by kreese on Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:37 pm
I was thinking more XYLH on the headbutt.
If you read my post in the Chinese CCTV gong fu challenges, and you watch the top masters, not the young guys, you will see very simple, relaxed but powerful full-body strikes that are felt or even knock down an unstable opponent.
There is a physical vocabulary in CMA. You have to learn it, and move like that, not like boxing, thai boxing, whatever. Of course you are free to move any way you want, if you don't care about brand names. I don't. I don't think anyone who cross-trains does after a while.
So, plus the fact that I've been at this game a little longer than you, jonathan, though I believe that you are in top shape and started off with a great teacher, and are therefore probably far ahead of where I was five years ago, the real art is in the hands of masters, and while I have no doubt your master is great, it's in free fighting (sport, whatever, it's all a competition = you win), that you get to see the real flavor.
Bas has different influences, but if you watch him in motion, it's very eye-opening. He kicks more like bagua. Everything is meant to hurt.
The art happens between you and opponent, and will always have a strong external component if your opponent has anything at all. But if you develop the internal as well, and according to your argument, you can't see whether it's internal or not, unless you are comparing to a very limited and stylistic expression of the ideal.
Every different high-level master I've met had certain things in common, but a very different facet of the IMAs in general. Hard, soft, aggressive, completely non-aggressive, the expressions are as diverse as the people who express them.
Just my opinion, I certainly respect and will consider your opinion, but I've heard it 1000 times here in the past 10 years, on EF > RSF. In my opinion that just limits your perspective, and I'll take anything that I does not directly violate certain principles, and certainly most of the effective moves in fights are effective for a reason
But one thing that is always the same in anyone who is a champion fighter, they are relaxed. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. The outer doesn't take that long, although it's a lifetime process, but the inner is where the IMA is, and that's what I look for now when I watch fights or application demos.
And if you don't specifically train that relaxation, or consider it a top priority (fighters do, because it is part of energy management/qigong skills as well as essential for lightning-quick movements), you may not see certain things with your eyes.
Peace.
Last edited by
kreese on Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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