Does anyone in here do martial arts? When i was younger I had a 1st degree black belt tung soo do and was one of the top students. (looking back on it, it wasn't a very good style of fighting at all ((i believe in the jeet kune do philosophy of fighting, formless form), or perhaps they didn't teach me everything since i was in the kids class) Anyway I want to start again in a new martial art and I'm looking for a style that incorporates spirituality and meditation into its teaching, not like a sport fighting martial art like muay tai is now since UFC became popular. There is a place thats about a 20 minute drive from my house that teaches kung fu and tai chi, i'm not sure if they teach both at once or if it means they offer 2 seperate classes. I'd really like to take both, i'm not sure what kind of kung fu it is though yet (i'm really hoping for wing chun, thats the type of kung fu i want to take) The thing that sucks thhough is I'm gonna be losing my license and it goes into effect january 1st (happy new year huh, my mistakes from the 07-08 are now making it damn hard for me to basically start a new healthy life) But anyway yea, anybody take martial arts? What kind, and does your teacher incorporate spirituality/philosophy into your teachings.
ive never taken martial arts but ive wanted to do kung fu for some time now. ive even considered moving to china to live with the shaolin monks for a year or 2, lol. where do you live though? kung fu classes are hard to find in america.
PA... theres actually quite a few in the Pittsburgh area (was lookin through yellowpages.com), but the school I plan to attend is in a place called West Mifflin. I'd like to go live with monks too haha, not like up and leave now and do it, but once i'm quite a bit more spiritually evolved (i've been meditating for something like 6 months, but my progress has come to a standstill for some reason) It would be awesome to live with the monks and learn their chi/healing powers that they are so well known for. It's actually believed by some that in the 18 years of Jesus' life that are missing from the bible that he traveled to Indonesia and studied with the buddhist monks and it is where he learned his "supernatural" healing abilities. Honestly I think its quite possible that that is where he became enlightened.
I use to do the same art as you (tang soo do) not tung. It wasn't a bad form of art but there is better. The tae kwon doe/kung fu guys were pretty easy to beat when I did competitions. I also took boxing though. I like boxing alot more because martial arts is half made up bullshit. Like seriously, the grappling and shit was nonesense. You're not going to catch someones arm to put them in a submission or any of that fancy shit...
I might be starting karate, just beginning with a friend's session. 10$ a month, laiud back, think it'd be worth it. I've always wanted to learn Aikido. Its purely self-defense, to the point that your offensive moves are provoking them into throwing a certain type of attack which you can counter. Another friend is a brown belt in this. He loves it, and is one of the most peaceful people i've ever met. Edit; just realized that I had an unfinished explanation. I believe Aikido would be spiritual in a physical way. Inherently you learn all about how the body works, as most moves require understanding the movement of one's physical energy so that it can be redirected. So if you learn how anyone's body works, that can be applied and shaped to understand your body more completely. And with this would come awareness of all the different muscles and joints of your body rather than "I feel my arm / leg". Could be wrong, though.
I actually knew that.... not sure why the hell i spelled it tung. I guess i was just stoned and spelled it like it sounded, haha but i didnt spell soo su or do doe, I dunno. Haha But I'm really interested in Wing Chun Kung Fu. Its the style that uses that wooden dummy, and it's also the base style that JKD was made from. Bruce Lee actually has a book called Tao of Wing Chun, I own Tao of Jeet Kune Do and I'm in the process of reading it a 5th time, theres just so much good philosophy in it that you simply can't absorb it all in one read. I'm real big on Bruce Lee, he was so enlightened and his body was just inhuman. He's definitely a huge influence on how I want to start living my life (I'm changing alot of shit, I've been wasting my life away for too long, literally wasting it destroying my body with drugs and just sitting around, I'm in terrible shape, I get winded and my heart starts pounding from the most pathetically small amount of activity, like just walking on the flat for awhile will start to make me aware of my breathing, I smoke too many cigarettes, like 2 sometimes 3 packs a day since i roll my own and its like 18 bucks for 3 cartons) Of course I don't want to be exactly like Bruce Lee by any means, but he's definitely a great role model IMO for the path I want to lead with my spirituality and physical fitness edit: I totally agree with you on how alot of martial arts are useless because they rely on form and style, like a kung fu fighter will only truly be effective against another kung fu fighter, since they know what strikes to expect, but combat has no form, I just want to take a martial art to give me a healthy hobby and somewhere to dial in my fighting ability like kicks/punches/balance/coordination, and then do what Lee did from there and study other forms and take whats useful and incorporate it into my own style. Be like water haha, it has no form, it only forms into whatever it is put into, put it in a cup it becomes the cup. Haha I'm sure some of you know the quote i'm talking about. Also I want to stay with the Kung Fu until I achieve master rank and then open up my own martial arts school, not necessarily Kung Fu, but my own form of fighting, or just teach Kung Fu since if i said i was teaching JKD (which is essentially MMA in a way) I'd feel like a big time dick rider/bullshitter since I wasn't taught it. I would make a decent living I would hope, and I would be happy since I wouldn't be working a shitty 9-5 boring job, and I'd also be helping people learn about themselves. I'd have a few different classes I'd teach, like kung fu, meditation, yoga, something to fill up the day and get alot of clients ya know.
I used to take (Spelling? Boujinkan) Ninjitsu But the classes moved from 40 mins away to York PA with this guy Greg Hes really talented but Its to far one of my homies still makes the trip up there once a week so If you live close to York and your interested in the details message me.