More on the Arte Suave
Just a warning: I've become an even more boring soul now that I have an obsession. So apologies for always tying BJJ into my posts! Just caught this in a friend's journal in a cool post:
"Apollonian and Dionysian are terms used by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy to designate the two central principles in Classical Greek culture.
Apollo: form, structure, sculpture, analysis, reason, soberness, clarity.
Dionysius: amorphousness, chaos, music, ecstasy, emotion, drunkenness, blurriness."
So my thoughts wandered to how combat sports and the pursuit of fighting ability bring out elements of that very conflict in the participant. If you want to get to your peak at boxing or wrestling it will take Apollonian efforts and qualities on your part. Technique requires form, structure, analysis, etc, and your dedication and physicial training have to be irreproachable. But in the moment of truth when you are called to test those skills on the mats or on a barroom floor it is likely to be a very Dyonisian moment. You might feel ecstatic (drunk?) off your own adrenaline, caught in a chaotic blur of instinctive motion and strong, almost primal emotion.
At the same time I was being a jiu-jitsu geek and watching this:
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza BJJ Competition Highlights
The Jacare video shows some of that duality in the jiu-jitsu style as well. If you bother to watch it even the untarined eye can see there is more precision and structure in the first half of the video when the competitors are in kimonos. The last half of the video is wrestling without kimonos (no-gi) and highlights the fluidity, spontaneity, and raw athleticism of BJJ fighters. And if all this philoso-babble is too much just go check out the section in the middle of that video where Jacare battles through a broken arm. Wicked shit!
OK so maybe UFC is not Classical Greek tragedy. Still the fight gym is definitely a good place to resolve some of that Apollo vs Dyonisius inside me.
On a side note if you are anything like me Dionysius wins too much. I recommend this stuff to bring out the Apollo: http://www.brainquicken.com/
"Apollonian and Dionysian are terms used by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy to designate the two central principles in Classical Greek culture.
Apollo: form, structure, sculpture, analysis, reason, soberness, clarity.
Dionysius: amorphousness, chaos, music, ecstasy, emotion, drunkenness, blurriness."
So my thoughts wandered to how combat sports and the pursuit of fighting ability bring out elements of that very conflict in the participant. If you want to get to your peak at boxing or wrestling it will take Apollonian efforts and qualities on your part. Technique requires form, structure, analysis, etc, and your dedication and physicial training have to be irreproachable. But in the moment of truth when you are called to test those skills on the mats or on a barroom floor it is likely to be a very Dyonisian moment. You might feel ecstatic (drunk?) off your own adrenaline, caught in a chaotic blur of instinctive motion and strong, almost primal emotion.
At the same time I was being a jiu-jitsu geek and watching this:
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza BJJ Competition Highlights
The Jacare video shows some of that duality in the jiu-jitsu style as well. If you bother to watch it even the untarined eye can see there is more precision and structure in the first half of the video when the competitors are in kimonos. The last half of the video is wrestling without kimonos (no-gi) and highlights the fluidity, spontaneity, and raw athleticism of BJJ fighters. And if all this philoso-babble is too much just go check out the section in the middle of that video where Jacare battles through a broken arm. Wicked shit!
OK so maybe UFC is not Classical Greek tragedy. Still the fight gym is definitely a good place to resolve some of that Apollo vs Dyonisius inside me.
On a side note if you are anything like me Dionysius wins too much. I recommend this stuff to bring out the Apollo: http://www.brainquicken.com/