Devoting your life to CMA's

[AceHBK]

1) How much of your life right now is devoted to CMA?

2) What are you studying and how long have you been doing it?

3) If there was one particular CMA art that you wish you could learn, what would it be? (i.e. it isnt offered anywhere near you but you are fascinated by what you know of it and would love to take it given the opportunity)

4) Do you ever find yourself trying to find ways to learn another CM art in conjunction with what you know?

5) What are your aspirations?

^) What dream of yours when it comes to CMA's would u really like to come true, and or working hard to make it come true?

7) What is it that fascinates you about CMA's?

 

[AceHBK]

I guess I can start by answering my own questions.

1> Just the 5 months I have spent actually doing it but knowing about it I would say ever since I started watching Kung Fu theatre and being a fan of Shaw Brothers films like 5 Deadly Venoms and The 36 Chambers.

2> TKD for year and a half
Northern & Southern Shaolin Kung Fu for about 5 months.

3> Generally speaking, anything I could get my hands on. Hun Gar maybe specifically or some other stuff. Im not too familiar with all the different styles to know which one I would really wanna know first.

4> Do to this messageboard, I frequently read things here as well as read up on other CMA's to find out more about them.

5> To spend the rest of my life aquiring all the knowledge that i can just for the sake of knowing and trying to aquire wisdom. Go to different countries and meeting new people to exchange thoughts and ideas.

6> Go to China and spend a few years there learning and making new friends Learn from those who are willing to share and immerse myself in a new culture.

7> Longevity and amount of time it takes to get to become good at it. The moves, the way things flow and how CMA's are in tune with the body and how it works. The amount of mental preperation that is needed.

 

[yipman_sifu]

1) How much of your life right now is devoted to CMA?

2) What are you studying and how long have you been doing it?

3) If there was one particular CMA art that you wish you could learn, what would it be? (i.e. it isnt offered anywhere near you but you are fascinated by what you know of it and would love to take it given the opportunity)

4) Do you ever find yourself trying to find ways to learn another CM art in conjunction with what you know?

5) What are your aspirations?

^) What dream of yours when it comes to CMA's would u really like to come true, and or working hard to make it come true?

7) What is it that fascinates you about CMA's?

1) I am training in the CMA for about 10 months only, but I learned alot in these 10 months. I have enough knowledge that might allow me to discuss about it.

2) Wing Chun, about 10 months + some old karate experience, some general kungfu of animals (Choy lay fat), of course an expert in using the nunchaku and street encounter weaponry.

3) Tai Chi, I beleive that experts in Tai Chi are the toughest people in the world. They can derive a vey big amount of power to fight, carry extremely heavy weights, and take blows of attacks in fights without pain.

4) Yes, I read alot in martial arts sites, not only MT, because here I really spent most of my time in the Wing Chun section.

5) My aspiration in the martial way is to retrieve back the heritage of the CMA, I consider the CMA the best martial arts ever, they were the anccesstors of Karate, Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Nunjitsu, Arnis, escrima, and all other asian martial arts. If someone really trains the CMA arts with devotion and honesty, he will be the best, I am sure. It is very heart breaking to find those current MMA and grapplers who makes silly jokes about CMA because they defeated every body in the ring. What I want to say is that those CMA combating systems never lacked techniques and concepts, they are better than all other systems, but we lack good trainers and combatants, and that is due to the long time it needs for someone to master them, exactly opposite to grappling and submission fighting systems, that takes a short time.

6) Same as your answer to this question

7) It is a way of living, a lifestyle, a physical, mental, and spiritual aspects that helps the individual in all the aspects of life, and it's really effective. Master Hou Yuan Jia proved that CMA was always the best arts ever made. He defeated boxers, wreslers, and Japanese fighters who were Jujitsu grappling master, and still the hope is still there. We have excellent CMA combatants, but they never boast and they are humble in which they never tell you about themselves and they use their skill when it is neccessary, that's why it is really hard to find them and you will find people laughing when they hear this because they don't beleive it, once I were told that I am a dreamer that still beleive in kids stuff, well, I don't care what others say, as long as I have a prove about what I am saying. Many of the times people boasted their skills in rings and competition, and many of the time we heard that those people lost in silly fights in the street to people that even doesn't have a fighter's appearance, one punch and every thing is gone to this champion. The name, popularity, and even his PRIDE.

 

[chessman71]

I'll answer a few of these:

1. right now, quite a bit of my life is devoted to CMA. I practice about 3 hours a day. Was more in the past.

2. I've done xingyi and bagua under a few different teachers for several years.

3. If I could learn one art that isn't near me it would be Yiquan. The school in Beijing at www.yiquan.com has a year-long training program. After a year, you graduate as a teacher. That's after training 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. The structure of yiquan is the heart of IMA without a lot of forms. Great stuff.

4. I am learning another art in conjunction with my main one. I'm picking up long fist to teach my son and i'm usinig it to lose weight. Long fist is great, I just won't specialize in it.

5. I moved to Taiwan six years ago to pursue my dream of learning CMA. I have mixed feeelings about doing that but things are now turning out alright. My aspirations now are devote most of my training time to taiji and open a school in 3-5 years.

6. The CMAs are different from other MA's in my opinion. IMO they tend to have a broader range of movement and a greater variety of movements than say some Japanese systems. Although I did see some good family arts when I lived in Japan.

take care,
Dave C.

 

[chessman71]

Wait, I just saw the title of the thread. About devoting your life to CMA, I think that's actually a bad idea. The arts had purpose and functions in the past, they didn't learn them for the art's sake. In other words, people learned them to use them for defense, or health, or to explore their potential (compulsory new age reply).

Devoting yourself to CMAs at the expense of family and career is a terrible idea. I almost did that and paid a heavy price for it. Use your practice of the arts to enhance your life and you'll be okay. Off the soapbox now.

Dave C.

 

[Gaoguy]

That would be answer as well. In my youth I was a martial arts bum.
Start a business or get a good job. Statr a happy family. Do martial arts as a hobby.

 

[AceHBK]

There are mant who do leave their familes to learn martial arts in hopes of bettering themselve.s Many men leave their families to join a shaolin temple or families send their young child off to live in a temple to learn MA.

So do u consider that a bad idea? In China it may be considered an honor to be accepted as a student. Yes you leave your family but u do so in hopes of improving yourself. It is a way of life for many people in Asian cultures rather than just a sport or fighting thing to be learned as it is over here in the U.S.

U say MA is a hobby. How do u see it as a hooby? Do u do it for a purpose or just b/c you are bored? I say this b/c many people take up a hobby b/c they are bored and want something to do. I see a hhobby as something u put time into but not a great amount of it in and afterawhile u get tired of it and find a new hobby b/c the novelty has worn off.

 

[7starmantis]

1) How much of your life right now is devoted to CMA?

2) What are you studying and how long have you been doing it?

3) If there was one particular CMA art that you wish you could learn, what would it be? (i.e. it isnt offered anywhere near you but you are fascinated by what you know of it and would love to take it given the opportunity)

4) Do you ever find yourself trying to find ways to learn another CM art in conjunction with what you know?

5) What are your aspirations?

^) What dream of yours when it comes to CMA's would u really like to come true, and or working hard to make it come true?

7) What is it that fascinates you about CMA's?

1.) Lets see, a great deal of my life is devoted to Kung Fu. It is my work, my passion, my hobby, and my desire. I spend more time doing something related to kung fu than anything else, and that includes sleeping! Having said that, I think its important to not wrap your identity up in martial arts, I dont do that. I have a wife, a life, and we do things other than kung fu. As far as pure training goes I spend about 25 hours a week, that includes classes I take (as a student) and personal training or fighting.

2.) I study 7 Star Preying Mantis Kung Fu as well as Chen style Tai Chi. I have been training in it for about 5 years now. I studied several other styles before that including JKD.

3.) There really isn't another style I would want to spend time on. I dont have enough time to spend as it is, let alone trying to work in another style. I'm completely satisfied with the training I receive from my sifu.

4.) See my answer to #3.

5.) Mine are really pretty simple. I just want to be the best I can be. I want to continue to increase my fighting skill and each day become better than I was the day before. I do want to eventually test under my sifu and our organization to be recognized as a sifu of the 7 star preying mantis system under my sifu and our lineage.

6.) See my answer to #5.

7.) Wow, this could take a while. I am fascinated by the simplicity of the intricacy of CMA. The principles are so foreign to our bodies and mindset and yet so natural and simple. I love how my training is principle driven and not bound by techniques. I am continually fascinated by how complete the system is and how the same principles work 100% of the time regardless of situation or scenario. I'm amazed at how my system takes advantage of the physics of the body and focuses on balance and center. I love the principle of "feel" and yielding using the opponents energy against them. I love how aggressively devastating they can be when needed. I love how it will work for anyone regardless of size, strength, or sex. I'm fascinated by the principles of hard/soft and chin na. Ok, I'll stop there for now

7sm

 

[chessman71]

There are mant who do leave their familes to learn martial arts in hopes of bettering themselve.s Many men leave their families to join a shaolin temple or families send their young child off to live in a temple to learn MA.

So do u consider that a bad idea? In China it may be considered an honor to be accepted as a student. Yes you leave your family but u do so in hopes of improving yourself. It is a way of life for many people in Asian cultures rather than just a sport or fighting thing to be learned as it is over here in the U.S.

U say MA is a hobby. How do u see it as a hooby? Do u do it for a purpose or just b/c you are bored? I say this b/c many people take up a hobby b/c they are bored and want something to do. I see a hhobby as something u put time into but not a great amount of it in and afterawhile u get tired of it and find a new hobby b/c the novelty has worn off.

There are many myths associated with the arts. The first one is that most Buddhist temples teach CMA. That's false. From what i know, in China only the Shaolin temple did so and it got kicked out of the Buddhist hierarchy for doing so.
Secondly, people here in Taiwan (and in China from what i hear) don't usually run off to join a temple, they are sent there because they are usually mentally unbalanced. Buddhist temples take in lots of such people because a vegetarian diet and a quiet life in the mountains (away from everyone else) is what Chinese society thinks is best for that kind of people. Yes, I know that doesn't fit the David Carradine stereotype but if you lived here, then you would know.
Third, a hobby doesn't mean you aren't serious about it. Don't you know anyone who is obsessed with their hobby? I know lots of such people. Being obsessed is okay as long as family and career come first.
Historically, the arts were used to defend the family and village. That was their purpose. I'm saying keep the purpose and don't let the arts overwhelm your life.

 

[coldsteel87]

1) How much of your life right now is devoted to CMA?

2) What are you studying and how long have you been doing it?

3) If there was one particular CMA art that you wish you could learn, what would it be? (i.e. it isnt offered anywhere near you but you are fascinated by what you know of it and would love to take it given the opportunity)

4) Do you ever find yourself trying to find ways to learn another CM art in conjunction with what you know?

5) What are your aspirations?

^) What dream of yours when it comes to CMA's would u really like to come true, and or working hard to make it come true?

7) What is it that fascinates you about CMA's?

1. Almost all my life, besides my job and school

2. Shaolin for 2 and a half years

3. Hmm im not sure.. never really thought about it

4. Well tai chi and shaolin have similar principles, but there is a little tai chi in my system so.....not really

5. I want to be a great master and instructor one day.

 

[chessman71]

Good responses.