Teaching Internal Martial Arts Group Size
2/27/25
Traditionally a master in a societal setting would simultaneously teach groups of 3-5 boys at a time, at the most possibly up to 8. Said boys were being taught under the explicit purpose of protecting a village from life threatening violence. It was not for sport, fun, or health. The wellbeing of the village rested in their hands and getting them ready to effectively defend others as soon as possible was the priority. Hence girls typically were not taught martial arts due to obvious physical strength demands.
Groups of different ages could be taught by one master different times of the day or different days of the week concurrently. Over time, this system can be extrapolated into a pyramid scheme with students becoming coaches/teachers of beginner students creating the ability to teach more students at once under the same system. Students who are recognized as fully understanding martial arts could continue as pillars of their original teacher or break off for various reasons. However high levels of respect usually grew these organizations in to clan like entities.
On the other hand, the highest and purest form of martial arts training was/is done outside of society in isolation. In said format, one master took three orphans to the mountains to train in a hermit like setting in complete isolation from the outside world. These were unwanted children who would otherwise become slaves or be left for dead. The three boys would start around the age of seven and stand in martial positions the entire day when they were not doing chores for the good of the group. They had little to no free time as they would just do standing in martial positions continuously. This would go on for ten years until approximately reaching the age of 17. By that point their self condition/ self harmony would be more than most people can comprehend, reaching metaphysical levels.
For the next ten years from 17 through 27 they would learn martial arts applications and techniques which would be continuously practiced and researched amongst themselves. They would routinely hurt each other and heal each other making tremendous contributions to Chinese medicine. By the end of this second ten year period of isolated training the boys now men would be at a level of martial accruement that is simply off the charts compared to even martial artists who were a part of society, the things that myths and legends are written from. They would then enter society, however remaining in the shadows as bodyguards and assassins for elite aristocracy.
Comparing these two previous situations to the post WWII dumbing down of martial arts by Communist in China and Capitalists in the rest of the world, there are startling inefficiencies in training methodology and philosophy that I assert are deliberate to curtail the spread of the true essence of martial arts.
1. Teaching Kung Fu or Taiji to groups of 20 through 300 people in a grid of rows and lines is essentially useless. Eventually people may learn the movements of a form, but they are irrelevant without knowing the energetic vector of each movement. The reason for small student to teacher ratio was so that the teacher could verify that the student had accomplished specific energy vectors and conditions for every movement.
This leads to students ‘graduating’ with certificates or degrees from Chinese institutes with zero knowledge of internal mechanics. They then go on to teach as ‘certified’ instructors or masters perpetuating a void of substance to everyone that comes after them. These instructors at best rely on strength and conditioning using what old masters refer to as ‘the power of manual labor’ to copy the movements of energetic arts in a futile manner.
2. Mass Level Marketing capitalistic martial artists who also teach seminars of around 100 people coupled with these students learning online while not in seminars which occur several times a years, is equally useless and mis-informative to the large communist grid teaching method. Once again the teacher to student ratio must be kept small in order for the teacher to verify that the student are accurately accomplishing all energetic vectors until the student has reached a level of self awareness and accruement that they can reliably distinguish that they are doing.
These schools usually rely on a ‘I’m right because I said so’ mentality with no room for discussion. In fact intellectual scholarship often results in emotional attack by people financially invested in these groups. Who stands to lose from systematic research of effectively improving our lives with internal martial arts?
With that being said, there are great benefits to oneself and ones community through the practice of internal/energetic martial arts, but they must be taught in small groups by qualified teachers who genuinely want to transmit the knowledge. Benefits include the physical body reaching conditions of health that are unattainable by normal exercise. Physical injuries can heal or become ‘bypassed’ in ways that comfortable quality of life can continue. Mentally people have also overcome various psychological issues through increased concentration, focus, etc. In conclusion, these ancient practices are a treasure to be had and shared in a world full of trials and tribulations.
