Back to basics by sifu Stapleton
With the growth of eastern martial arts throughout the world and in particular the west, many martial art enthusiasts today no longer practice these arts correctly. This is not only a problem in the west but even in china the level and understanding of real combat martial arts is very low.
Even though you/they may follow an old style of martial art and may have a famous master this does not automatically mean you do traditional martial arts, only if you practice correctly do you have the right to say you do traditional martial arts;
You are then a follower of the old ways. Ways that are quickly being forgotten in today’s quick fix, materialistic live styles today.
There is an Irish saying, “no matter how tall your father is, you have to do your own growing”
With the popularity of sport martial arts and competitions, most practitioners today no longer train with the mentality of fighting for there life, in a no-rules, non-competitive environment. Ie: fighting to save your life and that of your loved ones. It is common to hear we no longer do this or that because it doesn’t work or we don’t need it in competitions. Masters of old did nothing that did not work; if you can’t make it work it is probably because you’re doing it wrong. Styles that did not survive died for one reason or another and more often than not, it was because the practitioner died in combat because his skills or techniques were not good)
Martial arts techniques were developed to kill or maim your opponent quickly, fortunately we no longer live in warning times, but violent encounters are no less common today as they were thousands of years ago, you only have to look at a newspaper of most western cities to see the amount of stabbings, muggings, rape and gun crimes. What can we do?
We need to make our martial arts work, and not just use it for sport or demonstrations.
We need to get back to basics (jibengong)!!
Today often due to the lack of practice most practitioners never go further than learning forms and for most they are empty as they do not have the correct power, techniques ,speed, conditioning, feeling and understanding of timing/distance to apply these skills in real fighting. What then happens is that practitioners feel that all they are learning is theory or forms ect…, mostly due to the lack of self practice on the students part; a good instructor cannot even begin to start combat applications with you because you have no basics. they then decide all they need to do is spar more so they put on boxing gloves and try to fight with there traditional system in a western boxing manner. This is normally a very bad performance and most would not last 1 round against a professional boxer, why is this?
First of all boxing is a sport a very tough sport but none the less a sport. Lets remember the history of boxing briefly, if one were to study western boxing styles pre 1860’s you will notice the fighting postures and techniques were very close to our traditional styles of kungfu, the use of liner punches, elbows down, hips throws and weapons were all part of the training, in the 1860 the marquis of Queensbury rules were introduced and competitors were required to wear padded gloves. The authorities emphasised that the use of gloves would stop the amount of serious injuries that were all to common in these fights. However most fighters were not concerned about the well-being of there adversaries and they immediately commenced to ascertain just how the could best employ this new device (the gloves) to knock out their opponents.
They discovered pretty quickly that the glove actually altered the striking surface of the fist, a straight punch was much less effective with the hand encased in an oversized, padded mitt because the force of the blow was decentralised. this led to an increased reliance on circular, hooking punching that generated considerable power along the outer corners of the glove. This kind of circular punch works fine as long as you are wearing a glove but bare-knuckled you will land with the wrong part of you hand and will get the all to often “boxers break” wherein the forth and often fifth metacarpals are fractured. Additionally the gloves could be place against the head to form a shield that protected you against incoming blows. this tactic works well in the ring, but take of the gloves and try to create a shield with you bare hands and you can see the problem straight away. The art of boxing was gradually reconstructed around the use of the glove, and the bare knuckle combat arts of the west were changed forever. (Information taken from sifu starr’s-body mechanics)
Lets not let the same things happen to our eastern martial arts.
our arts were never meant to be used with gloves and padding and all the protective gear that comes along with it, if that is what you are training for there is no point in studying traditional martial arts as they will be of no use to you in this type of sport fighting environment, you will have more success studying western kickboxing or something along those lines.
it has been ever more common for martial artist to no longer strengthen and condition there striking tools, because of the use of gloves ect. Without this it is no wonder that students cannot strike with any real force and come to the conclusion that grappling and Wrestling is more effective.
If traditional martial arts continue to only train sport fighters and be more concerned about winning medals and tournaments, our deadly fighting techniques will be lost forever. Yes I can hear the guy in the back saying “well how do we test our skills” well to be blunt if you want to be able to fight in the real world/street, then go and do it, because there is no other way you will really know if it works. ”you cant learn to swim in a bathtub” Sport fighting is worlds apart from street combat, its like playing football to be pre-pared and good at rugby….its not going to happen, your playing the wrong game.. And real fighting is no game. if your not willing to do that, and it is probably a good thing as you will get hurt, (I have the scares to prove it, and so do many a fighter) you best train your traditional martial art hard, because it was designed to train warriors for life and death situations, it is not for points, belts and trophies. That is not the martial arts of our warrior ancestors. (always try to avoid a fight, but if you cant. make sure you win)
Most systems of martial arts contain empty hand sequences, weapons sets and 2 man training exercises. Unfortunately most people just learn these like collecting stamps and go no further with them. They are happy if they can demonstrate it for a friend and get applause and told they looked really good, even though they may demonstrate a traditional form/sequence of martial art, they do not practice traditional training! If I teach a wushu player a traditional form and he can demonstrate it well, does it mean that he trains real kungfu, no of course not!!
So what does it mean to train traditional kungfu?
Here is just a few important points
Your training should contain,
- all ranges of empty hand combat(long,medium,short,grappling,wrestling) even though your style may concentrate of one range more than the other you should have experience in all.
- you should train with weapons, weapon vs weapons, empty hand vs weapons and weapons vs empty hand in a real one step sparring training,2 man forms does not inpart the actual skill’s needed in real combat, its just getting you used started.
- practice defence against multiply attackers
- training should involve some form of qi gong and meditation
- you should continuously stretch and shape/sculpt/sharpen your body, this will correct your posture give you a healthy mind and body and allow you to train well into you old, old age.
here are a few others points that I think are very important
Correct stance training, build a powerful root.
Build a powerful body to withstand blows; you will be hit in a real fight
Condition you hands, arms, feet. legs, in fact every part of you should become a weapon .you will need to strike someone in order to win. striking is your number one priority, you don’t what to be wrestling or grappling in real street combat, even though it does happen and you will train for that. try to always finish the fight with a blow, the fight ends quicker that way and keeps you mobile and ready for you next opponent.
Practice skills on the sandbag or some form of striking post thousands of times until you can fully release your strike correctly without holding back, and do this everyday to keep your weapon sharp.
Study qi gong and meditation everyday, this will calm your mind, focus your intent and build a strong healthy body. You will need to be focused in real fight, and the healthier you are the more hours per day you can train.
If you study traditional kungfu you should practice at least 3 hours everyday. We are studying to become warriors and if you wish to gain real skill you should train every minute you have free.
To practice traditional martial arts is a life of discipline and pain, you should get to the point where you do not have to make yourself train, you train continually to strengthen and better yourself, just as you would eat, drink and sleep. You are a martial artist and your training is not something you do, it is you. In fact if you don’t train you will feel as though you have left something out, like going to the shops and forgetting your wallet, you will feel uneasy. This is a sign your martial arts is becoming part of you.
Remember traditional kungfu was not meant for demonstration, it was meant for your own personal development. Don’t worry what you look like to others, try to feel what you are doing. Real martial arts are a way of life.
Most of your training should be in the basics of your system (jibengong) if you learn jibengong well, but not the forms (taolu) then no problem. This is because you have already learned how to use your body correctly. Your daily life, posture will be correct. Once you have trained your breath, muscles, tendons and bones then your techniques will be correct. Those whom only practice form/technique with no basics always lack the correct body power, connection and co-ordination……thus there techniques are empty and body often suffers from illness and injuries.
our fist forms(taolu/katas) contain these basics mixed in different ways to help us understand how to use them in different situations. It is the students job to ensure that each individual skill is preformed correctly and not to be only concerned with the outward shape of the complete form, as it is the details of each singular movement that holds the keys to successes.
correct stance is the start and the key to success, the reason I say correct as I have come across many students who say yes I practice mabu I can stand for 20 min, but when I look at it, it is wrong, so in a effect they spend 20 min per day practicing incorrect technique and have gained no skill what so ever for there training. Apart from a slight leg work out, but jumping up and down stairs with weights on for 20 min would give much greater benefit if it was just a leg work out we were concerned with!
Today stance training has been ignored in order for people to learn the fancy forms and weapons quicker, unfortunately this is one of the main reasons why practitioners of today are unable to develop as much power as the old masters of the past. If our root is not strong everything else we do will be weak, most practitioners today completely overlook stance training and do not even know how to use there waist for power!!
Common errors today in stance training is to over extend the stance, this may look good but leaves you with very little power, you will be slow to move and in the long run you will damage the joints of the legs. Another is to either squat to low which puts the weight more often on your knees and ankles (the weight should pass through your knees and down past the ankles into the ground) or to stand with the legs straight like a Barbie doll, too bent leaves you slow with no power and damages your legs, straight leaves you with no root and so cannot strike with any real force. Make sure you know the exact structure of each stance. Stance is the first thing I look at when assessing someone’s skill and if done correct it will be the last thing your opponent sees when he is lying on the ground after you have knocked him down.
Without correct stance you will not be able to punch or kick with any real power. Remember Newton’s 3 law of motion “for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction” so if you strike with enormous amounts of force but your stance cannot withstand that reaction force you will knock yourself back. This can get a little more complex as not only the stance but the breath and bone/joint alignment of the whole body is needed to ensure all the force generated is received by your opponent and that you do not receive the reaction force but it passes through your correctly aligned body and goes out through your feet. so in short if your stance and body structure are not correct you will literally hit yourself!!
Master yourself before trying to masters others
I would like to quote master lee kam wing, when referring to someone’s kungfu form or movements he will often say, “Yes it is correct, but some movements inside are not correct”
I think he sums this up very well. Your form or movement may look correct or even good to the untrained eye, but real kungfu is much deeper than nice movements. if we forget our root, out martial skills will deteriorate with each passing generation until all we will do is a bad form of sport tit-for-tat sparring and all our forms are used for is demonstrations. The masters of the past, put these forms together to help us make use of them, they mapped out point striking, good combinations, correct body use. These are the secrets right in front of our eyes.
But if we do not practice our basic skill correctly we are doing the same as what modern wushu is doing, the only difference is we are doing it with traditional movements, but in the end the result is the same, neither can fight, and neither has any gong and real kungfu dies.
“If you practice form without gong in old age your kungfu will be hollow”
We have all heard and some may even teach that saying. Well let’s make sure we pay attention to it and put the gong back in “gongfu”
