Ya see what I... ah screw it, brain's too tired.

Since I started learning WingTsun, there have been a lot of things in life that I wish worked as intuitively as WingTsun. In this specific instance, I'm speaking of learning law and preparing for the bar exam. One of my law professors once opined in class, "The practice of law is a lot like kung fu training. You memorize different things a court might ask you and memorize the appropriate response to each question, just as in kung fu you learn different blocks for each different kind of strike." I, of course, being well on my way to cruising through my 3L year, didn't really feel like drawing attention to myself by pointing out that it's a lot more effective to train in a way where your baseline response to everything is to step in and send your hands forward.

Unfortunately, my professor was right in that learning the law is a lot like the traditional paradigm of martial arts where you have to conjure up response #42576 when someone throws attack #1125 at you, but if they use attack #1124 or #1126 instead, you have to then come up with response #314 or #9987. To some extent the bar prep classes try to convince you that knowing how to answer a bar exam essay question is more like WingTsun than like other kung fu styles, by telling you, "No matter what topic or subject your exam question is on, just remember to apply the IRAC [law student lingo for 'Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion'] format." Unfortunately, the IRAC advice exists at such a high level of generality that it would be the equivalent of a kung fu instructor telling his student, "If someone attacks you, you have to defend yourself." Duh.

In conclusion: WingTsun good, law bad. I suppose I should get back to studying instead of dallying in the blogosphere.