Learning Chinese Martial Arts - Purpose of the Set Routine

David Lines, my Tai Chi buddy brought up the topic of me writing about "Training Tai Chi" several times, so I thought, maybe I should just start writing down my thoughts when it come to my mind.

Common Reasons People Practice Chinese Martial Arts

Probably one of the most common problem I have seen with fellow Chinese Martial Arts (CMA) practitioners among me is, the attitude towards CMA, regardless it's Internal or External forms.

In today's time and day, alot of people never regard training CMA as a way of self defense, or never prioritize their combat effectiveness when deciding to practise CMA. Well, at least from what I seen in Singapore. I believe this could be very different in a place like China where some people are born in a CMA family, or in poor villages, where they would send their children to CMA school since young so they have a chance to be out of poverty.

1. Some people train CMA, because they are inspired by movies. Every time a  CMA movie is screened, like Ip Man, Once Upon a China, there will be a huge following for around 3-6 months. These people don't often do enough research regarding the CMA that's being featured, and didn't realise in today's cinematography, much of what we seen in movie looks really inspiring because of video editing, sound effects, lighting, and of course visual effects. I do not mind such reason, in fact, I don't mind any marketing strategy so long we can promote CMA. My concerns however will be, will they find a teacher that can show that what that CMA is about, or will they end up finding a teacher that teach the subject just because of it's "market value".
2. Some people do CMA because they are intrigued by Chinese cultures. This applies to chinese and non-Chinese. Non-Chinese start learning because curious about the concept of Yin and Yang, and the seemingly health and self defense benefits. Some Chinese do it, because they want to do something that remind them of their roots. I have met training brothers whom do it, because they feel this is what their ancestors did, and thus, as tradition, being Chinese should continue doing this. A pretty noble reason, and I definitely respect that.
3. Some people do CMA because they believe in how doing CMA will train one's chi. This usually applies to many people who decide to internal forms. Many believe in the benefits of chi to health, though alot of people are not able to explain what exactly chi is. People who falls into this category usually spend most of their time doing stationary stance training known as 站庄, doing the patterns, or doing breathing exercises or, gathering chi 采气.

Personally, I do not see wrong in any reason of why one would want to start practising CMA. In fact all of them are legit, except they might be good cause to start, but may not bring one too far if the thinking and approach doesn't change, or get influenced.
Also, there are plenty of CMA instructors out there, whom adopt the same thinking and approach towards CMA. However, I shall reserve my comments regarding their competenc

Moving on here, let's us look at, what is Chinese Martial Arts today?

Chinese Martial Arts as It is Today

The origin of CMA, like any martial arts, is the same. To kill, to defeat, to defend. As much as how many often CMA have been perceive to be dance, or a chereographed gymnastics, it's martial arts! Any martial arts are instructed, to do a simple objective; To defeat your opponent. So, to remove this objective out of CMA, is akin to removing the steering wheel from a car.

So, why do CMA take the form it is today?

1. This first point is an opinion I formed from reading several sources, and honestly, I can't be sure of it's authencticity. I welcome any reader to correct, or provide me any concrete information to affirm or to dispute this point.
   I believe, up to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the last empirical dynasty of the "Han Chinese", CMA was commonly practised. In fact, people probably don't call it Chinese Martial Arts since there are no needs to differentiate it's nationality. Martial arts are probably called, Kung Fu 功夫 (which means effort), or Wushu 武术 (which is a more direct translation of Martial Arts). Several martial arts, like Hua Quan, Tang Lang Quan (Pray Mantis) are known to be invented during this era. It's also during this era, that people start to record, and document down martial arts.
   When the Manchurian overthrown the Ming Dynasty, and started the Qing Dynasty, they started movements to wipe out the martial arts fraternity with China as, the Manchurians are actually a minority race of China, and majority of the martial arts fraternity are the "Han Chinese". The Hans always have the ambition to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and return the governing authority back to the Hans. This is when we always heard about the slogan 反清复明 (Rebel the Qing and recover Ming), and of course, during this period, there's also rise of anti-Qing faction like "Hung Men" etc.
   Probably the most "iconic" incident that the Manchurian government did to overthrow the martial arts faction, was the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery.
   I believe that, during this period, many martial artists who have to "repackage" their martial arts, so that instead of appearing as martial arts, they look like exercises, or aerobics practices. This is probably to help them avoid getting into troubles with officials or patrols.
2. Secondly, set routines and patterns that are probably designed to allow teacher to structure their teaching, so that they could do one-to-many teaching within the shortest period of time. I could see how this could be necessary, especially during war times where generals will have to train their recruit to be ready for battles within the fastest time possible.
3. Also, there's a probability during peace time, teacher teaches set forms and routines to a whole group of students, while observing their potentials and attitudes. The teachers would then selectively choose which are the students that are worth their time and effort in further development so that they would bring glory to their martial arts and ancestors. Only upon specially selected by the teacher, would the students then learn the real usage and any underlying purposes and meaning of the taught routine.

So, now we look at the root of routine/set pattern creation, let us analyze how it reached it's "form" today.

Firstly, based on point 3 above, we see that a teacher will be selective in passing down his "secrets" to his students, thus, from that one teacher, we are going to assume, there will be mainly 2 groups of disciples. One, will be a small and selected group of students that learnt the "real" martial arts and acquired the complete knowledge of that particular arts. They will be a second group, that learn the set form, and routine, probably learned some basic functions of the moves and acquired physical conditioning due to practising of the routines.
Sooner or later, all these students will leave the teacher for various reasons, and obviously quite a few of them will return back to their villages and attempt to make a living by teaching martial arts. Back in the village, if one is fortunate, he will meet the teacher whom learn the "real" arts, and of course, they will be others whom ended up learning from the other type of teacher whom appear physically strong and abled to people whom have never done martial arts.

Such effects, will definitely trickle downwards, and as of the time we are today, I doubt I will be paranoid to think that, there are plenty of CMA instructors whom don't completely apprehend the arts that they are teaching and thus, would just focus of the display of the routine sets.

Secondly, the society we are living in this past 20 years are definitely very different from how it was in the past. In the past, many have to take justice into their own hands, personal safety is your personal responsibility as opposed to the law and order we have instilled in the recent decades, especially since we could empower authority with weapons like guns, and banned anyone else from carrying any weapons at all.

Due to such transition of the society, which is definitely a good thing for mankind, more and more people do not see the need for having self defense capability, and even due to lower risks, and in fact, less intimidating risks, CMA which are designed to be lethal and devastating start to lose it's ground.
Most people who want to learn self defense, just want to get themselves out of trouble quickly, and run away. If I were to kill someone in self defense, I would probably be apprehended on the charge of manslaughter. Frankly speaking, this is definitely not what I wished to happen no matter how much I wish I will be competent in CMA.

Traditional CMA are designed to kill in battlefield, and have plenty of moves that designed to strike eyeballs, hitting at vital points or breaking opponents' limbs, all for a simple reason, we Chinese have smaller physical statures than our neighbors. It would be foolish to try to defeat your opponents with brute forces due to the natural differences in physical strengths. These are very "unfriendly" fighting methods, and thus are unsuitable for sports fighting. However, if we were to remove these techniques from CMA, the CMA will be greatly weakened for it's intended purposes. Honestly, if one were to think that CMA is just a dance and do not have any combat effectiveness; let's ponder, how could it have survived and get passed down after hundreds of years?
In summary to this point, peace time have watered down CMA, so much so, most people stop talking about it's combat usage, and what's left is the set forms and patterns.

Mentality in Training Chinese Martial Arts

We might not have much usage for what CMA is designed for, but for people who want to seek higher grounds and capabilities in CMA; I think it's highly important to analyze it's functionality. I had personally train in set forms and routines for many years, and eventually, I reached a bottleneck and wondered what all these are for?
If it's for physical training, it will be more effective if i do swimming and running. If it's for self defense, I probably learn something really quickly with Arnis or Muay Thai. If it's for chi,why not just do meditation? Doing the set forms without knowing the purpose behind it gets boring very quickly, and one will either give up very quickly, or move on to learning one set after another so he is constantly learning.

Purpose of Practicing a Set Routine

1. Posture correction and Physical Conditioning
2. Building subconscious actions and reactions
3. Improving body mechanics efficiency
4. Continuous movements/ Follow up movements
5. Improving Chi's energy capacity and flow
6. Building space awareness

Posture Correction and Physical Conditioning

One of the most commonly known and important aspect of practicing Set Routine in CMA is actually to attain a correct, or rather "effective" body posture. Effective in a  way that applies to the family of martial arts that one is practicing. Common corrections are, keeping the body upright, relaxing the shoulders, pushing out the knees so it doesn't become a weakness etc.

Also, maintaining the low stances in training, and doing impractical high kicks are all part of physical conditioning and training. Of course, no one will sit that low in an actual combat situation, it's merely to strengthen your thigh. Bruce Lee always perform high kicks in demo, or in movies, but when he is in a real sparring situation, he never kick above waist level. We have to understand, there's no gym or training equipment that we have around us more than 100 years ago, so trainers have to be creative in designing their training to fulfill the training in their core muscles group.

Building subconscious actions and reactions

Although alot of CMA have similar stances and moves, they could differ mechanically. Thus, every CMA family would have their own unique set routines which are designed for the trainees to practise so that they will get familiar with utilizing the moves in a combat situation. The fastest way to react to an opponent, is but reflex action, rather than intended reactions. The only way we could do to hone our relax action, is to repeat the same actions repeatedly.It is also importantly for the trainee to be thinking about the intended usage while practicing the set routine so that he could react subconsiously during the situation. 

Almost all highly skilled opponents I have met, usually counterstrike first, before being able to explain what they did. In fact, those whom have lesser experience in teaching, are able to explain precisely what they will do in any preassumed situation as their subconscious reaction will differ with even a slight change in opponent's move.

However, most CMA practitioners don't often have the patience and the vision to be commit themselves to constant practising of the same set routine over and over again. I believe one of the reason is because most of them practice their set routine to perform rather than to fight. Thus, instead of training til it became subconsicious, they are more interested in achieving a appealing posture which can be achieve considerably alot faster than implanting the moves into the subconscious minds.

Improving body mechanics efficiency

When a trainee repeats the same moves repeatedly, another outcome than one could achieve is body mechanics efficiency. Body mechanics efficiency could apply in throwing punches, evading moves, warding punches etc. Body mechanics efficiency is particularly important in CMA due to the philosophy of using weaker effort against strength. Chinese reverred the Water aspect in nature, and believe that "Water" though appear to obliging and compromising, can be strong and powerful. For water to be strong and powerful, the flow will have to be smooth and efficient. In fact, alot of CMA refer to water as the way to move, continuously, minimum effort yet very powerful; and those these can only be achieved by being efficient in body mechanics.

Also, as brought up earlier, for hundreds of years, chinese have be fighting opponents from Russia, Mongols, whom are larger and stronger physically and have thus develop their techniques to be more efficient so as to counter the strength their opponents' possessed.

Continuous movements/ Follow up movements

As mentioned, being like water, means having moves their are being executed consecutively and seamlessly like water flowing. Most traditional CMA set routines are designed making assumption of all the possible scenarios in a combat situations. Having that said, some designed to face an opponents using a saber, long weapon, on horseback etc. It's often good to study the root of that particular routine set when practising. Having said, most of the moves are designed to be executed one after another, and are not often singular in usage as it will be overconfident to assume one can knock out an opponent with a single blow. Thus, by practising the routine set, with understanding of the movements, along with subconscious actions, trainee also acquire abilities/knowledge in following up attacks or defense.

Improving Chi's energy capacity and flow

In this article, I do not intend to talk alot about this mystical topic of Chi. In my opinion, chi is a sensation of body mechanics efficiency within the bloodflow. It's my personal opinion that, when the body learn to be relax in execution of the move with it is efficiency. Body relax = Increased sensitivity, efficiency = more blood flow in the vessels, and all these, are called, "Chi"

Building space awareness

Most, if not all traditional CMA set routines are not designed assuming enemies will only come from the front. As such, they are planned so the practitioners will be familiar with turn around to face opponents, are moving in different directions so they develop their sense of space and direction. Most set routines usually begin with the practitioner starting in a particular position, facing a certain direction, and ends with the practitioner ending facing the same direction, and around the same area.

With sufficient practices, the practitioners learn to more familiar with where they are in relevance to where they started which could be very important when they are fighting in a formation, or fighting in a rather enclosed space which they could use it to their advantage.

Also, there are certain CMA which focus on throws that actually make the practitioners throw and flips themselves intentionally so they to deal with the change in space in the event they get thrown in a fight.

Correct Attitude in Practicing Set Routine

In conclusion to this article, I would want to emphasize the importance of practicing set routine, and the mentality one carries with him/her when practicing it.

By learning CMA via it's set routine with just the purpose of performing, one will be nothing more than a dancer or a stage performer, and could not consider one as a martial artists. In fact, the practitioner will lose faith in training sooner or later, and be frustrated and confused regarding his/her progress.

When a person learning CMA without sufficient practice of the set routine, and attempt to use it in combat situation, he/her will very quickly find him/herself in a situation where he/her start utilizing brute force, and run out of moves very quickly, or, end up revert to other moves.

By learning multiple CMA at one go, without having a priority or focus on anyone of it, one will never be good or competent. Very simple, multitasking when never allow one to be accomplished in a particular task. As the saying goes, Jack of all, master of none.  

In my opinion, for one to be accomplished in CMA training, one of be diligent in practising in the set routine designed for that art. Do it everyday, 3-5 times, even 10 times a day. I understand it's not easy in today's hectic work/life routine, but we should not not do it just because we can't. Meanwhile, one have to study the combat usage of the art. I'm not encouraging anyone to be aggressive, or challenging, but to spend time to study about the purpose of every single movements that you practice in your set routine. All of them are there for a reason, and they are follow up with the next moves with a reason too.

In today's world, the needs of one to be highly skilled in martial arts is diminishing, however, if anyone were to have interest in Chinese martial arts, I encourage you to be diligent and intelligent in training. The learning curve is steep, but once you start to understand what you are doing, you will achieve a mental accomplishment that will spur you on in learning. Learning Chinese martial arts is a lifelong pursuit, and I would hate to see martial arts fade off with time. In fact, sometimes I am afraid, in another 50 years, Chinese martial arts will be nothing more than a dance.

I will be devoting my time in learning this art, and hope that we, together will keep this art true intention in time to come.