I'm glad E talked me into renting a movie rather than spending another night web surfing at the coffee shop after a shift at the Diamond Mines. Otherwise, I would have never found a used copy of Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer on DVD for sale.
This is a movie I always wanted to own so I could show it to my future kids. I may have mentioned it on here a few posts past, but the movie touches the child in me. It fills me with an awe that I haven't felt about movies since I was a kid, the kind that makes your eyes swell and tear up with excitement. It's that same sense of wonder that makes an 8 year old absolutely sure that anyone who really knew kung fu could fly. That all that physical discipline and training could help forge you into someone better. That at the end of it all, you can become someone with qualities that can make a positive influence on the world, even if you never throw a single punch.
In a sense, it feels like a bridge being formed between that awestruck child of the past and the person of today who's dabbling in all of these martial arts. Sure, I'm healthier, stronger and faster than I've ever been (not that it's necessarily saying all that much). But, what's a person to do with all this health, strength and speed? My reflexes are sharper - training with sticks and blades and hubud will do that to a person. I can catch stuff falling off a shelf, and I haven't been clipped by a door that opens suddenly in years. And, only recently have my jab/cross combos have started getting better. But what's it all in aid of?
Have I really been doing all this training just for my health? Just to become some automatic killing machine in the name of being able to put down any threat to myself or my loved ones? No, there has to be more to it than that. Otherwise, I could just jog, work a Bowflex three times a week and carry a gun and have the same ability (or lack thereof) to accomplish all that stuff.
Shaolin Soccer is all about taking all the internal and external benefits of one set of skills learned in one context and environment and transferring them to a completely different context and environment. That's my aim, or at least, it should be.
I know a lot of people who look at martial arts as an end to itself. They don't see anything much beyond just wanting the skills to prepare for the next fight, in the ring or on the street. I don't have any problem with that. Because almost everyone starts out there. But, it becomes interesting when you look at the most proficient martial artists after they've spent some time becoming proficient at them.
I have a theory based on my limited observations:
First - after a time, their focus shifts from "the next fight" to other things. Usually, constructive things.
Second - You can usually see that in some of the more centered and developed martial artists (mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) that they spirit you see them exhibit in the training hall is identical to the one they carry with them almost everywhere else in their life.
My first teacher is one of the highest ranking Tae Kwon Do black belts in this state. He and his wife are also first generation students of their teacher's kung fu system. They love teaching people, and in doing so, about break even financially. All the income that they use to maintain themselves and their family comes from other things. Also, interestingly enough, some of the things they love and cherish the most are, at least as far as I have observed, completely independent of whether or not they can put somebody down. But the same zeal they have in teaching and training is the same zeal they bring back to their home, their business, their church, their friends, and their community.
***
Next time: Just where the heck do I go where all of this?
This is a movie I always wanted to own so I could show it to my future kids. I may have mentioned it on here a few posts past, but the movie touches the child in me. It fills me with an awe that I haven't felt about movies since I was a kid, the kind that makes your eyes swell and tear up with excitement. It's that same sense of wonder that makes an 8 year old absolutely sure that anyone who really knew kung fu could fly. That all that physical discipline and training could help forge you into someone better. That at the end of it all, you can become someone with qualities that can make a positive influence on the world, even if you never throw a single punch.
In a sense, it feels like a bridge being formed between that awestruck child of the past and the person of today who's dabbling in all of these martial arts. Sure, I'm healthier, stronger and faster than I've ever been (not that it's necessarily saying all that much). But, what's a person to do with all this health, strength and speed? My reflexes are sharper - training with sticks and blades and hubud will do that to a person. I can catch stuff falling off a shelf, and I haven't been clipped by a door that opens suddenly in years. And, only recently have my jab/cross combos have started getting better. But what's it all in aid of?
Have I really been doing all this training just for my health? Just to become some automatic killing machine in the name of being able to put down any threat to myself or my loved ones? No, there has to be more to it than that. Otherwise, I could just jog, work a Bowflex three times a week and carry a gun and have the same ability (or lack thereof) to accomplish all that stuff.
Shaolin Soccer is all about taking all the internal and external benefits of one set of skills learned in one context and environment and transferring them to a completely different context and environment. That's my aim, or at least, it should be.
I know a lot of people who look at martial arts as an end to itself. They don't see anything much beyond just wanting the skills to prepare for the next fight, in the ring or on the street. I don't have any problem with that. Because almost everyone starts out there. But, it becomes interesting when you look at the most proficient martial artists after they've spent some time becoming proficient at them.
I have a theory based on my limited observations:
First - after a time, their focus shifts from "the next fight" to other things. Usually, constructive things.
Second - You can usually see that in some of the more centered and developed martial artists (mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) that they spirit you see them exhibit in the training hall is identical to the one they carry with them almost everywhere else in their life.
My first teacher is one of the highest ranking Tae Kwon Do black belts in this state. He and his wife are also first generation students of their teacher's kung fu system. They love teaching people, and in doing so, about break even financially. All the income that they use to maintain themselves and their family comes from other things. Also, interestingly enough, some of the things they love and cherish the most are, at least as far as I have observed, completely independent of whether or not they can put somebody down. But the same zeal they have in teaching and training is the same zeal they bring back to their home, their business, their church, their friends, and their community.
Next time: Just where the heck do I go where all of this?
