"Modern Wu Shu is a fine sport and is beautiful to watch, but it is misnamed; arts without fighting cannot by definition be considered martial arts." - from Tim Cartmell's website, shenwu.com
This seems incredibly obvious to me yet it also seems lost on many modern practitioners. At the same time, it condemns me equally. My years in Shotokan Karate were my start and my strongest foundation, and kumite free-fighting was an essential part of almost every practice. My karate has been on hold for several years now. I remain centered on my practice of Chinese arts, and I remain on fire, but I must confess, I do feel something is missing. There is a growing need in me to get back to the basics of sparring, of putting techniques (and spirits) to the test. As I have mentioned before, one of my long-term projects is to work on ways to incorporate semi- and free-sparring into the training I am focused on these days. More meditations on this to come...
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