Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
This will probably get me in trouble...aka "If I dood it I get a whippin'. I dood it"
Watched the US Open ISKA World Martial Arts Championships on TV last night, which I have never watched before, and I was impressed by, and can appreciate the athleticism of, the competitors and that they all work very hard to get there. And they all may be very competent martial artists outside of this competition, they all sure have the physicality for it, but coming from a very traditional martial arts background I found myself thinking, “what the hell is this” and “why are they all so angry”. It was, IMO. an American version of Modern Chinese Wushu, just with more anger and yelling. And the commentators said of one of the competitors “traditional” form… “he is doing a traditional form he made up himself”…excuse me! It was an impressive and rather athletic double sword form, but (IMO) it was not traditional at all, if for no other reason than he made it up himself. That and some of the, rather impressive, spins and releases would most likely got even the greatest of Samurais, of the past, laughed of the battlefield, or more likely killed. And another commentator referred to the empty hand forms competition, done to modern music, as the martial arts 'dance' form competition.
And the sparing was point sparing, but it was awful. Throwing yourself off balance in an attack to get a point for a light back fist to the other guy’s head. copious fast, inaccurate and powerless kicks.... Based solely on this I can see why there are those (MMA, BJJ, RBSD) that would say TMA does not work.
I take my hat off to the competitors for their ability and achievement in getting to and competing in this competition, but I don't see much of anything I would refer to as useful martial arts at all.. it was mostly a martial arts 'dance' form competition IMHO
I am sorry if I offended anyone, that is not my intent.... It could be that I am old, clueless and used to seeing karate competitions and martial arts competitions from my youth (the late 60s and 70s) and I am just being a curmudgeon who is to old to change
Watched the US Open ISKA World Martial Arts Championships on TV last night, which I have never watched before, and I was impressed by, and can appreciate the athleticism of, the competitors and that they all work very hard to get there. And they all may be very competent martial artists outside of this competition, they all sure have the physicality for it, but coming from a very traditional martial arts background I found myself thinking, “what the hell is this” and “why are they all so angry”. It was, IMO. an American version of Modern Chinese Wushu, just with more anger and yelling. And the commentators said of one of the competitors “traditional” form… “he is doing a traditional form he made up himself”…excuse me! It was an impressive and rather athletic double sword form, but (IMO) it was not traditional at all, if for no other reason than he made it up himself. That and some of the, rather impressive, spins and releases would most likely got even the greatest of Samurais, of the past, laughed of the battlefield, or more likely killed. And another commentator referred to the empty hand forms competition, done to modern music, as the martial arts 'dance' form competition.
And the sparing was point sparing, but it was awful. Throwing yourself off balance in an attack to get a point for a light back fist to the other guy’s head. copious fast, inaccurate and powerless kicks.... Based solely on this I can see why there are those (MMA, BJJ, RBSD) that would say TMA does not work.
I take my hat off to the competitors for their ability and achievement in getting to and competing in this competition, but I don't see much of anything I would refer to as useful martial arts at all.. it was mostly a martial arts 'dance' form competition IMHO
I am sorry if I offended anyone, that is not my intent.... It could be that I am old, clueless and used to seeing karate competitions and martial arts competitions from my youth (the late 60s and 70s) and I am just being a curmudgeon who is to old to change
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