Re: Neijia arts for combat?
Quote:
Originally posted by gazza99
I suppose a good question to the forum is this, how many people do you know of that teach the internal arts for combat only? I have only found a short list, and would like to hear about more if they are out there, so that I may learn from their experience!
Gary,
In fact, most of the teachers I know emphasize funtion over form. It's the goals of the students that make up the majority you speak of. I know OK is a sparsly populated area and probably not that many teachers there anyway. But go to NY or LA or SF or Chi Town, and there are doezens if not hundreds of teachers. There are no less than 4 bagua, tai chi, hsing-i teachers in the neighborhood I train in alone who are more brutal and more internal than what your showing here.
I agree with meeks analogy to a monster truck rally announcer. Good effort on marketing and design but I would tone it down a bit. :cool:
You're not marketing to the teachers.
So, what you have to realize is the majority of the people you are marketing to are interested in health and unaware of application and usage. Some will become more interested as they learn, others will not. The majority will not stick long enough to find out. Face it, it takes a long time and practice before usage becomes second nature and we live in a "fast food" culture that is not motivated enough to put in the work. So, the first thing you have to do in a marketing campaign is determine your who you are targeting. Think of ways to enlighten them, without insulting their intelligence or scaring them off. Be positive and ask positive questions and get positive answers. CLOSE them. If you ask me, if you are trying to increase your number of long term students, emphasize the long term benefits.
I will e-mail you one dozen teachers you might classify as "internal" that I have had personal experience with. They all have impressive fighting records as well as have trained others to be good fighters. In short, they can apply their shit. I can think of dozens more from other martial arts systems from other countries who I have met that can do the same, but I confined it to CIMA in the US. I have heard of or met many others, but will withold comment on most unless I have the opportunity to work with them. Let me know next time you are in LA and I will personally take you around and introduce you to a few.
Hint:
As far as being able to gauge in a clip, I look at the leg more than the hand to assess the skill level and effectiveness of any technique.