Well, good to see that hobbyhorse, Alan.
First off, I'm not sure I see--well actually, I don't see at all--what's so terrible about a video showing a class of students starting out and warming up with a set of strong inward blocks. Even if the instructor's horse stance could stand a little work (and how good are yours?), looks pretty damn good to me. (I know, I know....Bruce Lee...the mess of tradition....they're not GRAPPLING!)
Second off, I'm not sure I see how anything Clyde or Mr. Tatum...actually, ya know what? The hell with it. Mr. Wortman, you simply don't know what you're talking about. Keep crusading! I know...the Emperor has no clothes? You're here to clean up martial arts? Good for you. Go git 'em. But I just permanently lost interest.
Now as for those videos in question, well, you don't even need to animate them to see that the yellow belt chic is in trouble from the git-go--she's never going to recover from the head-lock, not that there really was one.
There were two nice comments here, one from Mr. Wortman, to the effect that it's one thing to do the stuff well, and another thing to look good on video. It was a good point, too, to say that this is "polite kenpo--" the moves are sorta there in embryonic form (for one thing, they're too little), but there's no stance, no power, no spirit.
What I find more interesting is that those videos suggest something about the, "internal," aspect to kenpo, which we often don't think about. That's partly why Mr. Chap'el insists on his "sub-level," kenpo--I suspect, from what I've read, that he's gotten more and more interested in all the stuff you DON'T see on those movies.
They're also a useful warning about what can happen to our own kenpo. For one thing, we can easily get all wrapped up in our own school--so much so that we lose sight of the world outside, or forget how we've manipulated to give ourselves a false sense of accomplishment.
For another, how many times have you watched someone waving their hands, asked them what they were doing, and gotten the reply, "Oh, I was just remembering Long 5?" No stance, no movement, no focus--but they're remembering Long 5 or whatever. How different is that from those videos?
And last--what Das Clyde calls, as others have, "the spirit of the attack," and, "emotional content." There isn't any. And it's not because those guys aren't swaggering and beating each other with sticks--you can see emtional content in good t'ai chi, if you choose to look. To me, what was significant--and what's embarassing--about those videos--is that if you're honest, they exemplify tendencies that we all have to fight against. They may be extremes--but they're not nearly as different as we'd all like to think.
So here's the real question: suppose you got parachuted in to Help Those Poor Bastits. How would you do it? Me, I'd probably start teaching stance sets--then after they couldn't walk, I'd probably teach 'em how to dummy up and let nature take its course....
I'll have to work on that...
Who's to say that Kenpo stylists don't love an "intense discussion"? :wink:
