Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
Flying rne, awsome post.
rickster, sure Chinese martial arts has cobbled together systems, like arts from any other country. They do not have set principles and conepts. The training methodology is lacking also. They are crap for self defense, like any other cobbled together system without those things. Country of origin makes no difference, there will always be charlatans out there.
yes, agreed, no country of origin holds the monopoly.
The difference between a good system and a cobbled together Frankenstein mess is that a good system has an underlying methodology that ties everything together. As I keep saying, these are the principles that drive everything, and everything in the system works upon the same principles and the same underlying methodology, while a Frankenstein mess doesn't have an underlying methodology nor principles that tie it all together.
There are Chinese systems that were built upon the blend of other systems, and I am sure some amount of mixing always has and always will happen. Most of what exists today was based on something else, at some point in time. Nothing is ever created independently, in a vacuum. Choy lay Fut, and Fut Gar I believe, are examples.
But when things are blended together, there needs to be care taken to make sure that what is blended is ultimately compatible, that it all can function well on the same foundation, with the same principles, and the same methodology. If not, then it won't work well together and it too will be a Frankenstein.
Blending and mixing can work, if approached with the proper care and mindset and a clear set of parameters of how things need to function. But if the mixing is done haphazardly, it won't work. In my opinion, much of what we see today is mixed haphazardly.