The Way of Least Resistance

Introduction I recently canvassed a favourite issue of mine - namely the need to time your punching/striking hand at the same time (or a fraction before) your front foot lands in a step. A typical xingyi step.  Note the punch lands with the front foot.  The back leg draws up later. As you'll recall I first raised this in my article " Xingyi stepping vs. karate stepping " as a means of discussing some of the particular technical approaches used in the internal arts of China.  I principally did so as part of my drive to explain that these arts actually have some genuine, quite advanced , fighting methods that rely on simple, unadulterated physics - not " woo " (ie. "qi" or some other supernatural/paranormal phenomenon) as many people unfortunately seem to think. I followed this up with my article " Giving away the big secrets " in which I discussed one major reason why this was so important: because it uses your stepping momentum i...

Further to my articles "Karate and the Chinese martial arts Parts 1 and 2 "... Many questions have been raised in on the internet about white crane sanchin and its relationship to goju-ryu and uechi-ryu. For those who haven't done so I invite you to visit the website of my friend Martin Watts, a long-time practitioner of Yong Chun white crane. His website (http://www.fujianbaihe.com) has many videos with links to his master's site in China. The videos are very interesting and I think show that uechi-ryu is arguably the closest Okinawan form to Yong Chun baihe (white crane). In my many discussions with Martin on this topic I know he certainly thinks so. I don't think they are related in a linear sense, but they are certainly "cousin" arts. In goju, the nearest we come to white crane is our form "tensho" (there is at least one Yong Chun form with similar movements). I can see why many would argue a close connection between naha te (both uechi r...

It is known that a version of Seisan was taught in Naha by Seisho Aragaki as early as 1867. Moreover the Shuri and Tomari te styles of karate (the “Shorin” schools) appear to have taught a version of Seisan even before this. Seisan is presently taught in all Goju-ryu schools, in Ryuei-Ryu, in Tou’on-ryu and Uechi-ryu (the "Naha te" schools). Although the Uechi-ryu version is significantly different from the other Naha te schools in the second half, the first half is clearly identifiable as being from the same source. As with Sanchin, Seisan is said to have been performed originally with open hands (which is still the case in the Uechi-ryu kata). Seisan is also still common to all systems of Shorin schools, truly warranting its status as "the universal kata". At first glance the Shorin versions of Seisan appear to be completely different to those of the Naha te schools, however a closer analysis reveals that they too are related, albeit distantly. Goju seisan - as pe...