I was not a
student of Dr. Yang Jwing-Mang. But I observed his influence on many martial
matters over the years, and thought a reminiscence of what I saw might be
useful.
First off Dr.
Yang came to America to study engineering and became a Doctor of Engineering I
believe at Perdue. He had served in the Taiwan
armed forces and had been a student of several martial arts there. I believe on
viewing the American martial arts seen he likely felt he could offer
information that many would find valuable. He taught Yang Tai Chi and other
Chinese arts.
He worked to
contribute new martial information than many might find useful. So he began
publishing books on what he knew. And as time went on more and more of them.
When I saw his Advanced Tai Chi 1 @ 2, what attracted me was not the historical
tai chi knowledbe, rather his description of the martial use of t’ai chi and
the manner in which he presented that information.
IMO he set the template
many could use for their own martial investigations. Every movement was shown
from 3 different uses contained there in:
1.
How that
movement could be used to down an enemy.
2.
How that
movement could be used to strike in a cavity (I understood that as a vital
point)
3.
How that movement
contained chin na control over an opponent’s attack.
It made a great
deal of sense to me.
My own studies
in the Chinese Arts was more a study of forms, including my T’ai Chi studies.
Never deep enough to study such matters. O’ I was shown how to apply some
movement at times but that was not the focus of my own studies in the early
1980’s.
His books and
then video’s on Chin Na became more involved. I think he rethought how to
present Chin Na knowledge. He logically restructured what he was presenting in
a manner in which an engineer might think.
Chin Na for the
fingers, for the wrist, for the forearm, for the elbow and so forth. Grouping
those studies by area to be affected. Extremely logical and not necessarily in
the same order the original art(s) presented that material.
Then the books
got more involved, and video tapes to become dvd’s followed. A very impressive
body of knowledge.
I had noted how
there was a similarity to the aikido I studied (aikido studied to prepare for
advanced karate application studies. Then as I lived somewhat in the neighborhood
of his school outside of Boston, I was able to see him perform a few times.
From my wife’s studies with him, I got to feel his Chin Na on the receiving
end.
Several years
later I was able to attend a 2 day weekend seminar with Dr. Yang in his school.
It was on Tai Chi Sword and Chi Kung. The sword he presented was not what I had
studied and I am sorry to say that did not stick with me. But he also talked
about what he as doing with his books. Many of them on various Chinese aspects
of the arts. What he did whenever he returned to Taiwan, was to buy as many
Chinese original books as he could afford, those books became the source of
much of his translations on many topics.
I got a bit more
out of the Chi Kung presentation. For I recognized several of the drills,
except what Ernie taught them to me, they were linked together. Then it was a
drill his eagle claw instructor, Sheum Leung, used to being and end every
class. I just did not know that drill was Chi Kung [Side note I still practice that drill to this day, in
fact several times a day as it is incredible to loosen my shoulders.]
That was the
extent of my meetings with Dr. Yang.
But there is an
alwful lot that pertains and appends to our study of karate, should you use it.
Without question it is difficult to obtain information from books. I never truly understood many of them. For example it is said a great book on T'ai Chi can contain 50 years of information, but it can take 50 years to understand what is in that book.
But I suggest that Dr. Yang has tried his best to make so much available to use, even if we can't be his students.
No comments:
Post a Comment