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It took me almost seven years to earn my black belt in traditional Karate, but it only took the fellow who taught me 2 1/2 years to get his black belt. I always wondered why this was so, but it wasn't until I began to take apart martial arts systems that I understood why. It turns out that there are several reasons why it takes people longer and longer to truly learn anything in the martial arts.
When I took apart the system I had been taught I found two systems. I had not only learned the classical system of ten forms that my instructor had been taught, but I was learning an additional system of seven forms that my instructor had made up. I was also learning several other forms that my instructor had thrown into his teachings just because he thought they were valuable.
This happens quite often throughout the world of the martial arts. Ed Parker, of Kenpo fame, for instance, began his career teaching simple karate forms. When he ran out of forms to teach he started putting vast amounts of kung fu into what he was teaching.
Now the problem is not one of learning material, there is endless material out there. The real problem is separating the material into logical slices. Each of the slices must represent a logical look at an art.
If we were talking dance, we would be separating hip hop from square dancing from whatever. If we were talking music we would be separating country from bebop from so on. In the martial arts we must actually separate tae kwon do from shaolin from jujitsu from pa kua...and so on.
When you separate the martial arts, you must understand the difference between basics and stylistic differences. You must understand that karate blocks, for instance, go out from the tan tien, and wudan type blocks are rotated off the turning torso, and silat blocks are slipping types of blocks, and so on. If you don't understand these differences the arts remain complex and are difficult to absorb.
If you don't understand what I am saying here then you will be mixing different arts, and different ways of handling the body, and different ways of manipulating energy, and so on. Thus, a pear becomes indistinguishable from a banana from a grape, and so on. Thus, the arts become a mush which does not fit into the mind easily.
Understanding these differences, the arts become very easy to absorb, and the mind just absorbs and catalogues everything easy as pie. The martial arts, you see, are only illogical because we have made them so. Separate Wudan into Wudan, or karate into karate, or shaolin into shaolin, and the martial arts canbe learned in a matter of months, not years.
When I took apart the system I had been taught I found two systems. I had not only learned the classical system of ten forms that my instructor had been taught, but I was learning an additional system of seven forms that my instructor had made up. I was also learning several other forms that my instructor had thrown into his teachings just because he thought they were valuable.
This happens quite often throughout the world of the martial arts. Ed Parker, of Kenpo fame, for instance, began his career teaching simple karate forms. When he ran out of forms to teach he started putting vast amounts of kung fu into what he was teaching.
Now the problem is not one of learning material, there is endless material out there. The real problem is separating the material into logical slices. Each of the slices must represent a logical look at an art.
If we were talking dance, we would be separating hip hop from square dancing from whatever. If we were talking music we would be separating country from bebop from so on. In the martial arts we must actually separate tae kwon do from shaolin from jujitsu from pa kua...and so on.
When you separate the martial arts, you must understand the difference between basics and stylistic differences. You must understand that karate blocks, for instance, go out from the tan tien, and wudan type blocks are rotated off the turning torso, and silat blocks are slipping types of blocks, and so on. If you don't understand these differences the arts remain complex and are difficult to absorb.
If you don't understand what I am saying here then you will be mixing different arts, and different ways of handling the body, and different ways of manipulating energy, and so on. Thus, a pear becomes indistinguishable from a banana from a grape, and so on. Thus, the arts become a mush which does not fit into the mind easily.
Understanding these differences, the arts become very easy to absorb, and the mind just absorbs and catalogues everything easy as pie. The martial arts, you see, are only illogical because we have made them so. Separate Wudan into Wudan, or karate into karate, or shaolin into shaolin, and the martial arts canbe learned in a matter of months, not years.
About the Author:
Al Case has analyzed martial arts for forty++ years. He has written dozens of articles for the magazines, and developed Matrixing Technology. You can find out how to separate arts and make them pure by picking up his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.
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