Martial Development

MacGuyver could only stay on the air because he succeeded every time! Please consider that before comparing oneself to MacGuyver!

I do not imply that everyone else is fake. But the person in question was Xie Bingcan. I wasn't there. But I wouldn't rush to assign any more credibility to 100-year-old stories than to modern ones.

I met a Taiji instructor who studied directly with the senior members of the Yang and Wu styles. He said that the number of students to whom he has taught everything he learned from his own masters, is zero. In over fifty years of teaching, zero. Not because he doesn't want to share, but because nobody has been both willing and able to absorb it all. Some people like Taiji and others hate it. But how many are even capable of considering it--as it barely existed 100 years ago, and barely exists today--much less analyzing its strengths and weaknesses? Is this what passes for combat science nowadays? If you issue a challenge and nobody answers it, then you can rightfully declare yourself (or your ideology, if there is any difference) champion? Well, I guess that would explain the proliferation of Grandmasters.

For people who want to volunteer themselves for a polite comparison of skills, DojoScore is a great resource. Problem is, someone always wants to volunteer somebody else, to "defend the reputation of their shared art" or "expose fraud" or some other nonsense. When you are trying to make a name for yourself by answering challenges, you have no choice but to attract attention. But those who would make the challenges don't need to say a word, they can just go forward and handle their business. "Put up or shut up" applies to them especially.

Watching Glee is bad for your chi. The ancients recommended watching LXD on Hulu instead. And you have to use a low stance because the episodes are only 5-10 minutes long. That is what the ancients said in their ancient Taoist manuscripts.

That sly old fox stole my ideas, then traveled time to take all the credit.

I have never seen any great YouTube clip comparable to the best of what I've seen in person. Part of that is just the limitations of the medium, I'm sure. But then again, I have been specifically instructed not to post some stuff online, and I'm not the only one. The details are nobody's business...uh-oh, I feel another investigation starting?! As for ordinary skills, you don't need me to point them out, and ditto for no skill. Cuz I'm not the martial arts police, nor do I play one on forums. Except when I do, but that ain't here and now. I've spent just enough time there to decide I don't want to spend more time there. The average poster is neither very smart nor very experienced, and their so-called revelations are Martial Arts 101 in my personal opinion. Hearing from the few decent people on there isn't worth suffering the rest. Many of my past, current, and future training partners do not and will not share my low opinion of that forum. Some, like you I gather, disagree 100 percent. And that is OK. I offer alternatives for those who want them. Great. I hope you realize that is not their innovation, but great. Absurd. When one student is wrong, you hold the student accountable. When they are all wrong, you hold the teacher accountable. Or the moderators. I don't need to hear (again) how their reputation is the victim of an anonymous user base--that is a cowardly excuse unbefitting any adult, much less a courageous martial artist. If you want to know what the martial arts world would look like with those folks calling all the shots, just look at the entire forum as it stands now. No, not a small portion of it; not your favorite corner; all of it. Fcuk my life, I would have to take up fishing instead, before I could stand another worthless lecture about "fully resisting opponents". False advertising is usually legal. Lying is legal. And being lame is legal, obviously. Now, who has the strength and fortitude to stand up and protect the freedoms of the lamest, from the zealotry of the fundamentalists? Very few, I tell you what. Enough said about that. I don't want to chat about them any more. In other news, over here in Seattle, yet another citizen video of police brutality was released yesterday. After the cop got the guy cuffed, he started kicking that guy in the groin and head. These are our volunteer champions of law and order. Clearly, we need better screening and training of our volunteers, wouldn't you agree.

Everybody says that peace and happiness come from within. But if you actually act like it, people get real suspicious!

When people see ordinary kungfu skill on YouTube, they say, "That's just ordinary!" When people see extraordinary skill, they say, "It must be fake!" When people see no skill, they say, "Yeah I believe it!" What is their frame of reference and credibility? Their own personal experience, nothing more. For every humble student of the martial arts, there are 100 YouTube curators who fancy themselves a teacher. Not commenting on anyone here personally, of course--but "waking people up" is serious business and online education does not cut the mustard. On the other side of the coin...there are fake masters, sure. And as I have written previously, we need fake masters, because we need someone to absorb all the fake disciples! It's a free market. If you don't like it, move to North Korea...where you'll probably learn more than you ever wanted to know about urban survival...and YouTube best practices won't get you very far.

Breaking the Drama Triangle

There is nothing more traditional than beating a solid object with your fists. Nothing. Standing around is not traditional martial arts--it can't be more than 2500-3000 years old, and besides, fighting with that stuff is an off-label use. Was Musashi a traditional martial artist, or a modern fighter? Who should we ask? His "resisting opponents"? How about Genghis Khan? Oh well. Just ignore my recent comments. I've been drinking green tea all day.

Modern fighting? Traditional martial arts? What are these things? The more I hear about them, the less I know. Believe me, I'd like to know a lot more.

Surely I can't be the only one who found legitimate spiritual training to be unforgivingly brutal? The fake stuff is fake. It doesn't have a redeeming quality, or need one. Spirituality and combat are not two ends of a spectrum, I would say they are closer to one end of the same spectrum. What exactly is spirituality without death? Penn and Teller on martial arts Hardcore kickboxers in bad shape, and with little skill or awareness? I think you will find those results to be atypical. The benefits of an exoteric martial art are...obvious. Indisputable. If you can sell it, then it must be real. Merchantability is a kind of reality. There is a problem when that becomes the only reality...but if you list the styles of martial arts afflicted by that disease, boxing must be near the bottom of the list. OK, he wasn't a great fighter, obviously. But his wisdom quotient was zero too. So if I were him, I'd ask my guru for a refund. Loudly, with kiai power.

Why not put up a video of your trampy girlfriend hitting you over the head with a chair? Forget about resisting opponents, I train WWE and IMO that is where the real money is.