Your 3 pieces of advice to a newcomer

[JAB]

Your experience (or lack thereof) shines forth brother.

I don't recall the last time I saw Chen Xiaowang sparring, so I am not sure how much I would listen to someone who is not having solid punches thrown at his head!

In boxing gyms I have never head a coach allow a student to "develop his/her own style" that involved keeping the hands low.

"True fighting is formless" has NOTHING to do with keeping your hands down.

JAB

[mixjourneyman]

1: punch face kick balls
2: smash head eat brains
3: repeat one and two. If you fail at one and two, go find a quiet place and hang yourself.

[DeusTrismegistus]

Your experience (or lack thereof) shines forth brother.

I don't recall the last time I saw Chen Xiaowang sparring, so I am not sure how much I would listen to someone who is not having solid punches thrown at his head!

In boxing gyms I have never head a coach allow a student to "develop his/her own style" that involved keeping the hands low.

"True fighting is formless" has NOTHING to do with keeping your hands down.

JAB

New Topic on subject so as not to derail this one.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9654

[D_Glenn]

Your experience (or lack thereof) shines forth brother.

I don't recall the last time I saw Chen Xiaowang sparring, so I am not sure how much I would listen to someone who is not having solid punches thrown at his head!

In boxing gyms I have never head a coach allow a student to "develop his/her own style" that involved keeping the hands low.

"True fighting is formless" has NOTHING to do with keeping your hands down.

JAB

Oh!

You're talking about when sparring.

I took the liberty of fixing your first post:


"Keep your hands up.
KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!
KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS UP!!!!!!!!!!
(WHEN SPARRING!!!!!!!!!!)"


.

[Chris_McKinley]

Keep your pants off the ground. Also works in daily life outside of fighting.

[Bao]

Well, just make sure you don't waste your time or others....
My three pieces of advice:

Run away and find another teacher if he/she speak to much about qi and/or mystify the stuff he/she speaks about.

Run away and find another teacher if he/she cannot back up what is said with action (are unable or unwilling to demonstrate what he/she speaks about. )

Run away and find another teacher if he/she only teach form/jibengong/qigong and says that it takes one or more years before actual fighting methods/apps are taught.

[strawdog]

Oh!

You're talking about when sparring.

I took the liberty of fixing your first post:


"Keep your hands up.
KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!
KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS UP!!!!!!!!!!
(WHEN SPARRING!!!!!!!!!!)"

right...

So when you're really fighting you can keep your hands down. Okay.

Back to the topic.

1. no, you're not awesome.
2. no, you just didn't meet the greatest kung fu teacher at a strip mall dojo a block away from your house.
3. no, you're not the second coming of ( insert super awesome fictional or non fictional martial hero here).

[shawnsegler]

S- has dog get slippers, lights pipe, cracks beer.

[ChiBelly]

1. Understand yourself well enough to know why and how much a goal is important to you.
2. Habits are more important than goals.
3. Mindfullness is more important than habits.

[kenneth fish]

1. Always check your zipper upon leaving the restroom
2. Never eat at a place called "Mom's"
3. Always know where your wallet and money are

Also: Never spit into the wind, and don't shit where you eat.

[D_Glenn]

In light of the topic being for a newcomer there is some truth to JAB's post.

I would re-word it more like:

1- You have 2 arms-- use both of them.
2- You have 2 legs -- use them to step don't just stand there.
3- Protect your own head.


.

[dragonprawn]

As to the original poster's 3:

1) I would not expect any newcomer to know what they are getting into in the IMAs so I would not advise them to be crystal clear about anything.
2) They have not yet learned many of the techniques you talk about - so they can't practice them or know what is "bread & butter".
3) Newcomers who train with me do not usually enjoy it. They have never been so confused and sore in their lives.

I think the advice you give is for intermediate players.

My three (not mine originally) are:

1) Do as your teacher and senior students tell you - this is the opposite of "question everything", as some have posted.
2) Take your time to learn - be patient.
3) Be persistent in practicing what little you have been shown (and can remember) - do your homework.

Frankly, reading through the responses I see a good deal of solid advice for advanced students, but IMO new students need the opposite advice much of the time. Some examples "keep your hands up" and "parry everthing". I don't know, but I get students fresh off the street. If they could do these things day one they could teach me.
Did I misunderstand this thread?

[Kevin_Wallbridge]

I wonder if the idea of keeping your hands up equalling religion is grounded in fighting with gloves? Consider the history of John L Sullivan, the best documented bare knuckle boxer. The Kilrain fight went 75 rounds. In another fight (vs Mitchell) they stopped after 2 hours because they were burger and couldn't punch due to the damage in their hands. THEY didn't fight with both hands wrapping the head, hmmmm. I think these guys knew how to fight, and I suspect that we could call their striking "realistic." I'm really not trying to pull the dogs tail, I do acknowledge your practical experience SD, just speculating.

I tell newcomers to be honest. Stop lying to yourself about what you already think you know. Stop believing your teacher's lies (even mine). Be honest about what you do and do not know about your own body. Be honest with what drives your emotional responses.

I tell newcomers to be patient. I say "even though yu can probably "know" everything there is to know about martial arts in a year it is going to take a long time to integrate the knowledge. Be patient with the material and be patient with yourself. It doesn't hurt to be patient with your classmates either.


Don't worry about "getting" anything, just correct errors. Correct errors of structure. Correct errors of transition. Correct errors of reaction. Don't just try to lay over a new set of habitual movements, correct the errors and habitual movements will be corrected.

[Chris_McKinley]

dragonprawn,

I'd like to take a moment to explain why I advocate questioning everything, since your counter-admonition most directly applies to my previous statement, "Question everything and start with the assumption that nothing is to be accepted as already-established truth. Truth does not fear inquiry, and the real stuff will bear itself out anyway. As a corrollary, don't accept anything as true that anybody has ever said in the entire history of the martial arts, no matter how famous, well-respected or credible. Verify it for yourself or be willing to say "I don't know yet"..

First, it should be noted that there is a huge and profound difference between questioning everything and refusing to do anything anyone tells you. The latter is foolish and spiteful, the former is the wisest thing you can do. Questioning things means that you are inocculating yourself against doing anything mindlessly, no matter how productive it might be. Second, you honor yourself and your practice when you demand the same understanding of what you are doing and why to which any other practitioner has a right. I strongly advocate questioning everything because finding the answers to those questions is the only way mindless practice can be avoided.

Now, sometimes the question can be asked but the answer may take some time to arrive. Notice I didn't advocate that anyone demand an instant answer to everything or walk out the door. That's a sure way to avoid the wisdom of experience. What I am advocating is, "Don't do anything mindlessly, not even if it's a well-respected authority that would have you do so". Becoming a skeptic, learning to think critically, and seeking for and obtaining the answers to your questions, even if that process takes time, is the only way to ever truly take ownership of your own training, and your own knowledge for that matter. In fact, questioning (not mindlessly refusing) authority is a natural right of every human being. Sometimes you do not receive an answer to your question right away and you must be willing to say, at least for the time being, "I don't know yet". It's a simple phrase, but very difficult for many people. Sometimes you may not be convinced by the answer you receive, in which case you should do your own research via direct experience and test the veracity of the answer. Sometimes you will be reasonably convinced by the answer, perhaps even to the point of zealously adopting it as truth, in which case you should still test the veracity of it through your own direct experience anyway so that you can own it.

I often put it this way to my students, "You can't have my truth (or anyone else's), you can only borrow it. It's only when you take the time to find out for yourself that you can truly make it your own". The martial artist has yet to be born whose opinions were infallible and worthy of unquestioning obedience. Combine that with the fact that when it really comes down to it with martial arts, it's your life that's at stake, not just some time and money, and healthy skepticism becomes absolutely necessary, not just wise.

I also tell my students to make the following deal with anybody they ever meet in the martial arts, especially those that claim some level or kind of authority: "I'll mindlessly do what you say unquestioningly the day you can guarantee that, regardless of whenever or wherever life-threatening attack may occur to me (or my family), you will always be there to fight to the death if necessary to protect me.". Otherwise, it's their lives they're protecting and their training they're using to prepare to do it, and they should own it and not let anyone else whose ass won't be on the line tell them what to do with their property.

[Daniel]

Keep your pants off the ground. Also works in daily life outside of fighting.

+10


D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.