wayne hansen wrote:I don’t know wether I am a martial arts instructor or not
Pete can most likely fight a lot better now than when he started
He is not a dancer
I think most fighters are born not made
Some people no matter how hard they train never become fighters
Some think they are until the crunch comes
"Fighters are born not made" belongs on the trashpile with "you can't teach punching power." The exceptional elite are gifted, everyone else gets what they work for and only shitty students and shitty coaches say otherwise. Not a lot of point in spending decades on anything with that perspective.
I understand a bit better now - Pete is not a dancer, but definitely not a fighter... but a better fighter than he used to be, maybe... depending on what happens when/if "the crunch" comes and you may or may not be a martial arts instructor... I feel like you're playing chess in a game of checkers, friend.
I'll hit you with a quote of my own - “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” ~ Winston Churchill.
It sounds like your results are fluidly defined by design which is indeed a different path to the one I want to be on.
johnwang wrote:Doc Stier wrote:many students fail to derive much practical fighting skill,...
The sad thing that can happen to people is people may spent all their life in MA training, during the day they die, they still have not developed any valuable skill yet.
A: What MA skill do you try to maintain during your old age?
B: I try to maintain a, b, and ...
C: I don't have anything to maintain. I have never developed anything.
It's better to be like B. It's sad to be like C.
Doc and John, thank you for engaging this dialogue in better faith, I agree that some students are unable to derive fighting skill from training but I think what is really being discussed it how applicable was the training to begin with. If the form is flowery and applications obscure then transitioning it to combative use is more difficult event if a student is diligent and skilled. I appreciate what John is saying with regards to tangible accomplishments through training. Having many techniques that aren't adequately forceful or well-timed is far worse than having one that can be applied meaningfully and speaks to the issue I raised initially with how one could parse training if the syllabus has become unwieldy.