Wuwei

Which is why I'd like to just be rid of them. But I get yelled at when I say that to much. The day I have my own dojo....

I had an idea the other day. Maybe something like this already exists if so I'd love a link to it. Otherwise I'd like some help thinking up the mechanics of how to actually build one. I've been thinking about how much time we spend developing our punch in Karate and how little we develop power in our strong arm blocks (as in the forearm blocks in Isshinryu). We get preached at that every block is an attack but we don't really practice it that way. I had this image in my head of what looks almost like a wingchun dummy. It looked like a log almost sticking out of a round mechanical circle like device with thick wooden pegs, maybe three or four, sticking out of the log at chest level. The log could free spin and you could change the level the pegs were at for different blocks. So say you did middle blocks on it, the log would spin, ideally giving you a new peg as it rotated. The device at the bottom could be adjusted for firmness, so the tighter you wound it the more force would be required to make the log spin.

It is on netflix now as well, just FYI.

Can Joe Shmoe fight and can he teach me to do the same? Can he instil morality in his students and create well armed responsible martial artist who get more out of life because of their training under him? If so I don't give two cents where he got his shodan from more less his Judan. The only thing thats fishy to me is that he bothered with the ranks through his own facility at all. And I guess thats the point. I didn't really need him to have another stripe on his belt to teach me and I find it a little odd that he felt this need considering he had already broken away from his previous orginization. That is certainly a red flag.

Hi, first non-introduction post. I just wanted to step in because I also struggled with tai sabaki for a long time. A couple of drills helped me. I also want to reiterate an above poster by saying kata, espicially certain kata, are great for developing an understanding of taisabaki if you practice them correctly and with that in mind. (Naihanchin in paticular helped me). Two things we did at my dojo that helped me: 1) The stick drill Part of my problem with Tai sabaki wasn't even the movement itself as it was predicting when to step. I needed a better understanding of distance and where my centerline actually was. Our sensei took bo and jo staffs of varrying length and had two karateka balance them between eachother dandien. Then we would start to move. At first simple stuff, just seisan stance back and forth, then more complex sideways movements, almost pa kua like circle walking, etc. We had to do pushups if we dropped the stick. It takes a while to get used to this but learning when the centers of two people were alligned helped establish when they were broken. 2) close in sparring. Probably the most controversial thing about me thats not going to make me many friends on here is that I'm not at all for free form free sparing. Thats another story. But I find it useful with context. We used to tape off a very small square of the mat we were not allowed to leave, and then give one combatant only the ability to block or evade, he could not attack. His tai sabaki had to be on point to avoid getting hit. He didn't have the option of making the common mistake of constantly stepping backwards to avoid a strike, he or she basically had to advance and reach the side. Necissety became the mother of invention. Doing this while utilizing the techniques taught in kata proved effective for me. These may be worth a try. There is some solo stuff too. In Pa Kua Zhang they use a technique called circle walking that almost kind of acts like their kata. It may be worth looking at how they do this to get better practice at home or when you have no partner. I find every artist is different though and you have to find out whats going to make it click for you before it will build into your muscle memory. Good luck and please keep me posted! This isn't the easiest skill to learn but its so useful.

Hello fellow artist. Just registered, very excited to be here. My core style is in Isshinryu Karate-do but I have some complimentary experince with Tai Chi Chaun in the style of Ching Man Cheng and Pa Gua Zhang as well as a little Hungar (a friend studies Hun Gar and sometimes we share). I'm here to learn from all of you and I'm curious how other artist percieve things across the globe. I'm at a point in my training where I want to experiment a little and make the craft my own, so I've been doing some recorded experiments and I'll have some questions and request for opinions. You have a wonderful community here and I look forward to meeting all of you.