amor wrote:Again, agreed on the mind thing it's really very weird how you just want to stay put in a confrontation and wait for them to come to you and then do your best to keep them close because that's the way you begin to operate via the training when you start to make use of intent. But I prefer a more active approach to make the first move sometimes.
Do you also prefer to be both active as well as passive and if so how do you complement this active approach in a in training in preparation for a confrontation event ?
I don't see soft and relaxed as passive. I rather go in, put my hands on his guard or throw a punch to provoke a reaction. Then he will give you something to work with, something to follow. The passive approach is IMHO a mistake. You can not wait for your opponent, then you'll be forced to follow his rules. Even not doing something or before you do something should IMHO be active. You should understand distance and connect to him with distance and angle.
Li Yaxuan:
"Even before physical contact, with a single glance you join contact with the opponent or partner, establishing a firm connection with him. Adherence can begin even at this stage, prior to physical contact. This is important because when you are working in a more intensive competitive or combative mode, if you depend on physical contact to start your adherence, that’s too late and you’re going to be too slow to exploit any advantage of timing or positioning."
Now, softness and relaxation is something else than being passive. IME it has a lot to do with tingjin, not forcing your strength, but feeling the gaps and where to fill in. But to be sensative and fast enough, you really need to be very, very soft. You really need to give up strength, There might even be a feeling of weekness, that your structure could collapse Anytime or at any touch. But your body can take care of you structure and movement if you just let go of the control and trust your body. There's a whole lot of trust involved being soft when someone launch attacks at you, almost comparable with faith in a religious sense. This is what I mean that it takes courage. Our Instincts tells us to be strong and protect us with strength, not be soft and feel weak. But again, if you want to be fast in you movements and rely on tingjin, there's no other way doing it. You need to give up the feeling of protective strength.