Kung fu master theory.

The Kung fu master theory - coined by our legend coach Chaang.

Got inspired to write this post after someone asked me how we manage to accelerate HB's cupie in 2 1/2 months of cheer. Anyhow congrats, you just overtook Isaac's DIY superstart status.

PS: he attended all my DIYS!!!!



The kung fu master theory. Remember how we always watch the Chinese kung fu master who always teach his student 90% but tells him that he has nothing left to teach. When the student turns bad and challenges his shifu, his shifu kicks his ass, kills him and before his student dies tell him the reason for his loss was that he didn't teach him that 10%.

Does this sound abstractly familiar to you?

Doesn't this sound familiar when you master a new skill and refuse to pass on what you have learnt to your peers? Doesn't this reflect how you tend to act selfishly, unwilling to pass on that knowledge when we fear that our fellow cheer mates are close to overtaking your own abilities.

Most importantly, are you willing to teach beyond your 100% and help your peers improve to a level beyond yourself and in return squeeze that 10% in return?
-Quote by Chaang that stuck with me till today.

Yes, its true. You get that additional 10% when you teach in full.

Case in point.

Wildcards DIY 2009. I just learnt how to do a liberty and Chaang finally let me have a go at a cupie. I still distinctively remembered how everyone help me get the cupie technique. Kahau who taught me his 2 finger cupie method, Zhi liang who just kept making me do the stunt and Gary who kept fixing my posture and JLump from UK who taught me to push my thumb up. Eventually i got it after 1 month of DIY. I got that 100% from them.

About half a year later, Gary and ZL wanted to try their fullup. Since gary and zl was so nice in teaching me that cupie, it stuck with me and i was more willing to push, encourage and make gary and ZL do their stunt. They got it after 1~2 months. That 10% did not all come in the form of technical teaching but more importantly its the 10% of encouragement and pure gut reaction that your PEERS give/push you when you attempt a new stunt.

It is entirely different when you have to get unwilling spotters spot for you as compared to having friends spot for you wanting you to hit that stunt; telling you how close you were to hitting it even though you were not, how you could have hit the stunt if you hung for 1 sec longer. This is something that cannot be faked and has to be real.

Some time or another every cheerleader has to be willing to sacrifice his or her own improvement to teach and in return find that 10% in one way or another. How you teach also gets carried down, abolising the Kung fu master theory also carries a postive bandwagon effect. Finally, when your whole squad can do a cupie and people remember that they were taught wholeheartedly by their peers, it gets carried down to people to have yet to come and will in return reap the benefits of such learning.

Even from a management's perspective, it becomes so much easier and faster to teach -> 4 DIYS to 1 DIY for a cupie, a result of having more qualified shifu's to teach you the stunt.

Even for the alpha stunter who keeps complaining that his teammates are weak, if you abolish the kungfu master theory and teach wholeheartedly eventually they will be at least almost as good as you in time as the road is paved much straigher for them. Eg, gary took 2 months for a full up, he taught me and i got it in 2 weeks. Timeline wise, eventually people will almost become as good as you but you got to be willing to be selfless in order to gain that 10% when it gets harder and harder to improve.

So cheerleaders guilty of the Kung fu master theory do remember this. What you teach is what you get, embrace the power of social creativity. Don't be shy to teach in full and teach it well because very soon, at the end of the day in a 16 man routine it is the collective ability that counts. At Nationals, if you can do a full twisting rewind and your teammates can't do a basic lib, it just counts for nothing.