Tunnel Vision?

[cerebus]

Does anyone here ever think that maybe they have developed "tunnel vision" as far as martial arts is concerned? Do you ever step back and ask WHY you train Kung Fu in the first place? Is it for health? Self defense? Have you accomplished your goal? Are you neglecting LIFE in favor of minutiae?

[johnwang]

My "tunnel vision" is very simple.

1. Develop a new idea, test it.
2. Modify that idea, test it again.
3. Repeat testing/modification until it's perfect.

If you want to continue your testing through your old age, you will have no choice but to keep yourself in good health. Since you will always have more new idea, you will never be able to accomplish your goal until the day that you die.

Kung Fu is LIFE.

[MaartenSFS]

Agreed.

Is Gongfu a hobby for you or is it a way of life? For me I sometimes wonder if I am pursuing Gongfu too much over other aspects of my life. Then I take a day off and go on an adventure or something, but always come back to it.

[edededed]

Does anyone here ever think that maybe they have developed "tunnel vision" as far as martial arts is concerned? Do you ever step back and ask WHY you train Kung Fu in the first place? Is it for health? Self defense? Have you accomplished your goal? Are you neglecting LIFE in favor of minutiae?

Yeah, sometimes I am in that very place. I've never been really good at this stuff, or physically talented, either; yet I spent a good chunk of my life mainly thinking about this stuff. I guess I could have been doing more "productive" stuff, or become more successful, or the like, instead. I don't know if it was worth it, to be honest. I don't know why I like this stuff... but I do. At the least, I hope I can keep myself healthy with it.

[chenyaolong]

We spend god knows how much time, effort and money, training something that we may only actually use for real once in our lives. Seen in that light, it makes you think the health, social and cultural aspects are more important than the combat. I don't think you can claim to be a top authority on a fighting art unless you are either a war vet, professional mma fighter (or other sport fighter) or grew up in da hood etc.

[Bao]

IMHO, it's very important to re-evaluate our reasons to practice and continue to practice. Some people might enjoy the social parts, competing or the cultural aspects. But if you after decades continue to practice for the same reasons as you started when you were young, I suspect it means that you have never really grown up.

I started practicing Tai Chi for the sake of learning martial arts.
I continued because practicing improved my life.
And now ... maybe I forgot the reason why I still practice... ?
It's become a part of my life, it's a part of who I am. I was raised with tai chi, from being a child to become an adult. It has always been a part of my development. Even if I haven't been able for periods to practice every day or intense, the art has always stayed alive in my mind. I think about it and reflect about it every day, even on very busy periods when I don't get time to practice. For me it's not about neglecting life, but quite the opposite around. It's about cheering and celebrating life. For me it's more like a walking stick in life than anything else, and somewhat like a mirror that helps me to reflect myself and teach me to understand more about myself and who I am.

[MaartenSFS]

+1

[Ian]

Because I love it.

[leifeng]

Personally I am only concerned about how many extra suitcases of money I have to spend on this in the future.

[Michael Babin]

I keep training because I love the interaction with students and colleagues... even when it's frustrating or bruising to the body and ego. The solo training I do because I should... not because I love it in the same way as the "hands-on" stuff.

When you have enough experience, I also think that it's also important to pass on whatever I may know to those who want to study these arts seriously and who have the same hunger to keep learning. I don't often meet people who are "hungry" enough.

I suppose, if I'm honest, that I have never been "hungry" enough to train and live only for the martial arts even though I've been at in since 1970. The few real 'super experts' that I have met in the last 25 years were that kind of obsessive practitioners that made me look like a dilettante by comparison; but family and other interests always pulled me away from that kind of single-minded devotion.

I suppose it ends up being a question of what you want out of your life and your training.

[taiwandeutscher]

IMHO, it's very important to re-evaluate our reasons to practice and continue to practice. Some people might enjoy the social parts, competing or the cultural aspects. But if you after decades continue to practice for the same reasons as you started when you were young, I suspect it means that you have never really grown up.

I started practicing Tai Chi for the sake of learning martial arts.
I continued because practicing improved my life.
And now ... maybe I forgot the reason why I still practice... ?
It's become a part of my life, it's a part of who I am. I was raised with tai chi, from being a child to become an adult. It has always been a part of my development. Even if I haven't been able for periods to practice every day or intense, the art has always stayed alive in my mind. I think about it and reflect about it every day, even on very busy periods when I don't get time to practice. For me it's not about neglecting life, but quite the opposite around. It's about cheering and celebrating life. For me it's more like a walking stick in life than anything else, and somewhat like a mirror that helps me to reflect myself and teach me to understand more about myself and who I am.

+ 1
And the arts did save me from smoking nearly anything and drinking almost anything.
It then gave me the strength and concentration to study Chinese (modern and classical), go for a PhD and get a regular job, keeping it for 17 yrs..
When I was seriously injured nearly 3 yrs. ago, the neigong part opened up anew for me, further than ever before.
So the arts are even more than a walking stick, maybe an external skeleton, giving me more power and more devotion to any thing at hand.

But there are other experiences out there. A highly decorated friend out of the Japanese arts did quit after 35 yrs. for social reasons, he wanted to quit violence And a Taiwanese teacher did quit after killing someone accidentally.

[Steve Rowe]

Someone said to me the other day, "family comes first, then work, then martial arts" and I thought what an utterly ridiculous thing to say, suspected it was his wife talking through him. Events are prioritised not things. If your wife wants you visit an aunt with her and you have an important MA event that day she would reschedule, if a parent was dying maybe you would reschedule, prioritising is just a natural part of life. I put all my MA events in the calendar a year in advance and they take priority unless something more important comes up. Each of us knows what's more important for ourselves and our partners and if there's a clash we discuss, that's what grown ups do. I don't 'do' martial arts I am a martial artist, it's what I am, despite being 65 and crippled I still train and teach every day albeit sometimes from the seated position or using a crutch.

Good martial arts widens your perspective on life, religion, culture, politics, relationships and helps you to become a better person. If it narrows you to tunnel vision, then you're definitely doing something wrong.

[Michael Babin]

Nice post, Steve, it rings true to my experience after a life-time of recreational martial arts.

Some of the long-timers I know are bitter, paranoid egotists and have just gotten worse with time but even more are well-adjusted and contributing members of society ... even if they started out in the former category. Good instruction, competent practise and good fellowship [dare I say "good sportsmanship"] should improve character as well as strengthen the body and the will of long-term practitioners, never mind those who want to teach!

[Frank Bellemare]

That's a great question Cerebus, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I wanted to start a thread about disappointment, but this thread kind of deals with it so I'll post my throughts here.

When I started at 19, I just wanted to get in shape and do something more meaningful than just sport for sport's sake. I fell in love with long fist, and being an intellectual type, I started researching it and questioning the disconnect I found between forms, techniques and sparring. I moved on to another school and did Yang taiji, which I saw as a type of rounder long fist. I did a bit of Wing Chun for a year and came back to taiji afterwards, simply because the movement felt more natural. I've seen a few other schools too, but just a few classes each.

None of them were structured in a logical way, starting with basics and gradually building to actual fighting ability backed by sparring. Most of them were isolated and held no relationships with other schools, participated in no tournament or exchanged idea with outsiders. Some teachers had exquisite skill, but in almost all cases, classes were loosely structured affairs filled with out of shape people carrying the unspoked fear that they did not know how to deal with real violence.

I feel sad. I'm a bit disappointed with myself for not training enough and a bit disappointed that I never found a teacher to make sense of it all.

I tried capoeira for a while, and though I'm not drawn to it in the weird way I'm drawn to CMA, I think I'll go back to it now. The training is logical, the endgame is clear, practitioners are in amazing shape, classes are fun and challenging, and even if it's play-fighting, I learned more useful stuff in capoeira than in CMA in regards to distance, timing, keeping eyes on the opponent (after a few years of taiji, I had the habit of looking at the floor), etc. Taiji and longfist I'll keep doing in my backyard for fun.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. All that to say that yes, I realize now that I had tunnel vision and I was blinded for years as to what I could actually get out of training that way.

[Bob]

Does anyone here ever think that maybe they have developed "tunnel vision" as far as martial arts is concerned? Do you ever step back and ask WHY you train Kung Fu in the first place? Is it for health? Self defense? Have you accomplished your goal? Are you neglecting LIFE in favor of minutiae?

That's a tough question since so much of this shifts over time.

I was asked a similar question 29 years ago as I started down the path. A very wise man asked me, "Was the art a vehicle of expression for some inner need that I was unaware of or did I think acquiring the art would add something to me that I did not have or make me into something I felt deficient in?"

That was really tough to honestly answer.

He told me the litmus test was this:

"If tomorrow, you couldn't do the art any longer what would happen to you?"

If you fell apart and found yourself in a crisis of sorts then the art had you and you were dependent upon it for something external of sorts - status, wizard of oz syndrome, trying to patch over fears of weakness.

However, if you could move on and find some other activities to express that inner need, then you had the art i.e. it was the vessel that you filled - you were not a vessel being shaped by the art but rather you were shaping and filling the vessel - the art was now the vessel and you would choose how, where and what to fill it with.

As the years have gone by (1986-87) I've heard this from many of my fellow practitioners in one form or another - if I only had one more form, one better throw, one better punch then I would arrive and I always asked, "Arrived where and with what?"

My suggestion, and it is only a suggestion since you really only know where you are at is to ask in a very sincere and reflective way, "What have I neglected or not attended to in order to train one more hour, acquire one more form, perfect one more throw, develop one more punch etc. etc.?

It really is all about balance.

The answer might surprise you by forcing you to reorder the priorities of your practice and I think this becomes more critical as you pass the 50th year and start to realize no matter how hard you train you can never beat life and there will always be someone out there who can punch harder, throw better or breath more deeper and look much "prettier".

A more important question put to me was, "What type of person have you become and what ultimately do you serve?"

Once I got this in my head and then into my heart, it all became a matter of thinking in terms of process rather than outcome (I still struggle with this as there is no final arrival no final place of destination)

Whether I knew one form or two hundred forms, whether my punch was stronger or weaker was of little consequence to me - it all then boiled down to whether I really enjoyed the practice for its own process or whether I was driven but some external outcome, like acquiring a reputation of "master".

Today and for the past 5 years or so I walk, almost daily, a 3 mile trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, passing the beaver marsh, muskrats at work, changing weather patterns. I have walked this trail since 1988 or so and at times it has been weekly, sometimes monthly, sometimes for physical health, sometimes for reflection and emotional health, sometimes simply to get out, sometimes alone, sometimes with my wife, sometimes with a friend or two.

The one thing I have recently become acutely aware of is that I am never bored and it never boils down to being the same old path.
I walk it now because it has more or less become a part of me and I a part of it - more and more my martial arts practice begins to feel like this and this isn't some earth shattering mystical insight or finally feeling Qi and understanding it all, becoming an immortal.

No its very simple - it adds a pleasure to my life and I feel better with it than without it. I couldn't necessarily say that about my martial arts practice in the early years but I am more confident of the feeling today.

I feel no driven need for the approval or disapproval from a master but am always open to the insights that others may generate.

I also feel no obligation to adopt or refute them nor prove that what I know is of greater value or whether I feel that what I know is of lesser value - its a strange place to be in. LOL

Now I think I then understood why some go off quietly to cultivate their practice, indifferent as to whether they take it to the grave with them or share it with others.

Leaving no footprints behind in the "Red Dust" now makes perfect sense to me and the god of achievement is slowly losing its grip around my throat - I can almost breath again! LOL

Its like the satisfaction you feel after eating a good meal and knowing that you did not stuff yourself for fear of not getting enough.