In my postings I have made reference to the “soft-to-hard:hard-to-soft” maxim. Simply quoted, “Lastly, I also feel it signifies the maxim of soft-to-hard:hard-to-soft applications. I believe this is symbolized because it provides a maxim that applies to all technique applications depending on the targeting. A punch involves the closed fist and punching with the fore-knuckles, i.e. karate punch, and a strike involves the open hand such as a slap to the head, an open handed back hand to the face, or the use of the open hand, the elbow, the forearm or both elbow and forearm. The soft-to-hard:hard-to-soft maxim means use a hard, fist, against soft targets; a soft, strike/slap, against hard targets.”
Thanks to the article/post by Wim Demeere at his blog by the same title/name clears the air of any inferences that this maxim is all encompassing as it sounds. (http://www.wimsblog.com/2014/09/open-hand-closed-fist-striking-best/#comment-33245) It is kind of inferred in its presentation that this is the end all of striking with the hands against human targets, i.e. head vs. stomach, etc. It is not, there are many more aspects to this maxim that are not really apparent when reading such short/terse explanations of such things.
First, nothing in print is ever complete and comprehensive, there is always “more to the story.” What most postings are about is information you may not have that “requires” additional explanation. Postings do a good job but often for the sake of brevity and ease of reading (actually, to get most humans to read at all they need to perceive that it will be short and sweet and interesting before they will attempt to read it) tend to be short, terse and incomplete.
Anyway, when I talk, speak or write about this maxim it must be understood, similar to the principles of martial systems, that there are more factors to this maxim than simply hit to hard with soft and hit to soft with hard. Like Yin-Yang, that concept and symbol are far more complex then simply stating they are opposites such as Hard is the opposite to Soft, it ain’t all that simple and neither is the hard-to-soft/soft-to-hard maxim.
Other factors are:
Your own body, i.e. your mass, your bone structure, the bone density, your ability to align and attain correct structure, the strength of the muscles-bones-tendons-cartilage, etc. along with body conditioning.
Your mind, as in the extent and detail of your instruction, practice, and ability to apply said training into applications under the roof of things like level of force, violence and the conflict along with all the physical and chemical effects triggered by fear, anger and the level of danger, etc.
There there are more minute details such as the bone structure of the tool that will apply the technique. Take the hand, since most will directly assume that this model applies to the hands for striking, etc., for instance. The hand bone structure and ability to make a fist, etc. also have an impact on whether you strike with the fist or open hand. As in boxing, the hands ability to clench and make a fist (there are several forms of the fists in martial arts alluded to in regards to how it is applied and to what target, etc.) determines whether it will either resist breaking or break when applied to targets that are hard such as the head or say the shin with a double fist block used as bunkai in karate (oh, by the way, my interpretation of that block is not to stop a kick and that bunkai changes the dynamics of this example).
Then we can discuss those details that are explained in Wim Demeere’s article on this subject, i.e. “the types of impact; the target of the strike, punch, etc.; the angle of that attack along with the applied strike, etc.; the person or adversaries body type; and finally the type of martial art or self-defense system.
In addition I also attribute this maxim to the completeness and proper application of the fundamental principles of the martial arts, i.e., those major principles of “Theory, Physiokinetics, Technique and Philosophy.” Also as example, sub-principles of say physiokinetics such as “breathing, posture, centerline, alignment, structure, body-mind, centripetal/centrifugal forces, sequential locking/unlocking, etc.”
Martial Arts/Karate are not simple and easy disciplines to teach, learn or explain - especially in written forms. They are simply complex systems that take time, energy and dedication to learn, train and apply. Any maxim explained should be assumed to be simplistic for the nature of postings and articles so that the reader can explore, experiment and get further guidance from more experienced sources to “get the rest of the story.”
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