Hi Mike,
I just printed the book straight away, didn't do anything to enlarge it or anything. It came out clearly enough to be legible, but a bit on the small side. Not perfect, but good enough for my purposes. This was several years ago, I don't know if Al did anything to change the format online or anything since then.
Ok, thanks.
As far as the SL4 comment, I wanna be really careful about that because it has the potential to open yet another can of worms that can turn into another fight. Here's my take on it: back in the day, say early 1900s and earlier, I think a lot of this stuff was taught on a small scale, meaning family members and small groups of loyal students. I don't think there were any big shopping-mall schools with hundreds of students. Under those intimate circumstances, I think what was taught was probably taught in greater depth. I think teachers tend to do that with loyal, dedicated students and family members. But with the modern reality of business-run schools where quantity counts more than quality, that depth tends to get lost in translation. Under the modern setting, it seems like it takes a specific effort to reclaim what has been lost, hence lineages like SL4, where I suspect Doc is doing that. Perhaps 100 years ago it would not have been necessary, but today it is. I think back in earlier days when people actually needed to defend their lives once in a while, their understanding of what they were doing needed to be greater. Today, for most people, that simply isn't true. Few people need to actually defend their lives, most people train for fun, and the depth of knowledge is less important, or at least one can get by fine without it. But some lineages and some teachers work to keep that depth of knowledge alive.
Ya know, when I read that comment on the Tracy site, I was thinking the same thing, and was hesitant, for a moment, to post it, but did anyways, not for the intention of sitrring the pot or attempting to discredit anyone, but simply because it seems to me, that there've been many times, when statements are made by the Tracys, that IMO, can be a hornets nest in the making. Intentional on their part? Don't know, but thats the impression that it gives to me.
And I feel you're right with what you say regarding teaching back then vs today. While it may not be the same, I think back to one of the Kung Fu movies with David Carradine. The part where he was outside the temple, day after day after day, with many others, hoping to get accepted, only to be turned away, until one day, he was invited in. So back then, while you may not have had to stand outside daily hoping to get in, you possibly could have had to prove yourself in some way, to show that you were serious about training, whereas today, you can drive down the road, and walk into any number of schools.
Personally, it irks the hell out of me, to teach someone and to train with someone, who isn't as serious as I or as other students. Why are they there? I'm there for SD, to better myself, to train hard, and hopefully learn some effective skills, so if that day comes, and it may never( sorry a bit of Godfather humor there
) that I'll hopefully be able to defend myself. While I've reaped many side benefits from training, ie: friends, weight loss, etc., that is not my primary goal. Its sad that the mentality today, is if you dont get a BB in 2yrs, test every other month, etc., that the student will go elsewhere. Thus, the quality over quantity. AFAIK, and IIRC, Doc isn't in it for the Benjamins, so he can teach what he chooses, no matter what the time frame is.
Then again, I think that alot of the JJ influence is important and good to know. IMHO, I think that the more options one has to defend themselves, the better. In other words, if all someone knows is how to kick and punch, I think they may be short changing themselves down the road, by not learning something, such as the JJ side to the art.
I'd say it varys a lot from teacher to teacher. Lord knows, I've seen some Youtube videos of Tracy people who were simply awful. Tracy's doesn't have any strangle hold on this kind of in-depth knowledge, at least not across the board. But certain teachers are very knowledgeable and very skilled, and they try to pass that on to their students. I am very very fortunate to be studying under Ted Sumner, who is one of the senior-most teachers under Al Tracy. Ted is extremely knowledgeable, and has really worked hard to make his knowledge as complete as possible, including going to sources outside Tracys to do so. I would rank him as second to none in his understanding of how this stuff works. I would say that there are others out there as well, both within Tracys and outside of Tracys. While I have never studied SL4 and only know people like Doc and Bode from the forums here, I suspect they are another group working in their own way to tap into the highest levels of understanding.
I hesitate to embrace the idea that SL4 is equivalent to Mitose's Basic kenpo. That is the kind of statement that just rankles people and I think it's an over simplification of the scenario. I think that possibly a better way of expressing it is that what Doc is working on in SL4, and what other people like Ted Sumner are teaching and working on, is what was taught more readily in earlier times, if you happened to be fortunate enough to be a family member or part of a small group of trusted students learning under a knowledgeable teacher.
I've heard alot of good things about Ted, so you're very lucky to be training under such a knowledgeable person.
As I said above, I was thinking the same thing about the comment. The good thing, is that there are those teachers who are passing this onto their students. At least the knowledge isnt getting lost. For those that are not, then their students either just take whats given, or do some digging on their own.
