Tonight chin na class was very interesting.
First the new kid who has six years of judo-infused taekwondo came early so I had a chance to compare notes with him. Let’s call him Monkey because he moves like one. His school was very traditional: Things like nobody allowed in the dojang to watch, bowing, proper terminology, etc., etc. They also use older taekwondo forms and are closer to Shotokan roots. His master also holds a dan rank in judo. So most of their self-defense steps are actual judo techniques. He started rattling them off and it made me wish Patrick Parker was there to translate! Another interesting tidbit: Monkey’s master stressed low kicks in “real life” and instructed his students to limit high ones to the tournament setting. Monkey also bemoaned the fact that taekwondo has a “hands down” problem.
We both agreed that we’ve seen the same fundamentals it’s just that our masters and sabums interpreted them differently. Interestingly we both had a circle game (his schools called it “the pit”) where one person has to get in the middle and everyone else takes turn attacking realistically.
I then asked him how Mantis was going and he said he enjoys it but it’s very hard. Power generation in punching, footwork, and kicking techniques are totally different from taekwondo. One example: When they throw a chambered punch from horse stance the fist does not twist until the last second before the strike. In variations of this strike they make sure to get the hips and body into it with no power coming from the shoulder and they punch with it over a cross body block. Kicking I won’t even attempt to describe but I will say it’s not like taekwondo or karate. Moreover, it serves two purposes: 1) take out a knee or 2) distraction to set up a punch.
We had a new kid in chin na last night. Apparently he’s been coming to Mantis and has a background (dan rank I assume) in aikido. Well they broke him this past Monday because I heard him telling the lead instructor (aka Mantis) that he has to sit out for a few weeks and now is wearing a knee brace. He said he was fit enough to participate and try chin na so Mantis hesitantly let him.
I spent half the night feeling sorry for this kid and the other half being annoyed. I knew things were going to go south when he proclaimed “I spent years studying aikido–this should come quick!” Come quick it did not and Mantis even warned him after that comment! I could see him struggle with white crane twists neck and then we rotated partners and I had him. They had us work on wrap hand one and he proclaimed: “We have a version of this in aikido!” Well the version in aikido apparently does not have the overarching intent of breaking the wrist and tearing tendons. After he did it wrong for the third time Mantis started correcting and even demonstrated it on him to make a point. Then Mantis demonstrated it again using Smiley and this time he added the full technique–complete with footwork, take down, and kill shot.
“Kill shot!?” Exclaimed new guy. “Aikido is a peaceful art…”
This prompted Smiley to give the “battle field roots” chin na lecture–complete with how ancient Chinese warriors used to practice these techniques on prisoners. Well new guy was somewhat subdued after that though you could see he was getting very frustrated after being corrected on EVERY technique.
The part that annoys me is the “this is how we did it in X” factor. As part of my 1st dan requirements in my old taekwondo school I had to do an awful lot of teaching. Our school was on a university campus and EVERY semester we’d get a new person with a background from another art or another style of taekwondo. Inevitably we’d have a few people who would complain that this is not how their old school did things. Well DUH! IT’S NOT YOUR OLD SCHOOL!
It’s also downright disrespectful to come into another dojo, kwoon, etc. and try to tell people with 10 +years experience in a given art that they are doing it wrong according to akido. Gee there is a reason we’re all wearing black t-shirts with a green mantis on them!
As I watched this devolve I could see Mantis get annoyed. This may explain why we ran through five locks–two being fairly difficult and excruciatingly painful (actually the first time I’ve seen this done when we had a new person visit). It always amazes me–both at work and in life–how’s there’s always someone who pokes the bear with a stick. Then they wonder why the bear clouds up and rains on their parade!
I think it’s a credit to my master and sabums and Monkeys master that we are the proverbial (and respectful) “empty cups”. When we can’t get a chin na technique because of our Korean conditioning we both usually say something like: “OK I’m having trouble with this. Taekwondo would have us put power on it. How can I unlearn that?” Then Mantis, Smiley, or one of the other senior guys with karate experience would break it down from that perspective and help us learn it the kung fu way. The other cool thing is that when demonstrating the kill shot they’ll often take the time to point out to me and Monkey that the kill shot could be a knife edge strike, taekwondo kick, etc.
Anyhow, the next few weeks will be interesting. I predict new guy will not last but I’ve been wrong before.
As for chin na class…
We started off with warm-ups and speed training. Then we rolled into a panther push-up festival. This time we did forward panther push-ups halfway across the room. I was pleased that I could actually do that and thought (hoped!) we were done. Hardly! Then Mantis had us turn around and do them backwards! I barely finished those and he had us do them side-to-side. Well by the time I got to that I was fried. In fact, only Mantis and one other guy could do it all and they looked like they could do a few more cycles. This is scary considering these guys are older than me! This also explains why Smiley grinned more than usually during the first two locks: My hands where literally shaking from the push-ups!
I also received my first legit compliment from Mantis which is kinda cool. He saw me do wrap hands one and two, said “good job”, then told me I can now start working on footwork, positioning, takedown, and the kill shot. He also jokingly said: “Are you ready to test?”
My response: “Hardly.”
~BCP
