I guess it's safe to risk one more post without worrying too much about taking this off track
| “ | students who do nothing but forms, win tons of trophies, and come on with an attitude to fellow students because of their success. Even worse are teachers that allow or promote this attitude. It's a dangerous attitude to have, for both safety and business reasons. | ” |
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Sure, a bad thing, but blaming form competitions for it is like blaming restaurants for the fact lots of people go to a restaurant to gorge themselves.
IMO it's quite simple - forms training is not, in itself, bad, so forms competitions, an incentive to training forms, are not, in themselves bad. You can't blame forms competition for ignorant, arrogant competitors any more than you can blame fighting competitions for ignorant, arrogant competitors.
There is a missunderstanding that forms competitions are necessarily about copying some one elses movements exactly. This may be the way some competitions are judged but that is bad judging, not an inherent fault of forms competition.
I've trained with a beijing institute champion and there was no arrogance, no boastfullness, no untoward assumptions about martial ability. What there was was detailed, expert knowlege of the movements and mastery of the techniques in isolation - which is where we get to
| “ | I will be prepared if the need arise | ” |
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Expertise in techniques in isolation does not guarantee the ability to apply them. For some tecniques pretty much the reverse, for others it is possible given coordination, timing, the ability to judge distances - all of which all animals including humans have naturally to some degree and develop by more methods than just martial arts training. You could create a point based system - ability in isolation so many points, practicing with a partner so many points, fighting in the ring so many points... a person who only practiced forms would not have zero points of ability, though I think we all agree they would have many less points than a person who also did a lot of drilling and fighting. Personally, I've never met any one who only practiced forms. Even the least martial tai chi school I've trained in involved some push hands work.
Then it comes back to goals. Fighting skill is mostly a means to an end, not an end in itself. Here I can only speak of most of the people I've spoken to who trained for fighting skill. For most it is a means to feeling that they will not get badly hurt in a projected situation. I think that is a flawed goal, they are seeking an illusion. There is no way to make yourself safe "time and chance happen to all". I am not saying they won't improve their chances - but I think that there are better ways to achieve their goal. Instead of training to fight once the confrontation gets violent they could attend some of those seminars "situation management" people go to. They could train internal systems that alter the practitioner so they are less likely to be involved in violence and more able to read intent in others and so avoid them. I also think that given their goal they should focus on more real risks to their health and safety.
Opinions on this will vary but I believe (pm me if you want the long and rambling why) that violence, however justified and necessary leads only to more violence and risk. Hence the jet li quote - not because I believe mma fighters are all thugs (don't be so defensive
) but because I believe all violence, even justified, comes back. That makes fighting skill a less optimal method to achieve the goal of avoiding injury in a projected situation than avoiding the situation. Of course, if you fail in that then fighting skill is a very useful fallback but I believe many give their fallback the effort they should give their primary solution.
For others fighting skill is a means to the end of peer respect and a feeling of self worth. Just like the forms competitors who consider a trophy makes them feel special these people feel that being good at fighting makes them special. Personally I think both could save a lot of aches and pains and just pay a coach to tell them they're great. You see a lot of that in yoga. Just so we're clear, I can't think of any one that fits this category on the dlist.
Is TCM actually aqira in drag??
