Making a meal of it?

[Mart]

It strikes me from reading the forum that there seems to be many systems that make a mountain out of a mole hill (and other cliches) out of what are basic techniques.

 

I have done a few different systems and now that i think about it i experienced this in other systems(i wont name but leave this as a general discussion). Its as if techniques are made to appear harder than they are in class, not on purpose, as a metter of course.

 

I mean kicks and punches arent that complicated. I guess that is what attracted me to my system.

[Drunken Monkey]

hmm, how are we to discuss generally without a frame of reference?

 

if you are talking about something you have seen in a particular style, be it karate, wing chun, hung kuen, jiujitsu then mention what style.

 

there are many of us here who pratice these styles and we can then give you an idea of what do as opposed to what you have done in the past.

 

it makes for better discussion as we can let you know if what you experienced from the other styles is typical of the style.

[Mart]

Speaking from personal experience i spent some time doing Wushu. I found that the techniques were made far more complicated by explaining them and going into a detail that was of no use. Analyzing until it became meaningless.

 

When i took a break and went back a coule of months later i had taken the time to figure this out and left shortly after. I wonder if in the west we try to look to much into things and make it hardly to learn in doing so.

[Drunken Monkey]

well, that's wushu.

 

it's not exactly a fighting art now is it?

[Mart]

yeah, great. clever answer.

 

Wushu weopons arent bad actually.

[Drunken Monkey]

not clever.

 

true.

 

wushu taught these days is not much more than performance, even if it is performing with a sword in hand.

 

in kung fu circles, wushu is not really a fighting art.

 

it is however, an all emcopmassing name that refers to ALL chinese martial arts.

 

again, this is debatable as when we talk of martial arts in chinese, we just say that we practice 'wu' not wushu.

 

if you say that you pratcing wushu then that means a very specific thing and that is the former 'national art'.

[delta1]

American Kenpo is one art that, to those who havn't experienced it, would seeem this way. And, in all honesty, one of the problems we do have to deal with is that often new people get hung up on the techniques and forget their basics. But without basics, there are no techniques. It is usually corrected by not teaching new techniques till they show improvement in their basics.

 

As for the complexity of the system, once you learn the principles, and learn to break the techniques down to principles, it really isn't that difficult. The techniques themselves teach you to move, correctly useing principles. AK is meant to be an adaptable art- adaptable to the user, and to the opponent he faces, and to new methodologies or needs. To do that, each practitioner has to understand basic principles in order to evaluate new information as well as what works for him. Understanding of principles also allows the student to self evaluate, making the physical aspect of his basics more readily intrnalized. When you look at it this way, understanding principles is part of our basics.

 

Think of it as exponential JKD.

 

Note: in AK, a technique is a serries of moves strung together to deal with a particular attack. Sort of a mini kata. It teaches correct application of basics, principles and concepts, movement under the force of an attack, leading or setting up your opponent, changing up or modifying the moves to deal with variouse contingencies, and much more.

[WolverineGuy]

I've always thought it was important to build upon the basics, and keep going back to how the advanced techniques are related to them. It makes the advanced techniques easier to grasp, in my opinion. However, some of these relationships can only be seen with the overanalyzation you speak of.

[gheinisch]

My dojo stresses the basics(kihon) as something to build upon. Many techniques are derived from basic moves and if the basics are weak then so will any technique learned after it. You can say "kicks and punches arent that complicated" which is true to a point but if you truely study the physics and body dynamics (position of hands, foot or hand position, etc.) of a kick or punch you may be able to get more power, speed and better balance out of it which can help you in a follow-up technique. We know that being out of position after executing a technique is not a good thing. I agree that picking something apart can go to the extreme but to me it's just more knowledge to absorb.

[Mart]

Yes but how hard aer these techniques. Yes you need to put your limbs in the right place and be correctly balanced etc. But it seems to me it is concentrated upon to a point where it SEEMS harder than it is. Does that make scnse?