Bob wrote:I think the problem is a lot of practitioners who don't buy the spiritual/physical route imagine that this substituted for the actual hard physical training. I don't believe that for one moment the "spiritual" phase serves as a substitute for this physical/training focus.
QFTMFT
Unfortunately, our mythology is shaped by the 60s embrace of the East and its protrayal via the "hippie" archetype image and perhaps this is often encountered in many of the New Age taiji schools
Although I'm sure I've been influenced by the Western take on martial arts to some degree, I was born and raised in and around Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. But even in East Asia, there are still plenty of people who spend far too much time learning the theory, being clever, and outright sucking.
And to further exacerbate the situation, some people claim that it's ALL supposed to be meditative, spiritual, religious, and martial skill is a somehow a lesser pursuit. That's as stupid as me saying it's ALL supposed to be about beating your opponent to a pulp.
The pendulum swings to either extreme, but one hopes sooner or later it'll settle in the center. In the meantime, it's convenient to construct straw men such as the TCMA turned MMA roid freak whose only goals are victory in the ring and being able to punch his way out of petty arguments. As if anyone's that basic
Not levelling this critique against you, Bob. As I said, I agree with what you're saying.