Martial Arts Studies: Disrupting Disciplinary Boundaries by Paul Bowman

[GeneChing]

I really enjoyed this. Anyone else read it yet?

This is from the same Paul Bowman mentioned in my recent interview, Ben Judkins And Jon Nielson on THE CREATION OF WING CHUN (PART 2), and in our thread on the documentary I Am Bruce Lee

[GeneChing]

...or better yet, let's hear it straight from the author: Read Paul Bowman on MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES Part 1 by Gene Ching.

[GeneChing]

Read Paul Bowman on MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES Part 2 by Gene Ching.

Anyone engage this book yet beyond me? It's well worth your attention.

[Orion Paximus]

I'm kind of tired of all the navel gazing in traditional gong fu. The bottom line is this, any style can teach you to fight but you have to practice the fighting or it will never work. Your training should be at a minimum 30% sparring time, a minimum.

Yes there are tons of false ideas about origins and reasons behind what we do, but it's up to individuals to worry if they care enough to sort that out or not. I'm sure the guy's book is cool but I don't know that it makes anyone better at being a martial artist to mine all this stuff.

Martial studies as an accredited educational field of study also just seems like a way to call yourself an expert in something you don't actually do. It's like learning how to fix cars and never having had to open the hood of one.

[-N-]

Read Paul Bowman on MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES Part 2 by Gene Ching.

Anyone engage this book yet beyond me? It's well worth your attention.

The bottom line is this, any style can teach you to fight but you have to practice the fighting or it will never work.

From part 2:

The idea of the “traditional” martial arts changing tends to make a lot of people nervous. But the truth is that these systems are always adapting themselves to their environments. They have changed, often in important ways, in every generation. The real question is how well they are doing it. When people ask me whether the traditional Chinese martial arts are dying, I tell them no, they are evolving.

Not directly addressing the idea of scholarly study, but in many ways CMA are devolving rather than evolving with respect to original martial purpose.

CMA are "evolving" in response to evolutionary pressures that encourage superficial understanding and mcdojo-ism(invented a new word ).

That's partly why I've been critical of blatant technical flaws as discussed in the Marco Polo thread.

Maybe CMA isn't dying, but it does suffer from the cancer of pseudo-fu whether in popular media or elsewhere.

[-N-]

CMA are "evolving" in response to evolutionary pressures that encourage superficial understanding and mcdojo-ism(invented a new word ).

Maybe someone should do a scholarly study on the evolutionary pressures that lead to fake kf.

[MightyB]

Read Paul Bowman on MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES Part 2 by Gene Ching.

Anyone engage this book yet beyond me? It's well worth your attention.

I just finished yours! Darn it and now you're giving me more homework? Actually, I'm picking up Kennedy's Jing Wu book for Christmas - then I'll check out Martial Arts Studies. The book I'd like to find though is, "A Discourse on the History of Praying Mantis Boxing in China for the Last One Hundred Years". So, if anyone knows where I could pick up a copy (or two, I have some friends that would also like to get copies), then PM me. Thanks -

[MightyB]

I really love this thread - it's like Gene wrote the articles, set up the thread, and just sat back and laughed because this thread spontaneously mirrored the concepts described in the article. Fight-clubism - orientalization - etc.

[GeneChing]

I just finished yours! Darn it and now you're giving me more homework?

Thanks for reading me. If you are so inclined, please to review on the Shaolin Trips. And I'm fine with bad reviews. Anything for the ttt.

I really love this thread - it's like Gene wrote the articles, set up the thread, and just sat back and laughed because this thread spontaneously mirrored the concepts described in the article. Fight-clubism - orientalization - etc.

Bwahahahahahahaha!