Fubo wrote: and the exercises would be switched up regularly to avoid creating stagnant patterns in the body... the reason being that repeating the same patterns over and over can lock you into them, mentally and on a muscle memory level, which was seen as a hinderance in a fighting situation where the goal is to spontaneously adapt to the situation, as opposed to relying on preconceived techniques that have been drilled.
I feel like it "opened" the Tai Chi I had trained up in ways that were very beneficial. It was very good at using training methods to remove mental blocks.
Bao wrote:Good post Fubo, I enjoyed reading it.Fubo wrote: and the exercises would be switched up regularly to avoid creating stagnant patterns in the body... the reason being that repeating the same patterns over and over can lock you into them, mentally and on a muscle memory level, which was seen as a hinderance in a fighting situation where the goal is to spontaneously adapt to the situation, as opposed to relying on preconceived techniques that have been drilled.
Interesting, I like this approach.
Completely different training, but it reminds me about it what Arnold Schwarzenegger has pointed out in his own training, the importance of "shock the muscles". When he had done routines for a while, he wanted to do something opposite, or complete different than what his body was used to, to shock the muscles. As you said, "mentally and on a muscle memory level".
I feel like it "opened" the Tai Chi I had trained up in ways that were very beneficial. It was very good at using training methods to remove mental blocks.
Training something different but related can be very valuable, IME. I learned a lot about my Tai Chi from studying Xingyi and Bagua. They allowed me to look at things in my Tai Chi from other angles. Again, I am not sure why people would want to practice both, but otoh, I am sure one your main style could benefit from learning things from another one.
johnwang wrote:CMA trains body unification. Does Systema train body unification?
Fubo wrote:I think it's important to consider the context that Systema came out of, the special forces, which means the consideration that one would need to function from a wide variety of situations such as being seated, crawling, standing, disadvantageous positioned etc. which means some times your strikes, movements etc. can't comes from a unified body in the CMA sense,
Bao wrote:John Wang really brought up something fundamental.Fubo wrote:I think it's important to consider the context that Systema came out of, the special forces, which means the consideration that one would need to function from a wide variety of situations such as being seated, crawling, standing, disadvantageous positioned etc. which means some times your strikes, movements etc. can't comes from a unified body in the CMA sense,
I can't really agree with these conclusion about CMA. First of all, we must consider military training, as using long weapons. As if you deal with a long spear, then you really need to have a very good posture and use your legs. You can't change and move the spear swiftly if you don't have a good base.
Well, the second thing is that people back then, several hundreds of years ago, used their bodies much more in daily life. They didn't have machines that did the hard work, did the lifting, pushing, pulling etc. TCMA training is really about learning how to use your body in various "disadvantageous positions", as well as how to use your body and strength more efficiently using various tools (which can be weapons as well as every day tools). Whole body coordination and "body unification" is a big part of this practical knowledge.
And with that said, there's another difference between TCMA and much other martial arts, and this is that when we connect to an opponent, we connect to him as he was a tool, and use our body in the same way as we use a tool. The opponent becomes more something like an object, a tool, and stops being something that is separated and disconnected from us. This is why "bridging" is an important concept in much TCMA. We want to connect with the opponent as fast as possible and use our body, structure and alignment to build a whole structure together with the opponent. This way of thinking is very different from most Western arts, including Systema. Maybe common roman greco wrestling comes closest to this kind of attitude.
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