Seminar at Chinese Community Association, Limehouse
I had the honour of doing a seminar at the Chinese Community Association in Limehouse last Saturday, 17th January. It was for the elder members of the community there and was conducted through an interpreter so quite different from my usual gig. It went very well and we’ll hopefully do a few more later on this year.
Interesting that a lot of the gentlemen there had done some Chinese Martial Arts over in Hong Kong and that, despite the facts that (i) they were getting on a little bit and (ii) we were doing some Jiu Jutsu based stuff quite different from the Kung Fu they had trained in, most of them picked it up quite quickly and enjoyed the effect it had on an attacker.
It made me think about the unity and diversity within martial arts:
The unity lies primarily in the movement: footwork in boxing, tae sabaki in Japanese based systems. The most successful fighters and martial artists know the importance of using your feet to move the body in an appropriate direction at the appropriate speed. This might seem elementary but I’ve trained a lot of people and believe me it’s not something that comes naturally nor easily to everybody.
An example of the importance of footwork. A great boxer, George Foreman is thought of primarily as a big puncher – true but Foreman’s footwork was great, he cut the ring off against Joe Frazier brilliantly and knocked Joe out 6 times in 2 rounds in what older readers will remember as a huge boxing shock at the time. (early 1970s – like my Chinese friends I’m getting on a bit myself). In the famous “Thriller in Manila,” Muhammed Ali didn’t employ the rope-a-dope tactics out of choice: he had nowhere to go, Foreman didn’t let him move.
If you appreciate the value of tae sabaki and work on it you can adjust to different systems without too much strain. That’s what helped the Chinese gentlemen on Saturday. Most of them had done some form of Wing Chun: interesting that Wing Chun is sometimes criticised for lack of decent footwork but obviously not an issue when those guys trained back in the 1960s and 1970s.
Re the diversity:
My Chinese friends had learnt styles that were heavily dependent on hand speed (many were still pretty quick despite their years) and striking power in general. These tend to be not quite so useful up against a bigger and stronger opponent and you have to adapt. Some of the guys and ladies there were well into their 70s and weighed about 7-8 stone: if up against a 15 stone scumbag they needed some other strategies. This was one of the more difficult things to get over on Saturday but I think we got there. Always interesting to me how different styles confront similar problems. We try to make our solutions as little dependent on power as possible but at the same time, if you have the power – use it. Just don’t depend on it being so effective when you’re 75 and/or up against a drugged-up bodybuilder.
In conclusion, I guess what I’m saying is an old message but very worth remembering: train your footwork every day and train widely so you don’t have to fight the other guy at his game.
Stewart