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Secondly, I really looked into Bruce Lee who basically invented Mixed MA (don't belive me? Read His Tao, and other writings--he was 30 years ahead of his time!). He was open to everything that... WORKED. He was an iconoclast who held no certificates. Throw out your most sacred ideas and techniques if you couldn't get them to work in practice. Do not "stick" to anything... it's a cliche but... "Be like water!
/quote]
Please read MA history prior to Bruce Lee before making statements like this. It is embarassing. Before stating Bruce Lee invented MMA, you suggest people read Get Tough!, Fairbairn's book from the 1940's where he combines judo, jiu jitsu and Chinese boxing to form the basis of CQC. Too cryptic? Not good enough because it is not sport oriented? Try reading about Edward Barton-Wright, who is credited as being an English pioneer in martial arts, whose school of Bartitsu combined the judo/jiu jitsu of his partners Yukio Tani and Uyenishi, the French stick work of Pierre Vigny, wrestling from champion Cherpillod, along with savate and boxing. He held mixed martial arts competition in England in and around 1903, over 60 years before Bruce Lee invented mixed martial arts.
Thanks for the tip on Barton-Wright. Fairbairn I'm familiar with, and
Get Tough! is a classic I refer to over and over. But Barton-Wright is new to me; am looking forward to learning more.
BTW, I've found few things are really 'invented'; they are just the remaking or relocating of ideas in a new way/new area so that they appear in a fresh light, and
abracadabra, a 'new' art (or learning system, or __________ ) is born. It was this way with 'my' art, a synthesis of Shaolin Kempo, Kung Fu San Soo, and the 'asphalt arena' (none of which I 'invented')
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Have I gotten us really OT, here? Let me try to take us back: Arts evolve with the person--individual gifts, circumstances, location, safety needs and concerns, so that in fact even exisiting, settled arts looks different for each of their practitioners. How then can we even separate the two--the art is only effective in the hands of the right person, and each person has to find the art(s) that become his own practice (his own art, if you will, or at least his own interpretation of the art). So, an effective fighter begins by learning what's already known/taught about one or more systems, then begins to pick and choose favorite material from it/them, in order to become effective at self-defense/fighting. I believe a close look at the pioneers--Fairbairn, and now I see Barton-Wright--will show they drew from multiple arts and put that knowledge into practice in the locale and time in which they found themselves. We can only hope to to the same.
