The research and exploration can't be very deep if you can't even remember the names of the styles, can it?
Yes, I think it's reasonable to expect a person to know the name of the art, and to wonder how in-depth the research was if he doesn't.
We digress here, my good Doctor. We turn from the idea of manners or rather the lack of them in kenpo to my training history. Perhaps next we can discuss those revolting jellybabies as we continue this journey off topic into the irrelevant?
If you can recall, with perfect clarity every technique that you have ever been shown, and with equal clarity of recall, its noted source, without referring to any written or otherwise recorded notation, then you sir, are in fact a better man than I, and should perhaps be elevated to the same level of esteem as the late Mr. Bruce Lee.
I would hazard a guess that you, just as I are not that great.
Many of the techniques I practise were learnt at seminars, or casual meet ups from my younger days. As is the whim of youth, I trusted in memory, grown unreliable with age, to recall the whowhatwherewhen that you seek.
As for my grappling background, it has included Somba, Jiu Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Greko-Roman, Judo and some others that I've long since forgotten the names of. Add to that the ground techniques of several other arts, with all their similarities of movement to the above.
I care less where something came from, and more for the answers to the questions of "Can I do that?", "Can I do that when it counts" and "Can I do that in an effective manner when it counts?". I approach training not in the "belt collector" mentality, or the "Ooh what a big number you have" manner but a simpler "problem-solution" manner. Knowing how to count to ten in a foreign language will not save your **** in a conflict, nor will that fancy colour paper in the frame on your wall. Knowing all the technical terms means nothing if one cannot implement the solution to the problematic situation currently threatening their continued healthy existence.
So, please excuse me if I cannot name names, regurgitate meaningless historical trivia, or present proper papers and an fancy embroidered belt with ten or more stripes on it.
There are those who will spend decades seeking to master a single art, who will achieve "proper credentials", earn the high dan, and I begrudge them none of it. That path, is a difficult one, one that few truly earn, and too many buy. Those that truly earn it, truly have my deep and honest respect. But their path is not my path. I seek not to teach others, but to understand myself.
As I stated in my previous, oft misunderstood missive, "Your Opinion, She Stinks", we all have our individual expressions of the perfection of humanity. My own, I am Master of. Of yours, I leave its mastery to you.
So, have I now answered the questions, and may we now return to the subject I originally breached here, or shall I dig through my notes to try and present the complete itinerary of every event, seminar and instructor I have ever encountered in my long career, so that someone here can then independently harass them to see if they recall a dark haired individual who asked many questions, and if they cannot that you may then cast me to the Great Debate for interrogation and debunkery? It is bad enough that there are fools at KenpoTalk who will not give credence to someone unless they are in the correct lineage, with the correct rank, with the correct number of stripes on their belt, and correct signatures upon their paper.
I expected better here.
Was I incorrect?
