The challenge match video got me thinking, why do all these guys go "I'll beat you with my deadly techniques"? None of them go "I'll beat him with my strong fundamentals, good striking and bridging and clinching skills", which, if I was to fight in a challenge match is kinda what I'd be relying on.
I saw this recently and it got me thinking
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P_T0WLoI6pk
My own system has ten seeds, foundation principles that the whole system is based on. Every technique is derived from these ten seeds. There are advanced forms, but these don't really involve advanced techniques, it's the fundamentals linked in a more challenging way. There are certainly no advanced applications, again just combinations of fundamental skills. Ironically it's often the simplest of apps that require the most skill to pull off well. Now obviously we have structure and progression, and we have a lot of techniques, so how can I square that with the linked statement? As i've said, we really only have ten techniques, we just have different ways to do them. Just like a boxer learns how to work the angles and timings with his punches, just like the BJJ guy learns how to uses his passes and reguards to gain better positions, then learns how to link them into holds, then learns to create linked progressions.
Now I know that other Chinese systems have similar sets of core fundamentals, so why is the "deadly, advanced techniques" attitude so widespread (especially as it's fairly easy to highlight cases where a good right cross has been a deadly technique)? Is it a Chinese thing from Wuxia novels and Kung fu movies? Or is it a western phenomenum? I know you often here teachers in the MA press saying that teachers held stuff back, which has diluted the effectiveness of kung fu. What did they hold back that could possibly be that great, and which people couldn't figure out through live training with the fundamentals?
There's also the western story about the wrestling champion who teaches his student his 100 techniques, and then when the student challenges him and he beats him easily with the 101st technique which he hadn't taught. Again, if he'd learned the hundred well, he really shouldn't have been unable to counter the 101st. i've kinda run out of steam now, I'll try to add some more lucid stuff in a bit