Basics

[East Winds]

A poster on this forum recently posted this

"I really would like to find a teacher where I just won't pay him to teach me whatever he feels like, but really pass the knowledge he knows to his students or me. Life, Spiritual, Combat, experience, etc I pretty much want it all."

and got some great advice fromXue Sheng and Mograph but it brought to mind what I used to tell my students. For the first few years of my study with CMA's, I was despirate for my teacher to teach me "the fancy stuff". He had told me the basics many times but I wanted more. After about 5 years it dawned on me that I couldn't do "the fancy stuff" without a real knowledge of the basics. Then after about 10 years I realised that there was no "fancy stuff". It was all about the basics. We are in too much of a rush in the west to get things done. We want it NOW. Experience eventually teaches us that fast is not always best. Particularly in the CMA's.

Very best wishes

 

[clfsean]

A poster on this forum recently posted this

"I really would like to find a teacher where I just won't pay him to teach me whatever he feels like, but really pass the knowledge he knows to his students or me. Life, Spiritual, Combat, experience, etc I pretty much want it all."

and got some great advice fromXue Sheng and Mograph but it brought to mind what I used to tell my students. For the first few years of my study with CMA's, I was despirate for my teacher to teach me "the fancy stuff". He had told me the basics many times but I wanted more. After about 5 years it dawned on me that I couldn't do "the fancy stuff" without a real knowledge of the basics. Then after about 10 years I realised that there was no "fancy stuff". It was all about the basics. We are in too much of a rush in the west to get things done. We want it NOW. Experience eventually teaches us that fast is not always best. Particularly in the CMA's.

Very best wishes

And there you have it... now if only people will listen to it, hear what's being said and then practice it.

 

[Cyriacus]

Furthermore, Basic Techniques tend to be more effective.

Of course, Fancy Techniques are good as well, but they make up the minority of your arsenal.

 

[mograph]

An often-cited psychological study found that the best indicator of success in life, at many levels, was the individual's ability to delay or defer gratification.

To put it another way to the young student: basics are boring, but they'll save your butt. If you ignore them, your fancy techniques would have no power, and you'd be creamed by someone who does know the basics.

But more accurately: basics are only boring at the beginning, when only the simple surface form (offering little or no visual stimulation) is visible to the young, energetic mind. However, over time, with practice, the student can begin to see the great depth and breadth of discovery that lies beneath the surface.

Or ... if you flip through the pages of a good novel, what do you see? Just a bunch of letters. But what do you see when you take the time to read it?

 

[Thesemindz]

I realised that there was no "fancy stuff". It was all about the basics.

The basics are the "fancy stuff." It just takes us decades to learn how to do them properly. Then we realize that a simple horizontal thrust punch is far more than we thought when we were a beginner.


-Rob