marvin8 wrote:dspyrido wrote:I think they missed the most important piece of competition ever created - leitai.
I agree. They left out the useful "martial" part. Since it's the first one, maybe people can petition to add it into future competitions. At least, it was streamed for free.
The competition might have been based on who can replicate different skill sets said to be practiced at the temple, rather then
who was or is the best at using them in a combative sense. Similar to the push hands competition that taiji seems to use to show case skill sets that may or not transfer to direct usage or even the way stylistically how the style might have been used at one time.
If its geared towards the gen public, the fear might be that it will tend to follow the trend of what happens to most styles when
public competition is used in a context geared for the public.
Judo, Taiji, good examples of this process IMO
Having said this, the opposite occurs when things are divorced from practical usage as intended..
They start to become charictures of themselves judged on different sets of criteria unrelated to practical usage.
In this sense I feel the European models are best,
showing skill sets in use in a certain time period in real time while still preserving the old ways.
This has been something that CMA has yet to deal with, it might be the difference in the way the styles are perceived with many
CMA styles still used and considered as real weapons understanding the value of keeping things within the communities that use them as such.
Most "real" fighting styles do not have public competitions "pentjak silat" comes to mind.