Master Kongling: facing the other martial arts
Widening my vision of martial arts
A note by Master Kongling – With this article we continue the narration of my martial life (read Master Kongling: confrontations and teaching).
My master pushed me to further expand my horizons by inviting me to actively follow more and more complete courses of other martial arts (read 6DKF: what does it teach?).
He was very focused on the fact that I must not stop widening my vision.
He wanted 6 Dragons Kung Fu to include the best aspects of the other martial arts and at the same time he wanted it to know their “setting and weaknesses” (to use his words).
Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).
Partecipating to full courses
Martial arts
I started actively various courses:
- Ju-Jitsu (traditional and modern)
- Self-defense
- Armed combat (Eskrima, Kali and Silat)
- Combat training (functional training, etc.)
- Capoeira
- Wing Chun
- Aikido
- Basics of Boxing
- Kudo
- Mei Hua Quan
- …
Each day I had more and more training hours in different styles / disciplines and they were full courses, not stages / seminars.
Other disciplines
In addition to martial arts, I found time to:
- Follow Yoga classes
- Put together previous NLP knowledge
- Deepen the Qi Gong study
- Start with the early rudiments of Traditional Chinese Medicine
You can not know everything
In spite of the wide amount of dedication time I knew with certainty that I would never become an expert in these individual sectors: it was not my goal.
What I was looking for was a confrontation with people, ways of doing and always different points of view.
The idea was to enrich as much as possible 6 Dragons Kung Fu:
- Both through positive aspects to be captured
- Both through the negative ones to be discarded
After the first period of information overload (contradictions, different thinking methods, etc.), I sought (without any pretense) to find:
- A “synthesis” of what was similar
- A “separated application” for what was incompatible
The result: good and bad experiences
This practical learning experience had a lot of unexpected consequences, some positives, some negatives:
- On one hand, I have been able to collaborate with extraordinary people (both in terms of training companions both in terms of instructors)
- On the other hand, unfortunately, I have come in contact with the rotten, bureaucratic, commercial, limited, amateurish, belligerent, dispersive and castrating side that pollutes a big part of today’s martial world (previously unknown to me)
The frustration
Prolonging my studies (with great regret and disappointment) I began to suffer some of the typical limitations of the “classical” martial arts gyms:
- Where profit (though thin) overcomes the idea of martial art
- Where respect for individuality disappear in favor of complete exploitation (as in an assembly chain)
- Where self-exaltation replaces teaching
- Where envy takes the place of encouragement / esteem
In addition to these minor problems there were added some other more substantial:
- Workouts were often lazy and full of dead moments (effectiveness, speed, power and spatial intelligence were often excluded from the lessons), I had to integrate with additional individual morning workouts to compensate for the lack of dynamism
- The techniques were explained in a too limited, linear, amateurish, ineffective way, nothing was brought to the idea of excellence
- In-depth questions were often avoided, whether for limited expertise, whether to do not go too fast (in detriment of earning)
- Learning and intensity was each time leveled in relation to the appearance of new temporary students (instead of dividing the classes into skill levels)
- …
A note by Master Kongling – Even if it is sad to say, the situation was degenerating and the frustration caused by certain “personalities” with a too restricted vision had made me reach the breaking limit. Unfortunately, this is a very common situation, I have eared this kind of stories too many times, even from some of my students.
This way I came back to ask my master’s advice, the advice of one of the few people who helped me with honesty and transparency to trace my path.
Continue…
In-depth articles
- A note about the practice of other martial arts – When and how it can be a positive experience
- The complete list of all the martial arts – A regularly updated list of all the martial arts (present and past)
Questions
Reply in the comments and share your experience:
- Have you ever experienced similar problems / difficulties?
Author: Master Kongling
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JKDwarrior
March 1, 2019 @ 4:58 pm
Can you link all the articles about you shifu?
docto
January 13, 2021 @ 4:23 pm
Respect!
Master Kongling
February 5, 2021 @ 11:11 pm
😉
pikapika
June 24, 2022 @ 5:25 am
Yes, I had the same difficulties.