Natural Freedom

When starting training with a new teacher, especially when you already have years of prior martial arts experience, that experience can be both a strength and a challenge.
It brings discipline, awareness, and an understanding of training culture. But it must be held correctly.

In traditional martial culture there is a saying:
「滿杯不納新水」
A full cup cannot receive new water.

Emptying the cup does not mean forgetting your past training, disrespecting previous teachers, or pretending to be a beginner. It means suspending assumptions long enough to actually receive what is being taught.

Southern Praying Mantis, and many traditional systems passed down through teachers closely connected to earlier generations, often use familiar language: structure, relaxation, short power, whole-body force. Because these ideas appear across many systems, it is easy to assume they mean the same thing. Often, they do not.

Another traditional saying reminds us:
「同名不同功」
The name may be the same, but the skill is different.

When something is interpreted too early, because it “sounds similar”, training quietly stalls. The student begins comparing instead of listening, translating instead of receiving.

Real understanding is not forced. It emerges.

When the cup is empty, prior experience returns naturally at the right time. Old skills reorganise. Connections become clear without argument. Nothing is lost, but it is placed correctly.

This requires restraint: Listen before interpreting, Train before judging, Accept correction without explanation. Allow time to do its work

For experienced martial artists, this is often the hardest part of training, and the most rewarding.
If you can empty the cup, the depth will reveal itself.

That is not starting over.
That is learning properly.