Doc Stier wrote:All of my teachers, regardless of their style, regularly sparred with students. Like Kenneth Fish said, it was most often as scary and intimidating as it was instructional, although nothing matches the value of personally feeling high level skills directly applied to your own body the way they were intended to be used.
I thought it would be interesting to break down the discussion from this thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22350 and start to question why and if this is true?
Surely, it's just overexaggeration? Huh? And if it's true that fighting IMA pracitioners can be intimidating, why can't we see it in vids or in competitions? Or can we?
Now, from my own experience the statement and quote is very much the truth. But it must really be experienced first hand. IMHO, the most frightening thing is to feel that whatever slightly move you do, the opponent(teacher) seems to be one step ahead, always shifting and adapting his posture according to yours. There is no way I could even try to go full charge and try to run then down. Psychologically, the fight was over before it had started. In my first five-ten years of tai chi practice, I felt this over and over from various High level practitioners.
Now, take a look in the Ren Zhongxin clip. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22297 We have a sanda practitioner who does not give 100% and let himself be easily handled. I can't say that he does it out of respect or if he just feels intimidated by the old man. Maybe the young chap could run him down, but we don't know what's happening inside his head? But I know that I would have reacted pretty much in the same way when I was younger.
What is you experience fighting against High level teachers and what happened inside your own head?
What is different in the experience compared to meeting others? Psychological implications?