Wanna Learn Kung Fu? Yeah. It's a Wellness Thing.
Episode 29 of Wellness Me Up — Wellness Me Up Diary Entry
with Online Kung Fu Coach Dr. Veronika (Verca) Partikova
Written and hosted by Amanda Reece, founder of Wellness Me Up.
Wanna learn Kung Fu online? You actually can. Verca Partikova has 25 years of martial arts experience, almost 20 MMA fights, and moved across to Asia to train at the source. You won't learn it as fast as Neo downloaded it — but you can put in the real work at your own pace from wherever you happen to be in the world.
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Who Is Verca Partikova?
Verca Partikova is an online Kung Fu coach with 25 years of martial arts experience, an MMA fighter with almost 20 fights, and someone who lived in Hong Kong for eight years before moving to Thailand to continue training at the source. She is also a woman teaching martial arts — which apparently gives some people on the internet feelings. We will get to that.
She coaches Kung Fu online in a way that is holistic, sustainable, and deeply individualised. Movement. Strength and conditioning. Mobility. Mental tools. Mentoring. A four pillar system covering practice, mind, body, and direction. She built the program she wished had existed when she was learning.
And she is here to tell you that Kung Fu — done properly — is a vehicle for life.
Kung Fu Is a Vehicle for Life
This came from Verca's Sifu — her Kung Fu master — and it reframes the whole thing.
You are not training to become a professional Kung Fu master. That is not the point. The point is that the training improves everything else. The quality of your movement. Your resilience. Your self-awareness. Your ability to stay grounded when life throws something at you.
The physical practice becomes a lens through which you understand yourself better. And that understanding bleeds into everything — how you handle pressure, how you recover from setbacks, how you show up for the people in your life.
It is not about belts either. There are no belts in Verca's system. People join because they love the journey. Because they want to become someone different through the process of learning something hard over a long period of time.
That is wellness. That is exactly what this podcast is about.
No Quick Fixes. No Become a Shaolin Monk in 30 Days Nonsense.
Verca was very clear about this from the start and I respect it enormously.
The online wellness and fitness space is absolutely saturated with quick fix promises. Six week transformations. One hour videos that solve everything. And martial arts is not immune to it — there are people selling online courses promising results that would take decades to actually develop.
Verca has been training for 25 years. She moved to Asia. She has fought in almost 20 MMA bouts. When someone in her comments called her just another influencer selling a quick fix — and yes that happened — she was understandably unimpressed.
But rather than trying to out-shout the noise she just kept doing the work. Building her coaching model the right way. Making sure every student gets real feedback, real interaction, and a real learning experience — not a video to watch alone and wonder what to do with.
She also made a point I think about a lot in my own wellness journey. Real change takes time. Your brain needs to catch up to what your body is learning. The lifestyle shift has to actually integrate before it sticks. You cannot download it. You cannot rush it. You just have to keep showing up.
Who Comes to Train With Her
I loved this part of the conversation because I expected Verca to say complete beginners. And yes — beginners come. People who have always wanted to try martial arts and never started.
But a huge portion of her students already have experience. Ex-military. People with 20 years of combat training. Experienced martial artists who have been disappointed by what they found elsewhere and are looking for something with more depth, more quality, more real engagement.
And some of them have told her that learning with Verca online has been better than anything they experienced in person. Which surprised even her.
The online format also opens things up for people who live somewhere without access to a Kung Fu school. People who travel constantly. People with physical or mental health considerations that make a group class feel impossible. People who have had bad experiences before and need something different.
Wherever you are in the world. Whatever your background. There is a way in.
The 2AM Thought Spiral
The WTF wheel got personal on this one.
What is your 2AM thought spiral topic?
Verca's answer was immediate and completely human. Imposter syndrome. Am I good enough? Am I tough enough? Do I belong here?
She has almost 20 MMA fights. She still asks herself this before every single one.
I jumped in with my own version of this because same. I started this podcast wondering if people would actually want to listen to me — someone who swears a lot, fires off thoughts faster than words can keep up, and fills gaps with like and um and all of the filler words. And I had to remind myself — the right people will find it. Authenticity is the point.
I love the parrot analogy for this and I use it all the time. Imagine a parrot on your shoulder that just talks shit about you constantly. Says you are not good enough. You do not belong. Who do you think you are. And the longer you listen to that parrot the more you believe it.
So get a better parrot. One that says nicer things. Because your brain will believe whatever it hears on repeat — so it might as well hear something that is actually going to help you.
Verca also shared something that stuck with me. She said the voice in her head at 2AM is louder than her ability to remind herself those are not her real thoughts. Even after 25 years. Even after almost 20 fights. Even after everything she has built.
We are all just humans out here trying to get the parrot to shut up.
The Night Routine That Actually Helps
I shared mine in this episode because Verca's 2AM answer opened something up for me.
For a long time I medicated myself to sleep. Alcohol. Drugs. Prescription medication. Anything to quiet the pain in my body and the noise in my brain long enough to rest. My body hurt and my brain would not stop and sleep felt like a battle every single night.
What has helped me now is intentional routine. A specific playlist — something called Soothing Oasis on Spotify — that signals to my body it is time to wind down. A shower at night where I genuinely visualise rinsing the day away. Everything that happened going down the drain. Not carrying it into sleep.
It sounds simple. It works. And it took me a long time to figure out that the simple things are usually the ones that actually do something.
What Wellness Me Up Means to Verca
Putting herself first. And genuinely struggling with it — because like so many coaches and business owners, she is always thinking about her students, her content, her next session, the moving parts behind the scenes.
She talked about burnout. About how easy it is when you work for yourself to just keep going until your body forces you to stop. No one tells you the workday is over. No one enforces a boundary between work and rest. And so you have to do it yourself — which is much harder than it sounds.
Wellness Me Up for Verca is the reminder to pour into your own cup before you pour into everyone else's. To actually do the things she teaches her clients. To take care of her own body, mind, and emotions — not just everyone else's.
The helpers need help too. We say it a lot on this podcast. Verca lives it.
Want to train with Verca?
Verca Partikova is an online Kung Fu coach with 25 years of experience offering holistic martial arts coaching that covers movement, mindset, mobility, recovery, and lifestyle — all online, all individualised, wherever you are in the world. Seven day trial available so you can see exactly what you are getting into before you commit.
👉 kungfuacademic.com
📱 Instagram & Facebook: Kung Fu Academic
📱 WhatsApp available via her website
If this one made you wanna learn Kung Fu... go find Verca. And subscribe to Wellness Me Up wherever you listen.
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