The Way of Least Resistance

In my recent article " The roundhouse kick and traditional martial arts " I wrote the following: "So how does an art like karate treat the mawashi geri? What does it do to make the movement less "risky" and more "applicable" in civilian defence?  It makes the movement less of a "power" movement and more a conservative one. It throws the kick as a snap ." In the early days of debating with combat sports fans I lost count of the number of times that I heard this argument: "If it worked so well, why don't we see it in MMA?" Well, as with the front snap kick , I knew it was only ever going to be a matter of time.  And now, in the space of one week, we've had two separate knockouts , both with the trademark karate mawashi geri keage (roundhouse kick using a snap).  The only difference between these and the kick usually taught in karate dojos is that the instep was used instead of the ball of foot (but then again, t...

Using body momentum should feel like you're falling into the punch I find it odd that so many martial artists I speak to will say to me that they can't reveal "x" or "y" because they are "sworn to secrecy" by their master(s) concerning the information in question. As far as I can tell, my teacher Chen Yun Ching has always shown me everything he could in the time available .  He has held nothing back.  And he has issued no caveats on me passing on his knowledge either. 1 The same applies to my first primary teacher, Bob Davies . For the most part none of my teachers have kept " secrets " - even if certain (profound) information known to them is hardly known to some others.  They have given me their knowledge without restriction and without fettering my own capacity to pass it on. It is in this spirit that I wish to share details of what I regard as  very important knowledge . It is knowledge to which I've alluded...

Introduction Further to my recent articles on the front snap kick , I thought I’d go through some of the finer points of how to do it. I hope this will be especially useful to beginners since this is the sort of information I found very useful early in my career. In fact, I still have these points in the back of my mind every time I practice front kicks. I think it is important to keep trying to attain the unattainable - the perfect front kick, free of any extraneous movement before, during and after the technique. The importance of refining your techniques Why is technique refinement so important to the front snap kick? There are 2 reasons: to avoid telegraphing your kick; and to make your front kick as efficient and economical as it can be so as to maximize the force applied to your target. There is a high premium on both of these. First, you don’t want to telegraph your technique at the best of times. The issue only gets more urgent when you are standing on one leg - as is the ...

The need for distinction Recent discussions with martial arts colleagues on the Traditional Fighting Arts Forum have made me aware of the need to enunciate the difference between using "rise" or "fall" in your martial techniques and the "sine wave" theory of ITF taekwondo . "Rise and fall" "Rising and falling" in martial arts techniques not only makes sense, but it is necessarily built into most human movement. The problem arises when one attempts to become dogmatic about using a rise or fall. Rising and falling should occur naturally; movements should not be forced into a "rise/fall" mould. And as with " koshi " (using the hips to add force), while rising or falling can be used to add force to a blow, one should not focus too strongly on this aspect. There are multiple ways of generating greater force, and all of them are both valid and necessary. Not one of them is, of itself, some kind of panacea. And all of t...

Lessons from China After my recent intensive training with Master Chen, a fellow karateka asked me the following: ”I hope this isn’t a stupid question, but did you learn anything of relevance to karate?” My answer was, “yes”. There were many applications of forms and other techniques which I couldn’t help notice existed in precisely the same form in Okinawan karate. But more relevantly, this trip has reaffirmed one of my core beliefs about the relationship between karate and Chinese martial arts – in particular the internal or “soft” arts: they are really part of the same continuum. What differentiates them on a surface level evaporates once one starts to use biomechanically sound and efficient principles of movement (see my article “ Goju as an internal art ”). One of the most important of these principles is the need for “flow” or connectivity between techniques. Many Chinese martial artists lament that karate seems to have lost any semblance of "flow". While ...

Introduction Most martial artists share the goal of “hitting harder”. This is usually expressed in colloquial terms as hitting with “more force” or “more power”. But even a basic knowledge of physics will tell you that “force” and “power” are not the same thing. Which is it that makes you hit “harder” – force, power or both? And is it more helpful to talk in terms of something else such as momentum? Understanding force Many people think of “force” in very nebulous terms (perhaps explaining such misappropriations as “The Force” in Star Wars). So what is “force” as understood in physics? Force is something that enables you to cause an object with mass to accelerate . In other words, it is Newton’s famous formula: f = m x a . Using this formula people commonly argue that in order to hit “harder” they need to – 1. maximise their mass; and 2. maximise the acceleration of their attack. For the most part this is true: if you have a big mass and accelerate that mass well, you will maximis...