I have plans on using this blogsite as a place where I can post non-pc, irreverent, off the wall, yet thoroughly truthful commentaries on some of my experiences in the wacky worlds of martial arts and physical culture (bodybuilding, athletic conditioning, and exercise in general) over the past forty+ years. This site will serve as an adjunct to several websites that I have on the internet already.
I am going to say exactly what I feel about the martial arts world and the physical conditioning world in a straight forward manner that anyone can use to glean certain bits of knowledge that will help them to avoid certain "elements," and to progress faster in whatever they do in the way of martial arts, self-defense, physical conditioning, and general resistance exercise training.
I fully expect to receive lots of negative comments from closed minded individuals who believe that they have "all the answers" already, so they will spend time ripping everything I write without simply reading what I have to say, mulling it over for a bit, and then either accepting certain aspects of it for possible future personal experimentation, or rejecting my words as something that "your" experiences simply disagree with.
Sometimes I will make short posts, sometimes I will post longer ruminations. I hope that most of my postings, short or long, will give each and every one of you something to chew on in your mind if not in the gym while actively training.
Please note beforehand that while I appreciate classical and traditional martial arts to a great degree, I have always been more of an "old-school, non-classical, non-traditional" sort of martial artist and/or bodybuilder. All that really means is that I have taken the classical and/or traditional things that I have been taught, mastered them, and then took them to another level of functionality for my personal needs. Show me a tree, and then let me take in the rest of the scenario in a way that fits my personality and my physical gifts. Don't tell me how to look at the entire scenario, or how to "label" everything surrounding the tree-let me do that myself.
Case in point; I began my physical culture career in the late fifties at the age of twelve trying to emulate my childhood sports heroes, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis. I wanted to become a boxing champion someday just like my heroes. That youthful goal has colored my martial arts interest ever sense. I have little interest in learning a "thousand ways" to defeat an opponent. No, what I want to learn is a few efficient and functional techniques that I can add to "who I am and what I am" at the moment, and then I will "naturally" improvise upon those few things as I absorb and master them. The question of how to "master" a specific style or system has seldom ever crossed my mind. That is not to say that I reject out of hand spending several years involvement in a particular style or system of training. No, I have tended to stay involved in a particular art for as long as I maintain an interest in exploring it's possibilities.
At this point in my life I am still intrigued after all these years of training by western style boxing, Muay Thai, FMA, Non-Classical Gung Fu, and Krabi-Krabong.What I have learned from those methods of physical expression has given me all I personally need to tap into anything that comes along and captures my fancy. However, you are not going to find me going ga-ga over Capoiera, Exotic Esoteric "Internal" Chinese martial arts, or things that require a tremendous "leap of faith" to accept.
For example, I do not have enough time in my life to spend studying "soft-style" Wing Chun sticking hands, or trying to learn all the thousands of hand and arm technique possibilities that such training can reveal. The non-classical sticking hands method that I learned from Jesse Glover a long time ago serves my needs well. Hey, all sticking hands is supposed to do is give one "responses" to having been "intercepted" on the way in (in a self-defense situation). A thousand or more response possibilities are unnecessary. However, if one decides to commit himself or herself to the Wing Chun self defense system and no other, having to learn 1000+ variations of each technique would be part and parcel of the package I suppose. Hey, whatever floats your boat.
I am going to say exactly what I feel about the martial arts world and the physical conditioning world in a straight forward manner that anyone can use to glean certain bits of knowledge that will help them to avoid certain "elements," and to progress faster in whatever they do in the way of martial arts, self-defense, physical conditioning, and general resistance exercise training.
I fully expect to receive lots of negative comments from closed minded individuals who believe that they have "all the answers" already, so they will spend time ripping everything I write without simply reading what I have to say, mulling it over for a bit, and then either accepting certain aspects of it for possible future personal experimentation, or rejecting my words as something that "your" experiences simply disagree with.
Sometimes I will make short posts, sometimes I will post longer ruminations. I hope that most of my postings, short or long, will give each and every one of you something to chew on in your mind if not in the gym while actively training.
Please note beforehand that while I appreciate classical and traditional martial arts to a great degree, I have always been more of an "old-school, non-classical, non-traditional" sort of martial artist and/or bodybuilder. All that really means is that I have taken the classical and/or traditional things that I have been taught, mastered them, and then took them to another level of functionality for my personal needs. Show me a tree, and then let me take in the rest of the scenario in a way that fits my personality and my physical gifts. Don't tell me how to look at the entire scenario, or how to "label" everything surrounding the tree-let me do that myself.
Case in point; I began my physical culture career in the late fifties at the age of twelve trying to emulate my childhood sports heroes, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis. I wanted to become a boxing champion someday just like my heroes. That youthful goal has colored my martial arts interest ever sense. I have little interest in learning a "thousand ways" to defeat an opponent. No, what I want to learn is a few efficient and functional techniques that I can add to "who I am and what I am" at the moment, and then I will "naturally" improvise upon those few things as I absorb and master them. The question of how to "master" a specific style or system has seldom ever crossed my mind. That is not to say that I reject out of hand spending several years involvement in a particular style or system of training. No, I have tended to stay involved in a particular art for as long as I maintain an interest in exploring it's possibilities.
At this point in my life I am still intrigued after all these years of training by western style boxing, Muay Thai, FMA, Non-Classical Gung Fu, and Krabi-Krabong.What I have learned from those methods of physical expression has given me all I personally need to tap into anything that comes along and captures my fancy. However, you are not going to find me going ga-ga over Capoiera, Exotic Esoteric "Internal" Chinese martial arts, or things that require a tremendous "leap of faith" to accept.
For example, I do not have enough time in my life to spend studying "soft-style" Wing Chun sticking hands, or trying to learn all the thousands of hand and arm technique possibilities that such training can reveal. The non-classical sticking hands method that I learned from Jesse Glover a long time ago serves my needs well. Hey, all sticking hands is supposed to do is give one "responses" to having been "intercepted" on the way in (in a self-defense situation). A thousand or more response possibilities are unnecessary. However, if one decides to commit himself or herself to the Wing Chun self defense system and no other, having to learn 1000+ variations of each technique would be part and parcel of the package I suppose. Hey, whatever floats your boat.
I realize that my initial fascination with Wing Chun sticking hands many years ago was because Bruce Lee said that Wing Chun was a "great style" that he had studied in Hong Kong. If it was "great" in the eyes of Bruce Lee, it was interesting to me. It was not until the mid-seventies that I began to see that Wing Chun was NOT the reason for Bruce Lee's martial arts skills. Wing Chun was not what impressed me so much while viewing Lee as the Kato character in the "Green Hornet television series. In fact, Bruce Lee never even learned most of the Wing Chun system himself (for a variety of reasons). I was lucky enough to figure out early on that Wing Chun, while a potentially quite effective self-defense system, was, in my opinion, not in a league with the boxing and Muay Thai skills that I had acquired during my "evolutionary years." I was thus saved many years of wasted time. No Wing Chun "master" I have come across has intrigued me as much as Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, of the topo Muay Thai boxers in Thailand. This is not a putdown of Wing Chun, but rather a recognizance of "my" interests and goals.
I learned what I needed to learn about Bruce Lee's approach to martial arts from Bruce's first American student, Jesse Glover, and from Richard Bustillo. Those two men pointed me toward the essence of Bruce Lee's approach to martial arts training. That was all I needed to get what I wanted out of the Bruce Lee legacy.
Hey, I have to go and get some sleep right now...I will continue this flow of thought in my next "Black Scorpion Sting" posting. I suggest that those of you who would like to expand your mind regarding what I have written about in this "First Sting," should visit http://youtube.com and view the Wing Chun videos they have. Then view the Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis videos that they also show. Then check out a few of the Muay Thai videos ( do check out the exciting new fighting star from Thailand, BUAKAW POR PRAMUK ). Then decide for yourself what is worthwhile for your personal needs, and what isn't.
Hey, I have to go and get some sleep right now...I will continue this flow of thought in my next "Black Scorpion Sting" posting. I suggest that those of you who would like to expand your mind regarding what I have written about in this "First Sting," should visit http://youtube.com and view the Wing Chun videos they have. Then view the Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis videos that they also show. Then check out a few of the Muay Thai videos ( do check out the exciting new fighting star from Thailand, BUAKAW POR PRAMUK ). Then decide for yourself what is worthwhile for your personal needs, and what isn't.
Until the next posting...Tranquility to All!
H.A. / 09/13/06
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