Many people mention Bruce Lee to illustrate how effective “external” gung fu is without being aware that Lee learned Taiji from his father (Yang style, I believe). I have only heard of one instance where he demonstrated the form, and have never heard of any instance where he taught it. And although I have never heard that he studied it, it is known that he researched Bagua for a while.
Bruce Lee’s 3 inch punch is still a low level. I do not understand people’s fascination with this crap.
One should be able to produce power FROM CONTACT; zero inches.
I did study Hung Gar, and I can tell you the “internal” of that art is not related, as in, completely different, from Ba Gua or the other internal that I am studying.
Everyone’s internal – I know, I know. But when I was studying Hung Gar, I was honest with ymself, want to call it chi gong, fine, but that is not internal if you are trying to compare it with the internationanly understood internal arts of Ba Gua, Hsing-I and Taiji. Want to call it internal, fine. But it is not the same, not even closes. Again, with Wing Chun, you can say Sil Lim Tao is internal, sure. So is tying my shoe. For real. You just didn;t have as good of a shoe tying teacher as I did.
This is what the argument always comes down to. All the styles have internal, just that your sifu isn’t as good as mine. Do you think true internal is so easy to come by, that the average Hung GAr or Wing Chun Sifu really knows the complexities of internal. I say no.
To the “external” stylists I ask: why is your style internal? SHare your experience. Because I know most sifu will just say, “Yes, its internal at the higher level.” Well, have you reached it, do you feel the power of the internal, in your every day life, in combat. Are you guided by your intention?
I swore I’d stay off KFO for awhile, and I know nothing of internal and external, but I offer a view as an outsider:
Who cares? The real questions should be:
- Is your teacher good?
- Is what you are learning sound?
- Can you apply it?
I’m sure that the “who cares?” comment will be taken by some to mean I don’t understand the complexities of something or other and that’s very likely true.
What you said is what it really all comes down to.