Creating new styles: Why do they do it?

[SanHeChuan]

My hypothesis is this, People are motivated to create a new style buy one of the following three reasons.

Necessity
Philosophical
Cohesion

Necessity,
Change made to meet a new need.

Philosophical,
Change made do to an evolution in theory

Cohesion,
A new style that blends previous knowledge

Wing Chun would be a new style made out of Necessity. There was a need to teach underground militant revolutionaries quickly and efficiently. Several
"masters" drew from their collective knowledge to create a smaller style based on simple principals. How often did master collaborate like this?

JKD would be a new "Style" created to meet Bruce lee's personal philosophical perspective. Bruce simultaneously embraced and rejected two embedded Chinese philosophies. He embraced the ancient Taoist philosophy of no style, while rejecting the Confucius teachings on tradition, etc.

Choy li fut was created as a blend or catalog of the Choy, Li, and Fut family martial arts, and probably some others too.

Are these really the reasons people create new styles if not what are?

What are some other creation stories? Do they fit?

[SanHeChuan]

It is a Chinese tradition to credit new martial arts to Famous dead people, Mysterious unknown monks, famous temples, and immortals.

What would you think of this practice in the modern age?

If a new "Old" style sprung up claiming it was created by Yueh fei, or at Shaolin, or passed from a Unknown personage.

Otherwise they claimed a humble lineage since.

Having never herd of the style before, would you accept it? I think probably.

Knowing that it was a new creation, would you consider the claims fraudulent or traditional.

What if the New style claimed an Immortal passed the style directly to them? Would you consider him crazy like the guys who claims aliens taught him? Or would you smile at the nod to tradition?

[mantis108]

Economics and commercial viability are a big reason. This is the reason why you have all those mystrious monk stories because they are not tracable.

Sometimes the local government thinks that folklore like Shaolin is the craddle of Kung Fu, Yue Fei created a bunch of styles (all these are within the Henan province). These all help to boost tourist economy. But they may or may not be factual. So...

Mantis108

[Water Dragon]

What if the New style claimed an Immortal passed the style directly to them? Would you consider him crazy like the guys who claims aliens taught him? Or would you smile at the nod to tradition?

You mean like Matt Furey being trained by the ghost of Farmer Burns?

[The Willow Sword]

You spend many years learning a style and you master it, you become it, it becomes you. you can go one of two routes from there. you can continue to practice that which you have learned and teach that to others, OR you can forget what you have learned and create something new based on your own characteristics and your own methods. You have roots and a foundation in something that has been taught for many generations, but you then evolve it in to something else, something better, something uniquely new.

hasnt this been what has always happened in the realm of Martial Arts?

The problem is that many who create a "new" style arent really creating anything new, it is just a variant on the old, its just another line in the mandala that interconnects with the other lines. It doesnt mean that there is no validity to it, it just means that is it not new, just different, but equally as significant.

Peace,TWS

[Golden Arms]

Unfortunately, there is another reality to new styles. Some of them are created to hide the shortcomings, lack of understanding, or to boost the ego of, their creator. All you have to do is be a judge or coach at a few large tournaments and look around you, a lot of martial artists, teachers and students are kind of crazy, or off a little bit. Add that to an environment where many feel it is taboo to ever have the response "i dont know" or "i didnt think of that" to any situation, and you have a lot of potential for unmoderated BS. Something to think about...how many of these "masters" fight, especially against trained fighters?

[Knifefighter]

Probably mort people who train for 20 years or so develop their own styles based on their experiences and personal philosophies, although many of these people don't codify and name their styles.

[Nick Forrer]

Wing Chun would be a new style made out of Necessity. There was a need to teach underground militant revolutionaries quickly and efficiently. Several
"masters" drew from their collective knowledge to create a smaller style based on simple principals. How often did master collaborate like this?



Then again it may just be a local (Foshan) interpretation of white crane (yong chun) which just happened to gain popularity by historical serendipity i.e. Yip Man and Bruce Lee.

Also IMO one of the biggest myths about wing chun is that one can become proficient in it quickly. I dont know why people say this.....maybe its because it has relatively few forms compared to other Kuen Faat. Or maybe the people who say that have never trained in it for any considerable length of time.

[Ray Pina]

E-Chuan is a new style.

My master began his training at 5 years old in your more traditional Chinese styles (Hung Gar, etc.). When he moved to Hong Kong in his 20s (I think) he trained with Yip Man for a while before being kicked out for asking too many questions, mainly how would you not get uprooted using a stop kick to a larger/heavier man (using Wing Chun's structure).

He trained boxing and wrestling at Gleason's gym and Hsing-I with a Master Kenny Kong.

Then he was very fortunate to study Ba Gua with the 3rd generation master Wong Tsong Fei and Sung style Hsing-I with Manster Sau (who was the head coach of China's team the year Jet Li first came to the US and performed for Nixon).

These two teachers, combined with taiji, master Liu (http://www.chusaulei.com/martial/articles/articles_feilungfumun.html), an old sword teacher and a book by Wu Shu Lin he was given by a teacher are the foundation of his style, E-CHuan.

I am learning traditional Hsing-I, Ba Gua and Taiji as a means of see first hand where his knowledge comes from, the formula, so maybe one day I can evolve the system as well.

Personally, I always always suspect of new styles or combined styles for the usual reasons, but this style just suits me. It's agressive yet careful. It looks reckless yet I feel protected.

Even my master's technique changes though. Simple Hsing-I movements I learned two years ago look the same while training them but have changed in intention, perform differently. Things are always changing.