Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
I am rereading “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” and I am beginning to have a thought, actually it has been brewing for awhile but the part of Bruce Lee’s book that says “Simply to simplify” struck a cord.
I have had a real hard time of late training the Traditional Yang Long form as well as the Yang Dao and Jain forms, Tung’s fast form he called Yang and Tung’s Dao form. I am having much less of a problem training Tung’s fast form that combines Yang and Hao styles and I am having no trouble training push hands, but I am having trouble finding people to train push hands with. Those things that I currently directly equate to Martial Arts I am having little problem with.
Simply to Simplify started me thinking that after almost 14 years training traditional Yang style that the long form, at this point, might be superfluous. I am actually beginning to think a lot of forms I have learned and trained in the past (Xingyi, Bagua, Chen, Wu, Shaolin Changquan, etc) are now superfluous. I am beginning to feel that all I should be focusing on, as far as Taiji is concerned, is Tung’s fast form, push hands and the 13 postures all else is just getting in the way. Now being a hard core traditionalist up until now is making this a hard pill for me to swallow but that is how I have been feeling at least since Christmas. Prior to that I was doing the long form at least once a day and now I am lucky if I train it once a week.
What I find more confusing here is that I feel that I am finally crossing that threshold to get where I have always wanted to be with Taiji. Be able to find someones center, use little force, like my sifu, to off balance, up root and defeat the other guy. But I am far from mastery and I still have a whole lot to learn.
I am having no problem with Sanda in all of this. It is simple, direct and not complex by comparison to Taiji. But I am far from any set goal in Sanda but it technically has no forms and just training, training and more training.
Before winter I found a way to train the long form that was causing me great excitement and I felt it was showing me those little things that are easy to miss when doing the form on a hard surface, inside in a well lit room on an even floor and I could feel that transfer into my push hands and understanding of Yang Taiji. But with the onset of Winter I am not able to do that and I am hoping that when spring comes I can get back to it and see that the forms that I have been doing so long are not, as I am beginning to feel, superfluous.
I currently see little reason to do any of the weapons forms they have no real world application in my opinion and as for the health/Qi benefits I can get the same form qigong training, push hands and the fast form. As for all other forms again I am wondering why I do them and the only thing I can come up with it that I do them so I can teach them to someone else someday.
I do not think I have wasted my time in learning any of the forms I have done, I have learned a lot from them. I am however wondering if it is not time to move on or at least get away form them for awhile.
:asian: Thoughts, views and opinions welcome. :asian:
As a side to this
The first time I read Tao of Jeet Kune Do I was recovering form a back injury that took me out of MA and eventually lead me to TCMA and now it may be leading me out of it…but to be honest I am actually not 100% sure what to think. I am not going to make any drastic changes just yet, based on this but it was one of those things that makes me go hmmm. .
Also much of this superfluous stuff came to me right after reading
And I also realized at that moment I was listening to a Buddhist prayer in the background (nan wu a mi tuo fo) over and over again and smelling incense. My mother-in-law (a devout Buddhist) is visiting form China and has set up a min-Buddhist shine in her room which was adjacent to where I was sitting and reading Tao of Jeet Kune Do. I do believe that means I have become a CMA Cliché.
I have had a real hard time of late training the Traditional Yang Long form as well as the Yang Dao and Jain forms, Tung’s fast form he called Yang and Tung’s Dao form. I am having much less of a problem training Tung’s fast form that combines Yang and Hao styles and I am having no trouble training push hands, but I am having trouble finding people to train push hands with. Those things that I currently directly equate to Martial Arts I am having little problem with.
Simply to Simplify started me thinking that after almost 14 years training traditional Yang style that the long form, at this point, might be superfluous. I am actually beginning to think a lot of forms I have learned and trained in the past (Xingyi, Bagua, Chen, Wu, Shaolin Changquan, etc) are now superfluous. I am beginning to feel that all I should be focusing on, as far as Taiji is concerned, is Tung’s fast form, push hands and the 13 postures all else is just getting in the way. Now being a hard core traditionalist up until now is making this a hard pill for me to swallow but that is how I have been feeling at least since Christmas. Prior to that I was doing the long form at least once a day and now I am lucky if I train it once a week.
What I find more confusing here is that I feel that I am finally crossing that threshold to get where I have always wanted to be with Taiji. Be able to find someones center, use little force, like my sifu, to off balance, up root and defeat the other guy. But I am far from mastery and I still have a whole lot to learn.
I am having no problem with Sanda in all of this. It is simple, direct and not complex by comparison to Taiji. But I am far from any set goal in Sanda but it technically has no forms and just training, training and more training.
Before winter I found a way to train the long form that was causing me great excitement and I felt it was showing me those little things that are easy to miss when doing the form on a hard surface, inside in a well lit room on an even floor and I could feel that transfer into my push hands and understanding of Yang Taiji. But with the onset of Winter I am not able to do that and I am hoping that when spring comes I can get back to it and see that the forms that I have been doing so long are not, as I am beginning to feel, superfluous.
I currently see little reason to do any of the weapons forms they have no real world application in my opinion and as for the health/Qi benefits I can get the same form qigong training, push hands and the fast form. As for all other forms again I am wondering why I do them and the only thing I can come up with it that I do them so I can teach them to someone else someday.
I do not think I have wasted my time in learning any of the forms I have done, I have learned a lot from them. I am however wondering if it is not time to move on or at least get away form them for awhile.
:asian: Thoughts, views and opinions welcome. :asian:
As a side to this
The first time I read Tao of Jeet Kune Do I was recovering form a back injury that took me out of MA and eventually lead me to TCMA and now it may be leading me out of it…but to be honest I am actually not 100% sure what to think. I am not going to make any drastic changes just yet, based on this but it was one of those things that makes me go hmmm. .
Also much of this superfluous stuff came to me right after reading
The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify. It is being oneself; it is reality in its “isness.” Thus, isness is the meaning – having freedom in its primary sense, not limited by attachments, confinements, partialization, complexities.
And I also realized at that moment I was listening to a Buddhist prayer in the background (nan wu a mi tuo fo) over and over again and smelling incense. My mother-in-law (a devout Buddhist) is visiting form China and has set up a min-Buddhist shine in her room which was adjacent to where I was sitting and reading Tao of Jeet Kune Do. I do believe that means I have become a CMA Cliché.