Sifu's word is final! ?

[Kairo]

I was wondering if anyone else felt like this when I was reading a post on this forum.
Many people come here asking questions on how they can improve their flexibility, strength or/and how they can improve other aspects of their forms, stances, movements etc.
Does nobody else feel that you should respect and carry out the advice of your Sifu, rather than asking practitioners of different shcools, sometimes different arts?
I'd just like to say that I am not having a go at this forum, nor at the people who ask for help. I owe a lot to this forum and would never try to put it down.
I just wondered how many people feel they should respect and carry out the teachings of their Sifu, rather than trying other things (even though they may make more sense)?
Thanks,
K.

[David]

Look at it from a slightly different angle: your sifu will certainly tell you if you've been doing something wrong. If your progress is good, there shouldn't be a problem. It's good to think for yourself even if you end up doing what he suggested in the first place.

The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey

[baldmantiz]

i do indeed respect the advice/knowledge of my sifu. i think what it is...is that it is interesting to get viewpoints from various other sources (i.e. systems) just to compare notes. there is a great deal of knowledge on the forum...and while my sifu is very knowledgeable and i respect him a great deal...he does not have all of the answers...no one does.

To know others is to have knowledge. To know oneself is to be enlightened.

[shaolinboxer]

Noone has the same martial arts as their teacher/s, and I don't think they should.

Any martial art is a set of tools designed to bring out the potential in the practitioner, so it is vital that we master that basic set of tools. Then we can use those tools to adapt to whatever situation we are in , be it teaching, fighting, arguing, working, rehabilitating ....whatever. The greater the adaptablity of our tool set, the better martial artists we become.

If you see another tool you think might help you, develop it.

You need only trust that your sifu has well refined tools for you to assimilate into your life, and have the patience to try to understnad them in their entirety.

[passingthru]

Just think. How did teachers who either have advanced knowledge of other arts or who have dabbled elsewhere, get there? They asked, either concurrent with study with A Sifu, or between Special Sifu's, or just as a matter of course. It's how one asks and from what station, that can get tricky.

There is a lot of difference between something making sense technically (in terms of body mechanics, and how one art relates to another on a visibly physical sense in a fighting situation), and a set of concepts behind the actions, not making sense. These concepts can be taken and are presented very often in a way that just plain doesn't make sense. It depends on the teaching situation. It depends who and what you are to your teacher. The making of sense comes with experience which is helped along by the teacher, with the intent that you will understand. That intent is not necessarily a given.

If something goes against your nature, doesn't make sense, or (if you are perceptive enough) doesn't jive with something you see in teacher's performance, well, that's your answer.

Sometimes it's a combo of a couple of things within the student that makes this confusion: lack of experience in a variety of ways with what is being taught or what lies behind the teachings; a teacher's way to deceive or mislead so that the student will not truly understand, done in such a way as to mesh with the lack of experience. In the latter, it can be like getting a bloodhound to track a lost person who is not to be found. Give the scent mixed with a stronger one, subtract the subtle scent in another sample further down the trail (so the hound is following only the strong scent now). That is one figurative way it can be done. Of course, the latter situation is not always a factor, but I believe it functions.

It's not uncommon to hit the wall in martial arts. Just of matter of figuring how and why the wall is there. Is it purely your wall? Or, put up by another. If so, was the wall there to challenge or to absolutely keep one out? What are the penalties for starting to break thru? Praise is not necessarily on the other side.

It's not only a question of finding what works, but what works for You.

Lyle used an important word, "trust." I think that comes into this. Ideally, I think one should be free to question and look at other arts, to experience them if one is so inclined. But, to have a Sifu who can be trusted to bring out the best in every student, and who is interested in human potential, not just the teacher's own personal agendas, oh that is a dream. I am sure it comes true sometimes when the agendas of student and teacher match, or the teacher is very special and a student has a need to learn (whether that would encompass an entire system or a highly specialized facet).

Questioning does not necessarily indicate a lack of respect or trust. I guess part of the problem comes when you approach someone else and say you are studying whatever and you do this and would like to see other techniques. Well, you might get the spiel that ridicules your teacher's art (with an inappropriate, purposefully incorrect imitation of it, with verbal commentary), and how this one is sooo much better, etc. Now, that is disgusting, and much more to be criticized than the simple, respectful asking.

Think for yourself, and take care how you ask. But, yes, ask.

passingthru

[nospam]

This forum is experiential. Ask 2 different questions and of 3 members who respond, get 6 answers. Well, 5 really, there's always at least one you can discount ;)

Plus, many an interesting sub-thread has developed because of a word or an implication...

And just like misery, martial artists love company. Hmmm...I wonder what they might say about us golfers. Actually, I'm not even a martial artist. I'm a golfer. I use what I have learned in golf to respond to posts here :)

'Butterfly Spreads its Seven Iron Across the Short Rough' - 'Dragon Roars Across the Tee' And my personal favourite...'Drunken Golfer Slices Out of bounds'

nospam.

[joedoe]

Just because you take advice from other martial artists doe not mean you are disrespecting your sifu. Learning ideas from other arts is how an art evolves. If an art does not evolve, it dies.

Sharing ideas is never a bad thing.

cxxx[]:::::::::::>
What we do in life echoes in Eternity

[IronFist]

Well, it depends, Kairo. If your sifu tells you to eat low protein, then you should ask around for advice :)

Haha :P

But in all seriousness, what's the harm in asking around? I doubt many sifus are so closed minded as to think their way is the only way, and don't even look elsewhere for anything.

Iron