Question from Blog:
Colleagues, I should like to begin exploring with you the concepts of “hard” and “soft.” I’ve been inspired by my recent training in Goju-ryu (which as you probably know means something like “Hard-soft style”), as well as some workouts with a Kung-fu stylist, to start thinking about the soft in our Matsubayashi Shorin-ryu. One of my Goju instructors keeps stressing the relaxation required in order to generate power, even in a straight
zuki or a basic block. He says everything is
ju until the moment of contact, and then it’s
go, but only for that instant. The
ju of some types of round blocks, such as
mawashi-uke or
hiki-uke, is obvious, if difficult to achieve. But the
ju in our basic
age-uke,
yoko-uke, and
geidan barai—or
oi-zuki and
gyaku-zuuki—is not so evident, especially if you have trained all of your karate life to execute these with “power,” which for most students up into lower dan levels means striking and blocking with a lot of tension everywhere in the body. I note, however, that when sensei Sindt (see the “Martial Arts Video Vault”) does his kata, all of that snap and power comes from his relaxation
while executing the technique. Since many of our so-called “hard” techniques are best executed in a relaxed state, I wonder if we shouldn’t substitute other terms for “hard” and “soft,” such as “relaxed” and “tensed,” or “without effort” and “with effort.”
I anticipate your feedback.
Master Keller's Rresponse:
"I think that most experienced martial artists associate the term hard and soft, internal and external in the correct way. In my opinion, every system has to be relaxed and without tension to be effective. From my view, seeing circular motion in movement makes the most sense, even a bullet comes out spinning just like our punch. Better to talk in terms of muscular contraction, point of contact, and recovery position. The relevant muscles contract through the target zone. You wouldn't apply the brakes to slow a technique down, a golf swing, or any motion. What you get is follow through and recovery. A boxer hitting a speed bag is working in circular movements. A baseball swing is circular, but would be considered a hard strike on impact with the ball. From my view, all motion is best understood as relaxed, absent of tension, with good follow through depending on what you want to happen with the next shot and the one after that, etc.
"Shorin-ryu works better in medium to long range relative to Goju, which is far better for close-in fighting, a more realistic range for most fights; then you get into Jujitsu and the ground game, which is considered "soft". Like a baseball swing, elbow strikes, hooks and uppercuts are circular, hard on impact, recover circularly using more of a sanchin type stance, for an instance. To the recipient it will seem very "hard" indeed, but those techniques will look more like soft goju-ryu than hard style shorin-ryu. Seems a misnomer overall, like "hip dynamics" rather than full body dynamics."
