The Way of Least Resistance

I've received many messages and comments on social media and privately regarding my recent article " Enter the interception ". A common response is exemplified by "Nelson's" below: ""When in doubt strike out." was the maxim under which I was trained. This I took to mean when confrontation is inevitable you must have the wherewithal to react BEFORE you get popped whether it be by a knife, gun or fist. If you insist on being a dojo lawyer and giving an opponent the first shot you'd better stay on the "good" side of town only in daylight hours."   This is a variation on the old " I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6 ". I have to say, it has a lot of emotional appeal and seems unimpeachable when it is raised: no one can disagree with it in principle . However I don't feel this provides any kind of formula for conflict management . To me, it is far too simplistic to capture the myriad social cir...

I'm going to start a series of short pieces dealing with what I consider to be "persistent myths" in the martial arts: myths that won't go away despite contrary logic and a plethora of available information. Since I've been talking about blocks a lot lately, I'm going to start with this one: Traditional blocks are designed to be executed in isolation. Erm... No, they're not.  Why would anyone think so? People might not say this so clearly, but it is often necessarily implicit in their argument.  As Rashaud noted in the comments to my last article: "What's interesting, I think, is that most people look at "blocking" as a static thing.  That all of you've done is "parry" or "deflect" an incoming strike. From that line of thinking, most would therefore consider the formal block overkill, or unworkable." Presumably the impression among these people is that all you do is "block" (ie. stop or re...