Insanely Absurd

In today’s day and age, there is a lot of stress placed on which Martial Art style is the best. I find this astounding, that so many people can be caught up in themselves and wishing one single style to be better then all others.

There are many people who claim that the old Shaolin styles are the greatest, mainly because of the fact that they are the foundation from which all others build off of. I do not dispute that Shaolin is pretty much where so many styles originated from, but you have to acknowledge it for what it is. For instance, a true Shaolin Martial Artist could pretty much trump a good majority of the others out there. There is one reason for this, and it’s probably not the reason you are thinking. It’s because he isn’t limited. You may be thinking “Limited?”, and I assure you, that is exactly what I mean.

How many Martial Art schools exist today? Far too many to want to count. How many of them offer a variety of training? Not very many. The fact is that most people who study Martial Arts are close minded to the fact that the Martial Art they study is in fact not capable of simply defeating all other styles. People tend to believe that when they become a high rank, or rather “experienced”, in the style they are currently studying, that they are going to be unstoppable and able to go up against all kinds of other styles with ease. This just isn’t so. Granted, some styles are more versatile in the fact that they can handle a wider range of attack forms, but even then they are limited.

To get a full understanding, I’d like to present to everyone the word: wu shu. Yes, I know most of you out there have seen it and know the meaning behind it, but have you truly thought about it rather then just know it’s meaning? Here is what www.dictionary.com had to say:

[Chinese (Mandarin) wǔ shù : wǔ, martial + shù, skill, art.]

As you can see, it’s pretty simple to understand. The point I’m trying to get across is that people should aim for acquiring talent in Martial Arts, or wu shu, not in a style.

Okay, to my point from before about those who study Shaolin not being limited. What I mean is that Shaolin is a collective of Martial Art styles, it’s not really just one style. There are different types of Shaolin styles, and within each there are a variety of other styles. For instance, there are the five animal styles in Shaolin: Crane, Tiger, Snake, Leopard(Panther), Dragon. Shaolin is quite huge and every piece that is broken down is to teach a specific trait. For instance, Crane is for balance while Tiger is for fierceness/power. Shaolin was formed through thorough communication between displays of Martial Arts at temples.

Those who limit themselves to one style end up only degrading their own ability. Those who study Shaolin(or any very close variant based off of Shaolin) have an wider range of training, and because of this they can defeat a larger variety of other styles. This rule applies to those who study Shaolin as well though, if they seek only one specific area and limit themselves, they’re going to inhibit themselves from moving further as well.

This isn’t to say that Shaolin is the ultimate style, it’s to say that those who study as many different styles as they can have the greatest ability to adapt to any given situation. Remember, no one style is the best, only when complete knowledge is sought can success be found.