The Way of Least Resistance

Introduction When I first started practising taijiquan in late 1989 I was somewhat perplexed by the sequence known as "single whip": Here was this curious series of movements, it's final position so often captured in still photographs as the essence of taiji – one hand in front, the other out at the back and slightly to the side with the wrist bent as if "holding a dirty sock by the tips of the fingers"! It seemed totally unrealistic and irrelevant to fighting. Try as I might, in the following years I could not think of how or why one would bother with this "posture" (it is more accurately described as a sequence of movements ) as a "fighting technique". The best I could do was "shelve" consideration of the sequence until I had further information. Since many of my most admired martial elders practised taijiquan I reasoned that there must be some good reason for it. Then in 2005 I had the honour of becoming a student Che...

Introduction I have often spoken about what I call the “Goldilocks zone” - the optimal place on your forearm for intercepting and deflecting or blocking strikes and kicks. However it occurs to me that I haven’t even properly explained what I mean by that term. As you will recall from the children’s fairytale, Goldilocks sampled three bowls of porridge at the bears’ house - one was too hot, one too cold, one just right. She did the same for the 3 chairs (one too small, one too big, the other just right) and ditto the beds (too hard, too soft, just right). Astronomers refer to the “Goldilocks zone” in a solar system - meaning the zone ideal for liquid water and hence permitting life of the kind we know here on Earth; not too hot, not too cold, but just right. So it seems to me that it is also quite fitting to refer to the portion of the forearm ideal for intercepting attacks as the “Goldilocks zone”. A video in which I discuss the “Goldilocks zone” for blocks/deflections The Goldilocks...