Martial Arts Change ALL THE TIME

in my last post, I talked about how the Siu Nim Tao form in the wing chun system was actually an "incomplete" form as result of a teacher's death, where they passed away before having taught the entire form to their students. Or also a result of physical restrictions - for example, small training place limited the movements they could do, so the students never really learned parts of the form that involved wide steps/stances...

What I find interesting is the perception or even the "traditionalist forces" that try to prevent change. Change in martial art systems is very much like an eco-system. 1000 branches of various styles and only 2 or 3 surviving - either due to untimely deaths, ineffective system, inabilty to teach, lack of students, etc etc.

Learning and do what was taught 1000 years ago in a temple somewhere doesn't mean it's a good thing. Think about it. You want a record player or a blu-ray player?

The generation of MMA is a great example of an incredible evolution of martial arts - it's like the rise of humans or death of the dinosaurs or the emergence of single cell life forms. It threw away the concept of training like our ancestors and focused on scientific/athletic/competitive training in a martial arts context.

It was quickly realized that "traditional" martial arts was not as effective in the octagon, and out came this new breed of martial art - MMA.

And now, as with any shake up of the eco system, it's time for other martial art styles to adapt to this new breed of martial art. Those that can't adapt will die off, those that can will live on.

Change is always happening. Change is good. Change doesn't mean that the wing chun teacher will teach grappling, instead, change could mean applying your system of martial arts differently to adapt to the opponent.

There's an idea that martial artists want to do what their ancestors did or what the original shaolin monks did and people have even propelled them into a mystical realm where they have super powers...

this is complete baloney.

History of war is all about adaptation and change. When the gun was used on the battle field, the guys using the bows and arrows didn't create sharper bows - they used guns. Change is inevitable and if you can't accept this, you're done.

Until then.

Until then.