I keep on looking for schools of Martial-Arts here in India and I have seen some Karate champions, some Judo experts and I found out these things (be warned that this is not a global observation of mine but only of Judo-Karate experts and black-belt holders in India):
- All of them practice some movements, some pre-formed attack strategies. When enviornmet changes (I mean when they go from their ring/school to the street), I don’t see their way of practicing Karate was much useful than 20%. Its not because Karate is bad, its because their way of thinking and practicing Karate is not good. It means their way of understading Karate is not what Karate is all about.
-
These experts focus primarily on techniques like how to kick, where to punch etc. Very few do weight-training. I also observed that they don’t focus much on stamina. Like when you practice in a dojo/school , you get chance to relax, think etc and your attack movements are defined by your practice with your fellow team partners, your wear a freely-moving dress, the environment is friendly and kind and you have an instructor but when you get in a real fight on a street with thugs or people who don’t look like your fellow team-partners from any angle, and you don’t have that kind and frinedly atmosphere and your sweet instructor and you are in your shirts and jeans which don’t move freely… do you have any idea what will happen in that case ?
You don’t get time to relax and think, you will not be able to move your leg as high as your did with your nice team partners because your jeans are tight and your shirt, tucked inside your blue jeans restrics your movements, at that point, yes, at exactly that point, you come to understand the truth of the real life fighting and how your training fits into that. You have to have that force in your punch, you have to have stamina to keep on fighting for next 30 minutes at least. I think (for stamina) doing running for 1 hour a day and practicing in front of Muk Yan Jong or like Master Tan’s spring-training or using punch-bag to train both your pucnhes and kicks for around 1 hour at a stretch is what is needed. To get the force in your fist (fist of fury ?) you need training like Punch-on-Wall or traning using punch-bang.
- All of these so called Karate experts (and they are practicing for 10-18 years) have closed-minds. I mean, when I try to ask some of them that I want to practice in my casual dress, they looked at me as if I have broken some law :-\
I have seen all these Karate experts focussing too much on techniques while less on force of punch/kick and stamina to fight for longer hours. This is what exactly Bruce Lee showed in Way of the Dragon in the final fight scene with Robert Wall (before he fights Chuck Norris). His opponent gets tired, looses more than half of his strength after he has kicked around 20-30 times in flat 3 minutes, Bruce Lee remains calm and okay only because of his hard training and his emphasis on developing power and stamina. Most people think that developing muscle mass, making big biceps will give them power and scare the shit out of the opponent but my friend real-life is different. The reality of combat is stranger than any art. When you will have a fight, you will come to know how much of your big biceps help, they will not help, they will only restrict your movement. The Fist of Fury has nothing to do with the muscle mass but with the muscle strength, if you want to joina gym then use machines of gym to increase the strength and power of your muscles and keep on practicing running for 1 hour with that. Everyone around me wants to have muscles like Amir Khan has in Ghajini and I observed how his great muscle size made him punch the bag like a kid. I am not against developing muscle mass, I am just against the way people think that muscle mass should be highest priority when joining a gym while stamina and force of hit are on the the lowest part of their priorities.
Bruce called it participation of the individual, I call it the spirit of a real-life Martial-Artist.
Copyright © 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.
