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Tae Kwon Do, Karate, T'ai Chi...What are these things?
Walk into any martial arts school and you’ll enter a
world celebrating the ancient ideas of Asian decent,
rich with ceremonial proceedings, labeled with
traditional names that are near impossible to
pronounce, surrounded by the customary symbols of the
Orient, all lead by some guy who declares their style
to be the “true form” or the “most inclusive”. Makes
you wonder, doesn’t it. |
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Is learning a Martial Art a way to study Chinese history, or
is it to learn physical technique. If it is a technique that
you wish to learn then how do you decide what is the right one
for you? Are you looking for an art that concentrates on
decisive striking as in Karate, if so is your choice
Okinawan or Japanese, perhaps
you would like a more physical challenge as in Muay Thai from
Thailand or from Korea: Tae Kwon Do. Perhaps the name itself
can help your search: Tae Kwon Do = the way of the hand and
foot, it does gives us a small idea, but don’t all styles use
hands and feet? Karate = empty hand, can you learn to use a
weapon, or how about this, Yang T’ai Chi Ch’uan =
Supreme Ultimate Fist. Now really. TOP
The most
common method of choosing a school is what ever happens to be
on your way home from work. If this is you just quietly slap
your self on the back of your hand.
First lets
put to rest the question of what style is better, answer:
none, and all. They all have the same draw back, and that is
to be useful you must first use it. I’ve had more then one
encounter with an “expert” in martial arts (both on and off
the mat) who quickly resorted to wild swinging with his eyes
shut hoping to connect. And each style has the same
advantages too, which is the basic physiology of the human
body, and since your not likely to be fighting any Martians I
think that makes it pretty fair. TOP
One thing
that you want to keep in mind is your environment.
Environment had a hand in developing each style as so should
not be left out of you evaluation. A good example is the
difference with Kung Fu (a Chinese form long thought to be of
the first forms of martial arts), that is Northern vs.
Southern styles. Northern China is an area that has a more
extreme winter compared to the more habitable South. In the
North mobility is limited, more clothing is needed to keep
warm and the cities are more densely populated. This created
a need for more straightforward movements, shorter strikes,
and less high kicks. Where as the Southern style because of
it’s lighter clothing and more open terrain is capable of
broader movements and more extreme footwork as well as a
larger weapon selection. TOP
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There are two main reasons to get involved in martial arts,
one is self-defense, and the other is exercise |
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So you can
see environment either helps or hinders. Take a practitioner
of Southern Kung Fu choosing for his protection a Monk’s spade
from the Shaolin temple, which is about 6ft in length with a
bell shaped blade on one side and a half moon blade on the
other, this is a very effective tool in the South If he
needed there is no way he’ll be able to use it in the limited
spaces of the Northern cities.
The same is true for Martial Arts today, as a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do for many years; I understand enough of its limitations to know that when I worked as a bouncer at a nightclub, or performed security at different events I knew that was not going to be my first choice for protecting others or myself. |
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The
environment that I put myself into would not let me use the
full capabilities of the art and so diminished the usefulness
of that style. I countered the situation with softer touch of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, which I studied for many years as well. This
proved to work very well for the situation because the smaller
more elliptical movements with much smaller burst of energy.
Instead of causing injury to someone by punching them or
wrestling them to the ground I many times used leverage to
move them to the door calmly, still letting them show to there
friends that they where in control.
A quote from
the “T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics”
“If the opponent's movement is quick,
then quickly respond;
if his movement is slow,
then follow slowly.”
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