Traditional or Flips and Flash ??

[TigerWoman]

I admire the athleticism--power, strength, balance, agility, precision, etc. that it takes for these young people do flips and flash. Not as easy as it looks. They have to practice quite a bit for that. Why does everything have to be only about fighting. This is definitely performance but it doesn't mean that these young people could be great at self-defense too, or later in their martial art road. This is their focus now.

Ours is a traditional school but there are a couple students that like to do tournament stunts like rebound off a wall for multiple breaks or do a triple front kick in the air, etc. Alas, though they are young. For the rest of us, we do what we can. And admire those that can do more.

Yay, this is my 3000th post. I know, what a talker! TW

 

[searcher]

Most of the "open" forms competitors also compete in traditional forms and traditional weapons. They are not singularly talented at just "flips and flash." Most of them train in more traditional systems, but you will not be seeing these forms on ESPN as they are not going to up ratings. The ones you see on tv and in open forms divisions are very good athletes and they can easily learn and perform traditional kata/hyungs as well as most traditionalists. They just choose to compete in the open divisions as well as the traditional ones.

 

[clfsean]

Di Tang... It's not as bad as the XMA styled "stuff" being talked about here, but Di Tang is flip full & plenty traditional. It's a supplement to more complete systems. It teaches a person how to hit the ground & use their body for evasion. It's a technique, not a system & isn't used to as a fighting method. It's an add on.