I studied Kung Fu and Muai Thai. Nothing is quite like being in a ring for the first time. It’s like that scene in Rush Hour where Chris tucker gets hit in the face and then says, “Now which one of you motherfuckers just hit me?”
I’m 43 now. Then I was 17. In my Muai Thai class here were some who fought in the ring, and more who did not. However, the guys who stayed with it and did ring fighting sometimes have certain patterns. Like setting an alarm for 20 minutes early, taking 2 or 3 advils or aleves, then waking up with the regular alarm, taking another one, maybe smoking some pot with it. Fortunately I started seeing this trend by the time I was 22 and shifted to Kung Fu.
Kung Fu is odd in that there are disciplines (Isshen Ru Boxing comes to mind) that are about as bad. I think Muscle-Tendon Changing classic is bad for you, especially if you’re bruising yourself a lot in the process. And one of my Kung Fu teachers trained a guy by blindfolding him and beating him up for six weeks (not medical advice). He did get good very fast. He got what some people don’t get after five years. He moved before the kick happened.
However, I also saw someone get hit in the knee and have serious problems pretty much forever. People romanticize ‘do or die’ and think they will succeed at the lightening bolt path. More don’t, and plenty who are smarter, faster, dumber, more XX than you have failed.
Not everyone gets there, and that same guy who got very good at Kung Fu after being blindfolded and beaten up later killed himself. He was very hard on himself. Maybe the teacher just reflected that to him.
Before he died, he and I developed another method of teaching, which got people most of what you get in the first several ring fights, and most of what he got from blindfolded fighting practice, but with far less pain. We put on blindfolds and limited strikes to slaps and shoves. Of course, people still got hurt, but not like the ring, and we avoided some twisting motions on the victims (not medical advice). Pain itself is not such a good teacher. Pain, per se, is not any indicator of gain, even where the two seem closely associated.
In the end, I am saying there is usually a better way to do it. Those hard methods work, but they probably aren’t necessary. That which doesn’t kill you might still kill you later on, or it might just do damage, even if your record says 11-0-0 or whatever. And the guy with no record might actually be better, and the better thing is not fighting at all.
Anyway, if there’s a fight, something has gone horribly wrong that anyone with any sensitivity (or even common sense) could have almost certainly avoided. Or it’s an honor duel. A far better warrior will avoid all of it!
So the story goes: “A lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art.
“My eldest brother sees the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house.
“My elder brother cures sickness when it is still extremely minute, so his name gets around only in his own neighborhood.
The well-known healer replied, “I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and is heard among the lords.”
(Trigger Warning: Passing mention of a suicide)
I studied Kung Fu and Muai Thai. Nothing is quite like being in a ring for the first time. It’s like that scene in Rush Hour where Chris tucker gets hit in the face and then says, “Now which one of you motherfuckers just hit me?”
I’m 43 now. Then I was 17. In my Muai Thai class here were some who fought in the ring, and more who did not. However, the guys who stayed with it and did ring fighting sometimes have certain patterns. Like setting an alarm for 20 minutes early, taking 2 or 3 advils or aleves, then waking up with the regular alarm, taking another one, maybe smoking some pot with it. Fortunately I started seeing this trend by the time I was 22 and shifted to Kung Fu.
Kung Fu is odd in that there are disciplines (Isshen Ru Boxing comes to mind) that are about as bad. I think Muscle-Tendon Changing classic is bad for you, especially if you’re bruising yourself a lot in the process. And one of my Kung Fu teachers trained a guy by blindfolding him and beating him up for six weeks (not medical advice). He did get good very fast. He got what some people don’t get after five years. He moved before the kick happened.
However, I also saw someone get hit in the knee and have serious problems pretty much forever. People romanticize ‘do or die’ and think they will succeed at the lightening bolt path. More don’t, and plenty who are smarter, faster, dumber, more XX than you have failed.
Not everyone gets there, and that same guy who got very good at Kung Fu after being blindfolded and beaten up later killed himself. He was very hard on himself. Maybe the teacher just reflected that to him.
Before he died, he and I developed another method of teaching, which got people most of what you get in the first several ring fights, and most of what he got from blindfolded fighting practice, but with far less pain. We put on blindfolds and limited strikes to slaps and shoves. Of course, people still got hurt, but not like the ring, and we avoided some twisting motions on the victims (not medical advice). Pain itself is not such a good teacher. Pain, per se, is not any indicator of gain, even where the two seem closely associated.
In the end, I am saying there is usually a better way to do it. Those hard methods work, but they probably aren’t necessary. That which doesn’t kill you might still kill you later on, or it might just do damage, even if your record says 11-0-0 or whatever. And the guy with no record might actually be better, and the better thing is not fighting at all.
Anyway, if there’s a fight, something has gone horribly wrong that anyone with any sensitivity (or even common sense) could have almost certainly avoided. Or it’s an honor duel. A far better warrior will avoid all of it!
So the story goes: “A lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art.
“My eldest brother sees the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house.
“My elder brother cures sickness when it is still extremely minute, so his name gets around only in his own neighborhood.
The well-known healer replied, “I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and is heard among the lords.”