Giles wrote: His response, seemingly, was that if at least two people undertake beforehand on this site to practice a certain exercise, he will deign to provide a description of it. This is quite funny, and I'll leave it at that.
There's this sort of expectation at times I think, maybe a desire, I dunno, to be "THAT GUY" of such transcendental skill in all things that the lay scrubs they encounter should throw down everything they know and kow tow to receive the super secret movement or instruction that will unlock the ultimate fist power to become a peerless boxer.
Okay and maybe that's true if somebody can really paralyze with a touch or whatever and we monkey brains are just so impressed by the might that we gather under their banner and praise their virtue to the heavens so maybe we can get that power from them and become the one with their foot in the boot.
I'm really trying to have a positive opinion of humans but it's getting harder every day. I think NGE are the closest to figuring that part out at least.
I have, traditionally, tended to rub some people the wrong way. Just being me, curious, inquisitive, a bit oblivious to social clues, stand too close in a lunch line and wind up getting three dudes attacking me out of nowhere. People looking for a random victim in the halls and jumping me because I didn't look like a threat, whatever.
Eventually you learn a bit about it. But that's also where security work comes in as a chance to explore these dynamics in a socially acceptable way with some knowledge and agency in your toolkit.
And, of course, meetups like the Tampa Bay Martial Arts Group Push Hands Retreat are a great way to get some lab time in.
I disagree about push-hands though. I believe it is the creamy center of effective self defense. If you can make contact and take their balance, 90% of the fight is over. Their brains won't let them think about anything else until they aren't falling, so you just keep them falling until they stop wanting to fight, you knock them out, or you get the restraints on.
But the mindset is completely different than what is cultivated through most sports fighting disciplines. Even among CMA enthusisasts. I saw one the other day post "It isn't a fight unless somebody gets hit in the face" regarding a kyokushin style match.
In a nutshell, refuse the fight, accept ownership, dispose of waste responsibly.
I'm rambling.
everything wrote:just wrong
sure up to you guys. that is my read for nearly everyone on RSF (the individual is right and everyone else here is wrong) hahaha so imho trying an exercise > endless writing (despite the fact that many of you are great with writing and have language affinity).
I do want to film my jibengong/base workout and share it for comment. It's assembled from everything I've learned so far and is most of what I do as far as conditioning goes. FEELS extremely potent, but nothing in it is pulled directly from any teacher's exercises. Just some well-worn exercises and selected form pieces done in specific ways to address each part of the body systematically for maximum effect.
My neck is still a problem, though, I haven't had the gumption to see the ortho about it yet, but pretty sure I've got something nasty going on in one of the cervical vertebra from some trauma or another over the years.
Rambling again. Point being, I know I don't have the ONE PIECE, I don't believe the ONE PIECE exists. A systematic approach to cultivation is what's needed, and that requires identifying what is being cultivated and doing what is necesarry to cultivate it.
Part of that is realizing that it isn't just ONE PIECE, it's cultivating a symphony of growth that, like a growing tree, can allow access to higher and higher elevation with time and proper care. Realizing I can only see what is in my line of sight, and that perhaps there's more visible past the horizon once I get a little further up the trunk.
Or returning to the symphony, maybe I've got one violin, but I need two more to get a proper chord sounding.
I am and am always willing to share what I'm allowed to share with anyone who is interested in comparing notes and getting as much as we can out of these practices. I don't need your money, your obedience, or even your agreement, just have some manners and the understanding that there is a slight possibility you are not Yang Lu Chan incarnate deigning to slum it amongst the mortals. (Again that's just a general statement, not an accusation to anybody except maybe Bruce)
In turn I will be rude and foul and ill tempered but maybe apologize later and at least hope made you laugh with a stretch goal of making you think.
And now I gotta go earn my blood money from Empire.