BEING IN CONTROL

 by Yang Shuangxing

Nowadays, most martial arts schools require students to wear padded mittens, footpads, and even padded helmets whenever they engage in sparring; some even require it for the practice of three and one-step sparring drills! Most, if not all, of them insist that it's for reasons of safety...if one student inadvertently strikes his partner, the chances of serious injury are reduced.

When I was a fledgling student, such protective gear had not yet been invented. Instead, we learned to CONTROL our blows so that they were focused about an inch from the target. My teacher made us face the outside wall of his house (which was brick) and fire punches and kicks at it with full power. You'd only err about once or maybe twice...

I've heard the contemporary argument that if you train to pull your blows short of contact, you'll do the same thing in an actual fight. There is absolutely no truth to that argument whatsoever. I've never known anyone – or even heard of anyone – who had this happen to them.

Sure, there was accidental contact sometimes but no one was ever seriously hurt. Nowadays, parents worry that little Johnny will get scuffed up in practice...but if it was football, they'd EXPECT it and if he suffered a bloody nose or split lip, the parents wouldn't say a word. But what we do is a MARTIAL ART and not a game...and they get their panties in a twaddle over minor injuries? There's an implied risk in training in a martial art and it can (and should) be mentioned in the application form that must be signed before admission to the school is granted. It's kind of like a sign over an old, rickety wooden bridge that warns that the bridge may not be safe to use. The risk is implied and if you get hurt as a result, it's due to your acceptance of that risk.

Wearing pads doesn't necessarily provide much in the way of safety. Many students, with their fists and feet “safely” encased in foam padding, think that it's okay to whack their training partners pretty solidly. The padding will protect them, right? No...the padding prevents the receiver from being cut or otherwise having the skin broken but it doesn't reduce the impact that much.

Moreover, the use of the pads has, over the years, led to a considerable deterioration of technique. Students utilize boxing-type punches instead of the straight thrust, and roundhouse kicks are done with the top of the instep rather than the ball of the foot (this was very rarely seen before the creation of foot pads). Grabbing has totally vanished and footsweeps are very rare if they're used at all.

I think that the real problem is that many contemporary instructors don't want to make their students develop proper control. After all, it isn't east to do and it's time-consuming. And the younger students won't be having enough “fun” during training. That may mean a drop in enrollment.

I've taught martial arts for more than 50 years. Still do. I taught full-time for more than 40 years. And to this day, I don't allow students to wear “protective gear”, save for a mouthpiece and a groin cup. And in more than five decades of teaching, I have never had a students suffer a serious injury in class. Not once. Not a single broken bone. Sure, there have been plenty of bloody noses, split lips, jammed fingers and toes, and many bruises... but never, ever a serious injury due to lack of control. I made it a point to always warn prospective students that injury was a possibility and no one ever complained to me when they got hit a little too hard. Such things “come with the territory” and they accepted it. And that's as it should be.

BEGINNING AGAIN

 by Phillip Starr

In 2015 at the age of 66, I had the chance to study iaido (the art of drawing and cutting with the Japanese sword). I'd wanted to learn this special art since I was very young but back in those days, there weren't many iaido teachers in the U.S. When the art gained more popularity, I was still unable to study the art; the instructors lived on the coasts and I resided in the Midwest! Just my luck...

Life goes on, despite our disappointments and I taught gong-fu for several decades before meeting the gentleman who would offer to teach me iaido. I was thrilled! NOW, after all these years, I'd get to train in this art! And I dove in head first!

I was a beginner again, and that was okay (no, I didn't give up practicing gong-fu; I just started something new in addition to my “wife” art). I thought I had some idea of how to handle a katana (Japanese sword) properly...until I took up iaido. It took me at least two years just to figure out how to grip it properly. Even now, after more than four years of practice, I still foul it up now and then. Not only that, but the footwork is considerably different as well.

The katana is employed in a manner that is very different from Chinese swords. My favorite has always been the broadsword, but decades of practice with that weapon did me no good at all when I picked up a katana.

My teacher is a very patient man and that's fortunate for me. I've never been a quick study. He gently corrects me even after I've made the same error a thousand times! And now, after six years of practice, I still haven't taken an examination. I have no interest in obtaining rank; I just want to learn. I'd like to honor my teacher and take an exam, but I can scarcely afford to travel to the big regional or national events where they're held.

Some people have asked me about beginning again, especially in an art that is so different from the ones I've been practicing for over six decades. I tell them that it's really very enjoyable being a novice again. You're never too old to start something new...

THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT

 by Phillip Starr

If I gave you a 500 year-old manuscript on the martial arts (and let's assume that it's written in English), what would you do with it? Would you just toss it into a pile of other books and ignore it? Flip through the yellowed pages and look at the handful of drawn pictures? Quickly browse through its writings? Or would you carefully study it, paying attention to every word?

I would hope that you'd do more than just read it; I hope you'd STUDY it very, very carefully. And take your time. Hurrying may cause you to miss some important details. Would you do that?

And...what if, during your deep study, you discovered that there was a sort of code in places...written in another language? Would you learn that language so that you could discover more secrets? What if there's a second code that's sometimes hidden within the first one? Would you learn that language as well?

And knowing how language works – after all, some words have more than one meaning and you could run into this situation several times – would you dig some more to find out EXACTLY what the word/phrase was intended to mean?

And you soon realize that really acquiring all of the information that this books has to offer is going to take more than a couple of weeks. It's going to require YEARS, maybe even decades, of careful study.

I would hope that you would. Otherwise, your approach the studying martial arts is simply one of mild curiosity; a kind of exotic hobby...but just a hobby, nonetheless.

Well, those of you who practice traditional karate or gong-fu possess such ancient manuscripts. We call them forms...

WE'RE ALL STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

 by Phillip Starr

It’s true. We’re all students, we’re all teachers, and we learn and teach all of the time.

Just as students learn from their teacher, so their teacher learns from them! Or he/she should, anyway. I’ve always said, “A teacher who cannot or will not learn from his students is in the wrong business.” Students unknowingly teach their teachers. All the time. This is the main reason why teaching enables us to progress further on the martial path, so long as we’re willing to learn from them.

Even if the student doesn’t altogether understand something that the teacher is trying to teach, he/she unconsciously teaches the teacher. Simply being a good student is all it takes. As the teacher presents new material, makes corrections (no matter how small), demonstrates how to execute a given movement correctly… these and other facets of teaching, whether it’s a group of beginners or more advanced pupils, can and often do enable the teacher to learn more about whatever it is that he’s teaching.

Many years ago, a young aikido student who had been training under the founder, Morihei Uyeshiba sensei, had to move to Hawaii. Distraught over having to leave his instructor and fearing that he would learn no more about his art, he wrote a letter to his mentor, asking what he should do, His teacher replied, telling him that he should teach in order to facilitate his progress in aikido.

The young man did so. You may know his name; Koichi Tohei became one of the best-known aikido instructors in the world. His skill was truly amazing.

At the end of each class, my students thank me for teaching them (in Chinese, of course) and I say the same thing to them. I have learned a great deal from my students over the years; much of which I likely would never have learned without their unconscious assistance.

WHADDYA MEAN, “I'M SOFT?

 By Phillip Starr

I remember back in the 60’s when the martial arts media first referred to all gong-fu styles as “soft” and arts such as taekwondo and karate as “hard.” They said that the reason for this difference was that gong-fu utilized circular movements, while karate and taekwondo emphasized linear techniques. I was very young at the time, but I knew that this definition made little, if any, sense.

In China, no such delineation ever existed. Only in America. Yes, there are “internal” styles and “external” styles, but the differences between them have nothing to do with circular or linear techniques. Virtually all forms of bare-handed fighting utilize both. For example, xingyiquan, which is one of the “three sisters’ of the internal arts (the other two are taijiquan and baguazhang), is renowned for being very linear. Clearly, defining “hard” and “soft” has nothing to do with techniques being linear or circular…

Of course, what the magazines were referring to was the differences between the so-called “internal” and “external” forms. But to refer to “internal” arts as “soft” is a serious error. I recall that back in those days, taijiquan was very new to the West and the martial arts media was fascinated by it. Of course, all they saw was the popular Yang style, which is done completely in slow-motion. Performed well, the practitioners seem to be almost weightless and taiji teachers emphasized the need for relaxation, eschewing the use of muscular force. This led the journalists of the day to conclude that this mystical art bestowed upon its practitioners some kind of supernormal power that did not require any strength at all.

When baguazhang and xingyiquan were discovered by the media, the writers were awed and wrote many articles about how senior practitioners of these arts possessed what bordered on superhuman powers! Bagua and xingyi were still quite rare, but the taijiquan schools filled up very quickly with thousands of superman wannabees.

It would be many years before senior taiji instructors corrected these mistaken ideas. Even so, many devout believers refused to listen to them. So, this (and other) mistaken concepts about the “internal” arts persist to this day…

WHAT ARE YOU REALLY TRAINING?

 By Phillip Starr

We regularly engage in all sorts of exercises and routines that involvr stretching, toughening, and strengthening many different parts of our bodies. It's not unusual for many of these exercises to be more than a little uncomfortable; our muscles scream, we pour sweat, and grit our teeth as we force ourselves to move ever forward. But, for the most part, what is it that we’re really training?

Our minds.

A well-known martial arts adage tells us, “Your mind will give up a thousand times before your body does.” And it’s true. When our muscles begin to fatigue and ache, our minds scream, “Stop! Stop!” But we must push ourselves forward, ignoring its pleas.

And when we’re about to attempt something we’ve not done before, isn’t it the mind that tells us, “Don’t even try to do this. You’ll fail!” If we listen to it and believe it, failure is guaranteed.

So we must discipline the mind; train it to be our servant rather than acting as our master. I believe this is, for the most part, what our training is all about…much more so than training our bodies.

At the advanced stages of training (which, by the way, goes on for the rest of your life), training the mind takes on a whole new level of meaning.

 

THE SWORD AND THE BRUSH; WHOLE BODY SHODO

 by Phillip Starr

Shodo is the Japanese term for the art of writing calligraphy with a brush (書道). In Chinese, it is pronouned “shudao.” To acquire skill in this art is no different than learning any other art; it requires regular practice (and patience) over a period of time. Writing characters with a brush is still taught in Japanese schools; in China, not so anymore (they use modern pens to write calligraphy, which is a shame).

You may well have missed grasping the essence of one scene in the cult-classic film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, where the heroine (played by Michelle Yeoh) watches the younger lady (played by Zhang Zhiyi) is writing calligraphy. Ms. Yeoh's character takes sharp notice of just how her younger friend moves her wrist and arm when she brushes the characters...

Shodo masters say that the characters reveal much about the individual brushing them; hi or her ability to remain “centered”, the strength of one's qi, some personality traits, and...skill with the sword (especially since good calligraphy involves moving the whole arm instaed of just the wrists or fingers as we do in our own penmanship). Ms. Yeoh noticed that her young friend clearly had studied and had skill in, the art of swordsmanship.

In China, it's not unusual to see older men (usually) out in the summer heat carrying a pail of water and a brush about 3 ft. long. Using the water in the pail, they brush beautiful characters (usuallt old poems) on the sidewalk. But the Japanese did them one better. For special occasions, calligraphy is sometimes brushed on large pieces of rice paper with a hug brush that's often taller than the artist!

Holding it in both hands, the calligraphy is brushed with movements of the whole body! And of course, most of those who are regarded as masters of this art are also...master martial artists! Their martial skill is revealed in the characters they brush. The two – brushing calligraphy and martial skill – are related...

 

BUT YOU'VE NEVER COMPETED?

 By Phillip Starr

I often hear from martial arts enthusiasts who, although they have never stepped foot into a competition arena, constantly decry “sport” martial arts. Certainly, the sporting aspect of martial arts needs a lot of improvement…but nobody is going to listen to someone who has no actual firsthand experience of the subject. Including me.

I have used, and encouraged my students to use, competition as a training tool. How is this done?

FORMS

Nobody wants to enter form competition and look like a total fool in front of God and everyone else. No…knowing that they’re going to be watched not only by several judges, but by a great many other people…they’ll practice their chosen form over and over. They’ll strive to do it as perfectly as possible. And THAT is the point of the competition; they’ll practice that form like they’ve never done before! Then – win or lose the event, they’ve WON in so far as their training goes!

Some tournaments nowadays have separate form competition for traditional forms and the modern, acrobatic, eclectic, homemade forms (which I intensely dislike). Some don’t have the two types of form separated, and traditional competitors argue that they can’t win. The traditional forms are often over-shadowed by the spectacular gymnastic, “flowery hands” forms of the contemporary homemade forms. And the audience, not knowing the difference, applauds such fancified routines. And they win.

But that’s not the point. The point is that the traditional stylist has demonstrated AUTHENTIC martial arts; he/she has shown the real difference between the two. And win or lose, he/she has won in that respect.

SPARRING

Sparring is another can of worms. Contemporary tournaments in the U.S. are nothing like they used to be. There was a time when only a strong martial arts technique would suffice for a point, but this isn’t at all true today.

Many traditionalists argue that modern sparring is nothing like actual combat. I agree. OF COURSE it isn’t! The same thing is true of boxing, wrestling, fencing, and number of other sports that are based on a form of combat.

Competing in sparring at least a handful of times does have value, though…it lets you know how well you react when you’re under pressure. And it also lets you know how well you can apply the “three jewels” of fighting; distance, timing, and rhythm.

Bur arguing that competition is a bad thing is a bit foolish..especially if the one making such statements isn’t able to speak from a position of firsthand experience.