With Respect,
Supra Vijai
first off i was making a point. and the lifelong white belt is a metaphor if you dont understand it than you probably havent learned anything from the arts. it means to always think of yourself as a rookie, a begginer it humbles you. and secondly if you need a belt system to prove you have gotten anywhere then you truly are misunderstanding the essence of the arts. they are a training system to develope warriors. even the most soft and flowing internal arts like tai chi. and i can assure you, that the belt rank you hold only builds an uneccesary ego that in a real life situation would probably get you killed. and i do love my training i never said i didnt i merely stated that without the ability to will the self and the body to perfect onesself through the arts whichever you choose to train in something you obviously missunderstood. it will go in one ear and out the other so to speak. and i do appologize for the lack of proper sentencing but i am learning to program and it messes with my normal typing archatecture. the point i was trying to make with the ball ref was that if you dont have willpower involved in every part of your martial arts training. than teaching you would be like forcing a child to stand up straight so to speak. if you dont will yourself to perform proper technique than it would take ages to build any muscle memory making every aspect of the art you train in null and void and the 4 main arts i actualy am activly studying ten and there is no primary art one should learn
Alrighty, having a metaphor is fine, having humility is commendable and the lack of needing a belt to prove your worth shows maturity. That said, when making a profile about yourself to give other members of a worldwide forum who are often strangers some insight into who you are and where you are coming from, an actual art and rank would help. As for my own personal views on belts, well they aren't secret by any means and I've posted them on here in several threads. See this is where we differ, I don't see the arts as a training system to develop warriors. If I wanted that here in Australia, I'd get myself a bit fitter and go enlist as an Army reserve or look at one of the other branches of the military. You don't see Marines learning 10 martial arts as part of their standard training. They learn MCMAP and that's it but that doesn't mean they aren't widely considered some of the fiercest warriors on the planet.
As far as your point about ego, I know plenty of egotistical goons who have never stepped into a Dojo just as I know plenty of serious high level martial artists who are not egotistical goons. Belts these days may be about giving kids a sense of value (quite important mind you) and the advent of the McDojo may have diminished their value but from a more traditional point of view, belts served to show time in an art. You started off with a white belt and rather than grade or change belt colours, you kept it and trained and trained and over time, the belt would discolour and darken eventually getting to the black colour we associate with time and experience as well as proven ability.
I'm glad you love your training. I apologise if it seemed like I was talking directly at you in my post but I was not, it was a general commentary that if Person A does not love what they are doing or learning, then Person A needs to re-evaluate if they are in the right art for them and possibly move on. Perfection to me is a dangerous thing... it doesn't really exist, only what can be perceived as perfect or rather, the challenge presented by striving for perfection. If perfection in an art was truly possible, you wouldn't have practitioners devoting their whole lives to constantly getting better and improving themselves - in more ways than just the fighting.
Again, having a child stand up straight has many advantages for the child both in the current time frame and later life which are both physical and psychological. I for one didn't have great posture as a little kid and already my back is paying for it
The willpower is an interesting one. You can "will" ability to yourself all you want but unless your (Person A) name is Neo and you (Person A) are in the Matrix, it isn't going to mean squat compared to actual blood, sweat, tears and hours upon hours of training to get the technique right. Then repeat that for every other technique. As you go, you'll notice those things you slaved away at come a lot more naturally when you need them because they're in muscle memory AND they are correct technique. Simply stating that you need will to build muscle memory quickly doesn't account for correctness, understanding or internalizing the material. Futher, stating that "it would take ages to build any muscle memory making every aspect of the art you train in null and void" is a HUGE claim. I'm 5 years into my own training. I'm starting to get thing working from muscle memory under adrenaline now but they are still extremely gross motor actions. Saying that means every aspect my art is null and void is frankly, a little insulting. I'm not training MA for quick survival on the street. I'm not sure if you quite get the difference just based on your posts
Not saying there is any one art that is amazing and 100% complete and foolproof and should be the primary. If there was one, everyone would be in it defeating the need for the diversity we have now. That said, what do you get from training in 10 arts? Wouldn't you be better off picking one (or 2 or 3 if you really want) and working the bejesus outta those? Striving to get perfection in 3 arts would be a full time gig I'd imagine. As a kid I used to be interested in magic and every tape I bought or magician I spoke to said the same thing: there is no point knowing 20 complicated tricks and an hour long act if you can't perform them properly. You are much better off with half a dozen basic tricks that are quick & easy to set up and execute. If that's on a stage where someone isn't (I hope) trying to actively hurt me, then I sure as hell wouldn't want long, complex and unrefined on the streets. But that's just me.
I think you are going for the mind over matter approach or placebo effect wherein you believe something works so it does, just keep in mind the issues with correctness as mentioned before or probably more dangerously, false confidence. If I tried that exercise every day and convinced myself I knew Dim Mak as used by JCVD in Bloodsport and train muscle memory to punch in a certain fashion, I'd still break my fist the first time I hit an actual stack of bricks. That's against bricks, I'd rather not think about what the outcome would be against an assailant.
