Althought the first one would probably be the better one, i reckon i would prefer to be the second one. Simply because not knowing about something isn't enough. You need the experience to truely understand it... so thats why i would go for that.

India didn't actually teach Shaolin any martial arts. What they taught were breathing exercises so they woulnd't fall asleep during meditation. It was called the 18 hands of Lohan. After the first burning Shaolin needed a way of protecting themselves, and thats where their fighting skills came from.

kung fu was never originaly about fighting. it was about phyilosiphy, the word kung fu came from confusious. the fighting came afterwords, liker you said, they needed a way of protecting them selves. but before that, they even worked out. not for fighting, but to simply stay in shape. cuz one of confusiouses thoughts were, that you must respect yourself, in order for others to respect you.

Soz, i should calrified. The breathing exercises were with movements

Number one is like someone who knows alot about the history and mechanics of competitive swimming, but who has never gotten in a pool or a large body of water.

Number 2 is like someone who has been training in competitive swimming for years and who knows how to swim quite well.

Obviously, training to swim and swimming will make you a better swimmer. Same thing with fighting and martial arts.
Some people might know alot about the history and principles of martial arts styles, but if they have never trained in the martial arts, then they are NOT martial artists.

And another thing: You are going to gain the knowledge from the art by training in it. You're not going to find a pro-boxer who doesn't know what a jab is or what the goal of a boxing match is.

I'd still say someone can be a martial artist if they never done any physical aspect of the style. they may have some physical impairment htat doesn't allow them to train.
They will have the knowledge of the martial art, but no the wisdom of the art.
They won't be the martial artist as we know them to be today, but they are just another form...
If someong trains martial arts fromt eh age of 10 to 20, and then for some reason they cannot train anymore, yet they conitnue to study the style and gain more knowledge, are they considered a martial arts?!

he won't be a solider, but he will be apart of the army. I am not just talking about the philosophy of martial arts, i'm proposing (left this bit out before, sorry) that someone, who goes to regular classes but doesn't physically train, who is apart of the club, who knows every technique and how to teach it and explain it and how it works etc etc, and they have previously trained (even if they havn't) i would still consider them a martial artist. as y0da said before, there are different aspects of martial arts, and one 5th of that is the knowledge of the art

I understand where you are coming from. But seriously, you shouldn't just be going to the club and watching/studying the classes when you could actually be training in it, of course.
Helio Gracie actually did begin his martial arts career by watching his brother teach jiu-jitsu. Eventually though, he did start to train with his modified version of it.

I'm just saying, the point of a martial art is to make you a better fighter; training makes you a better fighter.

the true answere is phylosiphy. if your self knowleged the you will know how to train your self with out all that. first comes your mind, then fighting comes from your mind. alot of you are too young and not experienced enough to know the answere. some of you still thenk that martial arts is all about kicking but and stuff. your 10000% wrong. you guys watch too much movies but dont think enough.

martial arts originated from ti chi. it was all obout keeping your self standards and thinking and maintaning your stability. then came wushu wich was more of a dance and celibration, then from those cool acrobatic moves came self defense and kicks.

if you dont know phylosiphy but you train in martial arts then you are a martial artist. but if you train in phylosiphy then you are a true or classic martial artist. hands down.

Are you accusing me of being too undisciplined and too stupid to use my martial arts training properly? Apparently, martial arts training will instill values in me better than my clean-cut hardworking parents? Do you know me?

And where did you get this idea that Tai Chi and Wushu were the origins of martial arts? The oldest unarmed combat martial art systems were wrestling and boxing styles.

Kung fu didn't originate from tai chi, it was when kung fu was band all throughout china is when they used tai chi to hide their martial arts training. If you take time to look, a lot of tai chi movements are actually practical when done fast. And even though they train so slowly, they are awesome fighters, because they have total control.

-.- wtf.. are you talking about. and whats more, your wrong. the oldest fighting styles and sports are wrestling and boxing, there not martial arts. when the hell did i say that you werent training properly, im saying that a supurb martial artist would know that martial arts depicted out of your mind originaly, and then came training and forms and stuff. there are 2 types of martial artists. the ones that just take classes and train and stuff. and the ones that bring there brain into it and think alot, called phylosiphers. once you get past to just training and stuff you will begin to be mind wise. like bruce for instince, he started off just plain doing training and forms, then he began to get wiser and wiser. but this is only if your very experienced lifely, and if you take notes in your head and ask your self questions.

and five animals, you know what i mean, im not ganna start making a timeline. and making details on every bit of gap. in america when china starting imagrating in the early 1900s, americans were curious with what they were doing in the parks early in the morning everyday called shadow boxing. the chinese as you can see never did acrobats or wushu styles because there parents obviously never tuaght them cuz the were forbbiden in china. so they taught them what they could, and they braught that to america. so from this, ppl started opening kung fu schools in america. so what i said was right, kung fu originated from ti chi here in america.

First off, can you prove that Tai Chi was the origin of all martial arts? I'd like to look at some your resources and compare them with mine.

Second off, boxing and wrestling ARE martial arts. Why should not they be called martial arts? Because the movies depict MAs as Asian styles? When I see boxers and wrestlers training, I see them practicing fighting techniques with one another; how is this different from any other martial art?

I don't really understand how you think philosophy helps martial arts training. I'm also uncertain as to what your definition of martial arts philosophy is. Elaborate on that subject. From what I'm grasping, you call anybody who trains more into an MA than someone who just goes through the motions a philosopher.



Funk That.