How do you see the future of your art?

[Virus]

Wing Chun: I think that a large part of _ing _un will continue as it is, with the invetiable adding of a few more differnt _un spellings over the years.

To great or lesser degrees the majority of chun schools will continue to take a very closed minded view of their own style. One extreme will be the 'too deadly to spar' clubs and the other end clubs that do spar sometimes, but not too hard, because they are afriad the deadlyness may lead to all their students being either permenatly disabled or dead.

Within this the trend for incorporating elements of other styles and rebranding them will contiue. But as the training itself is not alive, the parts that are incorparted will almost always not be able to be practically implmented and will lead to some weird **** ie the anti-crapple

A minority of clubs may develoup along more honest lines; of still wanting to pracrise Wing Chun but seeing it as a incomplete system and so 'bolt on' additional elements to it. I do not mean anti-grappling, but simple things like roundhouse kicks and hook punches, without the need for long debates 'that it is not real wing chun' because it does not matter when you can knock someone out using them.

Plus incorpating this into a more alive training environment with regular sparring, which I think would bring out the elements of Wing Chun that are quite usefull anyway as well as expsoing weaknesses.




For information my current training consists of the '..do spar sometimes, but not too hard, because they are afriad the deadlyness may lead to all their students being either permenatly disabled or dead' school of thought.

Why are you still doing t3h chun then? You on a contract or something?

[DdlR]

What else is there? Asian dress up? Mystic kata? I don't know.

My take is that MAs, especially traditional styles, have an intrinsic value that goes beyond street/ring effectiveness, as microcosms of the cultures that produced them. Like engangered animal species, rare old books or antiques, they are worth preserving for their own sake; without them, the world is just a little bit poorer.

[Permalost]

DdlR sounds like he has an anthro degree.

[Nihonto]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...ideoid=6141485

[DdlR]

DdlR sounds like he has an anthro degree.

Class of '88 ...

[Yamaarashi]

My take is that MAs, especially traditional styles, have an intrinsic value that goes beyond street/ring effectiveness, as microcosms of the cultures that produced them. Like engangered animal species, rare old books or antiques, they are worth preserving for their own sake; without them, the world is just a little bit poorer.

Totally agreed on that one. Is there any real reason for practicing most koryu arts besides pure interests sake? Hell no, but I'm sure even some of the hardest MMA guys here can see that losing arts that have been preserved for the best part of 400 years would be a tragedy. Anyways, to answer the question....

Judo, as others have stated, will probably mix further with bjj due to crosstraining by practitioners. As far as ruleset goes, who knows? Everything has been changed to marginalise newaza in competition because it is "too boring" for the spectator to watch. I sincerely hope that with MMAs popularity that we see a return to equality of newaza and tachiwaza. I would definately like to see judo get more technical again. The sport side is great, but in a place like Australia it is almost all there is, and the skill side of judo suffers for the prospect of medals.

Koryu naginata? Hmm, well there's a pickle. Despite Japanese interest in koryu being at an all time low, I think western interest may just help keep it alive. We are currently seeing the 3rd generation of westerners in Japan, and they are far more knowledgeable of what is out there thanks to the efforts of the great Donn Draeger and Phil Relnick, and the 2nd generation such as the Skoss's and Ellis Amdur to name a couple. I think there will eventually be a return of Japanese interest in koryu, because I figure eventually they will realise what they have lost by overzealously embracing western culture and will want to return to their roots. When that will happen, who can say. If it takes too long then it may well be that westerners hold the key to keeping the koryu alive until the Japanese are interested enough to take up the mantle again.

[RaiNnyX4]

Rainy, we gotta get your ass down to a throwdown! What you been up to man?

School mostly. Still running my club and all but I also still rarely get to train with those guys anything worthwhile as they're nearly all beginners. But I've been going to the gym at least a couple times a week so that when I can get back to my dojo I won't be a fat tub of lard.

I'd really like to make it to a throwdown but I've got so little time and I'm so out of practice while I'm out here.

If I had more time I'd actually like to train with you guys since I've been wanting to learn striking and more groundwork. I've had exactly one striking lesson (from a guy at my Aikido dojo who used to kickbox) and, no offense to the ladies here, I felt like a complete girl.

[patfromlogan]

Kyokushinkai will continue to be unpopular in the US but continue ok in Europe and the Middle East (it's more popular even in Canada!). Largely unable and unwilling to change, now that Oyama is dead, the style will become more and more rigid. Oyama incorporated techniques a lot, since he died it's become a untouchable bible of techniques. To quote senior Shihan B Lowe, "Kyokushin has been the same for fifty years!" And I was to chicken to tell him that he was full of ****.

Hawaiian Kempo will become more popular and continue to steal techniques from everyone. The core values of real fighting skills and "Kempo Brotherhood" will prevail.

McDojos will be around...

[Vince Tortelli]

The future of BJJ is Vince Tortelli.

On a serious note, I have grave reservations about what time will bring to my beloved Zhou Zhitsu. I think we will see it split into two groups: A very small association that actually produces good competitors and people who can fight, and a much larger group that charges too much for belts, doesn't give quality instruction, and probably will eliminate rolling all togather.
Submission wrestling/no gi jiu jitsu will continue to compete with BJJ for customers, but until we see a 10th Planet guy or Lions Den person win the Abu Dhabi championships the serious grappler will always opt for BJJ with a gi.

[FUNKtastic]

Lots of UFC/MMA-wannabes are flooding from TMAs to learn the real anti-crappling. They come the dojo, find out that it's hard work and they might get bruises, then they vanish back to their McDojoz they crawled from. Only a minority has actually in it to continue and they are annoying brickheads who try to win every single sparring 'match' in any means possible, without learning anything in the process.

Also if they stay at a place with live sparring and less larping they will be forever deemed lepers at their old school. I recently contacted a guy from my old club who I used to pal around with. He was very happy to hear from me and inquired what I was up to. When I wrote back I was doing BJJ/Judo I am yet to hear from him (month and counting given his previous responses took less than a day).

I realize I am now considered the guy who "couldn't stick with it" though at the time I had made my school schedule around classes I was assured would stay the same, only to have the schedule reorganized a week into the semester. Some of the people from the place reamined as nice as ever but the only response I got from the instructors was a sales pitch for private lessons.