My own MA...

[fenglong]

Hello everyone.
I am developing my own MA and am looking for creative or atleast interested people for creative/productive chat/exchange.

I practice MA daily, mainly to grow physically and mentally, but also invest a lot of thinking and testing in realistic combat situations/self defense.
Yet, my MA is the center of my life and my life style, NOT a simple self defense style and NOT an esoteric fuss style.

-The physical methods are based on elements, their biochemic effects to the human body and aim for health, performance increase and maximized efficiency.

-The mental methods are based on elements and their psychic effects to the human brain and aim for a clear and focused mind, reduced negative influence of emotions and pain and increased motivation by affecting the personal mood.

-The spiritual/philosophical methods are meant for social practice, considering they require a certain life style and a vast amount of dedication I consider this part of my MA to be just for myself. Since my earliest childhood I am obsessed with certain nature forces, they have drawn a red line through my entire life and even I needed several years to finally decide whether to live for this philosophy.


I am not trying to make a "better MA", I am not trying to compete with other MA and I am not putting myself above other practitioners.
I simply figured I need to combine my love for nature forces, obsessive creativity and desire to learn and find innovative answers(just different, not neccesarily better), idiosyncratic opinion and expectations about MA and my delicate personality, if I want to be satisfied in life.
I spent about 10 years practicing Hong Quan and Taekwondo and about another 5 years with research and trying other MA such as Thaiboxing, Taijiquan and a year in China.


My MA is my personal purpose in life and by no means a competition challenge to others, so no disrespectful comments please.

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

Good Luck with that... I think you are going to need alot more exposure and time training to put anything worthwhile together, and I still doubt it would creative and new.
I might suggest to you to instead of trying to start your own martial art, to continue training and learning other martial arts and start developing your own style of expressing those martial arts, and possibly work on a life philosphy to combine the martial arts with your creative nature, I can almost guarantee you will get a much better response to that then coming around and saying you have trained for 10 years and are now going to make your own martial art.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Welcome to MT and I hope you enjoy yourself. There are many who practice a non-traditional martial art style on MT, some are partially or completely self-designed. So you're not the Lone Ranger. No one can say that your personal style is or is not effective and useful; if it works for you, that's great.

I hope you have a fairly thick skin, however. Founders appear on MT from time to time, and their own attitude and answers to questions either ensures they have a pleasant experience or are laughed at until they slink off or blow up and get banned. I hope you understand that lots of people invent their own styles, and most feel the need to proclaim it (never quite figured that part out - if it's a personal style, keep it personal). Some are pretty much based on something they saw on Power Rangers TV shows combined with the couple years of TKD they took when they were 9 years old. Some are a bit more legit. It becomes clear fairly soon which is which; but be prepared for some prodding by people interested in figuring it out.

 

[Aiki Lee]

When I think of what "my own martial art" means to me, I think personally of how I would master something completely and then provide my take on it. If you get several masters of the same style together they would do a lot of things the same but each have their own focus, strengths, and weakness that would make their art unique to them. Is this what you are talking about?

In any case, if you are interested in elemental attitudes look at some of Stephen Haye's books about the elements and the emotions that go with them.

And welcome to Martial Talk.

 

[fenglong]

I lived 15 years with the question whether to adapt to the ideas and concepts of others or doing it myself from the scratch, also to understand the MA to bits and not just pray and hope what I am getting taught makes sense.
A person teaching a MA being called master is no guarantee for the quality of what they teach, nor for the students to be satisfied with the results.
I think spending 15 years on adapting to other's ideas was enough for me, especially since I am developing my MA for myself, not for others.

I am constantly looking for input to advance my concepts, but not to make me wonder whether to continue with my path or not, cause I will continue.

 

[Aiki Lee]

So, I guess I don't understand what it is you plan on doing.

I would think it is incredibly difficult to come up with an entirely new training philosophy. It's not impossible, but I think its unlikely. I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, so don't think I'm trying to pick you apart for something.

Do you have ideas in your head about what you are looking to do? How is your approach different than what you have experienced?

 

[fenglong]

When I think of what "my own martial art" means to me, I think personally of how I would master something completely and then provide my take on it. If you get several masters of the same style together they would do a lot of things the same but each have their own focus, strengths, and weakness that would make their art unique to them. Is this what you are talking about?

In any case, if you are interested in elemental attitudes look at some of Stephen Haye's books about the elements and the emotions that go with them.

And welcome to Martial Talk.

Thanks for the book tip, I will consider it.

And no, by developing my own MA is literally mean from the scratch.

I have not only made experience with useful things within those 15 years but also with a lot of things that bother me and that I'd prefer to do differently.
I won't judge MA styles by the things I disagree with, because of their in my opinion each MA has a certain spirit which can only be grasped by studying it for centuries.

I may, in the end, come to the same or similar conclusions in terms of certain aspects I formerly disagreed with, but atleast I walked the path of experience to understand the details and not just adapt and accept to whatever I get told by my "master".

 

[fenglong]

So, I guess I don't understand what it is you plan on doing.

I would think it is incredibly difficult to come up with an entirely new training philosophy. It's not impossible, but I think its unlikely. I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, so don't think I'm trying to pick you apart for something.

Do you have ideas in your head about what you are looking to do? How is your approach different than what you have experienced?

The ideas of it have grown over years and even the step to fully train by those ideas took many months. But as success came, doubts slowly moved away.

 

[fenglong]

Welcome to MT and I hope you enjoy yourself. There are many who practice a non-traditional martial art style on MT, some are partially or completely self-designed. So you're not the Lone Ranger. No one can say that your personal style is or is not effective and useful; if it works for you, that's great.

I hope you have a fairly thick skin, however. Founders appear on MT from time to time, and their own attitude and answers to questions either ensures they have a pleasant experience or are laughed at until they slink off or blow up and get banned. I hope you understand that lots of people invent their own styles, and most feel the need to proclaim it (never quite figured that part out - if it's a personal style, keep it personal). Some are pretty much based on something they saw on Power Rangers TV shows combined with the couple years of TKD they took when they were 9 years old. Some are a bit more legit. It becomes clear fairly soon which is which; but be prepared for some prodding by people interested in figuring it out.

Thanks.

I didn't realize there are that many creative MA practitioners, although I have come across some weird stuff on youtube... ^^

I am not the biggest human friend anyway, watching news can be enough to decide to spend your time with other things than humans, but I am used to facing malicious behavior and also sometimes blow up.
I guess hot temper is part of my personality, but I rather focus it into a "needle tip". ^^

I am happy to answer any application related questions, it would help me realized things much better too, unfortunately people usually don't get to the point at all.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Thanks.

I didn't realize there are that many creative MA practitioners, although I have come across some weird stuff on youtube... ^^

I am not the biggest human friend anyway, watching news can be enough to decide to spend your time with other things than humans, but I am used to facing malicious behavior and also sometimes blow up.
I guess hot temper is part of my personality, but I rather focus it into a "needle tip". ^^

I am happy to answer any application related questions, it would help me realized things much better too, unfortunately people usually don't get to the point at all.

That went well. Well, good luck anyway with that chip on your shoulder.

 

[fenglong]

...speaking of others and their MA styles, I'd love to read/see more about those and their ideas and motivations.

 

[fenglong]

That went well. Well, good luck anyway with that chip on your shoulder.

...you mean ship?

 

[Xue Sheng]

Your profile says 15 years, different styles

How many styles and how long in each and which one do you consider your root style?

In China for a year, doing what, training what, do you speak Mandarin or another dialect?

 

[fenglong]

@Student

Your profile says 15 years, different styles

How many styles and how long in each and which one do you consider your root style?

I spent about 10 years with Hong Quan (Hung Ga) and Taekwondo, besides a little Thaiboxing, Taijiquan and weapon forms.

I think I kept most from Taekwondo, yet I spent a lot of time and energy getting rid of things that had become a second nature to me.
Keeping experience and knowledge is one thing, but snapping back into old patterns is not what I want.

In China for a year, doing what, training what, do you speak Mandarin or another dialect?

I did a total of 4 trips to and through China, doing all sorts of things. Looking for a master/a MA I want to learn, doing some jobs, collecting experience with the actual life in China.
I speak a little Mandarin, I think all the traveling didn't do well to my Chinese skill. ^^
Last time I spent 3 months in Chongqing where the local dialect kept confusing me as it was often same or similar words but different tones compared to Mandarin.

As for hanzi, I think I could read a few things on a menu in a restaurant, haha. Just pinyin for me.

 

[Xue Sheng]

@Student

I spent about 10 years with Hong Quan (Hung Ga) and Taekwondo, besides a little Thaiboxing, Taijiquan and weapon forms.

I think I kept most from Taekwondo, yet I spent a lot of time and energy getting rid of things that had become a second nature to me.
Keeping experience and knowledge is one thing, but snapping back into old patterns is not what I want.

I did a total of 4 trips to and through China, doing all sorts of things. Looking for a master/a MA I want to learn, doing some jobs, collecting experience with the actual life in China.
I speak a little Mandarin, I think all the traveling didn't do well to my Chinese skill. ^^
Last time I spent 3 months in Chongqing where the local dialect kept confusing me as it was often same or similar words but different tones compared to Mandarin.

As for hanzi, I think I could read a few things on a menu in a restaurant, haha. Just pinyin for me.

Thank You

IMO it is from those old patterns that the new ones will grow if you are looking to start your own type of MA it needs a root and that root comes from those patterns.

The physical methods are based on elements, their biochemic effects to the human body and aim for health, performance increase and maximized efficiency.

That pretty much describes all martial arts, they just may not have used the word “biochemic”

-The mental methods are based on elements and their psychic effects to the human brain and aim for a clear and focused mind, reduced negative influence of emotions and pain and increased motivation by affecting the personal mood.

Again this is pretty much a description of many martial arts

-The spiritual/philosophical methods are meant for social practice, considering they require a certain life style and a vast amount of dedication I consider this part of my MA to be just for myself. Since my earliest childhood I am obsessed with certain nature forces, they have drawn a red line through my entire life and even I needed several years to finally decide whether to live for this philosophy.

All MAs have a root philosophy

IMO, and take it for what it is worth you can find your own way but you may be looking to distance yourself when you should be looking closer to the root of your root MA or what MA is and not trying to redefine it based on what appears to me to be semantics. Basically don’t try and reinvent the wheel, just come up with a variation of it that fits you.

 

[fenglong]

That is exactly what I DON'T want to do.
What I do is first set myself free from existing patterns so that I can then do seemingly normal/basic things from different perspectives.
Or to keep it simple, in order to find my way into an elemental MA, I need to set myself free from other concepts.

An example: My throwing techniques are based on the element wind. More specifically, on horizontal and vertical movements of the wind, such as circulations.

It is a mixture of intuition, love for the elements and creativity that keeps me going and the success showing up from time to time.

I am not saying it will be one of the most effective MA in a certain aspect, but my inventions definitely have their right to exist inside my MA.

 

[Steve]

I think that this is great. I've read dozens of threads started by people who are creating their own unique MA style, but they're mostly teenagers with delusions of grandeur. I can tell from your posts that you are a very serious martial artist who has studied extensively and can really add value to the MA community. I only hope that we (as a group) are open minded enough to really benefit from you.

I was flying toward the mat one time, after getting caught in a pretty high amplitude fireman's carry. It was EXACTLY like being caught up in the current of a tornado. Elemental, to say the least.

Anyway, i can tell that you're different because you're very specific about your credentials and you've traveled to China FOUR TIMES! That's awesome.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Good Luck with that... I think you are going to need alot more exposure and time training to put anything worthwhile together, and I still doubt it would creative and new.
I might suggest to you to instead of trying to start your own martial art, to continue training and learning other martial arts and start developing your own style of expressing those martial arts, and possibly work on a life philosphy to combine the martial arts with your creative nature, I can almost guarantee you will get a much better response to that then coming around and saying you have trained for 10 years and are now going to make your own martial art.

That's almost a positive response. I think its a good thing, and I think its a good thing Mr. Parker or Bruce Lee didn't listen to this type of advice when they developed their own systems.
Sean

 

[Flying Crane]

An example: My throwing techniques are based on the element wind. More specifically, on horizontal and vertical movements of the wind, such as circulations.

could you give some detail about what you are talking about here? Sounds like you have a concept in your head that must translate into physical technique somehow, but for the rest of us who are not privy to your thoughts, it would be helpful for some detailed explanation.

I am not saying it will be one of the most effective MA in a certain aspect, but my inventions definitely have their right to exist inside my MA.

I will ask, if you are not convinced that your method would be the best at least for yourself, if not objectively, then is there a point in creating something new? New is good if it is an improvement over the old, at least for yourself. New for the sake of new, without some real benefit from the change, makes people ask why it is necessary?

 

[clfsean]

That is exactly what I DON'T want to do.
What I do is first set myself free from existing patterns so that I can then do seemingly normal/basic things from different perspectives.
Or to keep it simple, in order to find my way into an elemental MA, I need to set myself free from other concepts.

That's more mindset than physical description. Watch "Needle Through Brick" on Hulu. There's an old Southern Praying Mantis guy there that says simply (paraphrasing) that his hands move on their own. He doesn't think or plan or anything like that. They move on their own accord where needed. That's mindset from focused practice. I don't believe that can be forced into a physical training regimen to get there. You have to spend the time focusing on something to let it become its own. IMHO anyway, for what that's worth.

An example: My throwing techniques are based on the element wind. More specifically, on horizontal and vertical movements of the wind, such as circulations.

But all throwing techniques involve exactly what you describe. Maybe minus the wind reference, but all throws/projections/takedowns involve a degree of making a circle.

It is a mixture of intuition, love for the elements and creativity that keeps me going and the success showing up from time to time.

Cool... but keep your feet grounded.

I am not saying it will be one of the most effective MA in a certain aspect, but my inventions definitely have their right to exist inside my MA.

Of course they do, but you might want to look around & see if you're not doing something that is already around, tried & proven, before shouting "EUREKA". There's only so many ways of doing "X" to somebody.