The Way of Least Resistance

Further to my article “ The origins of tensho ” I came across this video recently.  It shows Lee Kong Sifu demonstrating a white crane form of an unknown name.  The form is the closest I’ve ever seen to the goju kata tensho. The form is from Fujian white crane. What is most fascinating to me is that, like tensho, it proceeds with forward steps in sanchin/sanzhan, where the “up, down, side, side” action (which some call “rokkishu” or “fishtail exercise” ) is repeated - first with one hand, then with the other, then with both simultaneously . This is the only time I have ever seen this exact sequence in a Chinese system.  (You'll note from my previous article that the form bafen only performs the sequence with both hands simultaneously - never the hands individually.) The form then goes on to various finger thrusts that might be counterparts to similar thrusts at the end of tensho, some more palm/hand movements (which have no parallel in tensho), a double ha...

Further to my article: "The naming of sanchin" ... I have heard it said in crane circles that there is a different sanchin for every student, or words to that effect. I don't know if that is true, but every variant of crane seems to have a sanjan/sanzhan/saamchien. Ngo cho kun (5 ancestor fist) is based on 5 shaolin styles of which crane is one, hence they have sanchin. While Kanbun Uechi's art seems to have been a compilation of his all his various studies, I think it was most heavily influenced by white crane. Uechi certainly looks a lot like Fujian white crane (in my view much more than goju). For downloadable videos check out my friend Martin Watt's site: http://www.fujianbaihe.com/ . He does Yong Chun white crane. His site has links to his Chinese school's site (which has more videos). Also have a look at Eric Ling's sanjin on http://www.goju-ryu.info/ (Fuzhou Ancestral Crane - said to be the crane form that lead to all the crane variants - calling c...

“Grounding” (sometimes called “rooting”) is an essential skill in traditional martial arts and is often associated with the sanchin/sanzhan stance in many schools of karate and particularly external southern Chinese arts. It also features strongly in the internal arts of xingyi and its offshoot yi quan (see my articles “ Sanchin in the Chinese martial arts ”, “ The naming of sanchin ” and “ Seisan - the universal kata” where I suggest a link between sanchin and xingyi’s “san ti” posture which utilises a stance sometimes called “zhan bu” (battle stance)). In our school we practise a kind of “standing pushing” exercise in sanchin intended to develop and test grounding. Both partners stand in sanchin at bent elbow range – one hand on the hip, one hand on the shoulder. There are no “rules” other than “no leaning” and “no sudden or pulsating thrusts”. The drill is illustrated in the video below: Sanchin pushing So far I've been able to resist such “standing pushing” by far stronge...

A colleague of mine on gojuryu.net recently said the following in response to my article: “ Whole lotta shakin’: pre-loading the hips ”: “When stepping, there is an inherent motion to the hips. If this is utilized to load a technique, then there is no telegraphing or slowdown. I think examples where there is a block THEN hip load THEN strike will never work against a properly motivated attacker. However, why can't all three of those things be the same - ie, block and punch with the same hip motion at the same time?” I think this is an excellent point. It occurred to me many martial arts movements are specifically designed this way. Consider the humble sanchin dachi (3 battles stance) as it occurs in goju ryu and other karate kata. That stance involves a pelvic tension which occurs as you step up into the stance just before you effect a technique (whether it is a block or a punch or both). That pelvic tension produces a 45 degree movement in the hips, creating forward and “upwar...