Traditional VS Modern

[jungle-mania]

A friend of mine who does traditional hapkido told me once there is many path to being good in martial arts, the question is which way suits you.

I (pracrtise sanshou) once sparred with a fellow from hsing-i chuan and I realise that when I launch a combo of kicks and punches, he was outgunned and was put on the defensive and a rather weak one too. Then I pulled off the pressure and I got slammed with a wicked punch to the chest, enough for me to take a few steps back to recover my stance.

Reminiscing over the fight, I realise the principle of qi was applied in the sparring session. Most soft style practioner often seem to focus their qi in one area of their body when they practise their arts.

While more martial sports pratitioners seem to spread their qi around, given the fact that they expect to get hit in any given fight, allowing them to take the punishment and deal the same out too.

What's your opinion?

[norther practitioner]

It depends on what you are training for, how you train, and for how long. I'd bet a lot of a top ranked boxers energy is put into a punch... namean.

[Dark Knight]

Reminiscing over the fight, I realise the principle of qi was applied in the sparring session. Most soft style practioner often seem to focus their qi in one area of their body when they practise their arts.

Are they becoming rounded enough to become effective? Conditioning is an important part of combat, your ability to strike, take a strike and last if the fight goes too long.

Some people are looking for a small part of what an art offers.

[Mutant]

thats actually an interesting way to look at it.

i think that in order to be good, you have to be able to do/develop both focused energy and spread out/circulated energy. you could look at this in the modern context of all around conditioning with the ablility to deliver a devestating blow, or in the traditional context of 'iron vest' protected body and powerful internal strikes.

i think that over-emphasizing one or the other (such as your hsing yi sparring example) would be a training mistake by the practitioner and possibly a misinterpretation of the original teachings of the style. a fighter needs a balance and to address all these factors, both then and now, the equation hasnt changed.