The cultural significance of the Western Martial Arts revival

[Stan]

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=642834&postcount=17

I posted this as a reply to a question in the Western Arts forum about Savate, but I deal with some cultural issues surrounding Eastern vs. Western martial arts, so I thought that the discussion might more appropriately take place in the Study. Anyone have anything to add?

Thanks,
Stan

 

[SFC JeffJ]

In your post, you hit on one of my pet peeves, the "superiority" of the Katana over the european sword and the methods of using it.

For a long time, and still to a certain extent today, people thought the various "mystic" qualities made the asian arts superior to their western counterparts. I can see why that has a lot of appeal. Heck, just the feeling of it being "different" is quite the selling point.

I remember while stationed in Germany, being shown some old grappling texts, and them having a lot of techniques that you see in japanese jujitsu. As has been said before, the body can only move in so many ways. No one has exclusive knowledge on how to move their own or somebody elses.

Jeff

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

In your post, you hit on one of my pet peeves, the "superiority" of the Katana over the european sword and the methods of using it.

For a long time, and still to a certain extent today, people thought the various "mystic" qualities made the asian arts superior to their western counterparts. I can see why that has a lot of appeal. Heck, just the feeling of it being "different" is quite the selling point.

I remember while stationed in Germany, being shown some old grappling texts, and them having a lot of techniques that you see in japanese jujitsu. As has been said before, the body can only move in so many ways. No one has exclusive knowledge on how to move their own or somebody elses.

Jeff

Hey Jeff,

That is a very, very good point!

 

[exile]

As has been said before, the body can only move in so many ways.
Jeff

And, very ironically, one of the ones who said that, and said it often, was none other than Bruce Lee, who is an icon of the nearly `magical' effectiveness of Asian martial arts to millions of people. I suspect he would have agreed wholeheartedly with the essay in the original post in this thread--- if I remember what I've read about him correctly, he was a great student of Western boxing and believed it had great value in thinking about unarmed combat.... just goes to show, eh?