The Way of Least Resistance

Brush knee is one of those central techniques you find in taijiquan - one of its "defining movements", if you will.  Chances are that if you stumble across a picture of someone doing taijiquan, it's either single whip or - or it's brush knee. So I thought it might be useful to run through the ubiquitous brush knee and show some of the varied applications - running from those that people most often use to those that might be more obtuse and even seem "inventive" (but which, I'm sure you'll agree, actually follow the literal form of the technique ). If you want to run through my video at the end of the article, you can.  It goes on a bit.  Or you can just take a look at my brief analysis that accompanies each of the gifs below: The first, and I think most common, interpretation of brush knee is a deflection against a front kick. It certainly does work for that.  In so doing, it uses taiji's " continuing momentum " of which I...

Introduction In my previous installment , I described how one taiji technique (cloud hands) could disrupt another (repulse monkey).  But does it end there?  As it happens, absolutely not!  It could go on and on - because every attack creates an opening, and taijiquan has a counter for every opening. Just to show you what I mean, I'm going to take it one step further: how the move known as "slanting flying" can defeat cloud hands (after it has defeated repulse monkey!). Slanting flying as a solo technique Before I get to the application, I'll describe how the "slanting flying" technique is performed in the taijiquan long form (at least, in its Chen Pan Ling variation): Slanting flying occurs in the second and third sections of the taijiquan form.  I'm going to examine its iteration as it emerges from repulse monkey (because that is the application we've been looking at!). As you finish repulse monkey, your left (back) leg immediately...

Bob demonstrates the applications shown in my video. A few years ago my friend Jim asked the following question on the Traditional Fighting Arts Forums: "I think I'm right in saying there is not 1 authentic, traditional Okinawan 'form' that has a complete 2 man Bunkai in existence?"  Jesse Enkamp  replied with this answer : "One word: Seipai!"   I think Jesse-san was right in this (and also about the fact that, as he said, it wasn't the only one!). That said, I also think it is quite rare for Okinawan and Chinese kata to envisage or even permit a literal 2 person application; to my mind most forms were created entirely for single person performance - bearing in mind that such things as embusen  (floor pattern), repetition of certain sequences, etc. make a literal 2 person application unlikely. You can't see the detail, but my right arm is trapped. However occasionally, just occasionally, you get a significant portion of a kata ...

An example of a karate arm bar: Note how Rob is kept just out of grappling range - and off-balance to prevent him entering grappling range. There is a tendency among many karateka today to find grappling applications (bunkai) in their kata.  That is fine.  Yes,  karate is (undeniably) a "stand up" fighting art, first and foremost, but it also has grappling applications . My only problem with grappling interpretations of kata arises when the bunkai strays into "kata has comprehensive, built-in BJJ applications!'" territory. Let's make this simple, shall we? It doesn't. Karate and other traditional civilian defence arts are not, and never have been, grappling arts  - at least not in the same sense as judo, jujutsu or Greco-Roman wrestling.  If they were, they wouldn't involve quite so many solo "kata", so many obvious punches, kicks, strikes and " blocks ".  They would mostly revolve around... grappling !  With a partn...