Inside Kung fu Article

Discussion in 'Silat' started by serakmurid, Feb 24, 2006.

  1. Narrue

    Narrue Valued Member

    I believe that secrecy to the point of stupidity will be the downfall of any art. There are martial arts that have died because of this. People have to move with the times and understand that the world moves and so too should those that live on it.

    The second problem can be illustrated with a game of Chinese whispers, you whisper something into one persons ear and they to the next, several persons along and the original message has become distorted and not the original teaching.
     
  2. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    I think there are plenty of styles that have died out and who will die out. And if the style survives, there is a very real chance of knowledge dying out on a specific style.

    Same with the low kuda-kuda. If you have not learnt what the application of that stance is, you might get the wrong idea that these stances are combat stances which you use as your original pasang before a fight. If noone corrects you on that you might even think that a stance like that might lure your opponent into attacking you, well....for sure that will happen, although I'm not too sure about the outcome :)

    Secrecy is a very dangerous thing because it is also something people can hide behind. They make the student believe that they will recieve some secret techniques when they study long enough and in the end, you will see there is no secret and you are tricked.
    I do think there is a difference between secrecy and not going public. That's about choosing a small group of people to train with and devote your time to, as opposed to creating large classes and from that larger class filter out some disciples.

    Greetings,
    Taoizt
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2007
  3. Pekir

    Pekir Valued Member

    Taoizt,

    I think secrecy is also often mistaken for "you'll learn certain things when the time is right". In my modest opinion it is not wise to teach nor explain students techniques when they have not progressed to that certain level. Has not much to do with secrecy I quess. I do agree that the word secret is sometimes mis-used by 'outsiders' who want acces to curriculums but can't because the school isn't public (we have never refused someone who seriously wanted to train at our school though!) On the other hand if someone is sincere about safeguarding their mort important techniques for a select group of students, why not? Should one be blamed for the misuse by others with whom one has no relation. I understand that some teachers have 'tricked' their students with their secret approach but there are people who have generalized the 'cheap trick' phenomena towards everyone who chooses to be selective.

    I don't fully agree with people who say a style or school might cease to exist over time when they are not open to the public or other schools. You might also ask yourself what stays 'alive' of a MA when it is under constant influence of other MA's? Is a new art created or should you designate such an art as an off shoot of an older? Who decides what is complentary or excess luggage? Is one of my students (or even myself for that matter) after let's say 4 years of training in the position to judge the completness of the full curriculum of the art? Isn't it maybe so that if a student heavily doubts the completness of an art that he should progress to another MA (system)? Nothing wrong with that.

    Maybe the question one should ask the doubtful student is: what is your goal with your martial art training? Is it pilling up techniques and fragments of systems without wondering if there still is a solid fundament to support it? Or train for the 'best' fundament first and then study other martial arts? It's not everyones goal to compete in UFC e.g. or to be the ultimate streetfighter.

    I love to see techniques/jurus of other styles but, although I can appreciate them, many of them would not really fit for example our foundation of movement. As you know I stopped training two completely different styles because the difference in movement and defensive/offensive approach interferred with my instinctive reflexes (along with some other stuff)

    Getting a bigger picture (literaly) of the fundamentals of other arts is a completely different thing and can be extremely functional in grasping the different offensive and defensive options. I doubt if there is an absolute need to include all the options (in the world) in your own curriculum. Would sound like a mission impossible....

    Pekir
     
  4. Tuankaki

    Tuankaki Valued Member

    And the beat goes on.

    We're again very pleased to have Maha Guru Plinck and Guru Bob Vanatta out here on Sept 29th and 30th. I love to learn new tricks to integrate into American Dutch Indo Fu (tm).

    I hope all is well with our neighbors and cousins in the arts.
     
  5. Tuankaki

    Tuankaki Valued Member

  6. taoizt

    taoizt Valued Member

    Funny to read this old thread. How things have changed over the years....lol
     
  7. kuntaoer

    kuntaoer Valued Member

    Most definitely has been a roller coaster of a ride since this thread was activated.. A lot of controversy and conflicts between the silat, Bukti Negara, serak and kuntao community since this came about..
     
  8. serakmurid

    serakmurid Valued Member

    I would definitely agree with you, as the original author of this thread, it has been very "interesting".
     
  9. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    Greetings and respects! Nice to "see" ya!

    Doc
     
  10. serakmurid

    serakmurid Valued Member

    Hi Doc! Great to "see" you too! Still teaching?
     
  11. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    Nah. I wasn't teaching anymore when I was in your Serak class.

    Pretty much just a boring fella these days.Go to work,go home.

    I haven't cultivated a long white beard & eyebrows yet,nor do I wear Taoist robes
    but maybe someday I'll decide to cash in like so many of the T'ai Chi "masters".

    Like,write a really "heavy & mystical"" article for T'ai Chi magazine on the analogies twixt T'ai Chi and playing trad Irish/Scots music on the tin whistle.

    GAG! Guess not.It ain't me.

    Well,maybe next year after I retire I'll just go issue ritual challenges to all the TC teachers in town.

    You can come visit me in the slammer!


    Glad to see you've still got a crew.Tell Kev "hi" for me next time you speak.Miss you guys.
     

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