Seeing how I tumbled from high minded philosophical writing to some might say rather irrelevant play-acting and stammering through incomplete arguments toward unclear conclusions, if I am even taking at all - at this point this video-making has gotten to be a seesaw of simple satisfaction and nagging disappointment. And yet I feel I have no choice continuing making them, because if I stop now that would be the worst possible outcome, worse than never having started to make them.
Maybe there is a good thing to come from this new found “discipline”. I will not forsake.
That’s because you’ve seen what those dudes do in the kung fu movies. Tomorrow work on spinning or twirling the stick with two hands in front of you or above your head. Once you master this movement, you can begin learning smooth hand transfers while the stick is twirling. Do this in front of you. Next will come spinning the stick beside you, and finally, behind you. Think of the stick as a baton first, then a weapon.
If you like weapon play you ought to try the nunchuks, if you haven’t already. If and when you get good with the chuks, the pole and staff will be second nature. To learn pole and staff first and chuks second is more difficult, since the nunchuks are a more complicated weapon to handle and control.
[ bows ]
Sake in the dojo later tonight if you’re interested. I’ve got some geisha coming over, too. We’re going to play Twister and listen to some old Rod Stewart albums.
No man, what I meant was that gathering you were not entirely impressed (your own words), I thought this might be because you are not satisfied with your skill… and I thought this might be because you are comparing yourself with what you’ve seen in the movies.
Frankly I wasnt clear on if you were taking the piss out of me. No I wasnt impressed by my own displayed skills, as these were just a bit of dancing prancing moments. No fierce intent involved. But I meant I wasnt impressed by the synchronicity of us both wielding sticks. No harm done I hope. But I meant what I said about Martial Art movies. I even look down on Ong Bak.
No joke, Seagal is absolute monarch in this field. A true artist.
I am also serious about posting some real martial art stuff at one point but I need some hard training to get back in shape.
You know I still don’t know what that phrase means. I know it’s british… or the people who have said it to me were british, so I assumed it was a british figure of speech.
Of course not. It’s not something to be impressed about. A synchronicity is notable, sure, but nothing impressive like the ‘whoa that’s deep dude’ kind of impressive.
Well even if you were you would still be modest about it, though it would be false modesty. Sometimes this can be more dangerous than just being arrogant, because if someone knows you are impressed with what you are doing, your pretending to not be impressed is more offensive than your would-be vanity… because it is a dishonesty. Vanity and arrogance are not matters of honesty. A liar is more offensive than a braggart.
Shirley not.
It comes down to deciding what any relevant difference there is between the physical, acrobatic and gymnastic skill required to choreograph fight scenes and what else is required in order to be a ‘real’ martial artist. That is what you are asking.
Of course the actors in those movies have some martial arts training, but their purpose is not to evolve as a fighter, but as an agile acrobat who is capable of performing difficult moves during long fight scenes. Samo Hung and Jackie Chan are examples of this acrobatic mastery.
It would be unfair to judge a martial art movie actor or actress against a martial artist who is in actual combat training, sparring and weapon play, routinely.
Just don’t let it happen again, young man.
Yeah Seagal is the real thing. I like the permanently furrowed brow he’s got going on. Norris is/was too. Now if you put them at the same weight in their primes against each other, Seagal has an advantage because aikido is more grappling oriented than taekwondo (basically what Norris is). Styles that are proficient in direct, defensive contact in a grappling context will always have an advantage over styles that focus on distance fighting and striking, such as boxing or some of the wing chun stuff.
Bruce Lee was and wasn’t the real thing. He’s a bit of an exception because his general skills of coordination were phenomenal. Playing ping-pong with a pair of nunchuks, for instance, or punching a rude bystander at a film shooting just hard enough to bloody his nose, but not to hurt him. While he wasn’t quite as badass as he was portrayed in those scenes, he was certainly capable of martial art sparring in his weight class, and well.
That’s the charm. I don’t know what it means either. I boldly use it though.
Sometimes it is. But this was a kind of mild form.
I am not usually modest about my qualities. I have too many flaws to be modest about what I do right. Maybe this is false modesty. But what’s true is that I only had two or three lessons in stickwielding, and I can’t possibly have convinced myself that I am impressive at it. Plus, I know I’m not because I am somewhat impressive at fistfighting, and I can tell the difference.
Fair enough, but this forces me to come out and say that acrobatics bore me, and that Jackie Chan is impressive for falling out of windows many times and not hurting himself, but not for inspiring the passion to fight and to get better at being a fighter.
Norris… I could take him. Wing Chun is pretty good for a short distance though not down on the floor.
But then does Seagal ever fall down?
Interesting analysis. It’s clear that Seagal would inspire a greater fear, if he was put in front of me, than Lee.
You should comment on the video directly, and specifically. “You can see how philosophically wrong it is” is not a criticism I can suffer and/or gain from.
Give me pain, little tart.
I thought a garbage belt to be an apt metaphor here.
Please don’t tell me you’re reading those videos as rituals of sorts. You don’t think I would be so foolish as to put a proper ritual on video, do you?
If sacred acts are put on film, the film making process is part of that sacred act. Anything done with casualness of a youtube video, you can count on it being a casual youtube video.
Nonetheless, some things I say there, I needed to get off my chest. Same for the upcoming videos. If I make mistakes, if I say bullshit, if I am wrong and err and display great stupidities and triviality, tell me explicitly. Cut in my flesh.
If you learned that the training and conditioning for that acrobatic skill was just as rigorous and demanding as training in martial arts fighting, would you appreciate it more?
I think the movies you are talking about are the ones in which the fighter isn’t a real martial artist, rather than the movies in which the star fighter is a real martial artist who has landed an acting job.
On that note I agree; the vast majority of martial arts movie actors probably wouldn’t last long at all in a UFC ring.
You mention that the acrobatics bore you. What about fully choreographed fight scenes? Isn’t knowing that it is rehearsed take some of the mystique out of it. I confess, martial arts movies bore me in general, acrobatics or not.
Now, maybe, but only because he would be far older than you… if he is. Back then, faghettabout it. It’s over for you.
I know precisely what you mean. In my mid twenties I had a roomate/friend who was taking wing chun classes. I went to a couple of his sessions just to hang out and watch them training and practicing. There was a scrimmage fight later after the place closed and we were wrestling around on the mats. I had claimed that wing chun was vulnerable to full contact and grappling techniques, which made it wonderfully inefficient.
Indeed, there wasn’t much required to penetrate the fighters guard and prevent him from striking. Once on the ground it was nothing to get an arm bar or a head lock and tap him out.
But I especially like aikido’s use of momentum in contact. Of all the martial arts styles, this form is the most adept at the defensive transferral of momentum through oneself. It ‘accepts’ the offensive motion of the opponent and channels or directs that energy through. It is distinguished because it does not repel force, but absorbs it, if you will. It’s strength in this defensive measure is its offensive power… because it is constantly disrupting the balance and coordination of the opponent by, ironically, not deflecting it, not countering it (like so many other defense oriented forms).
You must be able to bend around your enemy, fill the space your opponent has emptied, anticipate and accept his motion, feel his weight and inertia, and use those forces against him. Learn the secrets of the master Ueshiba, grasshopper, and perhaps you will understand.
Okay. Now put Bruce Lee at 205 lb. too, and ask yourself that question again.
And, do you really want to fight with a guy who can do this (and weighed 205 like Seagal, remember):
You know what would happen if you got into a ring with Lee to fight a match in which grappling was illegal… a match in which only kicks and punches were allowed? Lee would snatch one tooth at a time out of your mouth with his fingers, just to be an asshole and mock you (he was an asshole, you know. Cocky. But could be.)
Hey, the physical discipline required of mineworkers in the congo is even more rigorous. This is not the criterium.
The movies with Keanu Reeves, etc. Yes, these are the worst. The Matrix is such an insult to kung fu.
It’s not a genre rich with interesting storytelling.
Yeah?
On the other hand, I was living together with a powerful wrestler, who could wrestle down eleven guys at once, and he was always pinning me. But after I had gotten into Wing Chun (admittedly I had a very good teacher and I am rather talented at this stuff) there was nothing he could do anymore. There was no end to his frustration.
You see most WC fighters have no sense of elasticity. Without that, without that snap, the art has no merit. Of my class, which grew from about 12 to about 300, which is when I quit, there were five people who could actually get that whole one inch punch thrust dynamic right.
Systema, too.
You have our gratitude.
Mainly, Seagal is crueler than Lee. He won’t hesitate to snap your bones. He lacks the refinement of Lee, the humorous element, the light feet. He can not afford to play with you, he has to crush you.
That’s odd, because a wrestler fighting someone skilled at punching and kicking should want to focus on finding an opening to shoot in on as soon as possible. He should want to immediately close that distance between him and his opponent to prevent any punching and kicking. I wonder why this guy didn’t just work his way in close to you, or just shoot at your waist like a grappler (think Ken Shamrock).
If a wrestler can take a light punch or two, at most, he can seize any opponent within moments of the fight. But, if a wrestler is somewhat skilled at parrying he can usually prevent even this risk. A flurry of hands- think wing chun ‘sticky hands’- can block, slow and therefore occupy a punchers hands while closing the distance. Very rarely will a good punch be landed when doing this… but like I said, the wrestler may have to take a couple light blows while approaching.
First objective of the grappler is to take the opponent down. If this cannot be done, controlling the opponents arms is the second objective. A puncher and kicker will keep working if he’s standing, so you’d want to try catching an arm or foot when thrown… then you just reel the chump in when you catch one.
Samo Hung once said in an interview that not only are the martial art movies completely unrealistic, but three quarters of martial art moves are unrealistic as well. A real fight, he says, lasts about ten seconds… or continues into a stale mate with the opponents locked up on the ground. In such circumstances, some of the more difficult martial art moves cannot possibly be properly executed during this time. It simply doesn’t work that way in a real fight.
You will have no time to prepare, much less execute, the open dragon-crane fire fist of the drunkin morning lotus, during a street brawl.
But I can see a wing chunner handling a wrestler if the wrestler is inexperienced or the wing chunner is considerably experienced.
But year for year in training and with the same body weight, I’d put a black belt in jujitsu on anything that steps into a ring.
Is it? You know I thought about that but couldn’t figure out how 60’s filming equipment and effects could produce that illusion. What is it… the actual guy with the paddle is cut out of the film and Lee is spliced into the screen somehow?
That shit looks real, homes.
Officially and formally, no. Never taken a class in anything and never read a martial arts book. I got pretty good with the danger sticks (nunchuks), but haven’t picked them up in over eight years.
You could think of me as a no-bullshit, bad-tempered construction worker who has been framing houses and doing stone masonry for fifteen years… who’s not going to play games if something escalates to the point of physical confrontation, conflict, and contact.
I’m not going to dance and bob around, kick at you (a ridiculous risk and waste of energy), call your momma a hoe, or step in and out like a boxer jabbing at you like I’m playing nintendo. I’m not a show-boater.
Within about four seconds after the moment it has been established between us that we will fight, I will have my hands on my opponent. My opponent will have that four second window of time to pull a rabbit out of his hat and knock me out before I get to him. If he doesn’t, he’s going to have to work like he’s never worked before. If he wins, he will have earned it.
This is not a realistic portrayal of Wing Chun.
In my experience, when I land a couple of punches on a heavy sack hanging from the ceiling, it may or may not come down with the fittings. But my experience is with a form of the art that has incorporated the push-pull mechanism of Aikido and the three levels, ground man and heaven, into its forms. Mainly, the art is to produce a whip-kind of effect. If one punch is landed on the jaw it is over.
I agree that this can still be very difficult if the wrestler comes in with full speed head down, but then we have the kicks, which are incredibly mean.
One still has to be a student of ‘the principles of effortless power’ as Peter Ralston phrases the issue.
Exactly this is why I hate fight movies with contact sequences that go on for over half a minute.
The one puncher by Brad Pitt in Snatch is a good one. You can tell the one who set it up saw it happen once. Brad Pitt is in general not a bad person to portray violence. He understands something about the lean aesthetics of seizing the moment.
As soon as someone stirs, you strike forward full force. 50 50 chance you’ll hit him in the face, 100 percent chance you make him flinch and think twice about continuing a straight-foward offensive. The chain punch should be limited to three blows, with a short pause, then another two or three, breathe, and so on, a semi automatic weapon, not a machinegun. The punches need to be proper hammers, each of them. Here is an instruction. Watch the whole video, you won’t regret it. This guy has assembled this knowledge from the well during a decade wandering in China in which he spent over a hundred thousand dollars to pay various fake and real teachers of long hidden arts. I had him as my teacher for two years, “before he became popular” as they say - he went fro 12 in a tiny studio in Amsterdam to I don’t know how many schools across the world, I was with him from 12 students to about 2000, then it began to level off to the type of laughable stickfigures you see on youtube, plus I had to face that the Martial Art world is not for me, I prefer to practice alone in my forest and am thankful I knew my sifu in his modest beginning, where he would be able to spend direct time with all of his his students. You can learn more in one, say two minutes with a master than in ten years with video instructions.
Yes, Iadarola would agree with you, he spent much time working with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu-ans. There even broke out a war between factions, his main student went to form his own MMA school with a lot of grappling and rolling around on the floor. A matter of tastes, one might say. But as you noted most fights are over before one would even have a chance to engage in such a complex thing as grappling.
It’s hard to say precisely how they keyed in the different shots - but I could actually tell from the close up camerawork from behind the actor in the Lee suit that it’s shot after Lee’s death. It’s meant so convey spontaneity but this is a technique not seen until Jan de Bont began to do it in Lethal Weapon 3.
One second will do, in some cases. Beware, I recommend learning some offensive defenses.
Back when urine was used to dye fabrics, driving boats loaded with urine up and down the canals was a living.
Since being the captain of a boat full of piss is not exactly something to be proud of, that became a phrase for disbelief.
“I work for a fortune 500 company and make 300K a year”
“Pff no you don’t, you take the piss”.
I just don’t see it, Cross. Any fighter would begin a fight in a frontal guard position with fists up. This is the natural, neutral stance of all styles. A grappler, who begins a fight like this, has all the odds working for him because it is extremely easy to make full contact with an opponent- by that I mean assuming a grappling position with the body of your opponent- without being apprehended by a punch or kick. Contrarily, a puncher/kicker has all the odds against him of making a critical hit work in that short moment which would stop the overwhelming, oncoming inertia of the grappler.
All the grappler needs to do is be able to hold a frontal guard long enough to move close into ‘reach’ of the opponent. Notice Gracie’s technique; he has a slow approach with the use of short, intimidating kicks at the knees and shins of the opponent. He keeps his upper body back behind his guard and moves forward. When the opponent tries to get within range for a punch or kick, Gracie would either catch or push aside the punch/kick and shoot for a take down. Unlike Shamrock, Gracie would work his way to the side of the opponent and tangle his feet between the legs of the opponent. Tripping him up they would fall to the mat. Gracie would then go to work.
The first four original UFCs from 95-96 were won by Gracie, and this generally proved to the world of practical fighting what was the most efficient style. It is simply unrealistic to believe that there is a high enough probability to make a fatal punch or kick work, to want to have that as a plan of action… instead of the available grappling/wrestling moves that are far more easy to execute.
If pitted against an opponent who knows how to approach a martial artist, the martial artist has already lost half the fight. Really, the period in which punch oriented moves would actually make a difference, is very short, when dealing with someone who knows how to guard while approaching, and when to move in quickly.
About kicks. Statistically they are almost useless, and can get the fighter into trouble very quickly if his leg is caught or his balance isn’t restored immediately after he finishes the kick (if he fails to make contact). That little moment of landing that leg is a moment of extreme vulnerability. Something complicated like a roundhouse or high kick that has to be stepped into (a two step kick) is very risky, and very rarely do they hit. The Van Damme crap is just that, crap.
The safest kick is that pestering, low kick that Gracie used when moving forward. Other than that I recommend keeping the feet planted and stable.
Great movie. Tommy, what’s that in your trousers? It’s me gun, Turkish, for protection. Protection from what, zee Germans?
Let me expand upon my definition of grappling. I consider any kind of holding onto an opponent an instance of grappling. I don’t disregard punching under such circumstances because in such circumstances it can be better controlled and more effective. So seizing and breaking contact continuously is technically grappling as far as I’m concerned. I’m only emphasizing the importance, or the opportunity, rather, of being able to be more cautious by keeping yourself in a situation where your opponent can’t really deliver a formidable punch. From there, it is a matter of stamina, if one can follow the form demonstrated by Gracie, that will determine the fight. There is almost no risk in this form- the most effective, defensive style of fighting. And again, it’s offensive power is in it’s control of the opponents body. The interference of the quick parry, low, antagonistic kicking, and slow, persistent approach with the guard up, ready to shoot in that split second when the window opens. You cannot stop this. Well you can, but you are putting too much money on making those fancy three part punch combos work. You have no time to think or set up when being circled by a grappler. In the blink of an eye he may be hoisting you off your feet before you know what hit you.
This should be done, that should be done… Why should anything be done? For me that may be the only serious question at the moment. And only, perhaps, when one is no longer being preached to, or preaching to oneself, with “shoulds” can one begin to do what one “should” do.
I would like to see your face, your eyes when you speak.
If you are inside, I don’t want to see a table, a chair, a bottle of water, I want to see you, I want to see how much passion there is in what you say, how much you believe in what you say.
If you choose vids as your medium, so much distracts from the speaker, if he is outdoors swinging a stick, kicking the ground, or turning around to see if anyone is watching.
You are an interesting person to watch, you have a manly charisma as Arc has stated, all you need is a casual script, something to guide you as you speak, to help you get across your most urgent thoughts, this I say because English is not your native language and sometimes you struggle to find the “right” word for you.
This seems to be implying that what I have done so far, I should not have done.
Would that include devising Value Ontology and “preaching” to you and others about it? I asked for your comment, I know.
Do you disagree with my assessment of pain and masculinity?
I will address your question in a new video.
Shieldmaiden - I will somehow have to heed your advice in the future and present myself directly. Thanks for the comments. In the near future Ill keep up this form for a while, still. But I accept that this is the cause of the obscurity in which I still operate.
All said, I am in character, I wonder if I can get across the severity of my passion in this persona. It is in fact a way to take a bit of distance from the immense severity of my work.
Obviously this severity can not continue to be altogether disregarded.