OP
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
- Thread Starter
- #21
Xue, that was a high quality rant! Americans want everything in a condensed version or instantly and that includes the martial arts. I've talked to guys about my aikido training and one of the first questions out of their mouths is always "How long does it take to get a black belt". I'll go through the entire monologue about how it's not about the belt that each of us as true martial arts understand while their eyes glaze over and then they'll repeat "So, how long til black belt." when I finally tell them that the average time is 5 to 7 years their eyes bulge. The idea of putting in that much time and effort for dan ranking blows their mind...because they don't understand the true reasons for continuing a martial art past the initial "Hey, look what I'm doing" stage. My instructor has a saying (as all instructors do) "If you're going to excell at this art it has to permeet your soul, not lather the skin." The 3 minute tai-chi is simply a little hand soap. Those that pick it up might get the dirt from beneath their fingernails but the rest of their body will stink to high heaven. Maybe, as Bushido said, a few will realize that there is so much more to it and seek a real instructor and that is a good thing for the martial arts but the rest of them will wait for the next big fad and then go get a "Be a master of art X in 3 minutes" tape and the tai chi tape will end up on the shelf beside the Jane Fonda workout tape that's still in the plastic wrapper.
There is an old story, which I can never remember when I need it. But it is something like a student goes to a master and asks how long until I am a master and the master says 10 years. The student then says what if I world really hard and do nothing else but kung fu? The master says 15 years.
Well that was the long way around just to say I agree.
I run into this all the time in Tai Chi, people do not want to put in the time needed to understand what they are doing little alone master it. (I have a hard time with the label master by the way, but that's another post)
I did not and do not see this in Xingyi, probably because my Sifu starts with "you need to stand in Santi" BINGO they leave.
But Tai Chi is much more subject to this kind of 3 minutes and you can understand all type things and it just sends me over the edge I am already tenuously walking on when it comes to Tai Chi.
