You’d have to be to remember all the combinations and names of combinations.
Monkey steals a peach
Crane spreads its wings
Tiger protects its cubs
Dragons fishing
Large Roc takes flight
Mantis stalking its prey
Drunkard dances with the maiden
Why can’t you just say "outside block with a simultaneous straight punch? Although longer, its alot easier to remember.
Plus, an outside block can be slightly different from animal to animal, so you already add to the clinical version of description. Still, its only terminology, I’ve had teachers who went by the old names, and other teachers who just called it by its technical name.
And what would you do with a brain if you had one? -Dorothy to the Scarecrow
Uh, I never had to remember any of that stuff as far as names and words go.
I just had to remember how to do them and then practice to do them properly.
I learned a lot of the different names for techniques on my own long after I had been taught them by my sifu. And even then, there were different names for the same thing depending on what I was looking at.
My teacher tried to get us to translate the terms into English - but often we find it easier to use the Chinese word. ‘Chwe’ is shorter than ‘Shoulder Throw’, Duhuh is shorter than ‘major inner reaping throw’.
“Poor is the pupil who
does not surpass his
master” - Leonardo Da
Vinci
In the days when challenges could come at any time, all these fancy phrases were like code words that could be used by a teacher to a student or between fellow students without giving up any information to outsiders.
it refers not only to the action, such as tiger decends the mountain, but the internal body movement. With increasing depth the poetic names reveal more and more detail.
and they are cool. It also lets you know application.. Golden tiger strikes the heart not only sounds cooler than (punch) but lets you know its for hitting the heart.
"Why can’t you just say “outside block with a simultaneous straight punch? Although longer, its alot easier to remember.”
A picture is worth a thousand words. A photograph is not the same as thought. I can see hundreds of thousands of words worth of images in a second.
There is recalling the words. Then processing the thought of the word (or the sound of the word into thought) to be further processed into association of action then muscle memory (or whatever brainstuff that makes action happen/associated with that association~Lyle’s example looks like Japanese language. In Bujinkan Taijitsu~ they have techniques which are basically very descriptive as you sugget, Daedalus~ hand-edge-strike-from-the-side; grip- twist-pull-foot~…like Lyle’s example might would be if it got transliterated/translated into English.
Using the words in the call-it-what-it-is way you bring-up, the difference in time spent getting out what to do is only slightly longer use of breath, but definitely gets to be more use of words. The Chinese picturesque talk encompasses footwork (placement/movement), handwork (placement/movement/handtype), and sugests attitude, intention, and power (sometimes all of these at least). This is done with a single phrase. Your call-it-what-it-is way would need at least three phrases to accomplish nearly half the same result.
But (the fleshy part upon which we sit), the picturesque way does not need to rest on being easier to speak (less breath or fewer words with greater conveyance).
…Not everyone knows punch Or kick. These two things have many variations and it has to be taught, Each variation. But I get deeper practice of a Cat stance, having seen a cat and being familiar with them, then I would from, front foot toe-tips pointing to the ground rear knee bent toes pointing forty five degrees out from straight, not too far out, don’t put weight on the front foot.
Very some such, perhaps might have been, likely say some, some not.
I agree with Fish. Using the language that was used of old may help you to a) invoke the spirit of the move and b) connect with the ‘art’ side of things rather than just the ‘martial’.