Reversing momentum: "dead time" or useful tactic?
Introduction In my recent article " How the internal arts work: Part 1 " I discussed the issue of " dead time " - ie. time which is not productive or efficient in relation to achieving your desired outcome. Some of the comments made in relation to that article raised the issue of whether "reversal of momentum" is a subset of " dead time ". I believe that there are many instances where reversal of momentum is far from " dead time ". This is true of both unarmed and armed fighting. In fact, as I will detail in a forthcoming article, taijiquan makes extensive use of this tactic. However my recent immersion in the study of traditional Chinese swordplay, including the long military saber most recently known as the miao dao 苗刀 (used by the Chinese military in the Second Sino-Japanese War ), has provided at least one other concrete example of why it is sometimes necessary (and useful) to reverse your momentum. Reasons for reversing ...