Don't hold back.

Li explained a bit about the history of Kung Fu in general and the origin of Jeet Kune Do specifically. Most of this I already knew from having researched it after Bambi had signed us up for the class. He told us that it was an eight-week course, after which we would be invited to progress to an intermediate course if he felt we had met the goals of the basic course. He explained that there was no passing or failing, that we could retake the basic course as much as we liked until we qualified to move on to the next level. He did not mention an advanced course. I assumed that that was one of those 'if you have to ask... ' kind of things.

He told us that we would be doing a lot of stretching and flexibility exercises, followed by strength training and fighting techniques. To illustrate the kind of flexibility that could be achieved, he held his hand above his head with his arm straight up and swung his leg up and kicked the palm of his hand.

I knew I might regret it, but I immediately tried to imitate him, I was successful, too; except I hit my fingers instead of my palm and I darn near dislocated the ring finger on my right hand. I then had to stand there pulling my finger while Master Li looked at me with his usual no-expression-at-all look.

When I had shaken off the pain, he went on to demonstrate some of the stretching exercises and invited us to follow along. Once he was sure we understood the proper form of each, even if we could not yet achieve it, he moved on to the next. We did a variety of back and side bends, leg stretches, and rotations; most of which I could execute with only small deviations from the correct form. He went into great detail on the proper form for standing, which at first seemed to me to be pointless. He explained that it was intended as an aid to achieving relaxed, meditative awareness. It forced you to be aware of your posture and your balance, a good starting point for executing any offensive or defensive fighting moves.

We practiced some of the easier stretching exercises on our own for a while, then Master Li showed us the strength training drills. I was pleased to find that these were mostly punches and kicks repeated a number of times with increasing levels of intensity. This was the sort of thing I had come for, and I was glad to see that it was something we would be doing immediately.

At the end of the class, he let us work individually on what he had shown us, while he circulated and offered correction and suggestions for improvement. Neeka and I took the opportunity to retreat to an open spot and try some of the punches and strikes as we sparred with each other.

As usual, any punch I tried missed by a wide margin because Neeka was always prepared for whatever I was going to do. It was basically just shadow-boxing, except she would also counter-punch and attack and I had to dodge or block as well. Every few seconds, she would tag me and I would try harder to get her back. After a few pokes, I tried to break through her defense with raw speed - punching, kicking and swinging in a flurry of hands and feet. At first, I thought it might work. I had an advantage over her in speed and strength, but the first time I got wild and tried a high swinging kick, she grabbed hold of my ankle and twisted. I had to go with the flow or risk a pulled muscle. The muscle pull would only hurt for a few seconds, until I could heal it, but that would be cheating. I let her pull me off balance and twisted in the air and landed on my hands, with my nose to the floor.

As I raised my head, I saw Master Li standing next to me. At first I thought he was going to offer me a hand to help me get up, but he didn't move. Frustrated, I pushed off hard with my hands and stood up in a rush, facing him. He looked at us with what I was beginning to think of as his professionally inscrutable expression and then he nodded before he moved on to another student. It was the most expressive thing I had seen him do all afternoon.

At the end of the class, Master Li called us all together to remind us to practice what we had learned at least three times a week and to let him know if we decided not to continue with the classes. As we were leaving he approached us.

"Miss Kramer? Miss Morgan? May I speak with you a moment, please?"

"Yes, sir?" I said. I had heard others address him as 'Master' but I wasn't comfortable with that form of address. An ego thing, I supposed.

He led us to an area he had not shown the class. It was equipped with a lot of wooden boards, barrels, and one weird-looking contraption with big wooden pegs sticking out of it. He took a stout plank with rope wrapped around one end and set it on end between two wooden braces. He slapped the rope padding with his hand and said, "Hit this please. However you like."

I walked over and stood about five feet from the board. I stretched out my right leg to get the range and then I tried to execute a front kick according to the form he showed us. My heel smacked into the rope and the board flexed and rebounded. I turned to get Li's reaction.

"No," he said. "Don't worry about form. I want you to hit it as hard as you can. Don't hold back."

I looked at Neeka to get her input. She shrugged and nodded. I nodded back. We had already decided to continue with Master Li and it was not going to be possible to get the most out of the training if I had to keep hiding my abilities. This was the moment of reckoning and I was very excited about showing off in front of an expert in fighting. I was so up for this that I was bouncing on the balls of my feet.