Skill vs. Strength/speed

[bawang]

tai chi not bound me? tai chi not bound me? I AM TAI CHI

theres no such thing as taijiquan . it doesnt exist.

[YouKnowWho]

You don't have to be strong to be "good" but you have to be strong to be the "best". When you go to a tournament and you believe that you may be the strongest person there, you will have good chance to win that day.

[Lucas]

you don't have to be strong to be "good" but you have to be strong to be the "best". When you go to a tournament and you believe that you may be the strongest person there, you will have good chance to win that day.

qft

4567890

[Shaolin]

As someone who has practiced external and internal martial arts I think internal is the superior path. Why?

Because internal arts are not dependent on strength(or speed really). They are a pure expression of skill. As you age (and everyone does, including you 20-somethings!) you naturally lose strength and you would be at a disadvantage compared to the young and strong.

That being said...what do you do when you encounters someone that is more skilled than you are? Curl up in a ball and die? Get the crap beat out of you?

No, that's why it's still important to build up strength and stamina as a fail safe. If you want to be a well-rounded fighter than you need to be in decent shape if you meet an opponent that has more skill. Ideally every fight would be ended with one punch, one kill. Anyone that's put on gloves and gone a few rounds knows this is nothing more than an ideal.

But on the external side...why not try to be more efficient? Why build big muscles that slow you down and gas you out? Why not try to be as efficient in your movement so that you don't have to? Relying on skill first, strength and speed second.

That's where I'm at in my training. Where are you?

EO

You made absolutely no debate on skill vs strength and speed. Your argument is about internal versus external. Are you saying that an "external" practitioner doesn't train accuracy or precision?

[David Jamieson]

Tai Chi Bob, you are a passve aggressive hippy.

Can you live without breathing?
What is breath?
Where does it come from?

Can you live without water?
Where does it comes from?

Where do you come from?
Where are you?

Reality is not bound by your opinions.
Go get in a fight and measure your ruler.
Otherwise, your attacks are fruitless and rejected.

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

Tai Chi Bob, you are a passve aggressive hippy.

Can you live without breathing?
What is breath?
Where does it come from?

Can you live without water?
Where does it comes from?

Where do you come from?
Where are you?

Reality is not bound by your opinions.
Go get in a fight and measure your ruler.
Otherwise, your attacks are fruitless and rejected.

I have 'attacked' no one, so i am well-fruited and accepted.. as for your suggestion of fighting with rulers, you are ****in' into the wind, my friend, assuming more than your capacity permits..

Be well..

[YouKnowWho]

I

Are you saying that an "external" practitioner doesn't train accuracy or precision?

Those so called "external" guys also train Sung, yield, sticky, follow, sink, ... all those "internal" goodies. May be EMA guys just don't like to talke much. It doesn't mean that they don't have knowledge in those areas.

IMO, there is only the right way to train and the wrong way to train. There is no "internal" way to train and there is no "external" way to train.

[bawang]

traditional european martial art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMdXE...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aouiU...eature=related

traditional african martial arts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jWaq...eature=related


traditional chinese martial arts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7KxuDYfpSQ

[SPJ]

anyway--

the ship has sailed

or the train has left.

what is done is done.

both internal and external have left town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihWI9...eature=related

--

[SPJ]

http://kungfupracticebook.blogspot.c...ord-class.html

both yielding and advancing

both internal and external aspect are at play.

[wiz cool c]

In my experience both are valuable and necessary. Even in chen style they do some strength training like shaking the pole and such. The problem with most internal stylist is they do very little pressure testing so it is easy to believe anything will work.

I train in both internal and external systems, and can see real benefits from both in solo training and in sparring. For example zhan Zhuang standing post is very useful in my Shuai Jiao and judo training. so are the strength training exercises of shuai jiao, when actually wrestling an opponent. And I was a push hands competitor and also did both internal and external for that training as well. And it paid off cause i won a gold and silver metal before. Where many of the internal guys I met having trained for years never even did any form of freestyle pushing or sparring before.

[Iron_Eagle_76]

Greetings..


Taiji is not bound by your opinions.. the internal/external debate is unfortunate, two paths to the same place, many get lost on both paths.. more on the 'Taiji' path, though..

Be well..

Ronin style hot chick pics are not bound by your opinions...the blonde/brunette debate is unfortunate, two muffs, same color, two paths to the same place, many get lost inside those muffs, errr, debates. More on the blonde path, though..

Be poor..

[David Jamieson]

Greetings..


I have 'attacked' no one, so i am well-fruited and accepted.. as for your suggestion of fighting with rulers, you are ****in' into the wind, my friend, assuming more than your capacity permits..

Be well..

No worries. Keep yourself well and practice your thing and be happy.
If you truly believe you have something more special than any other martial art, then it is that which makes you happy despite the fact that it isn't likely true.

[Violent Designs]

Strength/Power + Speed can also beat skill.

Roy Jones Jr. crushed dozens of opponents with physical advantage attributes alone.

He beat Bernard Hopkins who was the more skilled and technical fighter.

Later on when his explosiveness and speed died down a lot, Hopkins avenged the loss.

Technique will be there, power will decrease, and speed will decrease, but to think that power and speed have less importance than pure technique is silly thinking. Plenty of less technical fighters get by with raw aggressive, power, and strength.

[David Jamieson]

Size and Power win 99.999% of the time.
It cannot be denied.
If you want the martial advantage, you have to work on:

strength, conditioning and stamina.

Your style is virtually meaningless against the basics combined with the above three.

No one has great martial skill who doesn't practice totality in their vessel maintenance.

Doing only internal martial arts without supplemental work will get you exactly no where martially.

You must work on strength and conditioning and stamina.

Most of, almost all who do not focus into these areas will be mediocre when it comes to actually testing the mettle. There are no more unknowns in this regard really. It's all about tweaking the methods to get higher performance out of the people who use the methods.

the old methods had some good stuff too. Weight lifting, weighted vests, arms legs, lifting stone locks or balls, running, body work, hardwork in the fields etc etc.

Gazing at your average ball of dough that calls itself a martial artist these days is indicative of the people who make claims to these ancient arts not actually doing them in totality.