The Way of Least Resistance

Introduction People are often at me to illustrate what I mean when I talk about "dilution" in karate/martial arts so I thought I'd do so by reference to the common chudan uke or chest deflection. I have chosen chudan uke because I think it provides one of the starkest examples of how a technique can be passed down from generation to generation with the same macro movement - but with all the essential details missing. In this article I will be referencing a particular karateka of a particular school (see below) not because I wish to denigrate either, but because I am respectfully diametrically opposed to how they do their chudan uke - and their video clearly highlights our differences in approach. I'm sure that the student is an excellent all-round karateka and fighter and that the school is reputable, however in respect of their chudan uke we have a technical disagreement. I will outline why I feel I am "right" and why their performance of chud...

I was walking with my teacher, Chen Yun Ching, through the cluttered, stony streets of Qishan in southern Taiwan, blood-red paper and tinsel jostling with with the pushy crowds and endless market stalls. "How do you you say 'Happy New Year'?" I asked him, and he paused, mid-stream, while people flowed around him, a rock in the rapids. I carefully repeated his words again and again, watching his eyebrows raise higher and his eyes go wider in increasing exasperation at my mangled tones, until he finally waved his hand saying "hao" (good) - whether in satisfaction or in resignation, I wasn't sure. With some optimism I shouted out my newly-acquired greeting to the first people I saw: a group of young men and women walking past, chatting amiably in the spirt of New Year's Eve revelry. Almost at once they fell about laughing (literally, for one young man actually sank to the ground, hugging his belly), stamping their feet, vainly trying to stifle guffaws a...

So what was the Decadal Gashuku all about? In 10 days we had run more than 150 km, performed close to 10 000 kicks and an equal number of punches, strikes and blocks. We had trained for 10 hours per day, sweated buckets of water, used up litres of sunscreen and eaten gallons of maltabela porridge. We had lifted chi shis, pressed the kongo ken, done thousands of knuckle push-ups, sit-ups, squat kicks and fireman lifts up steep hills. Certainly the gashuku was, to a large extent, an exercise in spirit training. But there was much more to it than that, and it would be unfair to ignore these other aspects in the face of "more exciting" events like fractured vertebra, dislocated shoulders and dehydration-induced delirium . The Decadal Gashuku is where I learned (and inculcated) some very useful (and in fact fundamental) martial material that in the pre-internet era was particularly hard to come by. In weapons alone I learned Hamahiga no tonfa, Tsukenshitahaku sai kata (a tri...

It was mid-afternoon half way through the second week of the Decadal gashuku . Tim Hull and I were shuffling along a dusty track somewhere in the African savannah. The group with which we’d started running had long since dispersed; the front pack having disappeared into the far distance while behind us about 20 or so stragglers were spread out over several kilometres. We were about 16 km into what was a half marathon. As trudged along, each step sent sharp spasms up my spine (due to what I later discovered was a fractured vertebra). I reflected on how we had come to be in this position... The morning had started out promisingly enough; we had a very short run – only 5 or so kilometres – followed by some chi sau (sticky hands drills from wing chun) and then some taiji. So far so good. We had breakfast and rested as the sun came out and the sky cleared away from the previous night’s storm. We were in for a hot, dry day. Our mid-morning lesson was about to begin and I reluctantly ...

My favourite passage in the Hagakure 1 is the one about the 10 blind 2 masseuses. I have copied it below: “Once a group of ten blind masseuses were traveling together in the mountains, and when they began to pass along the top of a precipice, they all became very cautious, their legs shook, and they were in general struck with terror. Just then the leading man stumbled and fell off the cliff. Those that were left all wailed, ‘Ahh, Ahh! How piteous!’ But the masseuse who had fallen yelled up from below, ‘Don’t be afraid. Although I fell, it was nothing. I am now rather at ease. Before falling I kept thinking “What will I do if I fall” and there was no end to my anxiety. But now I’ve settled down. If the rest of you want to be at ease, fall quickly!’” – Hagakure (Book of the Samurai), Yamamoto Tsunetomo I first read that in 1985. It's a shame it hadn't sunken in by the time of the Decadal Gashuku (training camp) held in the first 2 weeks of 1990. All the fretting I did l...

By now many of you will be aware of the video below, apparently taken on 13 December 1984 1 at a karate dojo in Dumfries, Virginia. It shows a brutal, unprovoked and totally reprehensible bashing of a young mentally disturbed man who claimed to be a kung fu practitioner "taught by Jesus". The video has gone viral. Possibly the only good thing to emerge from this is the universal outrage and condemnation it has provoked. 2 That people should have such a sense of outrage in this day and age of "ground and pound MMA" and other media violence which has a "brutalizing effect" is surprising, but also gratifying. It restores a little bit of my faith in humanity. The now infamous video of the bashing at a Virginia karate dojo in 1984. Warning: this video contains highly disturbing footage. For those who would rather avoid watching the video (I include it for the sake of completeness, but don't advocate anyone watching it) I can provide the following p...

Introduction I am about to reveal one of my personal " secret " martial art training methods. I would go so far as to say that it is the single most important way to learn how to apply civilian defence techniques in a dynamic environment. I am speaking, of course, of the sparring method we call randori . As I have explained previously, randori is a kind of sparring analogous to the "playfighting" of dogs; the movement is continuous and flowing, takes place entirely within what I call the melee range and features strikes/punches/kicks that are controlled (rather than made to miss - see my article " Control vs. missing "). I'm sure most of you have seen dogs engaging in their playfighting. It really is the only "preparation" dogs have for real fighting. Yet I don't think any of us would doubt the ability of a dog to fight on the basis of this preparation. In fact, those of you who have seen real, all-out dog fights (and I have seen ...