Bai-Si...?

[xiao yao]

"How can that be possible? Where will your knowledge come from? From another teacher?"

doesnt that happen every generation. each successor adds his own knowledge and experience.... maybe he learnt something else before, or he just took his own fighting experience, or knowledge in qigong whatever to add to and improve the system.

[jo]

"How can that be possible? Where will your knowledge come from? From another teacher?"

doesnt that happen every generation. each successor adds his own knowledge and experience.... maybe he learnt something else before, or he just took his own fighting experience, or knowledge in qigong whatever to add to and improve the system.

REALLY? Seems like each sucessor forgets or leaves stuff out. \

Most martial arts schools are glorified dance halls where the two-man tango and cha-cha are taught instead of fighting arts.

Do you REALLY believe that martial arts are better NOW than 200 years ago when people had to actually fight and not just dance?

-jo

[TenTigers]

How can that be possible? Where will your knowledge come from? From another teacher?

actually, it is quite possible. A student may be smarter, more talented, more inquisitive, open-minded, exploratory, etc than his teacher. He may research, try new things out, develop and refine his technique, and take it to a higher level.
How often does a practitioner touch hands with another, and re-think his art?
Isn't that what MAists did to develop their present style?
Many of our arts are further refinements of their original art.
ALL Martial Arts went through hundreds of years of refinement to take it to its present state.
No art was created-"as is."

[xiao yao]

well, as time changed kung fu has improved in different ways. not many of us train as hard as people did in the old days, nor do we fight the same way. but kung fu has modernised and developed more scientific training methods, more scientific understanding of the body mechanics and more modern fighting methods, due to the influence of mma in the west or modern sanda in china.
a lot of younger kung fu guys in china now are adapting their traditional styles to fit in with sanda, so thats changed how they train.

i think calling it dancing is a bit extreme

[TenTigers]

I don't think that was what he had in mind when he referred to it as dancing. More like the people who flower it up, add moves they've seen in other forms/tournaments/youtube/Shaw Bros movies, and don't know application, therefore the movements change until they are ridiculous charactertures.