Thursday, December 13, 2007

Snake Style #6 -- Sam Masich



Another favorite practitioner and hell-of-a nice guy is Sam Masich. Sam has a varied background in Internal Arts but is primarily known for his Yang Tai Chi Chuan. Here he is at work in an Aikido Dojo, demonstrating Changjin, which he calls "long energy", but this is manifested through spiral motions used in Tai Chi Chuan and Bagua. Both arts emulate Snake movements, as you see in his coiling techniques.
The Aikido guys should love this one..

3 comments:

kengullette said...

Come on, guys. Sam Masich is a good guy, but this video doesn't really show him defending against a real attack. It seems very obvious that the attacker isn't motivated to launch a realistic attack. It's almost embarrassing to watch. I'd love to see that defense used against a motivated fighter who isn't helping. I don't want to be critical of Sam, but this looks more like the fantasy stuff that I've practiced in internal schools, not real internal martial arts. I had a teacher who said if we rushed at him, he could drop to the ground and motion over the top with his hand, and it would lead our chi over the top. So we played along, and when he dropped, we sailed over his body and rolled on the other side. I knew at the time I could hit him if I wanted, but why would I hit my teacher in front of the class?

Please say it aint so, Sam.

Dojo Rat said...

Well...
Several things: He doesn't make any claims that he is fighting, I see this merely as a demonstration of concepts and exploring spiral or coiling movement.
This is much like Aikido randori, which is also why Aikido is criticized in similar ways.
I see him seeking neutralization, and doing fairly well at it. I have also crossed hands with Sam, and seen him toss stronger Black Belts than me all over the room with push hands against the opponent who is trying to touch his face or chest. They didn't even get close.
I do however agree with you that internal arts like Tai Chi Chuan better put up or shut up, and I am not in disagreement with many of your comments.
D.R.

willpulleine said...

Hi Ken this is a issue that comes up alot in do internal arts work debate, "he should just hit him with the other hand..." "he could just kick him in the head there..." Now for me i geuss the main point to realize as dojo rat pointed out, this is exploration of principle not a fight! most/all of the you tube internal videos are that, an exploration of principle. Another thing is that (in my opinion) internal arts focuses on the process "what is happening now what is goign on inside me" not out-come "i have hurt them there they are on the floor" so it lend itself to more explorative study where we look at principle and not results. Now do we want to hurt each other...Personally No, so principle based study for the most part. I have seen Sam push hands with soemone who chose to apply technique strongly what occured was not nearly as slow and easy to see as the demonstartion we just saw, in fact all that was really visible was a blur of swirling people then the afore mentioned person sprawled on the floor and Sam standing, he can get Internal Arts to work. A point to make here regardign your experinces in internal arts. Did your teacher ask you to hit him when he was explaining the over the head chi stuff? If so why didnt you, if you respect your teacher then hit him when he asks you too, if we as students dont hit properly when asked to. how are we giving are teachers what they need to know if what they do is "real". I was asked to apply the technique of punch on my teacher a year or two ago, i did, i hit him in the stomach and he was doubled up... now i cant get near him, i geuss no one he had asked recently actually meant it. that has i am sure improved him and me as martial artists. Right now i must go train!!