The Way of Least Resistance

I'm pleased to announce that my video "Bridging Hard and Soft Vol. 1: Fundamentals" is now available for purchase from my online shop which can be found here . More details can be found in my recent press release and article .  Otherwise, here's a teaser for the video: Addendum: the video is now also available from direct download (at least in the US - it might take another week or so to reach other countries Amazon stores). Copyright © 2015 Dejan Djurdjevic

Some of you might be wondering what I've been up to in recent weeks.  Well I certainly haven't been idle! Rather, in response to countless emails and personal messages requesting it, I've been preparing a very special DVD series: A comprehensive course introducing karateka and other external martial arts practitioners to functional, practical internal arts methods (not " woo woo "!).   Ultimately the 2 DVDs that comprise this course provides a complete sub-system for students wishing to add practical "softness" to advanced training within their own art. The DVDs feature techniques from the hybrid forms of Hong Yi Xiang's Taipei-based Tang Shou Dao (Karatedo) system .  Because of their "crossover" nature, they will have sense of familiarity to karateka, northern and southern Chinese stylists and even Filipino/Indonesian artists. Accordingly, they are designed to act as a kind of "plug-in" for most traditional "hard...

Introduction In my upcoming seminar on the half hard, half soft art of Hong Yi Xiang, I will be concentrating on various "internal" or "soft" elements - and marrying these with the more familiar "external" or "hard" elements.  I hope to do this by using form - and extrapolating to function.  This should also give participants a good idea of why the heck one should bother with traditional forms or "kata" in the first place. So what are some of these "soft" elements? Well as I've discussed many times before they have precious little to do with qi/chi balls or paranormal powers.  Instead I'm going to cover some of the more subtle, but very useful, skills of grounding, movement/evasion (including footwork) and deflection/interception/entry that are actually quite counter-intuitive at first glance, yet obviously practical and simple at the second: concepts that make sense in a civilian defence environment and even i...

Further to my recent article about the "bridging forms" of Hong Yi Xiang's Tang Shou Dao , I've decided to hold a seminar in Perth on 4 October 2015 from 10 am to 2.30 pm at the Lake Nenia Retreat in Mundaring (the Honbu dojo of the Academy of Traditional Fighting Arts ). Anyone who is going to be in the Perth region on that day is welcome to attend. If you are a karate practitioner, I hope it provides an added angle to how you see your karate as it has for me.  The "bridging form" component of the Tang Shou Dao system is one of the few Chinese arts that crosses over very well into the Ryukyuan arts (and to my eye seems to be heavily influenced by it). If you are an external gong fu practitioner, this should be right up your alley. If you are an internal arts practitioner looking for something that gives you ideas of practical applications to your art, then I believe this will also be of interest. If you are a more modern combat sports or real...