Ever heard of Freestyle Nunchaku?

[clfsean]

In our opinion yeah.
However, it does graphically illustrate that tournament weapon useage is radically different from what is expected in traditional weapons usage. Apples and oranges.

Lovely... I'll be facing that this year with a couple of my students that want to compete. No CMA tournaments within reasonable distance vs economy, so I'll be facing that kind of battle. But by the end of the year, TCMA will have been seen & represented.

 

[Flying Crane]

Lovely... I'll be facing that this year with a couple of my students that want to compete. No CMA tournaments within reasonable distance vs economy, so I'll be facing that kind of battle. But by the end of the year, TCMA will have been seen & represented.

Ha! I had a similar thing with my student. I can't remember exactly what it was, it might have been a tournament or it might have been a demo/exhibition or something. I wasn't there, and he was attending thru his/our connection with my first sifu who is now my sihing...

anyway, my student was getting pressure to make his form more...crowd pleasing...by speeding it up and whatnot. The problem is, speeding it up makes technique break down, and kills the training benefits that the form offers. These were never meant to be performance art, they were meant to be a training tool. It just makes it more difficult to do it right, and Sifu always says, "DO IT RIGHT!! ARE YOU IN A HURRY??!! YOU WANNA GO HOME??!! SIT ON THE COUCH AND WATCH TV??!!" I could tell he was in a conundrum about it. I told him hey, do your form properly. You know what that means. Show the people what real white crane is. Don't worry about giving a "performance".

I could see the relief on his face when I told him that. He knew that was the right thing to do, but he was getting pressure to do it otherwise.

Memory is coming back, I believe this was a tournament. I believe he won his division...

hey, there are still some judges out there who know what's what.

 

[clfsean]

Ha! I had a similar thing with my student. I can't remember exactly what it was, it might have been a tournament or it might have been a demo/exhibition or something. I wasn't there, and he was attending thru his/our connection with my first sifu who is now my sihing...

anyway, my student was getting pressure to make his form more...crowd pleasing...by speeding it up and whatnot. The problem is, speeding it up makes technique break down, and kills the training benefits that the form offers. These were never meant to be performance art, they were meant to be a training tool. It just makes it more difficult to do it right, and Sifu always says, "DO IT RIGHT!! ARE YOU IN A HURRY??!! YOU WANNA GO HOME??!! SIT ON THE COUCH AND WATCH TV??!!" I could tell he was in a conundrum about it. I told him hey, do your form properly. You know what that means. Show the people what real white crane is. Don't worry about giving a "performance".

I could see the relief on his face when I told him that. He knew that was the right thing to do, but he was getting pressure to do it otherwise.

Memory is coming back, I believe this was a tournament. I believe he won his division...

hey, there are still some judges out there who know what's what.

Exactly... that's why I said TCMA... My girls will perform with rhythm & execution... not flips, spins, screams & other assorted "stuff".... Solid TCMA with weapons, empty hand & sparring within frame but opened to deal with other folks.

 

[Flying Crane]

Exactly... that's why I said TCMA... My girls will perform with rhythm & execution... not flips, spins, screams & other assorted "stuff".... Solid TCMA with weapons, empty hand & sparring within frame but opened to deal with other folks.

yup, when they are doing their forms, they should look like they are training. not just performing.

 

[geezer]

In reply to the OP, I'd say what you do with them 'chuks is sweet! Just learn to relax your facial expressions. Smile a bit. Check out the following video of me demonstrating my style of combat-oriented Escrima. You'll notice that I smile a lot!

OK, so maybe that wasn't me after all :uhyeah:. But you gotta admit-- that little girl is really something. Kinda makes the OP a little less awesome, eh?