I have a serious question. What happens to a student if his sifu passes away before he learnt it all?

Question

Answer it based on your own experience.

Were you forced to seek a lesser sifu? or a si-sok (wushu uncle) or ever learn from your wushu brothers who are more advanced?

Also answer it hypothetically, if you're a sifu.

What would you advice you students to do, beforehand, that is.

Death is a reality, no harm talking beyond it.

Answer 1

After I gained the rank of 1st Dan my master left town unexpectedly. Since then he quit teaching and is working for the state of Tennessee. I have since contacted his master who has plugged me into a local instructor he likes (a student of a student of his). I have then regained the training I left off with.

This is one of the reasons it is important to learn about the history of your style. If you don't know or are unable to contact anyone "higher up", you may have to re-start your training at a different school.

Answer 2

If I knew in advance of my immanent death, I would tell my students that the the martial arts is a journey which is never truly over.  They may never have to use what I teach them...if this is the case, then I can feel confident that I had done my job well.

When a master passes away, his teachings must live on.  At the very least, If I knew I was going to die soon, I would put all my thoughts into a memoir before I passed away.  Though I cannot be with them anymore, at least my words can aid them on their journey.

This was an interesting question-thank you.

Answer 3

What you should be considering is who your Sifu held as his most knowledgeable student. You don't necessarily have to go with him/her.

If you know his teacher's name, find out if you can learn from him, unless he's on the other side of the world of course.

I would ask the "brother" of your late teacher if I can train with him, of course, providing he is as good or better than your Sifu.

What art do you study?

Answer 4

My Master was studying Dim Mak and then his Master passed away. Dim Mak uses chi and it's very dangerous, his master passed away before he learned to control it. Now he's afraid to use it and he has to practically beg for his master's son to teach him the rest bit by bit.

Answer 5

As I get older I contemplate this sometimes. I advise my students to seek someone who will teach them as I would. I tell them no two teachers are alike and to not compare their new teacher to me. Give their new teacher the respect they would have shown me. I would consider this a living and lasting tribute.

Answer 6

This is indeed a great problem, my first instructor retired (due to back problems) 2 years into me starting training with him.  That was 6 years ago, and 5 instructors later I found 2 really good instructors.  The first instructor was manic only my friend and I were in the class.  He would show us a technique we would practice it 3-4 times, then he would move on to the next.  By the time it came to the next session I had already forgot 99% of what he had taught.  I was with him for 3 months!

The second instructor talked of big things saying he could get me loads of fights.  In the 2 years I was with him I had one fight, it should of been 8 but he would constantly come up with excuses for why I wasn't getting matched up.  The straw that broke the camels back came when he failed me for my black belt, which they were two reasons. 1: He discovered I was training with someone that had knock him out (I didn't know this at the time). 2: He disliked my ambitions of becoming an instructor.  When I asked him why I had failed, these were the excuses he told me.  So I left the club and told him he lacked any sort of professionalism.

The next instructor was the one who had ko the previous one.  He was top class, undefeated, technically perfect and a good instructor...until his complete lack of morals became apparent.  He had set me up with a fight, which I went along to eagerly.  He never turned up and I had to ask some random guy to come into my corner.  His excuse was that he was that he decided to work on his car and lost track of the time.  I forgave him as I was sick of going from instructor to instructor.  A few months later I became an instructor under him, I gave him £100 of my money for my instructors licence and insurance.  This was followed by £300 of my student’s money (including children), the next 6 months involved me continuously asking where is mine and my students licences and gi's.  Needless to say we parted on bad terms, and I never got my money back.  Also someone shopped him for not having a licence or insurance, he has now being banned from teaching after a couple of incidents.

I have now found 2 great instructors, one from Kuei-Ling martial arts and the other from Sor Thanikul.  With them I am now the NE, Scottish and European champion.  So you need to sick with it they are good instructors out there, you just have to sift through rubbish first.

Great question mate :-)

Answer 7

Then they have to go learn a REAL Martial Art! Too bad your grand master would get spanked by ANY real fighter! I hate all this fake MMA c**p... here hold his arm straight and apply pressure... then it will pop out.... YOU ARE A MORON!  

Bruce Lee studied a wealth of Martial arts! According to him all Arts are a SHAM, take moves that work and apply them, too many Arts are glorified by fancy moves...and people like you and your master that cant spell!   If all these master were so great they would be tested and have many videos of fights against worthy opponents... Even fighters in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea...ect dont believe in this c**p...they train just general Kung-Fu, Tai Kickboxing, and various forms of wrestling,Jiu-Jitsu, JuJitsu, Ju-Jitsu and Judo! Not some stupid animal form... try these moves on a real fighter... join an ameteur fight league... test your supposed skills. If these masters were so good they would do the same!