Worth it to Learn..
Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:10 pmOver the years in China I've met and learned from many teachers, some of them masters of traditional arts, both short and long term. Some only for a few sessions. In most cases they imparted some sort of wisdom on me. The Youku video in the post about Che style Xingyiquan got me thinking about my three months of intensive study with a Xingyiquan master last year
He had great power to be sure. He looked like Yoda and was about the same height. His Gongli was quite incredible. He was over seventy years old, but still going strong. But he wasn't a fighter. Rather, over time, I came to find out that he was a really fucking stubbourn form fanatic. Still, he grinded Wuxingquan for God knows how many years and his master before him was a master.
So, I grinded mostly Piquan for three months for four hours per day, most days. I ended up quiting because he wouldn't let me work on my own things and there were very few people to spar with in that park, but it really solidified my footwork and increased the power of my other techniques. I also learned some cool Gongfa exercises.
In conclusion I think that it's very important to learn from a master that can fight and either regularly spars with you or has you spar with his other students regularly. You should study with this master long term and try to absorb as much of his hands-on knowledge as possible. After you can already fight, if you meet other masters that have skills you want it is definitely worth it to learn a thing or two from them. Gongfu should not be learned in a vacuum. It never was in the past either. Ancient fighters learned from whoever they could, even their opponents! We should do the same. Train hard!
He had great power to be sure. He looked like Yoda and was about the same height. His Gongli was quite incredible. He was over seventy years old, but still going strong. But he wasn't a fighter. Rather, over time, I came to find out that he was a really fucking stubbourn form fanatic. Still, he grinded Wuxingquan for God knows how many years and his master before him was a master.
So, I grinded mostly Piquan for three months for four hours per day, most days. I ended up quiting because he wouldn't let me work on my own things and there were very few people to spar with in that park, but it really solidified my footwork and increased the power of my other techniques. I also learned some cool Gongfa exercises.
In conclusion I think that it's very important to learn from a master that can fight and either regularly spars with you or has you spar with his other students regularly. You should study with this master long term and try to absorb as much of his hands-on knowledge as possible. After you can already fight, if you meet other masters that have skills you want it is definitely worth it to learn a thing or two from them. Gongfu should not be learned in a vacuum. It never was in the past either. Ancient fighters learned from whoever they could, even their opponents! We should do the same. Train hard!
