my sifu told me to do a form in front of my other classmates and I said no. and do any of you have stage fright?
Just flat out saying no probably sounded disrespectful.
Also, you’ll never get over stage fright if you never perform.
Yes, that is rather disrespectful. Does your Sifu know you have stage fright?
Why did your sifu want you to perform infront of the class?
jon, I will perform in front of the class too sometimes the first form while my teacher does something else with some other students. Plus he is watching to see how I do the form, how I flow, etc. And sometimes other students in my class will do the form. I think I’ve lead the class through Sil Lum Tao probably 4 or 5 times.
Usually when he has someone do the form its `cause the higher students are gonna go do the second form.
Yeah, I would say that you sound disrespectful.
I your sifu asked you do perform than he had a certain purpose in mind.
Doing a Form in front of the whole class in the beginning can be a bit unnerving.
Where I train Sifu corrects a few Students at a time in front of the whole class.
Don’t worry about it unless he seemed really p!ssed.
Apologise in private before the next lesson and explain to him why.
My reason for asking is that its hard to know what his sifu had in mind for him to be refusing in the first place.
I perform in public a lot, to be honest i shake horribly before i start and i still find it hard to do. I often have to perform infront of important people as well and this of course adds to the whole fear thing.
I have a habbit of basicaly just doing my thing and ignoring the crowd. Most times when i finish i have no idea if people enjoyed it or not and have to ask my other team mates.
Still to be honest…
This pales in comparison to having to actualy use your stuff for real or even just against someone trying to do you real harm. My advice is dive in the deep cold water and just try to get used to it. IMHO its all part and parcel of being a martial artist.
Re: Do I sound disrespectful?
Originally posted by Shaolin Dude
my sifu told me to do a form in front of my other classmates and I said no. and do any of you have stage fright?
i think you definatley sounded disrespectful by flat out saying no. you choose a teacher because you think he is the one who can teach you good kung fu (or whatever your taking). if you cannot trust his judgement then you can’t be a good student. that is unless your taking some martial art where your teacher is an obvious fraud 
either way, you should have sucked it up and done your form. if you cant do your form in front of your classmates who you should respect and trust, how are you going to do any of the motions when **** gets thrown down and your in a real fight?
your a *****,
How can you ever fight, if you don’t have the stones to make a mistake in front of others.
You will never be a martial artist as long as you carry this pattern.
You are tipped by the assumed thoughts of others. Your neck deep in illusion and too afraid to do something simple. You will crumble in combat.
You were disrespectful and your Sifu will teach you the watered down version of everything. Take up badminton, your wasting your time in the martial arts.
Stage fright is a big deal. Performing and fighting are not the same thing. Chastising someone for something beyond their immediate control is not helpful.
no, but they both require an extinguished ego, confidence and a selfless lack of fear. This sally has none of the above. on top of that, he was disrespectful to his Sifu, so he made the school worse for everyone and he won’t be taught as well, because it wont matter.
ok…then, your earth isn’t producing wood…get that checked out…you be a’ight.
You must make sure that your sifu understand why you said no. If you haven’t next time you see him apologised to him first and explain to him the reason. He probably appreciate you doing that.
Can someone please tell me why a man would call themself stacey on an internet forum? I have a theory.
i think it was a bit disrespectful. appologize to your teacher in private and discuss it with him. but, seriously, the only way to overcome it will be to face it head on. if you don’t, you’ll develop a bad habit of not being assertive. and , like stacey said, your teacher WILL teach watered down gong fu.
the first time i performed in front of an audience(tai chi performance)i was real nervous. then i did some mantis stuff on this past chinese new year in front of a lot bigger audience. i was way calmer the second time. that mindset that motivates stagefright is useless and self-destructive. plus, it is admirble to see someone perform if you know they have stagefright and they did it anyway. your teacher will respect you more if you show him you can do that.
da mn guys, it might not have been that big of a deal. i mean if sifu just came up and said hey would you do this form and he said that he’d rather not then it’s not disrespectful. if sifu pushed it and he still refused that’s different, but we don’t know. either way i wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. just suck it up and do it next time.
how long have you been at this class? if you haven’t been there that long i could understand being nervous, but the only way to overcome that is to say fu ck it and do it anyway. i do not agree that fear of performing in front of people relates to combat efficiency in any way, but it does reflect character. those who can perform with butterflys have more balls then those who take to it naturally and balls will help you in all walks of life.
I’m Russian
Aagree with GDA that performing in front of someone has nothing to do with combat efficiency.
I like many others do training in the park, I simply choose a quiet corner and do my thing.
Sometimes pole come up to watch, some make a few comments and some come and train along for a bit.
Thats because your a wuss too.
If your sifu is reasonable it won’t bother him. Don’t worry too much about it, just talk to him. It is normal to get nervous about performing - you are worried that you might stuff up. Learn to deal with it and after the first few times it gets a lot easier.