Posted by KC Elbows on October 17, 2002 at 07:38:32:
In Reply to: Re: Perhaps you didn't understand posted by name on October 16, 2002 at 11:21:38:
'My understanding is to use the different forms we learn to build the body up. Not to figure out ways to beat the crap out of people and risk tearing our bodies to shreds.'
I got thinking about this quote last night while working on a lesson plan(I occassionally work out different lesson plans in case I need to run class, or just to change up practice a bit, as my teacher is very open to adding different exercises and such when applicable).
What came to me, and I'd never noticed it before, is that a lot of people have placed the fighting discussion in a context which is intrinsically flawed.
They say fighting damages the body, and to some degree, they are correct. My nose has been broken countless times(the last time not even doing kung fu, irritating as that is!), I've suffered temporary injuries that have ranged from annoying to downright painful, and yet I still do it.
There are some that would say that I am foolish, that I am taking risks with my health to uphold an archaic and brutal art. They would tell you that it's all about health and such. From a chi kung and meditative master, I accept such views. What they do is all about health. From a martial artist, and most certainly a martial arts teacher, I do not.
Why? Simple. Earlier, you said:
'I plan to train and teach and help others in the same ways in which I have been guided.'
Without exception, throughout my practice, I have found the only useful guidance came from those who sacrificed a bit of themselves for their art. The simplest is the discipline and time. Such sacrifice taught me lessons of motivation, but not lessons of fighting, not martial lessons.
Greater than that, I feel, is the sacrifice of ego. Those that sacrificed ego might not in every case have been the best martial artists, but they did not fear sparring with their betters, they improved from it.
Finally, there is the (potential) sacrifice of your health. This is a major one. I have known teachers who sparred/fought everyone they could in order to test their art and refine it. This group rarely seemed to care about winning, but about improving their art. On a tape a friend of mine has, two monks fight, each using a different style. It is brutal, pure fighting, full force elbows to the head, insane locks, scary combat in every way. At the end of the demo(and it was a demo, not a competition), they stopped and bowed and made sure the other person was okay. They did this to improve the art they had, to keep it from being 'watered down', as seems to be the catch phrase these days.
Some martial artists do this in order to know that they teach the most refined art they are capable of.
So when martial arts teachers show a disdain for such an unselfish sacrifice made for the future students of the style, I wonder that someone should speak so and not see that they have no genuine authority on the subject when they themselves have shied away from real personal sacrifice.
Any man who claims to teach how to fight and has not risked injury in his training and learned to weather blows when that is the only option open to him can teach you nothing of the sort. This does not mean he has to forever risk his health, but the history of martial arts is filled with old masters who were young fighters once. Supposedly even John C Kim.
*; =qq(