Musings on the Misused (Why Your Style Is Wrong!)
What’s up, warriors?
Today’s article is a midnight write up of thoughts that have been stuck in my head for some time now.
The name of the game is “perspective” and if this article can shed even a few photons on the subject under scrutiny, it will be well worth it.
If you read martial art literature and speak to any person who studies and trains, you will likely hear them use “style” and “system” interchangeably while speaking of the martial arts. This is not wrong, however the terms can be used more accurately.
The world we perceive ourselves living in is largely founded by the words we choose, consciously and unconsciously. If there are certain ways you want to shape your life, then there are certain things you must distinguish in how you live.
Defined fully, a martial art system is the distillation of what you are being taught, crystalized in a moment.
A martial art system is the training you undergo prior to any influence. Once influences (other martial art ideas, preferences and limitations from the practitioner , etc.) are introduced, the result is a new normal. Still a nothingness from which your own progress can grow, but now one smeared with an experience.
To be specific, a martial art style is the expression of the system as put forth by the artist. As much as some may want to replicate the system in its exact form, that is an impossible task. The system does not exist, only its expression does. This is similar to the concept of a color or an emotion.
You can imagine a color as shown on a car or perhaps represented by hexadecimal numbers in a computer. You can also imagine an angry facial expression or perhaps even speak about the chemical reaction that takes place in the body when the emotion erupts (everything psychological is also biological after all).
This is all true, however you cannot accurately imagine anger or the color red without the help of an object to showcase it. It is like trying to imagine a performance without any performers.
If somebody speaks of a style, it is alive. It is only dead once it is fully forgotten. Any HEMA practitioner deludes themselves if they believe theirs is a perfect replica of a system, as systems update into styles once expressed.
Any ninjutsu or kenpo practitioner deludes themselves if they say their style is one of the few “alive” styles, as any art still being practiced is still being influenced and processed into modern times. A more appropriate statement may be that theirs is a more mindfully alive system, consciously working its way into the new environment of its age.
Systems become styles upon expression.
Bluntly spoken, styles are archaic upon their birth. With life comes growth, with growth comes the shedding of that which you’ve outgrown. As no two moments in time are truly similar, clinging to the idea of a style is tantamount to clinging to the past.
Systems and styles are like objects floating in a river. The river is time, constantly flowing forward. When the objects are floating down stream, they are styles. Once you pluck the object out of time and make it stagnant for a moment (e.x. the style is being taught, the style’s founder dies and leaves behind his teachings, etc.), then they crystalize into systems.
This is not to disparage the usage of the two terms. Speaking of styles and systems is convenient when trying to impart a quick lesson on your background or history. All I ask is that you think deeply about what you are speaking and, on a much deeper level, are telling yourself.
Without knowing it, it is easy to speak your own mental shackles into place.
Craft a meaningful world for yourself that allows and encourages creativity and freedom. Burn down the walls of “wisdom” slowly creeping around the peripherals of your mind as you grow.
With this rambling out of the way, understand that, regardless of absolute accuracy, terms such as “system” and “style” are extremely handy when conversing or nerding out.
I don’t blame you if you continue using these terms in everyday discussions. Heck, when I have a brain fart, I’m going to be saying the same.
The deeper lesson is to analyze what you are actually saying and pinpoint how accurate it actually is. You may dive deeper into your understanding of the art you study by doing so.
