Forever Young

[Crafty_Dog]

Woof All:

At the core of the attraction that the FMA hold for me is that they produce men who "walk as warriors for all their days".  

Of all the stories of Guro Inosanto, in one of the ones that has touched me the most, he tells of watching old manongs hobble out to demonstrate their art.  Amongst his many skills Guro I. is an extraordinary mimic (of accents as well as movement BTW) and as he mimics their movement one can see the effects of time.  But then!-- they pick up their sticks and begin to move and it is as though they were young again:  the movement live, dynamic and full of grace.   And then they finish and become old men again, and hobble off.

The thought I apply to myself for my personal mission (and that of DBMA) of "walking as a warrior for all my days" is to train so that there is a place in myself that is forever young-- a place that I can access should I ever need to.  If I remember my readings in NLP correctly, this may be called an anchor.  In FMA perhaps this may be considered an anting-anting.  

Regardless the name, it is the place that is forever young.  If one has done little in youth, it seems reasonable to me to think that it will be of less value than if one has done more-- without having done "too much"..   Perhaps some of the training that is derided by some today  may be better seen as what those who "did more" in their youth use to keep the rust off their skills?  Of course this interpretation implies that these methods may not suffice in the absence of seasoning experiences.  

Just a rambling rumination.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

[Stickgrappler]

it is inspiring for me.

very nice writing. thank you.

[Stickgrappler]

woof:

i misread the post. despite the lack of death-matches or Gathering experiences, i do find that my sporadic training does make me feel Forever Young. i'm currently in the stage as identified by DBMA of Family Man. and as such, my family takes precedence over my training. however, when i talk MA or do some training, i feel Forever Young. and despite some "dead pattern training" Guro Crafty is alluding to, i get something out of it in that it makes me Forever Young.

when i was younger, i competed in 2 sports and whenever i think back to those days or talk about it, i feel Forever Young. those were my pre-Family Man "Glory Days". now my glory days as a family man are the joy as a parent of seeing my children learn and respond to what i've taught them, seeing their progress in various aspects of life, etc. it is truly a joy. although, the feeling/anchor of Forever Young in the earlier stage (i forget the DBMA term as i post this - bad dog, bad dog!) and the feeling of F.Y. as a Family Man are technically different - it does bring about the same feelings. although some may argue that being a parent, one would feel older, but that is a slightly different issue

perhaps i'm rambling, but i wanted to bring out the point, that some of us with considerably less death match/Gathering experiences do find that the training does evoke a feeling of Forever Young.

[Crafty_Dog]

TTT

[Shawn]

That reminded me of the first Inosanto seminar I attended...just about 10 years ago.  I had been training in JKD and Kali for a couple of years and was very excited about the opportunity to train with "the man".  The evening before the seminar a review cinema happened to be showing The Chinese Stuntman (a 70's era film where Guro Inosanto appears as a villain named "Magic Stick").  Myself and a couple of training partners who were going to the seminar went to see the film.  Our only exposure to Guro Dan at this point was from 70's and 80's era film and training videos.

When Guro Inosanto first walked into the seminar I remember the shock of "aging" 30 years over night, and thinking "my goodness he's so old".  He was slightly stooped and seemed to shuffle along like an old man - I believe Guro Inosanto was suffering from some back problems at the time as well.  There was a moment where I thought perhaps attending the seminar was a mistake, that it would taint an image I had of a young skilled instructor.

Then he started to move.  He simply blew me away.

I expect many of you have had the experience of trying to sip from a firehouse that is the first seminar experience with Guro Inosanto.  I know that technique wise I came away with really only one drill (that I still practice), but I also came away with so much more.  Seeing Guro Inosanto move with such speed, grace, and confidence was when I first understood (though I did not yet know the words) "walk like a warrior for all your days".

Over the years since I've continued to attend Guro Inosanto's seminars whenever I can, and I continue to come away inspired - I've also learned how to retain a little more of the overload of material he presents.

[maija]

I love watching clips of the old FMA masters -  Lacoste, Illustrissimo et al.
Also Oeshiba, Mifune and all high level people who carry their skills into old age.
Here is Liu Hung Chieh doing Bagua at the age of 80. I want to be able to move like this when I'm that age. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W2aORZd_Xs

And for those of you who want to see it in slow motion ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kRL5M7peNQ