Thursday, May 17, 2007
FMA Talk rant about purity and pekiti tirsia
this is from a post on http://www.fmatalk.com
Some of it may be out of context since you didn't see the guy I responded to and his post, but I am struggling to convey what is important about pedigrees and about purity and about ancient vs. modern.. Systems vs. hodpodges of techniques, and the "real deal" combative martial arts vs. the sportified versions we see today.
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Mmmm. I can't help but think the argument is off. He said "All cultures know killing so who is anyone to say they do it best...?" (paraphrased)I want to make this point clear that is obvious...Most cultures KNEW killing but the arts that were effective combative techniques were lost as you say, due to various factors...but the martial artists are among the people who lost the effective technique. They turned jiu-jitsu into Ju-do, kenjitsu into ken-do. And a swordsman invented something called Aikido...As time passes, what was once a great martial arts system gets turned into a sport and LOSES IT'S ORIGINAL EFFECTIVENESS. The Europeans, we had, amoung other real fighting skills worthy of defending your family, swordmanship, right? What do we have now, the sports of boxing, wrestling, and fencing? The bladed skills went out the window big time. It is just all about sports man. Heck, boxers wear big pillows on their hands and act like the can't use any other part of their body except their hands, wrestlers strive to pin the guy on his back(hands free or not), and the fencing is done in straight lanes where the first one to touch the other guy with his little fairy wand wins the big medal. Did we lose something here?Wasn't Judo invented as a sport.. taking out the moves that might get someone hurt. Wouldn't want to do that.. oh no.. Isn't the foil and boxing gloves and the rules for ultimate fighting all about not being effective? If you are effective it kills the sport.So if there is any money to be made, you should1. teach kids2. hold tournaments with rules enough to make everyone feel safe or keep the law off your behind.3. Teach multiple arts since you get more students overall, touch on more market segments4. maybe throw in some mystical harmony philosophy and teach wimps discipline and self respect. They won't be able to save themselves, but they might feel powerfull at least.And if you haven't noticed Pekiti Tirsia ain't making alot of money. Oh yeah, all those pekiti tirsia guys driving around in BMWs oh yeah...right!So no, it doesn't make sense to study a bunch of arts since so many have been made lame through time. The people got soft and so did the martial arts!So... if we could study one of the other arts of one of the many cultures on earth that have been fierce warriors, yeah, you know what? It might be as good or EVEN BETTER than pekiti.. but most of those arts died out in their pure form. We value pekiti since it wasn't invented to nullify the empty handed kung fu style of the other clan, nor did it evolve to be a sport, nor to be politically correct or add in japanese stuff to attract the guys involved in japanese arts. No! We value it because it is the real deal.. This is hard liquor and not watered down.. This is the PURE stuff and it doesn't need anything added or subtracted. It needs to be preserved like something authentic in a museum. Oh look the real crown worn by a king in the 5th century BC, why don't we take it and add in some $2 rhinestones...we'll fix it..Most the the "martial arts" we are stuck with today are about as similar to real combative systems as bear claws are to our modern day fingernails are. They are good for scratching your butt but not the defenders of the cave that they were.Heck, even thai kickboxing.. wasn't the real art krabi krabong or something like that.. But heck who wants the real deal when they can sweat and kick pads and fight in the ring with one guy, a ref and a bunch of rules? Who wants to wield a real weapon anyway? You might hurt somebody for real... Where's the fun in that? WWF, now that is fun and they swear it's real...In summary, we don't think the filipinos have the best anything nor the corner on the fighting arts. What we do think is that effective combative systems lose their effectiveness over time and are changed to other purposes. We also believe that pekiti tirsia is an art that is still an original, pure combative system that has not been watered down or sportized or otherwise jacked up.Let's keep it that way. If I try and mix pekiti with judo than my grandchildren will learn a system that is probably pretty screwed up.
Some of it may be out of context since you didn't see the guy I responded to and his post, but I am struggling to convey what is important about pedigrees and about purity and about ancient vs. modern.. Systems vs. hodpodges of techniques, and the "real deal" combative martial arts vs. the sportified versions we see today.
------------------
Mmmm. I can't help but think the argument is off. He said "All cultures know killing so who is anyone to say they do it best...?" (paraphrased)I want to make this point clear that is obvious...Most cultures KNEW killing but the arts that were effective combative techniques were lost as you say, due to various factors...but the martial artists are among the people who lost the effective technique. They turned jiu-jitsu into Ju-do, kenjitsu into ken-do. And a swordsman invented something called Aikido...As time passes, what was once a great martial arts system gets turned into a sport and LOSES IT'S ORIGINAL EFFECTIVENESS. The Europeans, we had, amoung other real fighting skills worthy of defending your family, swordmanship, right? What do we have now, the sports of boxing, wrestling, and fencing? The bladed skills went out the window big time. It is just all about sports man. Heck, boxers wear big pillows on their hands and act like the can't use any other part of their body except their hands, wrestlers strive to pin the guy on his back(hands free or not), and the fencing is done in straight lanes where the first one to touch the other guy with his little fairy wand wins the big medal. Did we lose something here?Wasn't Judo invented as a sport.. taking out the moves that might get someone hurt. Wouldn't want to do that.. oh no.. Isn't the foil and boxing gloves and the rules for ultimate fighting all about not being effective? If you are effective it kills the sport.So if there is any money to be made, you should1. teach kids2. hold tournaments with rules enough to make everyone feel safe or keep the law off your behind.3. Teach multiple arts since you get more students overall, touch on more market segments4. maybe throw in some mystical harmony philosophy and teach wimps discipline and self respect. They won't be able to save themselves, but they might feel powerfull at least.And if you haven't noticed Pekiti Tirsia ain't making alot of money. Oh yeah, all those pekiti tirsia guys driving around in BMWs oh yeah...right!So no, it doesn't make sense to study a bunch of arts since so many have been made lame through time. The people got soft and so did the martial arts!So... if we could study one of the other arts of one of the many cultures on earth that have been fierce warriors, yeah, you know what? It might be as good or EVEN BETTER than pekiti.. but most of those arts died out in their pure form. We value pekiti since it wasn't invented to nullify the empty handed kung fu style of the other clan, nor did it evolve to be a sport, nor to be politically correct or add in japanese stuff to attract the guys involved in japanese arts. No! We value it because it is the real deal.. This is hard liquor and not watered down.. This is the PURE stuff and it doesn't need anything added or subtracted. It needs to be preserved like something authentic in a museum. Oh look the real crown worn by a king in the 5th century BC, why don't we take it and add in some $2 rhinestones...we'll fix it..Most the the "martial arts" we are stuck with today are about as similar to real combative systems as bear claws are to our modern day fingernails are. They are good for scratching your butt but not the defenders of the cave that they were.Heck, even thai kickboxing.. wasn't the real art krabi krabong or something like that.. But heck who wants the real deal when they can sweat and kick pads and fight in the ring with one guy, a ref and a bunch of rules? Who wants to wield a real weapon anyway? You might hurt somebody for real... Where's the fun in that? WWF, now that is fun and they swear it's real...In summary, we don't think the filipinos have the best anything nor the corner on the fighting arts. What we do think is that effective combative systems lose their effectiveness over time and are changed to other purposes. We also believe that pekiti tirsia is an art that is still an original, pure combative system that has not been watered down or sportized or otherwise jacked up.Let's keep it that way. If I try and mix pekiti with judo than my grandchildren will learn a system that is probably pretty screwed up.
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