THE QUEST

 by Phillip Starr

In the many years that I have been involved in the study of martial arts, I have been most fortunate in having trained with several excellent instructors. I still do. I started off in judo, which I regarded (at my young age) to be THE finest method of self-defense in existence. In a short time I changed over to gong-fu and I was convinced that THIS was the best martial discipline. I was wrong. Again. As the years passed I would train in two forms of Japanese karate, and more forms of gong-fu (baixingquan, taijiquan, xingyiquan, and baguazhang).

After a time, I came to realize that there is NO ULTIMATE martial art; each one has something special to offer. I had more experience in gong-fu with karate running a close second but I understood that just because gong-fu was my foundation there was no need to toss out everything I'd learned from karate. On the contrary, even my gong-fu teacher (Master W. C. Chen) liked some of the things that I had gleaned from my years in karate.

I would go on to train in arnis (aka. kali or escrima), jeet kune do, and I even dabbled a bit in European fencing and muay thai. Actually, I did more than dabble in them; I was certified as an instructor in both Pekiti-Tersia arnis and JKD. I say this not to blow my own horn, but to show that I studied them very seriously.

Many years ago I gave up looking for “silver bullets”; techniques or martial disciplines that would turn me into an invincible fighter and/or an all-knowing sage. Such things simply don't exist except in the imagination. I wanted to LEARN from each art. Kung-fu was my foundation but I wanted to taste what else was out there and see if I could learn anything useful from them. And I did!

Gong-fu remains my foundation to this day but I'm still on my quest for knowledge. I had always wanted to study the art of the Japanese sword, so I took up iaido. Has this helped me improve my gong-fu? You bet it has! I was very fortunate to have been able to train with Master Hidetaka Nishiyama (Shotokan), who was undoubtedly one of the finest karate masters of the last century. What I learned from him is immeasurable. And Master Seiyu Oyata of Ryukyu (Okinawan) karate taught me a great deal as well. We would become good friends and as I did with Master Chen; I would learn as much from him at a kitchen table as I would on the dojo floor.

The most valuable things that I learned from these fine men weren't special “silver bullet” techniques; they were PRINCIPLES that could be applied to various individual techniques or body movements. And these principles didn't always have to do with physical actions.

Certainly, I haven't necessarily gleaned special techniques that can be directly applied to my gong-fu from European fencing and iaido but what I learned from fencing and continue to learn from iaido are readily applicable to my martial art. All my life, I have been on a quest to learn and I have taken water from numerous wells in doing so. No one source has all the answers.

I have met many instructors who forbid their students to train in any martial discipline other than what they teach and I have met countless students of such instructors. This is always a disappointment. Such instructors are often insecure about what they teach or their ability to teach it and they fear that allowing students to step outside of their direct grasp will result in students leaving the dojo. I will always be thankful to my teachers for encouraging me to learn from whatever sources I could find. They weren't worried that I might become “tainted”, learn something they didn't already know, or realize that they didn't have all the answers. In keeping with their trust in me, I encourage my students to experience other martial forms.

And so I continue with my quest. My foundation is gong-fu and I would never consider thinking something like, “I study such-and-such martial art and I dare not taint myself or show disrespect to my teachers by learning something from another source.” Each form and the culture from which it comes has something to offer those who are willing to drink from their cups, to don a new white belt with a “beginner's mind”, and learn.