Uechi-Ryu.com

We have lots of information but little knowledge and what knowledge we do have we also do not fully understand.......All martial artists possess a great deal of information,not just intellectual information either, but understanding it comes after many years, if you live that long. Notice how someone in the forum here mentions TAI SABAKI and another person takes a bit of an issue with it. Now mention kuzushi and see what happens! The old masters, and I use that term advisedly, in their old age did a return to basics usually, mainly, and not strictly because of old age or infirmity,etc. If you study the lives of the great judo masters, great karate masters, great kungfu masters,etc. and avoid the embellishments their followers give to them, you will find that simplicity of principles is there. That's my take for the day. Thanks for your time. Halford

The depth of any practice lies in the subtleties of each and every movement. As you explore the movements in minute detail listening to your body as you perform them you are exposed to the complexities and the depths of these movements. The more you go deeper the more you discover, and then you realize just how simple it all really is.

Look at TAI SABAKI. Simply put this is moving off line. But each movement needs to have the six harmonies. Each movement needs to be coordinated with the Dan Tein. Each Movement should incorporate the yin and yang. Each movement should incorporate opening and closing. Each movement should incorporate sinking. Etc. etc, etc. But once you “feel” all of what seems complex and deep, then you are back to simply getting off line.

The complexities are really our unlearning improper movement. Once we get by all of that we are back to “simplicity of principles” mentioned by Halford.

Natural movements and principles are the simplest yet at first they can seem the most complex.

So in Jujitsu leave behind all the different techniques you can create from this one principle because in reality they are all the same move. Strip away all the mass of different applications and seek the depth of what is natural and simple in that principle. Usually you must go through what at first appears complex. But once you reach the simplicity then you do not need all those different applications because you can always use that principle anyway it applies.

To relate this back to Uechi the more I study the deeper I go. The more I find the more I see I do not know. And yet, once I do know it seems simple to have appeared so complex in the beginning. The Sanchin Thrust is a deep area of study; but once you understand that layer (and begin to see the next) the execution is simple.

So the depth of any study of martial arts is to continue to move down through the layers of “complexity” to find what is simple and natural.

Anyway there are a few thoughts.