This guy lays it on the line about Kung Fu and what's wrong with it...

[rogue]

and right.Here's the link (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=244)

[SifuAbel]

"Chi Jiguang was very opposed to flowery Wushu, only pretty or elegant for show for an audience. It's like a beautiful mansion that is empty inside. The Wushu that Qi Jiguang wants to promote is real ability and combat fighting. Surely this is the central core of Wushu. But it is not complete Wushu. Wushu still needs longevity, health and mind cultivation to make it complete. But never forget, the central core is ji (strike.) You must have real combat fighting ability, definitely not a "flowery blooming, only for watching" Wushu."


Great article

[norther practitioner]

If you say you have some extreme secret technique, you should examine it scientifically and find out how it works. You cannot just have it in the mouth or on the paper. That's not going to the real. What is the experimental lab of Wushu? That is the tournament or the battlefield.

I like this guy....

[firepalm]

Ma Xian Da is pretty much a common representation of many older generation Wushu coaches in China. Oddly Ma is also a coach of the modern sport forms of Wushu (Taolu). Like many traditional instructors of his time when China changed Ma had to go with the flow (so to speak). Contrary to popular opinion many Professional Wushu coaches (contemporary) are traditional based & trained, like Ma. It is only in recent times, as China has become a more open society then it was 30 or 40 yrs ago, that they have been able to speak their minds about the changing direction of Wushu (toward performance sport). I have had the opportunity to meet many such coaches and they often echo his sentiment but are often not in the position to make any change to what they might see wrong with the current direction modern wushu has gone in.

Starting back in the mid ninties the governing bodies of Wushu in China decided to push the difficulty levels of Wushu even further, translating to more jumps, acrobatics & extreme flexibility movements. Many of the older generation of course are not happy about it but in order for their teams to stay competitive they pretty much have to go with the trends.

Personally I like the modern sport of Wushu and hope to see it get into the Olympics however like Ma I hope that one day the powers that be in China will listen his generation & try to restore the traditional essences of Wushu. Even if it is only for performance it should in the least reflect the traditional styles from which it has evolved.

Just my two cents.
;)

[Sho]

Excellent article. Very good.