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 Martial artists often talk about the the "flinch reflex". Some insist on " training it out " or " getting over it " (if that is at all possible - more on that later). Others like Tony Blauer talk about the need to "transform" this reflex - ie. to harness it and turn it into a productive reaction rather than an essentially submissive one (see his " SPEAR " methodology). With due respect to Mr Blauer and others like him, I think the traditional martial arts have many hundreds of years head start on this idea. In this article I propose to show just how traditional techniques build on the flinch reflex so as to create a supremely effective response in civilian defence scenarios. What is the flinch reflex? This website defines the flinch reflex as follows: "The flinch response is an unconscious response to a perceived threat. Throughout human history, this survival mechanism has protected countless people from serious...