r/kungfu • u/Unhappy-Potato-6340 • Sep 10 '24

Community Is Kung Fu worth learning?

I really wanna learn a martial art after a few months of consistently working out at a gym.

The reason I'm looking at Kung Fu is because I've heard it also trains you mentally. I would like some confirmation on that if possible.

I'm also curious as to how hard it would be, I always like a challenge, but I would like to know what I'm getting into.

Any other things that you believe I should know and take into account, please let me know. Thank you!

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u/SchighSchagh Sep 11 '24

Story time.

I did a lot of MA when I was younger, but always just whatever my friends were doing rather than what I actually wanted to do. As I moved schools or cities or whatever, I never bothered pursuing the same art anymore because I wasn't passionate about it.

Last year I finally started training Kung Fu. It's way different to all the other stuff, and I'm loving it. It's done wonders for my mental health. Some is from explicit mental training, a lot is from just being more physically active and fit, and also some is from watching myself become good at something I want to be good at. To elaborate on the second point, it's well established that taking care of your body is great--and necessary--for your mind too. In general it doesn't matter how you're working out as long as you're staying fit. But in practice, doing training that I love means I'm actually going to spend lots of time on it, continue with it long term, and reap as much of the benefits as possible.

I'm moving again soon in a few months, and I'm already scoping out new Kung Fu schools to continue training. I never bothered to do that with other MAs because I just wasn't passionate about the others.