The Way of Least Resistance

Following my last article " The woo way of taijiquan " I have received a lot of feedback in various places (Facebook, forums, etc.) .  Most of it has been overwhelmingly supportive and positive.  This is heartening. Some of it has been very negative.  I suppose that is to be expected when your write polemics as I do.  In relation to the latter, I've had a number of consistent questions and I thought I'd address them here: "How can you say you're being 'scientific' when you haven't done any kind of proper study?" This argument suggests that I haven't really done enough to claim that "science backs me up". Well it's true that I haven't done a scientific study.  What I have done is point out that basic physics doesn't support the woo merchants - ie. that their claims are  extraordinary . And, despite any initial sophist protestations, I think they would have to agree: If basic physics  did  support thei...

Okay after I got home after Wednesday's taijiquan training I posted this YouTube video, taken during the class.  It is simply me teaching (as are all my videos): there is nothing rehearsed and nothing contrived.  What you see is what happened spontaneously on the night. I also posted it on a Facebook page called " The Fajin Project " - an excellent group (created by my friend Stuart Shaw) that is "dedicated to advancing the empirical and practical investigation of Fajin within the Chinese Martial Arts" (Fā Jìn, 發勁, is translated as "launching power").  I did so with the following comment: "I think my video from last night's class illustrates the need for good basics. And also the need not to deify a teacher. If you look closely you'll see that when my basic technique is off, the application doesn't work. When my basic technique is on, it does work. In other words, my students aren't giving me a free pass." Chen Man Ch...