But I'm too old! What is this aerobics???

[WTG]

Letting go of the past

It is not easy...

For me, in my adult life, I have practiced mainly JKD and Ninpo. JKD since about 85 and Ninpo since 1980.

The JKD for me was always about function. Ninpo was about the promise of function... In JKD, I met people that could DO what they were saying, Guro I, Guro Bustillo, Sifu Hartsell ect...

In Ninpo, while I seen function, it was mostly a "set up" art meaning people were feed the "right energy" and all worked well. I had doubts...

But, I was assured, that in Japan, the master teachers and Soke (grand master) were so good, any doubt would be put to rest. Well in time, I did meet these people and train with them, and they were good at what they did, but the doubt was still there.

Nowadays, I know the truth. That the function of the art has been replaced with soft safe training and "talk" of warriorship... There are many good techniques in the art, but the training syllabus is unrealistic.

So, here I am, I own a Gym, it takes money to run a Gym, and the way we train JKD, many people that come in are either afraid of contact, or are looking for "classical" Jun Fan and Kali... There are other Gym's that teach that so off they go.

Others, want the traditional Ninpo, it is safe, and there is no doubt that when done slow, all the techniques work VERY well with little effort, combine that with all the warrior talk and Philosophy, and it fits the bill for some folks. And PAYS the bills for me

But, as the teacher, I am coming to a point where I can no longer teach it. I find myself thinking, why are we doing this, it will never work in real time, the training method is useless ect... I think it is starting to show too...

I have spent many years doing and teaching it, I enjoy it
and to be honest, I WISH it was functional, I really do...
But, I do not know how much longer I can keep it up...

-Rick

[Burton]

I feel for you Rick! I went through the same thing with the Jun Fan, Kali, and Silat. There are some functional techniques, but I slowly came to realize that most was only functional with a partner trained to feed "good" energy. It was a difficult decision for me to take the current path, but nothing in Martial Arts has been more satisfying.
It is true that some people want to just play martial artist, and I doubt that you would ever mislead them. If you tell the truth and offer two approaches, then it is up to the student to decide. The trap is that people will automatically begin to believe that the art they train in is functional. Personally, once I made up my mind to train and teach a certain way, people came out of the wood work to train. There may be more interested in the flash, but there are many dedicated people who will train realistically, especially when done progressively. Since we have been throwing out quotes,
"And this above all, to thine own self be true. And it must follow as the night the day that thou canst not then be false to any man." Shakespeare

[WTG]

Thanks Burton.

Last night a student of mine came back after three months. He trained Ninpo for almost a year, and full out JKD for a solid year, then he took three months off.

When he was doing JKD, he said, that Ninpo, while good and all, was just no where near as realistic as JKDU type training, and he had no interest in going back to it.

Well, his last class, in JKDu he sparred a Big 6'5" Croation and got rocked! My student Brian, looks allot like Jim in stature, and moves like Jim, fast ect... He does very well in kickboxing "range", but, When Big D (Damir, the croation) hit Brian, it HURT! LOL!

So Brian sat out the rest of that class, then I didn't see him for three months until last night. Now Brian has been through allot of hard training, lots of bloody noses
(we used to have regular boxing headgear for a year straight, our noses took a beating), cracked ribs, broken toes and fingers, he was very used to the pain.

But, I found out that- that night, after sparring Damir, something changed in him. He is a white collar guy and is a program manager who travells the world meeting clients for Million Dollar contracts, and he was going into work, brusied, and beat up, and things were being said to him...

He told me last night, that it was just too much, he was tired of being sore all the time, and he now says that he see's what Ninpo was talking about all along, and he has created this whole new philosophy to support his new views, That sparring, and "fighting" is NOT where it's at etc...

So now, he ONLY wants traditional Ninpo! I was SO suprised! this guy REALLY rocked for over a year!

Yet another layer huh? It is very interesting in seeing how people think and react and justify things, It also helps me to see how I do it too!

Well, I guess I am just thinking out loud here...


-Rick

[Burton]

I think progressive resistance will take care of that, along with good helmets! Also, not everyone will want to take the resistance to that high of a level. As instructors, we have to take that into consideration. Not everyone goes into the weight room to become a bodybuilder, and very few will go into a JKDU gym and train with heavy resistance. Of all the "stickfighters" in the US, how many have actually done the Dogbrother thing? Very, very few. You should have different classes for different levels of resistance, or encourage each student to determine the level of resistance they are comfortable with. When sparring, whoever wants less resistance dictates the level in that round. For example, Jim or Shelton like heavy resistance, but if they spar someone who goes light, they comply.

[armlok]

LIKE, LIKE is the wrong word. How about occasionally tolerate.

Rick I know how your student feels. I've got a few nagging injuries that really take a lot out of me. Maybe when finances allow it will be less of a problem. Till then it's all about how much i'm willing to put up with. He (brian) should just cut back on how much he bangs hard. I use training as a way to practice using my tools so they can be used in a realistic manner, not train for the UFC. Like Burton said prgressive resistance and equipment play an important role. I like the isolated drills/sparring to keep injuries down. Unless I'm w/ Jim, then we're bound to injure somthing.

[WTG]

Thanks Burton,

Before I forget, when you asked about how many stick fighters do it do Brothers style, you reminded me of an incident that happened about 8 years ago. Want to hear a story? ok ya twisted my arm

About 8 years ago, I met Bill Gay, what a great guy! He was in Cleveland visiting some family (he is from the area) So we were training, and he asks us, how has done stick sparring? Well up went my hand! (now, at the time, I did soft stick LIGHT contact, lots of equipment! LOL!)

He said, so how long did you stick spar? I said, well we have done it for about 9 months! (I was proud) So he starts talking about how in REAL sparring with the stick,
things change etc... I was not really listening because I thought, ahhh.. he's just tellin' these guys who have no experience LOL! Me and old Bill, we've been there... LOL!

(do you see it coming?)

So he says, for example, when people throw an angle 1, (he throws one "feeds" it) he say's, they throw lightly, but when you spar (give me a look like here it comes, I prepare to do an inside deflection...)

He let one RIPPPPPP!!! I tried an inside sweep and BAM!!! His stick, my stick... BOTH came about an 1/8 of an inch from my head! The impact was SO hard I was stuck in my tracks all I could do was fall down, which I JUST did in time.

Bill's face was like WHAT?!??! did I hit this guy?!?!? He made that noise that Rickson made with you Burton! ROFLMAO! He said, I thought you stick sparred! I said, but I... Uhmm... he walked away shaking his head LOL!


About Brian,

I am going to let him chill for now with Ninpo. He will come to a few "sunday" classes (our old school JKDU group) and I think we will get him involved again, but yes, PROGRESSIVE resistance.

We use progressive resistance on new people, but the old group all over a year, when they get together, they
allways want to rock and roll.

And yes EVERYONE is SOOOO happy we got Macho cages now!

Thanks Sifu!

-Rick

[WTG]

Hey Armlok!

yeah, with Brian, he comes from a group that I had before I hooked up with Burton. We called it the lab, and we just basically said, lets see what we can do.

We strated with 12 people and it went to four in like the second or third meeting. This was during the summer, we did SO much sparring and exercise sometimes we worked out for six hours!

We would train at a park and bring food and drink and weekdays we worked out from 6-9 PM three times a week, and Saturday, we trained from 10 AM until at least 2 often more!

It was so great, but of course we burnt out LOL! thank god for winter LOL!

But since then, the new folks, we build up slow, but when Brian and the others get together... I don't know if it's an ego thing or what, PRIDE? But man they blast.

We'll see what he does... I think he will itch for some spiritual awakening before too long...

-Rick

[Burton]

Bill Gay is a great guy, and he is for real! I think that he has fought with Eric Knauss. I am glad that you got to train with him, and you are lucky you didn't get hit in the face with both sticks! That is common when one isn't used to power.