nice, especially the distinction between the fundamentally sound self-defense employed by rothrock and her ilk versus the camera-friendly grace of li and chan, respectively, employing wushu and peking opera.
Agreed. I study lost-track style northern shaolin kung fu, and while that’s a relatively practical style when compared to say, wushu, the forms are still made up of enourmous numbers of beautiful but largely impractical movements. The distinction between what’s useful and what’s just cool looking is something I try to pay attention to, but every once in a while I’ll run across something that’s both. In general, I try to be as practical as possible, but every once in a while my sparring partner and I will draw a few spectators (due to our habit of practicing in parking lots at night) and we’ll start to slip into needless acrobatics mode, unconciously trying to please the crowd.
nice, especially the distinction between the fundamentally sound self-defense employed by rothrock and her ilk versus the camera-friendly grace of li and chan, respectively, employing wushu and peking opera.
Agreed. I study lost-track style northern shaolin kung fu, and while that’s a relatively practical style when compared to say, wushu, the forms are still made up of enourmous numbers of beautiful but largely impractical movements. The distinction between what’s useful and what’s just cool looking is something I try to pay attention to, but every once in a while I’ll run across something that’s both. In general, I try to be as practical as possible, but every once in a while my sparring partner and I will draw a few spectators (due to our habit of practicing in parking lots at night) and we’ll start to slip into needless acrobatics mode, unconciously trying to please the crowd.