I saw two martial arts demonstrations at a Japanese cultural festival this weekend. They were predictably disappointing for all the usual reasons. *sigh*
Issues with the first demonstration:
* typical over compliance from attackers - they would launch a single attack and then stop moving, obviously making it ridiculously easy for the defender to do their moves. The also made it super easy for themselves to be flipped over, like often as soon as they lost balance they'd roll into a fall (rather than trying to regain balance and stand their ground).
* their reverse breakfall technique left them extremely open to the opponent to start kicking/stomping exposed parts of the body (e.g. face, teeth, throat, body etc.) while they're on the ground
* the pacing was unrealistic - they'd move in kinda fast, but as soon as contact was made, everything became super slow. I can kinda understand that maybe they want to demonstrate the technique slowly at first so people can see/appreciate it better, but you'd surely only do that the first time... because they demonstrated the same techniques several times over - first was the Sensei with a partner, then all the students got up and started practising it. Surely with the latter part you can just do the whole thing at hardcore blitzing speed.
* general lack of any real aggression in the attacks - makes it harder for Joe Average to see how these techniques could work in an actual street fight.
<Haw! Throwing about attackers who don't really fight back is easy!
...on the plus side their katas were interesting (even if some of their stances were a bit sloppy - but I've seen way worse)
Issues with the second demonstration:
* Some of the students had belts with so many colours on them... it was like Technicolour Rainbow Belts!
"Someday we'll find it, that Rainbow Connection."
* When the black belts came to demonstrate katas, the commentator explained how these were more complex kata. But they really didn't look all that complex to me... simply had more moves and a few extra techniques, but it still moved at the same pace as the white belt kata - and still in that 1-2-3-pause, 1-2-3-pause timing instead of just continually flowing from beginning to end (as you would move in an actual fight).
* They showed sparring... where everyone looked like they were throwing random punches and kicks toward (but not actually at) each other. It went on for ages and nobody seemed the least bit interested in actually ENDING the fight in as few moves as possible (whatever happened to Bushido's motto of "one hit one kill"?) -- after the festival I spoke to a guy who agreed that these demonstrations were better when they used to fly in Karateka from Japan... because back then their version was literally just one strike, end of fight. One of the most memorable was watching a guy just deliver a really jolly good Maegeri (front kick) that floored his opponent. Fight over in a single move. He aimed straight for his opponent's core, whereas these people were mostly punching and kicking at each other's limbs... at best the hip, but nobody was going for the head or Dantian. *sigh*
<I wouldn't even bother trying to defend myself against half of these attacks
* Board breaking... another non-traditional martial arts "gimmick" that seemed to impress the ignorant(1). The demonstrator had his assistants hold the boards at very precise positions - he would go around and correct them, checked the ranges as he walked around... and the people holding the boards didn't move as he walked around kicked them, and of course, the boards broke perfectly in half.
<I'd like to see him try that on solid oak
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(1) Because it's actually based on principles of physics (Newton's 2nd Law - impulse & momentum).
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.co...-woo-required/
^Hey Bartrim, check out the second video in that link -- it shows a Japanese Chi Master who genuinely believes he can attack people with his Chi energy (and so do all his students who pay him loads of money) versus a skeptic in a full contact fight.
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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
) So I ended up on the end of a very stern lecture... I think. I actually let my mind wander while I was being dressed down
Either way they punished me in the grading as I had to spar at the end and I was basically the guys I was matched up with were head and shoulders above me in skill so needless to say I got my rear end handed to me for 10 minutes. But I now have a brown and white belt which they refer to as 1st level brown and have the title Sempai. So yay for me
To me, I see two main sides of 'real Chi':
