I started to learn martial arts in 1969. Most of the teachers I learned from understood their art and taught with integrity.
But over the last decade something has happened to a lot of martial arts, they have moved into being a sport and more about learning how to beat people up. They have become violent and aggressive, and very self-destructive to their own patrons.
Some marital arts on the other hand have gone the complete opposite and become more gymnastic and ineffectual.
But there are a few martial artists that still teach with integrity.
Don’t get me wrong, new styles have always evolved from old styles, that is evolution, but sometimes what is taken away from the old is required for balance. That is learning from our oversights and misunderstandings.
Just a thought, there is a big difference between sports and martial arts:
- Sport is about winning
- Martial Arts are about survival
Old Style – Feng Shou Chuan Shu as taught by Harmony Arts Association
Feng Shou Chuan Shu is an internal martial art. It is also a holistic martial art as the practice is for the body, the mind and the spirit.
The one biggest, and sometimes the hardest, fight you will ever face in Feng Shou Chuan Shu will be the one with yourself and your ego.
One of the nice things about Feng Shou is that the challenges you overcome in your practice helps you with the challenges you have in your everyday life.
Hard and external martial arts are very punishing on the body and have an impact on your health, as you get older. Internal or soft style martial arts help with your health and fitness well into your old age. So whether you start Feng Shou as a youngster, middle-aged or mature adult doesn’t matter, the art adapts to your ability.
Some of my old Feng Shou brothers and sisters will agree with me when I say that Feng Shou Chuan Shu helps you to lose your ego. Once you start to understand some of the concepts and principals of the art, our down-to-earth strategies and methods of counter attack lead to powerful and fast techniques that anyone can learn, the lesser the ego the greater power.
Defending yourself doesn’t have to be about beating the living daylights out of your attacker, even sometimes you may have to hurt them to stop them. As you practice and your abilities increase you will be skilled at using techniques that unbalance your attacker or disorientate them long enough so you can exit stage left. Sometimes avoiding violence is the best option.
One thing that often comes up in talks or martial arts demonstrations is the sad facts that in today’s society an individual or one group will attack at anytime and it doesn’t seem to matter what your age is. The next thing that comes up is ‘I’m not fit enough or strong enough to defend myself’. I also have a lot of conversations with people who have done hard Karate and Kung Fu styles that have had to stop because they are to old or are full of injuries from those styles.
Learning the internal or soft Chinese martial arts like Old Style – Feng Shou Chuan Shu, you don’t have to be super fit or strong to practice them. That is because as you practice its relaxed, active movements, which incorporates hand and arm strikes, kicks, parries, ward-offs and evasions even the wrestling and throwing techniques, you will gradually develop your fitness, strength, flexibility, co-ordination and balance. You will also find that your concentration, health and general well-being will increase as a result of your practice.
In Feng Shou Chuan Shu it doesn’t matter whether female or male, or how old you are, or whether you’ve done martial arts before or not; as it is not about you being fit for the system, rather the system fits around you whatever your ability.
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