The meaning
A METHOD OF FITNESS OR COMBAT ?
Vietnam is neither an island nor an archipelago, but it is surrounded by water. Only 1,650 km to go through the country from North to South by plane, and Vietnam has 3,120 km of seafront. Two huge rivers, the Red River and the Mekong, with numerous meanders, divide the territory into channels and pieces of land.From dawn to sunset, Vietnamese people see water, use water, work in the water, adjust their life to the mood of water.
The History of Vietnam was made of a series of wars. The national martial art, at the beginning, was a military technique of fighting. The Vietnamese warriors had to learn, first at all, how to move and to lead combat in the water, and also under the water. Thereafter, in peace time, martial art teachers carried on studying peasants and fishermen’s behaviour to improve themselves. For instance, how a ploughman can stay a whole day in a ricefield without getting cold, or how he runs in the mud without sliding, and how he uses the hydraulic power to enhance his body and his health.
Doctors were also interested in this sport inspired by water. They believed that the mass of liquid flowing within the human body (more than 60%) helped the circulation of the vital energy through the meridians, and that the smooth and circular movements of martial art awakened the positive fluid in the body. Their works laid the foundation of inclusion of medical thoughs into physical exercices. So was born the Martial art Water Method called Thuy Phap.
The scholars’ involvement chases away from Thuy Phap the rough boxers who prefer muscular power to internal force. The Water Method becomes more and more a kind of soft gymnastics. Nowadays,
martial art schools in Vietnam still perform Thuy Phap as a breathing exercice, an appendix of their training course. None of them is able to fully achieve the Water Method.
Thuy Phap…-HUYNH Chieu Duong-p.1
The International Thuy Phap Council opens his first overseas Water Method school in Belgium in 2002. There, the Thuy Phap programme is taught in its whole and in the traditional way. Learners have a choice between internal energy branch to embody the wellbeing, and fighting exercices to gain self confidence. In general, they take both because the balance of Yin and Yang is so well linked to the ability of combat .
In Vietnam Thuy Phap is regarded as an additional energy training to various other dynamic types of martial art, and abroad western youngsters adore its boxing techniques which call for hardness in the softness.
Up to now, there is no answer to the question : is Thuy Phap more suitable for fitness than for fighting ? One would say the process of Thuy Phap internal power training is an “integral whole”. According to senior coaches, the Water Method emphasizes on both fighting skills and art of life enhancement. It would be a pity to let down one of the twin side of Thuy Phap. Why not combine these two aspects : physical exercice with health building ?
Western practioners seem to understand what the quality of life means, whilst Vietnamese people are reluctant to the Thuy Phap’s non competitive spirit. The young generation is focusing on technical , industrial progress and international competition. They are still waiting for the coming soon forceful Water Method before considering it as a reliable martial art.
Once, a journalist said :”When the Vietnamese are fed up with Olympic race, exhausted by corporate culture, they will find the Thuy Phap very interesting for relaxing body and mind, but it will be too late, they will have to hire Belgian trainers to teach them Thuy Phap”.
