Questions for TCMA teachers.

[bawang]

bro, the english slaughtered the welsh. there was no gradual mixing they were driven out. the welsh are genetically distinct from the rest of the country.

romans slaughtered "barbarian" tribes and your ancestors pillaged rome. then u guys repopulated rome when most of romans died from the plague. theres no pan european roots or unity. its always one people displaceing another.

[David Jamieson]

bro, the english slaughtered the welsh. there was no mixing. the welsh are genetically distinct from the rest of the country.

No they did not. I am half welsh on my mother's side.
In fact Welsh history is quite different in that they did not have war with the English and instead welcomed them into their lands and to this day it is the Welsh who have retained their aincient tongue the most fully.

Anyway, here's our crest from that side of the family:


Here's some history on Cymru and it's relationship with England

from wiki: (i could get it from britannica if you like)The English may have had small incursions but no major wars happened between these two.

The Roman occupation of Britain was the first period in which the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit (with the exception of the land to the north of Hadrian's Wall). At the time, Wales and England were not separate countries: all the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages and were all regarded as Britons divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit, the province of Britannia.

Welsh law developed from this base. It was first codified by Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good; reigned 942 – 950) when he was king of most of Wales. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 replaced Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century.

[hskwarrior]

Questions for TCMA teachers.
If forms are part of your curriculum, do you require everyone to learn the same forms? If a man (or woman I suppose ) comes in to your school and is interested in learning cma for defense and possibly fight competition but is turned off by the idea of forms, are you willing to make an exception from your normal curriculum for that individual, or do you turn them away? If they express at the introduction that they do not seek to carry on as a teacher to the masses, and are only there to learn the martial for themselves, are they viewed in a different light?

One of the first questions i ask of new potential student is what you goal would be? Fighting? learning a system? joining a group? Self defense, etc.

IF someone tells me that they are just looking to fight then forms are out of the question. we will start focusing on everything he will need on fighting.

Great thing is, not everyone wants to become a fighter.

[bawang]

No they did not. I am half welsh on my mother's side.
In fact Welsh history is quite different in that they did not have war with the English and instead welcomed them into their lands and to this day it is the Welsh who have retained their aincient tongue the most fully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j617mImHVvk

my point is identity. how much can u really relate to ur ancestors.
how much culture is from creativity and beauty of your own people and not forced upon u from a foreign invader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_polytheism
do those "pagan" things resonate in ur heart? do they make u feel any emotions? any pride? no. u see them as primitive alien practices. abstract and far away. theres a disconnection between past and present.

[mooyingmantis]

do you give the student a form based on your assessment of them, or does each person start with one form in particular? also if someone thinks their sh!t dont stink, but in reality it stinks very badly, do you say 'hey your sh!t really stinks, you arent done with form buddy'

it seems to me there is a lot of common ground between teachers, but there is also a pretty wide variance on methods of instruction.

one of the reasons i started this thread is to kind of see what some of the professional teachers generally think in regards to new students and the required development of their school

Lucas,
Each student learns the same form. It only has thirty-six movements, so it can be learned fairly quickly.

By watching beginners "learn" the form, their strengths and weaknesses are revealed:
1. Are they visual based learners or hands on learners?
2. How is their balance, flexibility, hand/eye coordination?
3. How do they respond under pressure based on my demand for perfection in performance of a set routine?

After the student learns the first form, they can choose whether they want to learn the other three forms, emphasize sport training, or emphasize self-defense. The first form serves as the doorway to each path. Go through it, then choose your path.

Recently the husband of a coworker came to me wanting to learn to fight. He made it clear he didn't want any forms training and wanted to train for sport fighting. He believed he already knew how to street fight and was fairly certain he was already a bad a s s, since he was a large and muscular guy.

The first class, I started him on the first drill I teach. We did it very slowly together. Then I let him spar me. He was allowed to punch, kick, grapple - anything he chose to do against me. I only used the combo I taught him. He quickly realized he didn't stand a chance against me no matter what he tried, even though I only used the same combo on him over and over.

By the end of the second class he was very excited about learning our style. Then I told him one form was required as a part of the curriculum. It was the last I saw of him.

To me that revealed his greatest weakness. Though he saw something I had that he wanted, he still believed he knew what was best rather than trust my forty plus years of experience. Its hard to break through that kind of arrogance. So I am glad that I didn't have to waste more than two classes on him.

[David Jamieson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j617mImHVvk

my point is identity. how much can u really relate to ur ancestors.
how much culture is from creativity and beauty of your own people and not forced upon u from a foreign invader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_polytheism
do those "pagan" things resonate in ur heart? do they make u feel any emotions? any pride? no. u see them as primitive alien practices. abstract and far away. theres a disconnection between past and present.

I really can relate with my ancestors and I can live in this world I am in as well. It's attitude and perspective. There is much art of the ancients in the peoples I come from and I am fond of it by my personal nature. Foreign invaders are a constant in human history. We are all intermingled, or long dead as far as that goes.

I don't see paganism as a primitive and alien practice, there are many today who practice it as their religion or study. The allegory contains a lot of knowledge. The continuity flows in anyone who is aware of it and even in people who aren't aware of it. there does come times when you are in a place, or hear something, or smell something and it connects you to the past in a deep and meaningful way. It's almost always a transpersonal experience and non transmittable except in some superficial way, but the thread is there.

You'd be surprised at how much pride there is in anyone who is aware of where they came from. It's a cosmic thing man.

[Lucas]

Lucas,
Each student learns the same form. It only has thirty-six movements, so it can be learned fairly quickly.

By watching beginners "learn" the form, their strengths and weaknesses are revealed:
1. Are they visual based learners or hands on learners?
2. How is their balance, flexibility, hand/eye coordination?
3. How do they respond under pressure based on my demand for perfection in performance of a set routine?

After the student learns the first form, they can choose whether they want to learn the other three forms, emphasize sport training, or emphasize self-defense. The first form serves as the doorway to each path. Go through it, then choose your path.

Recently the husband of a coworker came to me wanting to learn to fight. He made it clear he didn't want any forms training and wanted to train for sport fighting. He believed he already knew how to street fight and was fairly certain he was already a bad a s s, since he was a large and muscular guy.

The first class, I started him on the first drill I teach. We did it very slowly together. Then I let him spar me. He was allowed to punch, kick, grapple - anything he chose to do against me. I only used the combo I taught him. He quickly realized he didn't stand a chance against me no matter what he tried, even though I only used the same combo on him over and over.

By the end of the second class he was very excited about learning our style. Then I told him one form was required as a part of the curriculum. It was the last I saw of him.

To me that revealed his greatest weakness. Though he saw something I had that he wanted, he still believed he knew what was best rather than trust my forty plus years of experience. Its hard to break through that kind of arrogance. So I am glad that I didn't have to waste more than two classes on him.

That seems like a really great structure to me. 1 form isnt much to ask at all. In fact thats very little to request of someone. Especially as you use it largely in part as an evaluational tool to better serve the student.

Kind of stupid of that guy to turn away seeing as how you handle him with 1 combo...

[Lucas]

It's a cosmic thing man.

Uki, what did you do with DJ?