- Branden: Ironic. I believe our “coin jars” (budo training) are much bigger… and have far less in...
- karrie: Great post! My grandfather had a jar just like yours (minus the hole…)and filled it with pennies. Yes,...
- John: I think William Chow of kenpo fame claimed to be a 15th dan. Self-promoted, no less. Interestingly he lived in...
- Rick Matz: Very good post. Keep them coming.
- Matthew: haha, thanks Greg, I award you full points for that one. Although I would like to say that that is one thing...
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
The Martial Arts Strip
August 17, 2008 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Martial Arts, Opinion, modern arts
Common phrases you’ll here for totally-awesome-get-skill-quick programs:
“Forget all that bowing and scraping. I’m going to teach you the no-holds-bared, real-deal version of what the martial arts are all about!”
“Wanna become a street killer in 6 months? Sign up now for our intensive program that gets rid of all the fluffy nonsense of antiquated martial arts!”
“Instructor _____ _____ has studied the martial arts for over 30 and has black belts in _____, ______, ______, ______. In his revolutionary ‘power of the tiger’ program, he takes only the best techniques from each style and teaches you how to be the best!”
Marketing is fun! Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of schools are selling these days. Somewhere along the line, the stripping down of martial arts got obfuscated and cafuddled. Nowadays, we seem to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Originally, paring away layers of your art was a very traditional thing to do. Unfortunately, you could only start doing it after years of practice. In the old interpretation of stripping, one begins to investigate the deeper levels of meaning found in kata, practice, movement, and violence. This investigation of your art could reveal -
1. Bunkai. Intepretation of what kata movement actually means
2. Increased efficiency. How to change your body movement so as to decrease time and energy wasted.
3. Purpose. Why are we doing what we do? What relevance does this have to daily life?
4. Improved disposition. With a natural and healthy outlet for stress, overall lifestyle can improve.
5. Plenty else.
In a tricky way, digging deeper into martial arts helped practitioners dig deeper into themselves. The ultimate goal being “perfection” of body, mind, spirit.
The unnecessary fluff, such as structure, bowing, stancing, etc. were all tools to lead students down the proper path.
Nowadays, there seems to be a lack of patience for all that. The goal seems to be finding out the best way to punch someone in the throat (hint: they’re all pretty good.) What we have in these modern students is a sudden increase in technical ability with no sense of control or compass of when to use it. Furthermore, beyond that basic technicality, there is no knowledge of the intricate aspects provided by many years of quality training.
The martial arts of the old masters was leisurely, peaceful, ferocious, and lightning quick all in the same few moments. This was complete integration of art into lifestyle. If one just learns how to kick and punch and grapple, they risk losing that very special quality of classical art.
Devil’s Advocate - As I like to do, I want to poke a few holes in my own theory here. There are situations where pretense, or pomp, takes over an art. This obsession with ranking, military style structure, and hollow technical perfection of kata also drains away key aspects that classical arts try to instill.
It’s a really fine line between b.s. technique collection and b.s. procedure obsession. No matter what you study though, be it Goju-Ryu or BJJ, there is always room to pursue those lofty ‘classical’ goals.
No comments yet.
feel free to leave a comment
All fields marked with " * " are required.
Blogroll
Martial Arts Links
- Black Belt Mama
- Blog Flux Martial Arts Directory
- Formosa Neijia
- Ippon Kumite is Karate
- Isshin Ryu Karate Bun-jutsu-do
- Karate Thoughts
- Low Tech Combat
- Malcolm Bale’s Jujitsu
- MarksTraining.com
- Martial Arts Embroidery
- Martial Arts Mom
- Martial Views
- Mokuren Dojo
- Okinawa Karate and Kobudo Blog
- Real Taijiquan
- Striking Thoughts
- Tales of a Mommy Karateka
- TDA Training
- Traditional Taekwondo Blog in Perth Western Australia