Tell Me How Your Visit To China Went and I’ll Tell You How You See the World

William Chou
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read

A decade ago, I visited China. It’s #1 at Ping Pong so I had to take a class there. They treat the sport how your country might treat basketball, football, or soccer.

The teacher was ridiculously good. He could make the ball spin and curve in the most complicated ways. At the same time, he napped a lot in class while we did our work haha.

I went to class for several weeks and every week, he had me doing the same form drill: practice the right body language and movement so that you can spin the ball with your forehand the right way.

Every now and then, he would correct some movement that was off. For me, it was usually that my wrist was not pulled out and angled far enough.

It might seem kind of tedious just repeating the same motion over and over for hours but…

It really helps.

After many weeks, I saw a little kid half my age play. He was able to battle the teacher one on one. They curved the ball back and forth like madmen. He had been practicing the form for years.

Over the years, I have seen similar reminders of the importance of form.

I tried out a form of Filipino Stick Martial Arts and they had me repeat the form for the eight places I can hit someone numerous times.

The same thing occurred when I tried a Long-Staff Martials Arts class.

I watched part of a famous documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It’s a world-class sushi restaurant in Japan. Their waitlist is a year long and it’s incredibly expensive. They have only one location with limited spots which adds to the prestige.

In the documentary, I learned how disciplined he was to the craft. He wouldn’t let you touch anything but the rice for many years until you mastered cooking it.

Like many trade professions of the past, you had to commit at least a decade of your life to learn it.

It did make me a bit sad to know that his son was partially forced into the profession despite his wishes to go to college. But it also made me thankful for the freedom I have.

I took a Tango class recently, and the teacher said that back in Argentina, they would make people dance alone for months before they got the form right to dance with a partner… but we would be able to dance with partners immediately.

Commercialism can definitely affect training.

The tango class had to make money, so they skipped the early discipline. People pay to dance with partners and have fun. It was a light-hearted “for fun” type class so it made sense.

But it does make me think how valuable practicing the fundamentals are.

I read in the book Mastery that one of the top basketball players would use special glasses to limit his vision and spend hours a day just practicing dribbling. I also heard that one of the most successful basketball coaches of all time, like Coach Wooden, would teach the most advanced pro players to just practice on the fundamentals of dribbling and passing.

It does rather make sense. You can definitely forget to perfect the fundamentals when you get too caught up in the advanced tactics.

Doublelift, one of the top North American pro players for the most widely played eSports game in history, League of Legends, practices the most basic, fundamental skill: CSing in a custom game for one hour every day. (CSing stands for last hitting. It’s a basic click mechanism that you have to time)

All these examples have been with physical sports or practices. I can’t say the same focus on fundamentals is of equal important to other skills like business or math. But keep it in mind when you’re doing any sport. And consider if it’s of any use to what you’re doing.

For example, a basic key to business success is delighting your customers over and over. Are you too caught up in advanced tactics like some crazy up-sell marketing scheme that you forgot about delighting your customers?

William Chou

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Blogger at willyoulaugh.com