Zaturdays: Liquid Swords and Tre Flips

One of the many things that was revolutionary about the Wu Tang Clan when they first broke onto the scene was their invention of an alternate reality for themselves, creating a Kung Fu inspired dopplegroup from far flung reaches of the planet. I got sparked immediately based on references to Shaolin Monks, Wu Tang swords, flying guillotines, Tiger Style, etc. But I always liked the idea of Kung Fu movies more than the actual movies themselves, which tend to be both halfway decent and then really really awful at the same time. The corny voice-overs, melodramatic acting, and glue on beards can be tough to get past. My personal tastes aside, besides inspiring fantasies about taking down 100 ruffians with one’s bare hands, Kung Fu movies are good teachers, usually with a focus on learning to endure hardships and overcoming difficulties. Which brings me to a film from 1975 called The Four Assassins. The movie highlights the assassins’ training to become masters of their specialized disciplines in order to defeat the Mongol army (who are threatening to make everyone in the world push Mongo?). Each assassin is forced to suffer some mundane task, like picking up insanely heavy rocks, or (oddly) digging around in a pile of really itchy beans. But the assassin I remember best is the one instructed to jump out of a four-foot deep water hole without using his hands. He tries and tries and tries, fails and fails and fails. When he finally succeeds, and actually leaps his way out of the hole, he’s become so good at it that he can jump ten feet in the air, flipping, spinning, judo airing. Then it’s time to wail on those Mongols. The point of retelling the plot of a 40 year old Kung Fu movie is this: In skateboarding, just like Kung Fu movies, failure is vital to getting better. Think Chris Cole trying to Tre flip Wallenberg. If you make everything all the time, you’re not trying hard enough tricks (With the exclusion of Shane O’Neill maybe). The more we fail, the more we learn. If it takes all day, or all week, or all month, you know you’re getting somewhere. - Paul Zitzer