In learning a new skill, especially in learning a mind-body skill such as Wing Tsun kung-fu, becoming competent requires some patience with yourself. It won’t happen in two or three of even four or five classes. A way to speed this up is to practice more outside of class. Even if you are doing it wrong, you learn from this. We learn through our mistakes. One can even speed this up some more by recruiting a friend for the classes and that person can potentially become your training partner.

In any case, a student should not dwell on how long it is taking to learn a skill or a drill. Instead, keep focusing and occasionally, the reason for the delays in learning will come to you in a flash.

The time factor. Not only should you not focus on the time involved but you should try to sustain your attention on some details of your movement. This is why the first section of the first form is done slowly like tai chi. This is a new skill that not many western people are familiar with. It helps the mind and body enormously.

A mistake that some students make is that when class is over, they forget about the class and start thinking about their life outside of the training. It is very difficult to get continuity of learning this way. Instead, one should go over the class subjects in your mind for a while and even make notes.

Si-fu Keith Sonnenberg