The Way of Least Resistance

Pull backs in basic punches are ubiquitous in Asian traditional martial arts. You'll find the same concept - usually chambered at the hip - in arts are diverse as karate, taekwondo, silat, hung gar gong fu and taijiquan... the list goes on. I've previously dealt with the subject of " chambers " quite exhaustively, as I have the traditional " corkscrew " punch, and I encourage readers to check out those essays to understand my position better. I won't be going into the subject of those topics (at least, not in any deep sense). It suffices for me to reiterate the central tenet of those articles: that basic form explores a full range movement . In reality, only a portion of that range might be used. Another way of thinking about it is that basics tend to get applied in an abbreviated form . Why bother with a "fuller" form just to end up abbreviating it? Well apart from teaching you basic planes and angles of movement in an amplified way that...

Introduction Readers of my blog will be familiar with my previous discussion concerning what have become known as cluster “H” and cluster “M” goju-ryu kata (see my article The origins of goju-ryu kata: Part 1 ). Cluster “H” consists of Higaonna Kanryo sanchin, sanseiru, seisan and suparinpei. Cluster “M” consists of the remainder. Katas in both clusters follow a general design pattern as follows: A — an opening sequence B — the body of the kata, often capable of being broken up into smaller groupings, eg. B1, B2, B3 etc. C — a closing sequence. What differentiates the clusters in design terms is the portion I have labelled “B”: In cluster “H” this portion is largely asymmetrical (ie. right side biased). In cluster “M” this portion — and more specifically each sub-portion (eg. B1, B2, B3 etc.) is symmetrical (i.e. techniques — including turns — are performed more or less equally on both right and left sides). The particular asymmetry of sanseiru In no kata is the asymmetry of cluster ...