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Old 10-05-2008, 02:30 PM   #58
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: On Talking About Internal Training

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
As an example:
I had a Hung gar / taiji fighter up yesterday,
Just to make a side-point, nothing important, but worth commenting on after seeing this sort of thing for a while. I don't judge Aikido by everyone I meet who claims they do Aikido. There are people who do good Aikido and there are people who "do Aikido". Same with Daito Ryu, I don't casually mention a comparison about some "Daito Ryu fighter" when most of the people I've seen doing DR aren't doing DR a favor by claiming to represent the art. And so on. I don't know anyone in North America who does Taiji well-enough to say that what they do is Taiji... much less to be an honest representative to "Taiji fighting".

The real problem is that Hun Gar (*real* Hun Gar) and Taiji movement are pretty much two different things (think "Teacher Test", etc.). If you've trained yourself to really do one of them, you've pretty much guaranteed yourself that you're not doing the other one in the traditional manner. So a HunGa/Taiji combo is almost an oxymoron. And I'm not saying that to start some bickering. I'm saying that it's probably a little offensive to real Taiji or to real HunGar to say someone is a HunGar/Taiji fighter. It's better to say that someone *claims* to represent HunGar and Taiji fighting, etc., and I'd probably just nod off to sleep without saying anything. Maybe it'd make my point if I said someone was DaitoRyu/Pankration fighter and watch all the D.R. guys flinch.

And BTW, it's often better for a lot of arts if it's left open-ended whether someone fully represents the art they're claiming to represent. I often say that "So-and-so has been doing Taiji for 25 years" and I leave it open like that rather than saying "So-and-so is a senior Taiji expert". Most of the people I know who "teach Taiji" are part of the great unwashed masses with no real skills to speak of, despite the many years they've been dabbling. Same is true of most arts, but you already know that. I want to be considerate of the people about whom I'm speaking.... but I also want to be careful and not let anyone misrepresent a decent martial style by too-carelessly using some names as "what they do".

YMMV

Mike Sigman
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