Martial Arts Instructors

[Pingpang]

aaaaaaaand some more, this time from http://www.wustylehk.com/en/?Learning_Wu_Style

 

 

How can the slow motion we often see senior people practising in parks be considered a martial art?

These motions are known as "The Form" or "The Chuan". The practice of this series of motions may last for ten minutes to half an hour. The Form contains healthful, martial and meditative aspects; but it is still only part of the complete training of the art of Tai Chi Chuan.

 

The form has aspects of health, martial arts and meditation. However it is still only part of complete training in the art. The martial aspect of The Form is not readily apparent to the uninitiated. A simple answer could be "You must to be able to do it slow before you can expect to do it fast", but there is much more to it then that. Besides the obvious martial benefits of balance, co-ordination, and looseness The Form also cultivates qualities like a relaxed focused mind and healthy resilient body. It trains the core motion and reactions of the practitioner, increasing the person's martial potential. The Form also contains, in its movements, a myriad of martial applications and the elements of power generation. These are hidden from an untrained observer in much the same way that fine poetry will not be revealed to someone who has not learned the language yet.

 

The Form is the basis of Tai Chi Chu'an but "Push Hands" is considered the "gateway into martial arts". There are also other martial exercises beyond Push Hands. The confusion about Tai chi Chu'an being a martial art has probably arisen in part because many Tai Chi Chu'an schools only practice The Form and exercises focused on health and meditation. This may be because the founder of the school has not learned the martial practices or that the students do not have the desire or have progressed far enough to learn them.

[Pingpang]

 

I am slowly starting a small network of individuals , mainly in systems that have a relevance towards reality and competitive fighting.

Use this thread if you are interested. More than anything I think Sheffield needs to have its own amateur kickboxing circuit the same way it has an amateur boxing circuit.

 

What are your views?

 

hiya chefkicker

 

just a small respectful point, but i wonder if with this statement you are grouping systems with a relevance towards reality and competitive fighting together?

 

in my experience and understanding, systems that are geared towards competition often have their more useful "reality" techniques watered down or removed - judo is a good example of this

 

what are your views?

 

[Cyclone]

It depends on what you mean by fighting.

Judo has so many rules that it barely resembles a fight.

UFC or 'Cage Fighting' on the other hand, looks much more like fighting, with minimal rules just stopping dirty things like biting and gouging.

[Crayfish]

Reality means things that work better with less rules. The closest you'll get to that is mixed martial arts - although obviously wearing gloves etc. means this still isn't completely real. Some arts claim to be more realistic because they include biting and gouging and thumbs in eyes - but their practitioners never get the chance to test these things in full resistance scenarios so although they might know how to do them, there's a big step between doing something to a willing, relaxed and immobile partner and to one who's elbowing you in the face at the time. You get good at something by practising it, to get good at fighting you have to practise fighting, in my opinion.

 

All or at least most martial arts come from a practical perspective at some point though, just made safer and more artistic over the course of time... I sometimes wonder if studying something like tai chi chuan from the mindset of a fighter might allow the techniques to be brought back to their original intent and be useful for incorporation into competitive / reality type styles (including both of these terms, competition with an intent to approach realism - not all competition is realistic).

 

I've seen some very interesting studies into tai chi's health benefits too, I'd really like to take it up when (if) I have time.

[Pingpang]

good points, cyclone & crayfish, thanks

 

my intention with tai chi has always been to get into the application/combat side of it, tho i do appreciate the health benefits

 

some teachers still do teach the combat side of it - i'm starting to get into that now, after building a solid foundation with the long form

 

my teacher doesn't bring the interactive elements in until the foundations have started to take shape

 

[chefkicker]

Cheers Farhad ..... My instructors in Sheffield are Paul Sharpe and Eric Mather; both of whom have forgetten more karate than I know. Also at the All Saints club there is Kris, a 2nd Dan who has trained throughout the UK and had a long stint training in Japan. (something I've always dreamed of).

 

Big omision from your list are Adam and Kev from the Steel City Shotokan ..... they give good traditional karate with an extra twist of doing alot of pad work (unusual for Shotokan) and I've got a feeling that Kev and his son have done a fair bit of kickboxing themselves .....

 

Hi John

I do apologise for the omissions. Interesting! I would very much like to meet these guys (Adam and Kev). Adam has signed my guestbook and he posts on here doesnt it?

One of my students teaches D&T at All Saints School.

[chefkicker]

I'm not quite sure I know what your trying to say with this thread or if your trying to acheive/organise something, if so I don't know what that is either.

 

 

 

You've listed various styles and arts and also a couple of practitioners of each one but I can't quite see what your getting at?

Are you trying to promote some kind of knowledge base between all the styles, I don't know, maybe trying to encourage the sharing of technique and skills? Or is it more from a business minded view, maybe like trying to start a circle of gyms recognised as being reputable in teaching martial arts and perhaps trying to create a Sheffield Martial Arts coalition?

 

 

Do you mean Kick Boxing instructors should network more?

You mention a small network of individuals, what will be the purpose and aim of this group? Obviously I'm not asking for justification or anything like that and there's no reason I should, just thought I'd enquire as to what you meant by this?

 

As for the Amateur Kickboxing circuits, I couldn't possibly pass a comment either way, I know that from my own back ground in Thai Boxing that there aren't enough gyms (in Sheffield) that produce fighters to sustain any kind of inter Sheffield circuit, I know there are Amateur competitions Nation and World wide but don't think there would be much use for something on such a small circuit, although I can only speak for my own area.

 

Hi Wesley

The reason for this thread is mutiple fold. You are right for most of them.

1.Cross Training and sharing of knowledge. MMA & reality based training is all the rage these days and you will find many students for training in a few different arts .

Examples (false names used , but they are based on real people to an extent).

 

Spod trains once a week at Wicker and twice at AFK, he also does a weekly session of Krav Maga.

Jin trains BJJ at the 393 club 2 times a week and trains with AFK 2 times a week too.

Buchu trains at the Wicker once a week with Christian privately, does a normal class at the wicker occasionally and trains with Sheffield Shoot Fighters the rest of the time.

Star trains at AFK 3 times a week and she also does Boxing on the side.

Cad trains in BJJ 3 times a week and does one lesson at AFK for stand up.

Blu does boxing 4 times a week and a session at the Wicker.

Pika teaches and trains in WTF Taekwondo 4 times a week and trains at AFK once a week.

 

2.The circle of reputable gyms is definitely a good idea. Slowly helps the promotion of good martial arts and leads to a slow demise of the McDojo (well its a nice dream).

 

3. The kickboxing instructors networking. Now whenever I or one of my guys fought in Birmingham, I noticed one thing. They all support each other. Yes there is sporting rivalry but they leave the rivalry in the ring where it belongs.

One gym does an interclub the others come in flocks. One gym promotes a show the other gyms will bring a few fighters with them.

The now defunct B.K.O (British Kickboxing Organisation) was the same. There were mainly gyms from around the Derbyshire region along with Nottingham Kyukushin (A full contact knockdown karate group who dabble in mainly K-1 style kickboxing) , AFK, Reflex (suffolk) and a few clubs from Wales.

 

So yes this is how the amateur kickboxing circuit will grow and yes I do intend to work my hardest to be a pioneer of this in Sheffield. Loads of clubs claim to teach Kickboxing, lets see if any of them will actually put any fighters forward.

If they cant even provide anyone at Amateur level to a novice standard then either the club is no good OR the trainer is a lying scumbag who doesnt really (or should that be is incapable of) teaching Kickboxing.

 

Thank you for your post Stussonicos, it was the most relevant (to my needs anyway) on this thread.

[Crayfish]

Am I really a Cad, or was that the other Chris? I always thought of myself as more of a knave.

 

Sorry I didn't make Friday by the way - exam fever's settled in now so I'm not sure how the next few weeks will be for training.

 

Good luck with this thing!

 

Ciao,

 

Chris

[ANVIL]

hiya chefkicker

 

just a small respectful point, but i wonder if with this statement you are grouping systems with a relevance towards reality and competitive fighting together?

 

in my experience and understanding, systems that are geared towards competition often have their more useful "reality" techniques watered down or removed - judo is a good example of this

 

what are your views?

 

 

check out the forum on http://www.geoffthompson.com for a good run down of what VERY experienced street fighting martial artists find more relevant for reality situations. judo is highly regarded as a supplementary skill, in fact apart from genuine RBSD training, it is the competitive systems that are given more credence.

[Crayfish]

I have to agree actually, while not comprehensive, what judo does it does very well. Stand up grappling's something I need to work on, never been a strong point.