Quote:
Originally Posted by
lkfmdc
I sat in every meeting trying to establish AAU in NY, for almost a year.... and as we both know nothing really ever got done.... TCMA is always about politics
Ain't that the truth... At the first 3 AAU National Tournaments, there were several big name people (names withheld - their identities aren't important, and folks who were there know what happened) who were shocked that a) they weren't paid, b) they weren't received as visiting dignitaries, and c) people didn't crowd them for autographs, photos, and other ego boosting activities...
I called the AAU director for WA to volunteer for the state AAU CMA director job. Instead of saying "well, first you have to have your AAU membership, then you do X, Y, and Z, and voila," I received an incredibly rude, overly loud, tirade about how without an AAU membership I "wasn't going to do s..." Um, no kidding... The guy didn't care about my past experience, didn't care that I knew what the requirements were. He just yelled at me, cursed at me, and I told him that he needed me WAY more than I needed him... That was the last of that.
Quote:
but both Jeff Bolt's organization and the USA WKF did events in NY, they apparently got past the politics. Thre was a lot more to why AAU didn't work in NY, but that was like 20 years ago so why even dig it up?
Bolt managed to make things work with the same personalities I referred to above. Whether that was due to his amazing ability with people, or because he deferred to their ego, I don't know. I know that we planted our feet firmly against outrageous requests from "VIPs" and that ****ed them off. Maybe Bolt catered to them more, to ensure a harmonious outcome. Whatever. Good for him that his event worked out.
Quote:
Yeah, you can get 300 schools involved in forms and weapons competition but when it comes to full contact fighting, no one seems interested. That is precisely what is wrong with Chinese martial art today :rolleyes:
I agree. The unfortunate reality is that forms queens think they're capable of fighting. They misinterpret and misunderstand what they're doing. Personally, I think MMA venues are exactly the shot in the arm MA in general needed... Good, realistic, hard-hitting, gladiatorial events where what's "real" is exactly that.
That being said, I agree that much of what is seen in MMA venues (maybe less so UFC level stuff, but that WCL crap is scary) "isn't" representative of the ideal that martial artists try to uphold. Successful application aside, the quality of some fighters isn't all that high... I'm not saying I could necessarily do better, but I can watch a professional sporting event, with no professional sporting participation under my belt, and still point out the crappy players...
Quote:
Nah, wouldn't want to have any realistic contact fighting would we? :rolleyes:
I don't think that's the issue... As you pointed out, most amateurs probably have no business stepping up for a full contact bout, even against another amateur.
Quote:
That's my point, exactly, you have no interest in fighting events.
Again, I don't think that's the point. From what I've heard about Sifu's intentions/ideas, it's about injecting the greater Omaha area's TMA community with a dose of reinforced standards instead of the sloppy, form queen crap it's been leaning toward for 2 decades or more...
Quote:
It's hysterical that you call full contact fighting "sports oriented" yet ignore that you are promoting forms, weapons and POINT SPARRING :rolleyes:
I think it may be a matter of semantics... I think by "sport" oriented, Sifu's referring to the somewhat less than stellar techniques exhibited by MMA fighters (I mean, please... even some of the top level fighters have really crappy kicks and punches... sure they hit hard, but they're hitting hard because of strength, not quality technique). I don't think he'd deny for a second the unrealistic nature of point fighting. I say that because I remember, as a junior student with about 3 months in training, in preparation for a local tournament, Sifu admonished us not to misunderstand what the sparring was - a game of tag. I also remember him telling us "this is for tournament, not for fighting" when he taught us how to deal with things in a point sparring situation. We spent all of 2 or 3 classes the week prior to a tournament "refreshing" ourselves on how to play that game. The attitude was "if you can hit for real, hard, without pads, and you can take a hit, for real, without pads, then all you have to do is back off the commitment in a point fight." The reverse wasn't true - if you only point fight, you can't just turn around and crank it up a notch.
Anyway...