The Way of Least Resistance

Where angels fear to tread I did something the other day that I normally don't do: I was enticed to go onto one of the big forums where, it seems, they were discussing one of my articles. All I can say is, I realised after a few minutes why I don't frequent forums any more. Despite my own promises I couldn't resist replying to one train of thought by a certain "rne02" who raised that old chestnut: " There are no blocks! ".  I've dealt with that subject exhaustively and if you haven't read my article on the subject, then I encourage you to do so here . But another writer, "jwt", did go on to say some related things that demand separate analysis.  Here are a few quotes: I'm saying you're not really using the Uke. You are essentially just parrying with a tiny rotator cuff movement and body shift online and telling yourself that because you have done something that resembles the tail end of the Uke technique, you have...

Most martial artists - in fact most people - alive today know of Bruce Lee.  And many of will know what he called his personal martial arts system: Jeet Kune Do - the Way of the Intercepting Fist  Okay - so what did he mean by that?  Lee goes some small way to explaining his system in this (famous) episode of Longstreet (set to start at the correct point): But I suspect that you, like me, are left with a sense of dissatisfaction after watching this.  What does "interception" mean in this context?  Does he mean "stopping"? Or does he mean "preventing" by some other means?  And what exactly is he "intercepting"?  Is he intercepting a particular attack (ie. an aggressive movement)?  Is he intercepting some physical cue of the attacker's intention ?  Or is he intercepting the attacker generally  (assuming "interception" has any meaning in such a context)? All of this serves to present a kind of "apparent paradox...

I have often been confronted with the argument from modern or eclectic martial artists that karate or other traditional martial arts are deficient because they use what I call "blocks" [ie. parries or deflections] as their primary means of defence rather than purely evasion (as in boxing). [In relation to the effectiveness of blocks, note my article " Why blocks DO work ".] As I said recently on the fightingarts.com forum, it seems that the above article has at least shifted the debate from "blocks don't work" to the merits of pure evasion over blocking with evasion. The modern martial artists argue that they find pure evasion, more often than not, puts them "exactly where they want to be" in order to attack the opponent, at "exactly the right moment to be there". As one correspondent wrote: "As far as I'm concerned, that's about as good as it gets." I disagree. I think it can get a whole lot better. For some ...