I know, I know. I’m so late watching this movie. When was this shown, 2008?
It doesn’t matter.
I just started in Arnis early this year and since then I’ve been discovering the wonderful, intriguing, unique world of martial arts, including its movies.
Hubby read the post I had several days ago about how I wanted to watch the best martial arts movies. He granted my wish. Great! Thank you! So this afternoon, I watched the first on the list: Ip Man.
Needless to say, I enjoyed it. And I gleaned a lot of insights from it. Really! It’s wonderful how we can learn from almost everything in this world.
Here then are the Ten Lessons I learned from the movie Ip Man 1.
1. Training in martial arts gives you self-confidence. Your posture, stance, and demeanor improve. Look at what happened to those factory workers after they had some lessons on martial arts. In the real world, that self confidence alone can be enough to ward off many potential attackers.
2. When faced by an angry man, do you best to de-escalate the situation. Maintain composure, tranquility, and speak in a gentle tone.
3. Humility makes you more respectable. You don’t have to flaunt and preen like a peacock. If you are really good, your skills will speak for you.
4. Learn how to use weapons. All other things equal, an armed fighter will be superior to the unarmed one. If on the other hand, you are the one unarmed, your training will enable you to block and disarm your attacker. Also, learn how to use everyday things as weapons (like Ip man who used his wife’s feather decor). This is one of the reasons why I looove Arnis.
5. Train to hit hard, really hard. If you hit your attacker but not enough to hurt him, it will only make him angrier and all those anger hormones will not be good for you.
6. Train to be fast. Did you see how Ip Man downed his attackers with his lighting-fast moves?
7. Train diligently, even when you’re alone. That scene where Ip Man quietly trained with his Wing Chun dummy is memorable.
8. Sweet potatoes are amazing. It was wartime. Food was scarce but the sweet potatoes they had for lunch gave Ip Man energy to fight and win. Foods with complex carbohydrates are good for everyone.
9. Help the weak. Use your martial arts skills for the good of others.
And finally, a lesson on relationships:
10. It’s futile to try to change your spouse. It will only frustrate both of you. To have a more pleasant life, accept your spouse’s interests and passion. Adapt to them. If you look really hard, you’ll find something you can appreciate and admire. So there… 🙂
Have you seen this movie? I’m going to watch Ip Man 2 tomorrow. Until then…
Pugay!
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Related posts:
The Deadly Dance 
When my instructor was teaching the method on how to develop the fast execution of wing chun snapping backfists, he gave me this simple advice: Get a wet towel and hit it rapidly with your backfist until it gets dry. This could also be used if you wish to develop fast boxing jabs.
BTW, the wet towel can also be used to strengthen the grabbing/twisting power of your hand, such as when you grab the wrist of another to apply an arm bar or choking the neck (adam’s apple). When doing the laundry, you may want to constantly practice squeezing the wet towel with your two hands so you could strengthen your hands when it comes to using grappling techniques in close quarter combat.
Genius! I hate squeezing the laundry such that when the spinner/dryer of my washing machine is not working, I postpone doing the laundry. Now, I may have to revisit that chore…