But is this realistic?

At TanDao we apply practical self defense class training to different street contexts to explore the implications of our fighting skills. You would not use the same technique to deal with an obnoxious drunk, a violent mugger or a child who playful attacks you. The situation determines whether or not you use that snake strike to the eyes, a palm to the chest or a restraining joint lock.

True, an effective technique demands mushin the samurai or Shaolin monk’s zen notion of no-mindedness. While mushin is an ideal to develop unconscious mind/body reactions so we move like lightening, in the real world we must cultivate a higher awareness of controlled degrees of response. Aside from ambush or sudden assaults, which demands instinctive response, the choice whether or not to fight should not be instinctive . This is especially important, if you are trained in dangerous animal techniques like the tiger claw.

Controlled degrees of response is a characteristic of advanced martial arts that puts the martial warrior’s superior strength, kick ass prowess and ego under the control of the martial scholar’s discretion and the martial monk’s conscience.

For The Evolving Martial Artist – warrior/scholar/monk – options are power.

Are you tough? Well here’s a tale of real tough:

In ancient China, Rambo Lee and Conan Chan were bitter enemies from rival warrior clans. One day while practicing his swordsmanship, Rambo saw an old monk about to be attacked by a wild tiger. He fearlessly intercepted the beast by shouting and waving his sword. The tiger fled.

The grateful old monk bowed to the warrior who saved him and said that he would grant Rambo a single wish – anything he desired. But he cautioned, think carefully, because what ever he asked for the monk would give his sworn adversary, Conan Chan, double. Rambo thought a moment, then said, “Take out one of my eyes.”

Now that’s macho!

This anecdote elevates martial machismo to the absurd. Machismo is a vital element of martial arts. Life or death. Victory or defeat. Kill or be killed. Virile characteristics such as strength, courage and aggression accompany the warrior’s ethos. However, exaggerated display of macho aggression that may lead to bullying born of uncontrolled testosterone drives, liquor manufactured courage and showing off at the expense of others due to ego insecurity must be tempered and transcended through experience and maturity.

TanDao teaches that the martial warrior’s bold actions should be tempered by the martial scholars insight and guided by the martial monk’s way of peace. In our TanDao Tiger Combat book, which teaches extremely vicious tiger claw techniques that are banned even from brutal MMA, there is TanDao saying: “The fiercest warrior has the gentlest heart”.

Evolving Martial Artists practice the martial arts – not the macho arts.

Check out our Tiger Combat ebook

From a martial arts perspective, this satire expresses a modern fighter’s skepticism on the practicality of stylized techniques. Despite the supremacy of flowery kung fu moves in chop socky films, the realism is not evident in MMA competitions, the testing ground from the popular sporting view of martial arts. Are flowery techniques found in kung fu, karate, tae kwon do bullshit?
Yes, if one is not initiated to the secrets of form. The traditional purist method that teaches the literal expression of stylized movements for street fighting without adapting them for modern application is outdated. Besides being inefficient, it’s dangerous.

At TanDao we are proponents of real fighting and we also preserve forms. A contradiction? To the initiated, forms are physical books of knowledge that imparts martial science. All real fighting strategies, tactics and biomechanical efficiency are encoded in the stylized movement. Evolving Martial Artists seek the hidden language behind stylized moves to enhance real fighting.