They're good points. IMO compliant students are very inexperienced with martial arts in general (and I'm saying this as one who had little/no MA training when I started, either), PLUS they don't want to hurt their instructor, plus in a demonstration they are inclined to exaggerate even more to make their instructor look even better.

Those same students will argue that what they have learned by being pushed back against the wall is how to defend themselves. They have put on blinders and are not seeing what the real exercise is.

I was in the bookstore this evening looking for the latest book in a series. The series is mostly paperback with some hardcovers, I hate paying full price for hardcovers. So I passed by the hardcover section without even thinking, couldn't find the new book in the paperbacks. I had to ask the clerk who gave me a blank stare and just pointed at the giant "New Hardcovers" rack and there was the book, plain as day.

New students tend to do the same thing. Yes, they're being compliant but because they're investing money & time they don't want to admit it or see the flaws.

So much of TCMA has the "street performer" element in it -- chi gong demonstrations, breaking bricks, forms, lion dances, acrobatics -- and these are all great for building the body and/or picking up chicks, but are only one element of a process. Much of their purpose is to get new students in the door so the style stays alive. This demonstration is the same kind of thing, there's no fighting there, it's just to amaze the ignorant and get new students in the door.

What matter is, what is that master teaching his students when there is no demonstration going on? Is he telling them that the "act" is just an act, and teaching real application? Is he teaching them proper structure and balance, footwork and breathing? Or is he just running them through standing post and then throwing them around the room?

The essay makes 2 very important points: look for BS by observing & comparing your art with a disparate art, and don't try to be an exact copy of someone else -- be an original of yourself. In my own style I hear people every day: "Man, I wanna move like sigung, if I can get that low my kung fu will be really good!" I already know I won't ever move like my sigung. But I can take the material I have and make it work for me.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...