The Deathly Hush

[wrath]

Wow it's quiet!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone soon. You wouldn't believe how much I miss training when I can't do it.

Anecdote: Whilst at Drama School, I undertook a couple of Alexander Technique classes (before you start sblack personing Mike and Phil, they're for improved posture, vocal attack - don't start - and balance). The Alexander instructor talked about everyone having, what he called, "A safety valve". Mine, he pointed out, is training in the martial arts, for someone else it'll be painting and for yet another: horseriding.

I agree with him wholeheartedly. If I don't get to train regularly, I get fidgety, anxious, snappy. It's often only when we stand back and are objective that the real benefits of any activity start to reveal themselves to us.

Obvious maybe, but I wonder how many people out there have started to get "complacent"? And I don't mean, slacking off (though perhaps... I could certainly push harder at times.) but looking at the big picture.
Are you in it for the grades? Or, the fitness? For the "release"? Or the ability to smash an opponent into a pulp?

Who was it that said?:

"It is easy to take life... but can you give it back?"

Oh, yeah... It was Gandalf!

Well, see you all soon.

Lawrence

[Albért]

Sorry I can't help myself-

there is nothing wrong with your vocals wrath....

except for when you vocally attacked me during the KFC advert that I saw you in ;D ;D

A big part of going to training for me is about making my way through the grades and ultimately being a black belt in a martial art that I see as something very different than others that are offered in this area.

I love the fitness aspect and I love the release.

Looking forward to seeing you again at training.

[Garth Barnard]

wrath said:

Are you in it for the grades? Or, the fitness? For the "release"? Or the ability to smash an opponent into a pulp?

I'm train for two reasons, 1) to defend myself, family and friends. 2) to teach people the things that I wish I had known so many years ago.

It really does worry me at times when I visit some other forums and read things like:

"Taekwondo is very useful when it comes to street-fighting right, I mean you can just take your opponents down with kicks. "

"A black belt in any style is dangerious and if you think otherwise you are a fool."

"There is no such thing as realistic pressure testing."

"Some people said that patterns had nothing to do with self defense/sparring/fighting. I said they have everything to do with self defense."

"Anyone who has trained in the same martial art for 20 years or more can defend themselves regardless of the art or the training methods. To stay with one way that long, there must be some merit to it. To think otherwise is foolish!"

And these quotes were from high ranking TKD Instructors! What planet are these people on! And if martial artists think that way, god only knows what Joe Public is thinking!

That's why I do what I do.

Take care,

Garth.

[wrath]

Well, I can remember way back when... In the St. John's Ambulance Hall, Brackley. We took our Yellow Tag grading under Frank Murphy. And he asked me:
"Why did you choose TaeKwon Do?"

Now, the first answer I gave him was the truth:
"Because it's the closest class to my house"

but it was not well recieved.

The second answer he prompted from me - and which led to both gasps of fear and sighs of relief from Dave and Barbara - was a wholly pretentious affair about how "any martial art if taken to its furthest extreme becomes a purely meditative exercise" and that I hoped that one day I'd achieve that sort of level.

What a load of crap!

When it comes down to it. Cards on the table. Why do I train?

Because when I was young I was bullied awfully and consequently beaten up a number of times. The last time was when I was fifteen and was the victim of an aggravated assault in the street.

That will never happen again. Ever.

Funnily enough, for all my protestations to the contrary, for all my - very valid - eastern philosophies, I am in it for the smashing.

I can walk confidently down any street, because I know what I know. And that's not to say I'm not aware of my boundaries, on the contrary, I'm probably more aware than most, but I have trained not for Art but for Damage.

Now, the best part of this rather sad story is that, whilst I have done all this, all my eclectic study, I have never had to use it. Since taking up TKD and later Wing Chun, I have been in a number of "Code Red" situations and I have not had to raise my hand. And in some ways that is sad because perhaps it would be good to "slip the leash" but on the other hand I can say with a clear heart that I have never been an aggressor.

The ultimate goal of the Martial arts is not to use them. Here endeth my sermon.

[wrath]

And, as if Fate herself were getting in on the discussion, I just found this - rather pertinent - quote from Dr. Leung Ting (Grandmaster Wing Tsun Kung Fu):

A real Wing Tsun practitioner should always imagine hmiself to be a poisonous snake - someone provokes you but if you think that it is not necessary to fight back, you keep silent or leave him alone. Seeing no reaction from you, he (will) probably stop irritating you. However, if you feel you can't avoid a fight, then don't hesitate, but initiate an attack as fast as you can with an aim to defeat him totally!

That rather progressive view was penned way back in 1985.

It's all good, what goes around...

[Garth Barnard]

wrath said:

We took our Yellow Tag grading under Frank Murphy. And he asked me:
"Why did you choose TaeKwon Do?"

Now, the first answer I gave him was the truth:
"Because it's the closest class to my house"

but it was not well recieved.

PMSL!!! ;D ;D Watching Dave bury his head in his hands after your answer made us all chuckle. ;D ;D

Take care,

Garth.