The West – An Introduction

The following are broad generalities written for the convenience of the reader who is getting their head “wrapped around” the panorama of Eastern and Western Physical Culture. There are obviously exceptions to what is said. Still, the broad views expressed are generally accurate.

The Western Traditions of Physical Culture including weight lifting, boxing, fencing, wrestling and other individual sports like gymnastics- though they have the East as their origin – have shifted the emphasis to a more utilitarian and commercial side. Where the East emphasized daily exercises of the same type, not over straining, and gradual conditioning over a life-time with an integrated cosmological and psychological outlook, the West evolved toward short term, high intensity training for maximum immediate result. When Hippocrates introduced the Steam Bath to the Greeks and said it would make them live longer he was laughed at. After all (in the Ancient Greek mind) who wants to live a long time? So even in ancient times the tendency of the West was toward short term effectiveness. That tradition continues in popular sports at present, where athletes have their few years of glory and retire with artificial knees and often addicted to “pain killers”.

In the Western Tradition particularly those lines of tradition which come through the Celts and also tribes in Russia there are aspects of the Asian tradition-some of the same attitudes and approaches can be found in hidden pockets of cultures by research— but in the West gradual weight training has become more defined and explained by science as have the intense periods of muscular activity with a prescribed hours of rest. The body is looked at as muscles which need to be “torn down” and “built up”. So the West developed a harder and often more vigorous approach to the body; like a machine—and trained it that way. At present Western Science is meeting the Eastern Way and the convergence is producing schools like PTT.

Also in the West the gymnasium, pioneered by the Greeks, formed the social setting of the great philosophers-like Plato and Socrates. The gym or sauna was equivalent of the Eastern exercise- and- breakfast/early snack gathering in the park. This is now what we find in Athletic Clubs which occupy modern office buildings. Philosophy has been replaced by stock market speculators.

So the Western Way of Physical Culture tends toward science as we know it today, the athletic club, commercial sports and modern science.

The older Western Martial Traditions include Wrestling, Boxing, Fencing, Archery, Javelin, Single Stick and Gymnastics, particularly as related to the art of the Equestrian. Those are the ones PTT is interested in and they are the ones with the strongest Eastern overlap.

In the Western Martial Traditions are some of the same skills and techniques as the Eastern Martial Traditions but the emphasis on form and repetition tends to be lower and the work of techniques with a drill partner more emphasized. Esoteric and cosmological explanations are kept to a minimum and the health-utility and tactical applications of the technique are emphasized. In the Ancient West ways were more “Asiatic” in style, but as it stands now- these differences stated as above- are the primary differences.

When I teach from the Western Side I encourage the students to go back in time and look at Platonism and related ideas in order to create an art in themselves which is clearly related to history; both in ideal and application. The Physical Culture of the West taught at PTT is shown at the right.