Way of the Warrior - BBC series ep 7 Kung Fu - The Hard Way

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Disclaimer: This is copyright to the BBC UK and is presented here for educational, Critique and review purposes only. I claim no copyright to this material and my channel is not monetised so I will not be making any money from this material.
This series is no longer available on the BBC that I am aware of and yet the series had some very good aspects to it therefore I felt that it would be of use to the general public to be able to see this again and introduce it to new audiences also.
Discussion regarding the episode in the comments is very welcomed. There are things I agree with within it and somethings I don't.
What do you think?

[@spinningdragontao]

So here are the key points I note from this episode on hard style martial arts. 5:06 Here the discussion is about the "Indian" influence into Chinese martial arts is introduced. Yet, they begin with the mention of the Silk Roads from 400BC where Chinese monks travelled to various areas including Kanchipuram. There are noted 7th Century Chinese monks visiting and likely teaching fighting arts to the locals. A 6th Century King builds a line of pagoda's as a memorial to his Chinese monk friend. It is then postulated that Bodhidarma came from this village. 6:40 The Shaolin Temple fresco's painted in the 18th Century. I've always thought they were older so it's worth noting. 8:40 Early mornings and Chi being concentrated under trees in the morning. I discussed this notion in my video on Zhan Zhuang. It has more to do with it being too hot to train later in the day later on even by around 7am it starts to get very hot in southern china. The concentration of Chi is at best oxygen however birds like trees, birds sit in trees and birds poop in trees which falls on unsuspecting people below... especially doing their Chi Kung or Training. 14:40 Commentary on the change from being called Master to being called Coach (Laoshi). Interestingly Yushiye Professor yu Yong Nian was very positive on this move saying that it made teachers more approachable and took away barriers. I've noted that there are many "Masters" especially in the West. I often feel these are self appointed rather than a name proffered by their peers which is how it should be. I noted one recently had been training a full 25 years... This year will be 39 years for me... ooh does that make me a grandmaster? - Obviously not. 21:10 Sadly this is still an issue today. My worry is that; young Chinese are more interested in Western culture and arts whereas young Westerners are very interested in Chinese culture and arts. If the chance to share such knowledge is not taken by teacher and student, we will lose these arts and eventually the knowledge will be completely lost. I would encourage all teachers of Traditional martial Arts (Chinese or other) to teach fully, openly and completely to whomever wants to learn or else we will be in a diminishing circle until there's no one left alive to teach it, - Just my thoughts. As for the last discussions on the forms by Dan Inosanto: I would only say that the Chinese have a saying: "You have nothing to fear from a man with flowers in his hands" If your form is flowery there's something wrong. Traditional Martial Arts in 1960's and 70's were sometimes taught by spurious teachers of questionable ability and lineage for money. This practice has not entirely disappeared unfortunately.

[@smoggie2833]

Regarding your observations on the segment from 21:10 - this is a very important point that you make, in my humble opinion. The issue I see is that, people (younger people more specifically) are initially interested in learning but soon lose that interest when they realise how much work is involved. There is something I read in a book (Sifu Rand) which is quite apt here: "Everyone wants to shine but nobody wants to do the polishing" or something along those lines. This hits the nail on the head in our modern times of instant gratification, consumerism and lack of attention span (and I put 90% of this down to technology). I understand your thoughts on the chance to share knowledge and teachers being open but alas as the saying goes - You can lead a horse to water...

[@zaberfang]

The problem with said "flowery hands" is because the masters back then tend to teach only the favored students the next level above those "flowery hands", that they tend to end up dying or losing the student's interest of learning further

[@spinningdragontao]

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[@markdonovan1540]

Another one from the vaults of KZbin archive BBC documentary 8-part series, narrated by Dennis Waterman (of Minder fame at the time). This is where it all started for many of our generation in London in the early 80s. People like Raymond Brand, Stan Brown, John Kells, Dan Docherty, Nigel Sutton and many others, were already ahead of the curve at that point. Good to know that Ray, Stan and Nigel are still honing their art and sharing their knowledge and experience with those people fortunate enough to train with them.

[@spinningdragontao]

Indeed Mark 👍🏻

[@elyusmechanicalengineering8898]

My favorites are Eskrima with the doce pares and kenjutsu with katori shinto ryu.

[@functionalfitpt1848]

A very young James Sinclair training....

[@gregorylatta8159]

A lettuce 😆

[@chrispopsjunior8978]

My si-gung Chan Hon Chung looks pretty incredible in this classic documentary series, I never got to meet him sadly as he died in 1991, a few years before I started hung gar, but have met several of his to-dai including Lee Yun Fook (the senior student teaching lion dance in the beginning of the episode

[@spinningdragontao]

That's excellent, I'm happy you found this.

[@frankmartinez4856]

My Gung Fu Uncle 🎉come from Lum Jo Sigung, through Kong Buck Sam Sifu!!

[@1888swordsman]

Love this series. I have the book. Wish I could find this on DVD. Well made classic

[@spinningdragontao]

Thanks for your comment. Send me an email I might be able to help out

[@frikandelkroket9335]

❤🇭🇰👊

[@kenken8765]

That dude just punched that woman in the face 31:46

[@spinningdragontao]

Training is training. Real is real. It's an old saying train as if you are fighting, fight as if you are training. Better she gets a light punch in the kwoon where she is safe so she knows she needs to improve than to get punched on the street where she will be far more vulnerable. This is true for all students.

[@Danny-el7ok]

​@@spinningdragontaoyou fight mma guy see how you go

[@dbuck1964]

@@Danny-el7okpunk.

[@JustinThorts]

@@Danny-el7ok The street is not the ring, the ring is not the street. Learn to fight to rules and when there are no rules you'll have a disadvantage. There are so many scenarios where fighters in the ring have suffered on the street. MMA is not invincible. smh kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHLPaIBvfbl-j7c

[@Dan.50]

Kung fu will get your rear kicked in a street fight but it looks really cool.

[@spinningdragontao]

Seriously? It's absolutely true that if you don't train properly you are in for a shock if you think you have trained for a fight but never fought. However, That's not true of all schools and all arts. Where do you think MMA take its Martial Arts from? they didn't reinvent the wheel. they take from existing martial arts. Martial arts that were created before 1900 have all been tested in life threatening environments so can be trusted where they have not been dumbed down to suit political regimes. No martial art including MMA is perfect and any combat is a risk. Speaking of how anyone can be vulnerable... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHLPaIBvfbl-j7c