I'm still studying the Lug Wrench Treatise with my friends. And I've picked up bits and bobs of shit from the odd lesson and videos I've watched for reference when writing about fight scenes and the physics of fighting with people.
According to the local teacher, Chinese Martial Arts done right cease to look anything like movie Kungfu styles and more like a Thematic MMA match because nothing's slowed down and the rhythm gets fucked all the time, whereas movies are (usually) designed to have a constant rhythm and they're slowed down, so that the actors don't get hurt and it's easier to see how and why they're doing what they're doing. And it's actually a lot more practical than I was originally promised*, you just have to use the right things... And be strong as balls. Neither of those things are my forte, so I'll probably be fine.
*There's still some "wasted movement" here and there, by the standards of more basic/straightforward stuff that we have today, and I still think using your actual closed fist would be better to hit with all the time, but the point of those movements is probably to add more possible stuff to the forms and the purpose of different hands is to open up more possibilties for grappling and stuff too, so I guess you'd have to decide whether to fist people in addition to whether to go straight for the move, in addition to what things to use in the first place, which makes it more confusing, which makes your average kung fu joe get hurt in real-life/sparring application. I think this is because Kung Fu came to a world where everyone you ever really needed to kung-fu-fight was kung-fu-fighting. This was a monk's martial art, and a peasant's martial art, people were just learning to fight with shit that they had lying around, so kung fu was a thing that a lot of people had. And so things became increasingly complex and misdirectioney and exercizey so you could deal with other forms of kung fu as opposed to other fighters. Mao's thing with the whitewash and such probably didn't help either.
Whereas you have stuff like European martial arts, which are very straightforward and to the point, because that's all anybody had time for because swords were the big dealio, so unarmed combat is far more basic and straightforward than Kung Fu. It's similar with Boxing, Pankration, Savate, and Western Wrestling, all look very simple and straightforward. Nobody was bothering creating complex punchy systems to fight off other complex punchy systems because fuck it, we live in a world where everybody who can afford a goddamn Martial Arts lesson can also afford a weapon and armor, so we'll put misdirection and complex forms into weapon and armor combat. So Europe comes out with all these crazy fencing moves and types of sword and curlyque polearms and hammers and morningstars and maces and flails and Gutendags and axes and whack-ass shit than we even have proper names for.
I think. That's what I've theorised about history from these experiences, at least
