What Really Happens To A Student After Decades Of Martial Arts Practice
The real effects of Martial Arts practice are quite a bit more involved than most people think. Most people, you see, study Tang Soo Do or TaiChi chuan for a couple of years, and they are just tapping into the real benefits of the martial arts. Then they get distracted by marriage or kids, their only involvement is really through watching people like Jackie Chan or Jet Li, and their path has effectively ended.
You recognize these fellows because their gis are hanging in the closet, as if they would use them tomorrow, but they don't use them. this is a tragedy, because it is like buying half a car, or wearing one shoe, and they don't understand what could have been. They don't understand that a little time and patience and the world would have opened up to them in uncountable ways.
It takes 3 to 4 years to achieve first degree black belt in most martial arts styles. It used to take a less time, but a lot of junk has been added to the arts. If you separate the blending of arts, the commercial and trophy influences and that sort of thing, then you can actually get to black belt within a year.
At any rate, when a person makes it to black belt they usually realize a thing I call CBM (Coordinated Body Motion). Reaction time goes down, and this makes them quicker, and their movement becomes more liquid. Unfortunately, many systems obsess on muscles or strength, or other things that disrupt the natural movements of the body, and this pretty effectively ends the training cycle.
If the martial art system they are practicing has a lot of value, people still run into things like marriage and kids and bills. They don't see the benefits to be gained from the long trail, you see, and they don't make the sacrifice to travel it. Evntually they stop working out.
If they do stick to it, however, after about two decades of studying a person masters his art. This can actually be done in 3 or 4 years, but most teachers don't know enough about how to teach to help the student make it. They may know the martial arts, but knowing teaching is an entirely different box of bricks.
Once a person has become a martial arts master, however, he starts to realize the truth of his abilities. He understands how he has become more intuitive, and he finally realizes that he has been developing abilities that other people don't know anything about. He becomes bigger, a giant, really, and he tends to be patient with people who are still like children to him.
The fighting disciplines of the east are ancient ones, and the effects have been well charted. In modern times, however, with the introduction of corruptive methods and lack of adherence to what works, these effects are not so clean cut. It is easy, however, to correct your martial arts practice, and to attain what the ancients used to attain quickly and easily.
You recognize these fellows because their gis are hanging in the closet, as if they would use them tomorrow, but they don't use them. this is a tragedy, because it is like buying half a car, or wearing one shoe, and they don't understand what could have been. They don't understand that a little time and patience and the world would have opened up to them in uncountable ways.
It takes 3 to 4 years to achieve first degree black belt in most martial arts styles. It used to take a less time, but a lot of junk has been added to the arts. If you separate the blending of arts, the commercial and trophy influences and that sort of thing, then you can actually get to black belt within a year.
At any rate, when a person makes it to black belt they usually realize a thing I call CBM (Coordinated Body Motion). Reaction time goes down, and this makes them quicker, and their movement becomes more liquid. Unfortunately, many systems obsess on muscles or strength, or other things that disrupt the natural movements of the body, and this pretty effectively ends the training cycle.
If the martial art system they are practicing has a lot of value, people still run into things like marriage and kids and bills. They don't see the benefits to be gained from the long trail, you see, and they don't make the sacrifice to travel it. Evntually they stop working out.
If they do stick to it, however, after about two decades of studying a person masters his art. This can actually be done in 3 or 4 years, but most teachers don't know enough about how to teach to help the student make it. They may know the martial arts, but knowing teaching is an entirely different box of bricks.
Once a person has become a martial arts master, however, he starts to realize the truth of his abilities. He understands how he has become more intuitive, and he finally realizes that he has been developing abilities that other people don't know anything about. He becomes bigger, a giant, really, and he tends to be patient with people who are still like children to him.
The fighting disciplines of the east are ancient ones, and the effects have been well charted. In modern times, however, with the introduction of corruptive methods and lack of adherence to what works, these effects are not so clean cut. It is easy, however, to correct your martial arts practice, and to attain what the ancients used to attain quickly and easily.
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