Over the years i have seen a lot of people
knock book learning in the ma. We have all
seen enough people who would rather spend
class discussing why they practice
bujustu rather than budo...or better yet the
taiji master who knows more chinese than
the guy at the chinese take out, but still
can't do the short form. Sometimes it's
so bad its almost laughable. The problem
I see now is people don't attempt
to learn things from books...as if
because their master didn't teach it
to them then they can't learn it on
their own.
But what about all of the good things that
have been learned from books. And I am not
just talking about philosophies. I can
honestly say that after practicing ma
for quite a while it would be better to
learn from a book than what you get at
your typical Mcdojo. I know some books
where the form is so top notch I study
it form hours. I am quite proud to say
that I have learned techniques from books.
It keeps me thinking and analyzing the
different ways in which people practice
ma without going to get a black belt in
all those ma.
Just wondering what people thought on the
topic. And what books people have learned
a lot from.
Fred Stakem