All martial arts are ultimately about yourself. They are for you. Wether you think the information is useful or not is up to you. You have the final say in what you will accept, what you will believe, and what you consider crap.
But think of this first: If you are in the 1st grade just learning the basics of the alphabet and what words are, how can you perceive and judge the quality and content of Shakspeares writings?
I have had this same quandary thrust upon me in numerous ways, both as a student and as a teacher. I saw it in Aikido, and I see it everywhere today. There are students; beginners with only a few months or years training in the basics, (and by beginners I mean anyone with less than 10 hard years training under a very good teacher) who question and say that "This dont work." "This is no good." "I want it now." and so forth.
Dont get me wrong Lu, I put myself in your shoes everyday. I constantly question my art, my ability, my knowledge and my training, but I have had a long time to look at it, and I can see the value that can be derived from all the different aspects of training.
To me, its irrelevent that their are forms that seem to teach no useful purpose, or techniques that dont work or whatnot. I look at them from a different standpoint. I use my acquired knowledge and understanding of the "CORE" of the arts to change that technique into one that does work, to find a use for that useless form, to find a purpose for what is taught me, regardless of its superficial first impression of being worthless.
In this way, I weed out the real useless stuff and I expand my ability to utilize my knowledge in other ways. A form may seem useless to a boxer, but a form properly done, can provide all three sides of the fitness triangle, it can be used as a method to teach discipline in young students, it can be modified to help older people stretch and use their body, it can be blended into a different style (like aikido) just to see if I have the ability to modify my movement, to work my mind. I can find a way to use just about anything taught in the arts now.
My point is, that you may have outgrown your school. You have reached the point where you are not challenged enough. But you still have the ability to challenge yourself.
Take all the info you have learned, and figure out ways to make it work. Remove what you feel is in adequate and make it all "yours". After all this training you have been thru,
I am sure you have enough material to keep you busy a long time.
And that is what I think the arts are about. And that is why I say the arts are for you.
Hope this viewpoint helps. Sometimes you just need to get away from it to learn why you really want it.
Randy M.
(while you had a teacher thru most your time, I spent a number of years without one and subsequently only had the knowledge I had gained to work with - so I tore things about and re-learned them, practiced them different ways, with different arts, and so forth.....maybe this helped me see things differently)
|