Badger1777
Green Belt
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2014
- Messages
- 127
- Reaction score
- 58
My current style, Tang soo do, is in my opinion brilliant. As someone who studied both karate and kung fu in my youth, I can see strengths of both in TSD. I have only one slight criticism. TSD is all about finishing a fight before it goes to the floor, so there are lots of strikes and throws and things, but not much for that dreaded but sooner or later inevitable situation, where you lose your footing and go down.
So I was thinking there is a Brazillion Ju Jutsu club in town, and I was thinking of giving it a go.
But, here's the thing. When I was young and I did both karate and kung fu, I had to give up karate because I found too many fundamental differences. As our master said, 'karate is like fire, it defeats through rage and ferocity. Kung fu is like water, it is gentle and calm, but can erode the hardest rock, and water can always extinguish fire' (the latter point, I have no doubt, a subtle dig at karate
Now, more than 20 years on, some of the things that hold back my progress in TSD is that some moves are so similar to kung fu moves I learned years ago that 'muscle memory' makes me do the kung fu version rather than the version I am being taught.
So, I'm not sure what to do really. It seems there are pros and cons to mixing in another style.
I should point out that my motivation for training is not to win a fight. It is my intention, and always has been, to never fight for real if I can help it. Its just that its kind of my philosophy that if you're going to spend time, money and energy on anything, you should go all out and do the best you can do.
So I was thinking there is a Brazillion Ju Jutsu club in town, and I was thinking of giving it a go.
But, here's the thing. When I was young and I did both karate and kung fu, I had to give up karate because I found too many fundamental differences. As our master said, 'karate is like fire, it defeats through rage and ferocity. Kung fu is like water, it is gentle and calm, but can erode the hardest rock, and water can always extinguish fire' (the latter point, I have no doubt, a subtle dig at karate
Now, more than 20 years on, some of the things that hold back my progress in TSD is that some moves are so similar to kung fu moves I learned years ago that 'muscle memory' makes me do the kung fu version rather than the version I am being taught.
So, I'm not sure what to do really. It seems there are pros and cons to mixing in another style.
I should point out that my motivation for training is not to win a fight. It is my intention, and always has been, to never fight for real if I can help it. Its just that its kind of my philosophy that if you're going to spend time, money and energy on anything, you should go all out and do the best you can do.