How important is body structure?

[t_niehoff]

Structure, structure...
If we look at it from the point of view of "building" it is crucial.

How can we do anything if we have no "foundation" for it ?

BUT, the key is for it to be dynamic and not static.

A beginner must learn everything from a static starting point and must "disregard" it as soon as he is able so that everything he does is dynamic, but the base must be there.

There is in my view no such thing as body structure since, as you correctly point out, everything has to be dynamic. What we are really talking about here is how to use your body, which includes the limbs, to do certain things optimally. The unfortunate thing is - and once again you are correct - that the TMAs, WCK included, teach these things in a fixed/static manner (even the term "body structure" embodies this view). But the reality is they are not fixed or static: they are living, moving, dynamic processes/actions. In other words, skills. And this is why, in my view, the traditional training is flawed -- you are trying to teach something inherently dynamic and adaptable, a skill, using fixed/static structures -- and that way of teaching doesn't typically produce good results (very few people ever make the shift; the training locks them into that fixed/static mindset). For example, people talk about the "structure" of a tan sao. There is no structure to a tan sao, just as there is no "structure" to throwing a ball.