The Article

In a recent posting on facebook the following was presented and triggered my responses that are placed strategically throughout in bold-red. This article, in my mind and experience, is chock full of really great sound-bite-terms and phases that seems valid but when you dig deeper and apply actual physics, logic and research tend to fall short of reality. As I progressed reading and considering and responding it came to me that there is a lot of misdirection and suggestive influences possibly based on inexperience outside the dojo and that much is passed along from generation to generation without enough research to discover the reality of principles, etc., to apply teachings and skills in a reality that is violence. 

In short, sounds good but does't cut the mustard from my cheap seat!

Here is the article and responses:

The Three Powers of White Crane Karate

White Crane, I understood, was a Chinese boxing system referred to as “Gung Fu.” So, a bit confused why someone would refer to it as a form of “karate” especially since karate’s origins are Okinawan. Yes, I understand that Gung Fu had a huge influence on the development of karate on the island but hey, it isn’t white crane but a offshoot form that contributed to the creation of Oki-karate. 

There are mysteries all around us.  This one we can solve.  While we will all make discoveries over a lifetime of training there is nothing mystical or mysterious about the three kinds of martial power – ‘jins’ or energy-flows – that are used in Chinese, Japanese and Okinawan martial arts.  All three are useful in the dynamics of combat. All three are accessible to us.

Ok, being the stickler I am what I understand of power is that power is power especially in the application of physical power, and force, toward an aggressive physical manifestation be it sport or self-protection. In the second part it makes specific references to that power as used in “combat (not a true nor adequate descriptive term for karate in self-protection or even sport)” where the energy of the body, its mass in movement, is singular and specific to the body while not three separate kinds, that is impossible. 

Now, power in general in nature is also singular while the generation of that power comes from, “electricity; nuclear; etc.” while physical power manifested is about movement and mass applied in specific ways. It is literally impossible to detect and measure any separate and distinct forms of power generated that way regardless. Saying that the body can manifest and use three “KINDS” of power is “IMPOSSIBLE” and “MISTAKEN” in its use herein. 

For instance, define power: “the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality; the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events; supply (a device) with mechanical or electrical energy; move or travel with great speed or force; physical strength and force exerted by something or someone; energy that is produced by mechanical, electrical, or other means and used to operate a device; supply (a device) with mechanical or electrical energy; move or travel with great speed or force.”

No where, no where in that definition is there a kind of power, in three separate forms, can be defined in the applicant of said power generation by the human form through movement of mass to achieve a certain speed, direction and targeting of said traits to achieve force and power generation and effect to said target. 

Some claim that karate relies on only one kind of power, and that tai chi and other internal styles use another.

You can say this all you want but unless you can research it, test it, see it or feel it or some other way determine the true existence of it, it is just the imagination making a symbolic philosophical effort to describe the indescribable that comes from laziness and/or ignorance, etc.

Hard and soft, internal and external, are valid distinctions, 

No, they aren’t unless you provide appropriate data that makes them realistic and distinct stand alone concepts. 

and you have to start somewhere. But as you train you find that practical combative styles include both internal and external training, introducing a spectrum of “hard,” “hard-soft” and “soft” energy transmission techniques.

internal and external training - there is NO internal or external training, training is training and it can be mental or physical while in such disciplines as martial arts and karate it is both. Prove the existence of internal training because even to do that you need the movement of external. Now, visual imagery is effective in training but try defining “training or train or practice” and you will NOT FIND either internal or external in that definition. 

a spectrum of “hard,” “hard-soft” and “soft” energy transmission techniques. - Sounds good but take a few moments and contemplate this and you will find outside the imagination there is only one way to transmit energy and using dynamic tension or positive relaxation does NOT generate nor transmit that energy, it simply conveys what is generated at some level attributed not the tension or relaxation but to the actual application of principles such as alignment, structure, movement, mass, etc. into a target. It is simply either a stable or less than stable conveyance like the diameter of a wire that allows levels of energy or power to be carried from one point to another. 

Techniques in and of themselves do NOT generate power or force but like the wiring simply become the path that allows it to flow toward a point. In power generation of the human body it either drains it off to compensate for improper alignment, stability, etc. making it now powerful enough or it achieves proficient stability to maximize power so force maximized can be achieved when it reaches the target point. 

These three ‘powers’ are tools. Each has its use.

They are not mysterious. They are not secret. They are natural.

 Dig deeper, this type of information and presentation is just close enough to other more realistic realities that it seems true and correct and it sounds, sound bite training and practice, but realistically when applied under the stress of adrenaline action attacks it often fails to reach a true realistic objective of self-protection. It looks pretty, it looks great and it can be quantified in testing from a purely philosophical perspective but when the rubber meets the road in reality it fails miserably. 

Hard-Soft Techniques – When its Time to Go Ballistic

Hard-soft techniques are ballistic, 

Ballistics: Ballistics is the field of mechanics that deals with the launching, flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, unguided bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance. Now, note closely that even in the manifestation of karate toward physical stuff it is about performance, i.e., the path of the body movement to the target and the stability of the body through physiokinetic’s  that create acceleration of the body and its mass to achieve a desired performance and thus results. Ballistics is more about firearms, etc., then karate but it “sounds good” and since everyone has some understanding of ballistics it seems appropriate and applicable in karate or martial arts while in truth people who understand more than sound-bits knowledge of the subjects in question will instinctively know this is incorrectly describing a desire in self-protective applications and methodologies. Ballistics even applies somewhat in a physical form of the human body has NOTHING to do with hard or soft no matter how defined. 

Even in the hard-to-soft/soft-to-hard maxim where you use the bodies softer parts to slap the harder targets and the bodies harder parts to strike or hit the softer parts of the target this is NOT BALLISTICS. 

that is they are thrown explosively, with minimum resistance in the opposing muscles. 

You are going to have to provide a more in-depth explanation because the act of throwing the arm out in a manner that one could call explosive in nature is not how we produce efficient, powerful and proficient methods. You cannot maximize or minimize opposing muscle groups consciously or through training and practice or even application in reality. Muscles are involuntary on that regard, when flexing one the other naturally slacks off to allow the other to work. This is a misnomer. 

They focus energy and intention at a single point. They use a sudden compression of the muscles on contact. 

This makes no sense to me, explain it a bit more please. Muscles either flex or relax, the don’t compress or cause depressions of any kind of which I am aware. 

This muscle contraction prevents the joints from hyperextending or collapsing, driving the power of the punch into the target. 

No, the ability of muscles to stabilize by the two opposing muscle groups stop action be it flex or relax and that is only effective when punching or kicking air. The only way to protect joints, etc., when applying any methodology in self-protection is to master distance, master other physiokinetic principles and ensure that when a target is “targeted” that your distance and the method don’t need the muscles to protect them because proper applications of multiple methodologies does not require the muscles, tendons or cartilage to protect the joint but to stabilize so power and energy are not lost once contact to the target is made. 

Joint alignment supports the target penetration from deep inside your body.

No, they don’t’ support, they stabilize along with alignment, etc. You may think the distinctions are similar or the same but in applications they differ. 

It is natural to use a hard-soft technique when you punch. 

No, yet yes, it all depends but hard and soft doesn’t really apply to the actual technique except to distinguish the targets armor capability to the vulnerability of the body used to apply any method or methodology. 

People in a confrontation – on the street, in a jail or in a school yard – will use an approximation of a hard-soft technique.

Maybe, maybe not, it all depends and it is best not to lump this into one thing because each, be it on the street or bar or school yard, is different requiring different applications of appropriate mind-state, methodologies and other requirements to achieve success while remaining in the legal self-defense defense square. 

Boxing uses hard-soft technique. When a boxer trains to ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ he is describing a kind of soft-hard technique. It can be applied to every attack, defense and evasion.  Boxers don’t use rigid arms or legs.

Sounds good to a novice but try it out on a professional boxer. Sounds good and it will trigger many of the influences through suggestion of others experiences to seem reasonable, plausible and reality-based but in reality - not so much. It is best to use meme’s, aphorisms and other sound-bite quotes as “lead-in’s” to convey ideas to follow in the actual extensive and comprehensive teachings simply because such things tend to let the individuals imagination think it something it is not. 

Training for speed in combative technique means shortening the muscle cycle – from soft to hard to soft and back. 

There is NO individual muscle that achieves speed, you have BOTH slow twitch and fast twitch muscles that allow for speed BUT, even those twitch muscles don’t make for speed for speed comes from that and other factors that make the target faster to hit or kick. 

Speed comes from economical movements and other physiokinetic’s that are supplemented by the muscles twitch factors, etc. Every human has both fast and slow twitch capability along with other principles that make for speed. That is why some folks, even with consistent training, etc., can’t achieve the speed like others. Can you say, genetics and genes?

Remember, few could achieve the same speeds that Bruce Lee did even when they all trained his training regimen. Those who studied and practiced with him all had speeds that were appropriate to their muscles, body and frame size and other factors. Then when it comes to speed there is the participants mind-state, positioning, distance and how they trained to process the OODA loop under the duress of the adrenal stress-conditions of being attacked. 

Here is where I stopped simply because there is so much within this article that simply caused my teeth to itch that it is becoming repetitive. Regardless, the person reading this with my comments may or may not agree with me but experienced people will see how this is questionable at the very least and completely ineffective to teach karate and martial arts for anything other than profit, a personal philosophical view and toward dojo-oriented use only. 

Then again, what do I know!

That is true whether we are firing a single explosive technique or a sequences of techniques.  While we increase the cycle speed we also increase the amplitude of the cycle – maximizing muscle contraction, then instantly releasing any residual muscle tension that might slow us down as we continue. Like ‘wind and lightning’. Or like automatic rifle fire.

In Okinawan styles we use makiwara training to condition the hands – especially the knuckles and knife edges.  Little by little that conditioning goes deep – into the arms and shoulders, chest and back, koshi and tanden, feet and foundation.  Full-arc “soft-hard” oscillation is one of the results of good makiwara training.

Hard Techniques – Dangerous, Not Difficult

It is a truism in Chinese and other Asian martial arts that hard overcomes soft, and soft overcomes hard. Hard techniques are a critical component of skillful combative. Hard techniques are useful in grappling and in ground fighting.  They are emphasized in naihanchi kata and appear in many others.

When a part of your body is immobilized, placing a joint at risk, we can use a ‘hard’ technique in response.  This is true in defending against chin na and in applying chin na grappling techniques. There are other uses, as in a bear hug, choke or other restraint and compression technique.

If your joint is locked at the limit of its range of motion, releasing tension under the opponent’s pressure can result in injury – to your joint, kyusho nerve point or cavity. Some responses require local hard response while the rest of the body is free to move. Like breaking an immobilizing hold on a wrist.

But a full body hard technique is different.  There, under pressure, we move while maintaining resistance in the opposing muscles – moving the body in a single, unified movement like a leaf spring, without ever completely releasing tension. This resembles the sudden movement of a carp in the water.

You can do the same type of movement using the koshi – (the center core helical motion), and compression – (the rapid shift between concave/convex position of the four points made by the shoulders and the hips around the tanden) – whether you are on your feet or down on the ground, to control the opponent’s balance point, distort his stance, weaken his posture and cause him to release momentarily, somewhere. That provides you with your opportunity to counter or to escape for counterattack.

The side-stepping techniques in naihanchi kata are an example of this, where dynamic tension is maintained while shifting position.

The carp movement is also used for soft and soft-hard techniques, for full-body energy generation.

We can use a hardened body – an earth-element posture and technique – while motionless, to absorb and transfer impact. At the other end of the spectrum: knee, hip and shoulder strikes can be done using hard energy.

When there is fist-to-arm or palm-to-arm contact in a kata posture – as in Pinan 1, Pinan 4, Wankan, etc., we can apply a hard technique.

The technique is ‘hard’ when we maintain muscle tension in a limb or in the architecture of the body when we contact the opponent.

Soft Technique – (Note: they don’t feel ‘soft’ to the opponent)

A boat is moving on the water. A wave comes up and turns the boat over. The water itself did not change at all. That is the same water the boat was floating in a minute before the wave appeared. The water itself did not hurt the boat. The energy moving through the water did. It was communicated into the structure of the boat and affected the boat’s position.  Rolling it over. Submerging it. Destroying it.

Then the wave was gone. The water itself was completely the same before, during and after the wave passed through it. Soft technique works this way.

Energy propagated through a medium – a wave in water, electricity through a wire, wind in a storm, sound through the air – is familiar to us.

Soft technique is used in most combative styles.

(Note: The chi kung, energy cultivation, components of our practice are not the ones I am describing here. I am describing combative soft-energy techniques.)

Soft jin requires an unimpeded flow of energy from the center of the body out to the target.  A wave from your root on the ground, generated by and through the central reservoir of energy at the hara, coordinated with the central rotating physical structure of the koshi at the pelvis and lower back, transmitting the energy out through the limbs to the target using the arches of the body structure, along the mechanical and energetic pathways which link the root, center and limbs forming a coherent whole.

Hard-soft technique is resilient; hard technique is rigid. Soft technique is a wave of energy moving along a whip.

The important component of the soft technique’s effectiveness is not the material it is made of – your arm, leg, etc., but of the wave of energy that passes through it. The key training challenge is to delete obstructions to the flow of energy.

It is not better to minimize the resistance in the muscles at all times in all combative encounters. But it has its place. In push-hands you can feel moments when only the slightest redirection of incoming energy will destabilize your opponent, even a strong and aggressive one, if their posture is over-extended or biased.

It is the same in combative: there may be a moment when you can redirect an incoming technique, sweep, pivot, body shift, continue an opponent’s overextension, retreat or use another similar movement, in which it is to your advantage to transmit your energy into the opponent’s body, redirecting his motion, or penetrating one of his soft targets.

Soft, whipping posture changes and strikes are featured in Pinan 3, Naihanchi 1, and Naihanchi 3.  Rohai, a White Crane kata, features multiple soft jin techniques, as do Gojushiho and Kusanku.

The soft strikes depend on an unimpeded wave of energy passing through your body to the target, and then reversing at high-speed, like a whip.

In a soft jin technique the part of your body that makes contact with the target – fist, fingertips, toe tips or whatever you are using – will transmit energy out of your body and into the target without stopping or slowing down. The feeling of reversing direction suddenly, like the snapping of a whip, will project more power than is apparent because your intent to reverse comes slightly ahead of the reversal of the extended limb, and your koshi reverses before the limb it is pulling. The limb is relaxed at the moment of contact, allowing for maximum speed and penetration before disappearing from contact range.

That makes it hard to grab; and if you are grabbed you can instantly apply a release technique or destabilize the opponent.

Beyond Blunt Force Trauma – Applying the Three Energies

You can hit anywhere, including nerve points or cavities, with hard-soft technique, and cause blunt force trama. If you hit hard enough every target is a weak point. But there are alternatives to overwhelming your opponent with soft-hard power. If they are stronger than you – you may need an alternative.

Everyone has nerves, and everyone has body cavities. No matter how big and strong they are they are vulnerable to high-speed low-mass strikes. Cavity and nerve attacks rely on simultaneous pressure and counter-pressure – a pincer motion –  at the target point to be effective. That is you have to stabilize the target in order to compress the point or penetrate cavity, otherwise the opponent will just move away.

However – the techniques in our kata that make best use of a soft-jin interpretation are cavity or pressure point strikes that do not need static counter-pressure.

Instead the soft jin cavity strikes depend on high-speed energy transmission into the target, taking advantage of the inertia of the target itself as the counter pressure.

This kind of application will work against a destabilized opponent, and is applied to weak target structures. That is how you can use deception and skill to overcome power.

There are many well-proven ways to develop all of these techniques, many of which you are using or are discovering as you go deeper into your art.