Brad
10-22-2003, 09:06 PM
copy & pasted from http://www.xingyiquan.org/articles/mma.html
Good article to start a flame war with :D Still I found it kind of interesting :)
--------------------------------- PART 1 -------------------------------------
The second Beijing MMA meeting
The conference was held at the XXXX Aikido club, in the XXXX district. I had gone to Beijing for 2 reasons: to meet a friend of mine that learns Baguazhang (we always do some fighting training together) and to watch the fights at the conference, so when the date of the meeting arrived, I was quite excited with the idea of seeing how Chinese fighters would do in a MMA environment. My friend , that is well informed about what happens in the Beijing martial arts scenario, told me that I shouldnt expect to much, for most of the Chinese fighters would be Sanda men. I dont really think much of Chinese Sanda (modern free fighting), which is just a poor combination of Taekwondo, western box and a bit of Chinese Shuaijiao (wrestling), but I was willing to take my chances and see what I could find there, plus, its always a good chance to meet new people and find some sparing partners. Just a small explanation about my opinion on Sanda: many Sanda fighters are very though men and would be hard oponents, but for a person that is deep into the Chinese fighting arts as I am, its very hard to understand how Sanda could be the result of thousands of years of martial evolution, and the truth is that traditional fighting systems are far more efficient that Sanda is.
Now, I got at the above mentioned Aikido club with my friend, and there we met with his teacher (Mr. Zhu Baozhen) an a Canadian student of his. The place was very nice and the audience was about 200 people. There was a big Judo style mat in the center of the room and there was people sitting on its borders. To the right of the main entry and directly in front of the mat, there were several seats reserved for the guests. The guests were people from different systems: Baguazhang, Piguaquan, Yongchunquan, Bajiquanquan, Judo, Sanda and, of course, Aikido. It was, in a way, disappointing no to find representatives of Xingyiquan in a fighting conference. Were they not invited? Pearheps they weren't good enough to bee there? Did the organize not want to invite them? Who knows.
The audience seemed eager to find out more about MMA and the event began with a speech from its organizer, Mr. Yipping. I have talked to Mr. Yiping some 2 weeks before, over the phone. When I first read about the event I decided to call him to know more about it. He was very nice in answering all my questions and invited me to join the meeting, either fighting or demonstrating. As for fighting, the idea came to my mind before even calling him, but some problems aroused. First, it seemed to me that you should give more than a 2 weeks notice if you want to invite someone to fight. Then, the event lacked some essential infra-structure; the main problem being the absence of any concern regarding medical care. When I asked Mr. Yiping if he would provide the fighters with some medical assistance, he said to me that the meeting would be a friendly one and that would be no need for such kind of thing. I know that in Pride fighters are supposed to make an HIV test, a Cat-scan and have their eyes examined, and I also know the the Beijing event was no Pride, but when you have a MMA tournament, fights tend to get bloody sometimes and its only natural that any fighter would be worried to join an event of this nature if no one was supposed to make, at least, an HIV test. Actually I have heard from a friend of mine that Mr. Yiping later thought that my inquiries regarding the fighters safeness were strange and funny. All right. As for demonstrating, I politely refused.
So after Mr. Yipings speech, that officially opened the meeting, it was time for some guests to demo their arts. I cant remember the order of the performances but I guess the first one was an Aikido demo. Nothing to say here, just plain an old cooperative Aikido throws. Next came a Piguaquan stylist doing a form. The form, I am very sorry to say, seemed poorly executed with no evident power, and in the middle of it, the man was so tired that he almost couldnt finish it. There was even a moment when part of the audience laughed of him. This is certainly a very bad attitude but in a way reflects the mans performance. After it , if I am not wrong, came the Bajiquan stylist. His form looked a little better than the Pigua man but I also couldnt see all the power that is so characteristic to Biguaquan stylists. Since I know almost nothing about this style, except what Ive seen from 1 VCD and from my personal experience sparing people that have trained in the style, I might be wrong in judging his form like this. The next one was the Yongchunqan team. They did the first form of their system, a bit of Chisau (sticky hands) and some applications. I wasnt impressed with the demo, although I cant really say it wasnt good, its just that it didnt show anything that I havent seen before. At least the Judo man came in and did a very short demo that ended with a nicely done flying arm-bar and that was about it, the performances were over and the fights were about to begin.
Good article to start a flame war with :D Still I found it kind of interesting :)
--------------------------------- PART 1 -------------------------------------
The second Beijing MMA meeting
The conference was held at the XXXX Aikido club, in the XXXX district. I had gone to Beijing for 2 reasons: to meet a friend of mine that learns Baguazhang (we always do some fighting training together) and to watch the fights at the conference, so when the date of the meeting arrived, I was quite excited with the idea of seeing how Chinese fighters would do in a MMA environment. My friend , that is well informed about what happens in the Beijing martial arts scenario, told me that I shouldnt expect to much, for most of the Chinese fighters would be Sanda men. I dont really think much of Chinese Sanda (modern free fighting), which is just a poor combination of Taekwondo, western box and a bit of Chinese Shuaijiao (wrestling), but I was willing to take my chances and see what I could find there, plus, its always a good chance to meet new people and find some sparing partners. Just a small explanation about my opinion on Sanda: many Sanda fighters are very though men and would be hard oponents, but for a person that is deep into the Chinese fighting arts as I am, its very hard to understand how Sanda could be the result of thousands of years of martial evolution, and the truth is that traditional fighting systems are far more efficient that Sanda is.
Now, I got at the above mentioned Aikido club with my friend, and there we met with his teacher (Mr. Zhu Baozhen) an a Canadian student of his. The place was very nice and the audience was about 200 people. There was a big Judo style mat in the center of the room and there was people sitting on its borders. To the right of the main entry and directly in front of the mat, there were several seats reserved for the guests. The guests were people from different systems: Baguazhang, Piguaquan, Yongchunquan, Bajiquanquan, Judo, Sanda and, of course, Aikido. It was, in a way, disappointing no to find representatives of Xingyiquan in a fighting conference. Were they not invited? Pearheps they weren't good enough to bee there? Did the organize not want to invite them? Who knows.
The audience seemed eager to find out more about MMA and the event began with a speech from its organizer, Mr. Yipping. I have talked to Mr. Yiping some 2 weeks before, over the phone. When I first read about the event I decided to call him to know more about it. He was very nice in answering all my questions and invited me to join the meeting, either fighting or demonstrating. As for fighting, the idea came to my mind before even calling him, but some problems aroused. First, it seemed to me that you should give more than a 2 weeks notice if you want to invite someone to fight. Then, the event lacked some essential infra-structure; the main problem being the absence of any concern regarding medical care. When I asked Mr. Yiping if he would provide the fighters with some medical assistance, he said to me that the meeting would be a friendly one and that would be no need for such kind of thing. I know that in Pride fighters are supposed to make an HIV test, a Cat-scan and have their eyes examined, and I also know the the Beijing event was no Pride, but when you have a MMA tournament, fights tend to get bloody sometimes and its only natural that any fighter would be worried to join an event of this nature if no one was supposed to make, at least, an HIV test. Actually I have heard from a friend of mine that Mr. Yiping later thought that my inquiries regarding the fighters safeness were strange and funny. All right. As for demonstrating, I politely refused.
So after Mr. Yipings speech, that officially opened the meeting, it was time for some guests to demo their arts. I cant remember the order of the performances but I guess the first one was an Aikido demo. Nothing to say here, just plain an old cooperative Aikido throws. Next came a Piguaquan stylist doing a form. The form, I am very sorry to say, seemed poorly executed with no evident power, and in the middle of it, the man was so tired that he almost couldnt finish it. There was even a moment when part of the audience laughed of him. This is certainly a very bad attitude but in a way reflects the mans performance. After it , if I am not wrong, came the Bajiquan stylist. His form looked a little better than the Pigua man but I also couldnt see all the power that is so characteristic to Biguaquan stylists. Since I know almost nothing about this style, except what Ive seen from 1 VCD and from my personal experience sparing people that have trained in the style, I might be wrong in judging his form like this. The next one was the Yongchunqan team. They did the first form of their system, a bit of Chisau (sticky hands) and some applications. I wasnt impressed with the demo, although I cant really say it wasnt good, its just that it didnt show anything that I havent seen before. At least the Judo man came in and did a very short demo that ended with a nicely done flying arm-bar and that was about it, the performances were over and the fights were about to begin.