The Way of Least Resistance

Evening discussions after a long day of training - I see this blog as analogous in its function. Okay, so in recent times I've written some pretty long articles.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to start splitting some of them up (at least, where they deal with discreet issues permitting such a split). [For example, you'll notice I just split up the very long " There are no blocks " article, creating the new article " There are no blocks in MMA? ".] This brings me to the whole issue of "length".  What length should a blog post be? I suppose the answer to that depends on what you think a blog should be about . I incline to the general view that people read blogs (of the technical sort mine is!) principally for two reasons: to gain information they do not already have; or because it puts into words that which they already think but haven't fully analysed or been able to rationalise or explain to others. One thing is for sure: p...

The other day I received an email query about the nature and purpose of kata. As it raises some very pertinent issues I thought I would share it with you and also my response. "I was reading your blog and the information on the page for the traditional school of martial arts. I was just wondering your thoughts on the internal art of Tai Chi and the application of solo forms of that as well as katas of karate. The application part is what is all kind of new to me and where I am having trouble understanding. With the repetitive nature of these forms and styles, in real world setting,(not at competitions to gain points)is the aim for it to be second nature and to "re-act" rather than square up and have a formal fight?" This query made me made me realise that I have never really addressed the issue of what I consider to be its main purpose. [Readers of my blog will be aware that I have previously discussed purposes of kata in the articles such as: “ Kata - art or sci...