What in your opinion, was original martial arts designed for?
How was it taught and how was it trained?
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What in your opinion, was original martial arts designed for?
How was it taught and how was it trained?
I think they were for killing people.
I think the original training was more like the conditioning you see in the Shaolin 72 arts and similar gongs, along with military drills.
For the long fist system, the goal is to be able to use sword, knife, staff, spear to fight. The open hand training is just a path to get there.
For WC, it was for training its adepts to argue and whine and complain and shout from every rooftop: "I have the only true WC! "
For WC, it's conditioning was to endure long sessions sitting at the keyboard, enduring bout after bout on forums, etc.
hahaha (just kidding) :D
My guess as far as how MA started at the very beginning would be using crude weapons, such as clubs, stones, spears, flint knives, etc., strictly for killing. And for empty-hand, wrestling would likely have been practiced among male tribal members to affirm dominance, recreation, etc. I would assume the weaponry would've been practiced (applied) during actual hunting of big game, which was a life-and-death struggle for both hunter and hunted. This alone would have developed very keen fighting instincts and skills. Also, the weaponry would have been used in inter-tribal battles. The fathers would have passed down to their sons the most effective (basic) target areas to most efficiently dispatch animals and other humans. Of course, it would have been simple but effective.
But maybe I've gone too far back?
There s a strange Martial art in India that has weapons called Thang-Ta .
Original martial arts were designed for killing . Weapons training was the core of every martial art in the past and most of training was concentrated on sparring . Empty hands part was used for introduction and preparation for real training . The fact is , in the past , martial arts were practiced by military and in later times , when invented ,by law enforcement . Focus of training changed to empty hands practice in late 19 century when fire arms replaced traditional ones and when martial arts became popular activity among upper classes of Chinese society . The final change and transition of kung fu styles to what we know today happened in republican period . The truth is , we do not know how martial arts looked like before this period .
Our White Crane is simple, direct and to the point. No hundreds of techniques and forms. Deep in Concept, deep in Principle, deep in Learning ... that is all that matters. When you add ranks you add techniques and other aspects until the art gets led away from its original aims of being quick to learn and apply for those who need the art to work now and not 6 to 12 months down the line.
Forms are the same, if you read the works of Brian L. Kennedy, Stanley Henning, Peter Lorge, Kwang ge wu etc you will find a couple of things ....
1/. The arts were simple, direct and immediately practical
2/. The forms were the same.
It was when street performers aligned to the "Shaolin Myth" arrived on the scene making money that the arts and forms became more convoluted and flashy ... devoid of application and essence. Then we have the Modern martial arts (largely "street performers") adding and adding and adding until the arts no longer contain any of the original way and are by and large taught in a commercial environment at storefront schools and so more is added including ranks by and large because they are "marketable", sate the ego and "keep em coming back for more"
The same with Ranks which by and large cause ego's to grow and really mean nothing. I have 3 (White, Black, Red) that's it and even then we hardly place any real importance upon same. Ranks just clog up the learning process and get in the way. In fact, none and I mean none of my people are at all interested in ranks ... they much rather get immersed within the learning process.