Is my art effective ?...or should I say...

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
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Am I good enough in it? Do I understand it’s principles? Am I practicing the right way? Am I patient enough to really learn it or do I look elsewhere for answers when I’m facing difficulty?
Can I understand the fact that climbing a very hight mountain takes more times and efforts,can be more discouraging and sometimes even boring than climbing a smaller one ? Can I foresee that the view up there will be a lot more beautifull when I finally reach the top ? Are fast results important to me or enjoying the progress as it comes? What am I looking for in my art? Is it for competition or self-defense or personnal growth ? Am I practicing something well suited for me? Will age be a factor someday? Can I keep my individuality in it or do I have to blindly follow somebody or rules ? Do I fell all other arts are good depending on the practitioner or only my style is worth it because of some guy in some competition ? Am I happy in what I do?..

Les paroles s’envolent.
Les écrits restent!..

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Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good that we oft may win, By fearing to attempt.
–William Shakespeare

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out…
–Robert Collier

…
The Dude: Fortunately, I’m adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug, uh, regimen to keep my mind, you know, uh, limber.

3

No, no, yes, no, yes, yes, both, green, Oregon, yes, fifty-two, crab quiche, both of them, yes.

I think that covers all those questions.

4

“Organizing truth is like trying to put water into a paper bag”-Bruce Lee

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Dare I try to give Bruce’s quote a hard time?
NAH that would just be egotistical! :smiley:

I know! This seems like the best time to give Bruce a call and discuss it with him!

:smiley: He’ll be so happy to hear from me again…

Ryu

“One who takes pride in shallow knowledge or understanding is like a monkey who delights in adorning itself with garbage.”

6

Oh Please!!

Mr.Nemo, you know its Washington, yes, thirty-six, crab cake! Why try to play dumb?

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Well , that was supposed to be a serious tread but what’s the fukk!..Let’s talk about Tank Abbott!..

Les paroles s’envolent.
Les écrits restent!..

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Ryu, I am in execution ready pose, ready to die like a warrior

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When I started Martial arts I started for the wrong reasons I guess…I always wanted to do a martial art because I thought it was cool, and I wanted that power I guess when I was a kid. In my late teens I had a really rough break up with this chick, she decided that she wanted a 35 year old instead of me ,boo hoo , lol.
anyway my neighbours recently joined this kungfu school , and we all used to play video games together and they used to hype it up i guess. I was bored and looking for an outlet. plus i guess in the back of my mind i was plotting revenge..heh heh heh.
By that time I was lifting weights and was really buff anyways so i wasnt too keen on this martial arts thing i thought that brute strength could easily overpower some guy with inane screams
but I joined the school and it just totally blew me away, all i had been exposed to was karate and taekwondo , or bruce lee oh and ninjas ,i didnt get to watch alot of those kungfu flicks late at nights when i was a kid , something about bedtime or some abstract concept like that.
but this place right..it just totally blew my mind , i’d never seen anybody move like that in my life. I fell in love with the place and kept going back. entered tournaments experienced failure and success. then i “woke up”
the drive was addictive, I was inspired to train, the results of my kungfu training reflected in my attitude and my life. I began to seek as much knowledge not only on kungfu but everything that grabbed me i wanted to investigate.
It was still a fairly new school in jamaica when I joined Sifu probably been there about two years since he came from miami .
I performed at alot of demos , because we wanted to make ourselves known throughout the island, not just at tourneys.
the journey has been great since i never looked back, I was one of the first five black sash students to come out of the jamaican school that was in 98 , that was when the real journey began.
you never stop learning , once you stop you have grown old and are ready to die, we are all students. there is always something to learn.

“everything is everything”

10

lol@Tank.Abbott

what does Tank Abbott have to do with anything? Other than being the barbitchuate of many a’ so called trainned fighter and even a couple o’ good fighters.

<a href=“http://www.sherdog.com/cgi-bin/ufcmatches.pl?uu96/uu96_abbott_vs_nelmark.zip” target=“_blank”>cool video enclosed
</a>

11

<font size=“1”>Am I good enough in it? Do I understand it’s principles? Am I practicing the right way? Am I patient enough to really learn it or do I look elsewhere for answers when I’m facing difficulty?</font>

If you are studying an art that is worthless or from a bad instructor then none of the above questions matter. You can learn all the sandcastle building techniques you want but that doesn’t make you good at laying bricks.

<font size=“1”>Can I understand the fact that climbing a very hight mountain takes more times and efforts,can be more discouraging and sometimes even boring than climbing a smaller one? Can I foresee that the view up there will be a lot more beautifull when I finally reach the top? Are fast results important to me or enjoying the progress as it comes?</font>

What are you talking about? I don’t get it… Why is it that you can get good at everything else in the world with practice and a little bit of time yet martial arts is different than everything else in the world and only 85year old men are masters?

You can become fluent at speaking Spanish in 6 months by going to Spain, why is that a bad thing? Is Spanish that much better if you go to class 2 times a week and are taught by a teacher that isn’t even fluent and it takes you 30 years if ever to learn it? Maybe the teacher will give you a belt every 6 months!!! wooohooo, i like colors!

<font size=“1”>What am I looking for in my art? Is it for competition or self-defense or personnal growth ? Am I practicing something well suited for me?</font>

So you are saying effectiveness is not important? It is cool to learn to paint, music etc. I’m a real fan of the arts. You can practice ballet and gymnastics all you want, just don’t pretend like you are learning to how fight a war.

<font size=“1”>Will age be a factor someday?</font>

Yes, everyone will die.

<font size=“1”>Can I keep my individuality in it or do I have to blindly follow somebody or rules?</font>

Did you not learn discipline in karate? What is the point of having an instructor if you do not follow his direction. Are you an Anarchist? “rules, we don’t need no stinkin rules”

<font size=“1”>Do I fell all other arts are good depending on the practitioner or only my style is worth it because of some guy in some competition?</font>

Communism works right? huh…why do you say its just good in theory? The Chinese use it successfully. Why are you laughing at me? What about Hong Kong…its successful! What’s that you say…Hong Kong is their successful city because it was under the rule of Britain? What’s that? Britain’s system of government and economy is successful so that is why Hong Kong is succesful? That doesn’t make any sense…Communism takes 3 billion years to perfect and the top the mountain will be beautiful when we fall off and break our neck…what are you trying to say? Communism doesn’t work?

WELL I LIKE TO READ SO COMMUNISM IS JUST RIGHT FOR ME!!

<font size=“1”>Am I happy in what I do?..</font>

Very Important, however ballet doesn’t make you good at football.

[This message was edited by truewrestler on 11-28-01 at 06:44 PM.]

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truewrestler,

that was unnecessarily belligerent. old jong asked some good questions. and while i, personally, welcome your opinion, it would be nice to read it in a format that didn’t scream I THINK YOU’RE AN IDIOT FOR ASKING.

whaddya say?

stuart b.

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old jong,

i think the sorts of questions you’re asking begin to go beyond anything that can be quantified. tournament wins can be quantified. surviving self defense situations can be quantified. belts can be quantified.

but you’re asking more abstract questions, i think. they’re good questions. but in a sense, i think they’re the sort that a religious person might ask of themselves. by that, i mean that there’s no real answer to them. no satisfactory answer, in any event.

and, like in religion, i think much of this is based on faith. we choose to believe certain things. some can be proven. some cannot. “can i beat this guy in a match?” that can be proven. “is it morally right to do so?” that cannot. we have thoughts and feelings on the subject. but in the end, i think we have to choose to believe and then follow that on faith.

stuart b.