The origins of Yin-Yang go back almost 5000 years when people observed that by day the sun would shine and farmers would work on the land, and by night, the sun would seemingly disappear and everyone would sleep. Yin was equated with day time, light, heat and activity. Yang was equated to night time, cold and passivity. Continue Reading →
It is often said that for an accomplished martial artist, the weapon becomes an extension of his own techniques. If a martial artist has poor form, this will show in his kobudo. That much is true but, in reality, we must first become an extension of the weapon before we can effectively project it as an extension of our technique. That means sensitivity training.
Weighing UpWho has not picked up a pen and tossed it in the air only to catch it moments later after it has spun once or twice? If you haven’t done this yourself, you will have witnessed somebody else doing it or even been disturbed at a public gathering when somebody else has dropped the pen they were playing with. What are they actually doing there? Well, firstly they have to weigh up the pen; that means assessing its weight and weight distribution. From there, they get an idea of how much force will be required to throw it up in the air, and they can estimate how much turning force is required to make it spin in the air. They don’t work that out in a lecture theatre or with a pen and paper. The maths would be horrendous, I am sure, but the human mind and body working in harmony together can just intuit such things in a blink of an eye. Continue Reading →
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