vbosch wrote:
Those are some big words coming from someone that is from “the other side of the fence whose qi development is academic” as per his teacher.
Why do you feel the need to belittle other people when clearly your teacher thinks you are not up to par?
Maybe it would be best to actually be any good as per the model you try to train in before coming online into a forum and badmouth other people.
I don't know you, but that's a lovely way to introduce yourself to me.
I wasn't trying to badmouth anybody - I'm just agreeing with Greg that "marketing" is a part of all martial arts, and that's fine, but you don't have to buy into it to enjoy your training. Just train!
I think you are talking about Mike Sigman and you must be a member of the 6H forum. To be clear, he is definitely NOT my teacher. I am not his student. He has no association that I'm a member of. I'd consider him a friend. There is no "online course". He's simply shared some of his ideas online and encourages people to try it. I've been playing around with his ideas for about a year and a half now because I think they are full of intellectual rigor and at the same time entirely made up of practical "how to" things you can try yourself.
He often encourages people to post video so he can see how you're progressing. Most people don't, which is a shame as they're missing feedback. That quote you've put up there was in a post he made, using me as an example (because he knows me, and I give him a hard time about politics on Facebook
) of a typical guy with a background in martial arts who is trying to get a handle on his stuff. He also said this:
"Those instructors are trapped on the other side of the fence, just like Graham is. Graham, in his avocational approach, however, will get there, sooner or later ... I'm not sure about the XXXX people, but maybe some of them will. Hard to say.
The way to develop your functional qi is to establish the qi connections (not muscle) in your body and exercise them for a long time ... months, maybe a year or more, depending on how much effort you put into it. Reading about qi connections is not going to give the ability to you ... it takes long persistent work."
(He named a martial art in the XXXX which I've deleted as it would just cause a needless argument on this thread. I suspect you, "vbosh" from Spain, are an instructor in XXXX martial art? I really have no personal interest in stoking arguments about the validity of any martial art, or group - I think everyone should be free to train what they want to train. It's your life - go for it.)
Mike summation of my "avocational approach" is exactly right for my approach to his stuff. My main training interest is in BJJ these days, so I fit in other things around it. (however since my accident I've not been able to train BJJ so I've been doing a lot more CMA, hence those videos and working more on Mike's stuff). What you need to understand is how high Mike's standards are - I'm pretty sure he wouldn't consider *anybody* on this forum to have got very far in internal martial arts. His honesty is rather abrasive, and hard on the ego, but also what you need if you're going to kick your own ass to try harder and 'get it'. Following his post I did kick my own ass and tried harder- I really focussed on what I was blind to and I put up another video a week later and he said this:
"Graham, this is interesting. You were able to extend and connect/maintain as you moved. That's half of it. Better controls will come with time. Surprised me how you made that leap that quickly."
Here's the video:
https://vimeo.com/255157717You can make of that what you will.
Adios.