Eastern Martial Arts and Body Connection

[Steve]

If that is the case, please explain to me what martial arts that you are familiar with do not follow this same goal ...

Tai chi, wushu, lucha libre. Also any art where the participants say that fighting isn't the goal, which we see often around here.

 

[pgsmith]

... evaluating a situation and acting immediately in order to win an encounter.

Nowhere in that statement did I mention anything about fighting. I specifically said encounter, because quite a number of martial arts do not engage in any actual fighting. Tai chi, wushu, and professional wrestling all have one to one encounters that require their adherents to evaluate and act immediately in order to win said encounter.

Any others.

 

[O'Malley]

This is not the same with MA arts as we often see kicks and punches in the point sparring world done without power connection.

If the goal is to always have applicable power then your training will always try to involve that power connection. If your goal is to just tag someone and score a point, then you'll develop skill sets that don't require a power connection. If you only do MA for exercise and fitness then you can get away with not having a power connection. Tai Chi is probably the best example of this where the power connection isn't important to many.

Which is ironic since the whole point of Tai Chi (and internal arts as a group) is to train whole body connection to generate unusual power.

I think that basic body mechanics (power generation/structure/balance/angles/etc.) are trained by all martial arts (I'm even tempted to say that they are trained by every sports training, the difference being the specific purpose they are trained for). To keep it within the martial arts world, one can even say that the MA that are popular in the western world (that includes Western MA such as boxing and wrestling but also Muay Thai) train those body mechanics more efficiently since they are more prone to testing them.

That being said, a peculiarity of Asian martial arts is the use of esoteric training methods that originally came from India (through yoga, kalarippayatt or other practices) and were refined in China to develop specialized martial strength before spreading over neighboring countries. Those training methods allegedly produced outstanding martial artists but they have mostly been lost today. Even in so-called "internal arts" that are supposed to focus more on this type of training, the results are mostly disappointing (one can speculate a lot about the causes). But occasionally you see strange training exercises that pop up in several Asian styles and whose purpose is not clear. I think that they are relics from those training methods.

Interestingly, if one does some research, one can find that some old time western strongmen who accomplished extraordinary feats used yogic methods (for example, breath training) as part of their regimen.

 

[Mitlov]

As a tkd man, I agree with what you're saying, but olympic tkd might be about as western as eastern martial arts can get lol

I dunno, think you're using "western" as a synonym for "modern." It's very modern, true, but also very South Korean in my opinion. Something can be Asian and modern, Western and modern, Asian and traditional, or Western and traditional. Those are two separate variables.

 

[paitingman]

I dunno, think you're using "western" as a synonym for "modern." It's very modern, true, but also very South Korean in my opinion. Something can be Asian and modern, Western and modern, Asian and traditional, or Western and traditional. Those are two separate variables.

I'm not saying anything about modern or traditional. I'm just joking at how much of a sport it is.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Which is ironic since the whole point of Tai Chi (and internal arts as a group) is to train whole body connection to generate unusual power.

You would think this aspect would be basics for any type of tai chi even if it's just for health.

 

[Steve]

Nowhere in that statement did I mention anything about fighting. I specifically said encounter, because quite a number of martial arts do not engage in any actual fighting. Tai chi, wushu, and professional wrestling all have one to one encounters that require their adherents to evaluate and act immediately in order to win said encounter.

Any others.

What do you think is happening here? I'm genuinely confused about what you mean.