigid and totally confined to what he had been taught. He never ventured to explore possibilities even just to exploit the obvious openings that Blink was giving him during their mock sparring sessions.

“Well-honed but shallow,” Blink could only mutter to himself.

After training Hubr, Blink walked towards the training center for his sparring sessions with Senior Brother Gart.

While they sparred, he asked the Kasgar martial arts instructor if he would not mind should he take in another student besides his nephew. Blink was sure Senior Brother Gart would not take issue with him training Hubr as he was his nephew, but he might take exception if he were to accept Zugr as his student when he was training under Senior Brother Gart.

The senior disciple assured Blink that he could take as many students as he wanted for as long as they would still report to him at the training center.

With the matter settled, the two disciples from the first two classes of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy happily sparred to their heart’s content until they were too tired to go on.