The Natural Progression From Hard To Soft
The concepts of yang to yin, hard to soft, Shaolin to Wudan
, striking to grappling have been with us a long time. Many people have compared the argument to the yin yang turning over and over. In the end, however, there is no contest between the two principles, merely a progression, an evolution if you will, of art within individual.
A child starts out with karate style hard arts. Heads out to the trophy windowed store and has fantastic contest with the other kids. Generalknowledge is attained, and the beginnings of the martial path are laid out.
As the child grows older and more mature, he might come across a Wudan style art, like pa kua chang, or tai chi chuan. He begins to understand that there is more to art than beating people up, and that there might actually be something to learn here. He begins to look at concepts, principles, and understand them in relation to his life.
As the child reaches middle age, his youthful vigor wanes, and he begins looking for easier ways to do things. Maybe his body has been injured, maybe the muscles are just not working as well as they should, whatever, he starts relying on technique as opposed to brute force. And, he is now taking definitive steps into the True Art.
The True Art is based upon intelligence, and intelligence is had by looking at things and comparing and contrasting those things. A punch is a punch, can he look at guiding with flow, manipulating with intelligence? Or is he just going to be stuck where he is, a grown man relying only on force?
Thus, he begins searching for a softer way to move, a way to move that won't tax the muscles, and rely upon the muscles, so much. He explores Wudan seriously now, searching for the key to effortless movement. And, the unfortunate result of age and injury, he finds those effortless methods.
Yet, wouldn't it be smarter for him to just search for the softer arts from the start? The answer, most people are surprised tolearn, is no. For a man to truly learn the softer arts he must learn the harder arts, he must have something to gauge it against so that he might truly think and learn.
Yet, how much hard must a man experience before he becomes able to use his mind? I would recommend several years of karate, or at least a dozen months of matrix karate, or, if he doesn't like Karate, then an art influenced by matrixing like Shaolin Kung Fu, something like the Shaolin Butterfly. To make the leap to soft, flowing arts like Wudan, or, at the very least, an intelligent art, one must see both sides of the spectrum, this is the only way for the bird to fly across the sky.
by: Al Case
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