And I was the one who went backwards...
Published: Thu, 04/17/14
When Ivar started teaching Stav in the UK in 1992 one of the other
people who got involved very early on was Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe.
Shaun had many interests and a lot of them tended towards the
Esoteric, he was a member of the Rune Guild and had a keen interest
in Chinese martial arts and, so it seemed to me, the more exotic
the better. Shaun told me that he had been practicing Iron Shirt
Chi Gung (or Qi Gong) for interest and for the health benefits. I
had heard of this training method and it was supposed to make the
body pretty much impervious to damage, even from sharp weapons such
as swords and spears. Shaun agreed that this was indeed possible
for practitioners who had reached the necessary level of practice
and commitment. However to reach that level required several hours
of concentrated practice a day. The training also needed to be
conducted out of doors and from very early in the morning. Shaun
said that he had by no means reached the highest levels but he had
benefited considerably from the practice he had done. By way of a
demonstration we took a Jo staff, about 5 feet long, less than an
inch in diameter and made of hard red oak. I held the staff in a
strong As grip while Shaun placed the other end directly on his
adam's apple then we both pushed as hard as we could, me with
my arms and Shaun with his throat and, Shaun being a bit bigger and
more powerfully built than me, I was the one who went backwards and
Shaun didn't seem to be in any discomfort as a result of the
exercise.
I have seen all kinds of demonstrations of martial arts prowess
over my lifetime. Sometimes you cannot be quite sure what you
witnessed as I wrote on Tuesday. But on this occasion I was the
one on the other end of the stick and I watched and felt Shaun
pushing me backwards using just his throat.
Lots of people when they see a demonstration of some kind of
prowess and skill think. 'I want to be able to do that
too.' That thought may even induce them to start training.
But being fixed on the result usually brings impatience and
disappointment. This is of course why so many people train in
Martial arts (or many other activities) and then give up, they are
imagining some kind of result which will transform their lives but
they don't appreciate that the achievement that inspired them
is the product of being committed to a process of learning,
training, practice and testing. One has to have some idea of what
you want from any activity or you wouldn't start at all. But
once you are committed to the process you are on a journey and
there is no ultimate destination and you will end up in surprising
and unexpected places along the way. As a teacher it is tempting
to want to guarantee that anyone training with you will become
superbly fit, be able to defend themselves against any attacker and
will have the super powers of a Marvel Superhero character. The
reality is that you are offering to start the student on a journey
which will be tough and sometimes tedious but will bring some very
special experiences along the way. Not quite so easy to sell but
to me more honest.
regards
Graham
PS I have been getting some nice feedback about Peacock Kung Fu.
Tim wrote "Just read your story about the Peahen = brilliant -
had me laughing (& thinking!) over my bowl of lunchtime soup -
lots of good advice." So I would like you to know that there
is now a kindle version too. You can find your way to all three
versions from http://iceandfire.org.uk/lit.html If you do get the
Kindle version please leave a review when you have read it, thanks.