2015/09/19: More or Less the Same Thing

For some strange reasons, humans have this weird tendency to want to compartmentalize and organize everything into distinct categories. Look at races! And within those races we have countries...and then people are further divided by State/Province, City, Neighborhood... Everything is organized for the human being.

The most important thing to realize, however, is that at the end of the day, all of those "organized" things are more or less the same thing. A Boxer's jab, a Tai Chi lead straight, the Hung Gar lead, the Muay Thai lead, the Savate Fighter's lead, and just about every other lead you can think of...is simply the lead hand launching forward to hit the other person. The boxer's right cover, the Hung Gar "throw the powder" motion, the Muay Thai high block...all of that stuff is more or less the same motion, with slightly different details/methodologies, but they all do more or less the same thing.

Too often, however, we get so caught up in the names, too caught up in the names of the techniques, that we forget that most of these moves are the same thing, and, more importantly, that at the end of the day, there is a human being that must execute these moves. So instead of stressing about what style it came from, and which one is superior, why not just focus on what makes the move work? Why not focus on the mechanics so you can take it and adapt it to your own style? Not the style you study, but your style? That that is uniquely your own?

"I cannot teach you, only help you to explore yourself. Nothing more."
-Bruce Lee

Everyone wants someone that can tell them the ultimate answer that will solve all of their problems. Me more than anyone else. But what I am realizing more than anything is that, no matter how much knowledge I have, if I have no idea how to make it functionally work (with practice and personal tweaking), it's useless. "Styles," to me, are just training regiments that give you some basic tools and principles and attempt to instill the understanding of fighting, as a template, for you to go out and paint your own picture.

So you must do more or less the same thing that everyone else is doing, but you almost must do it in a way that is uniquely your own, and no one else's. Huh. Sounds weird dunnit?