johnwang wrote:In MA, do we have absolute black and white? Are there any grey in between? What's your opinion on this?
If you use your arms to protect your head from hitting on the ground, you won't be able to use your arm to hit on the ground for break fall. Since you can't do 2 different things at the same time, you have to choose one from the other.
There are some hard and fast rules, like, you can't move when you're double weighted. That's what double weighted means...
But what your describing is opportunity cost, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).
Even if somebody provides you with a satisfying meal at no cost to you, the cost is every other meal you could have potentially eaten.
It also pertains to engineering and systems and trying to get more energy out of something than you put into it.
The black and white rule of the universe is that you have to work with limited resources and loss.
So we look at your question about falls. You have to ask where are you going to be using your art and for what purpose? Are you going to be on a nice soft mat when you get thrown or could you be doing this in a bar or parking lot? That's gonna affect how much thought and training you need to put into certain things and which decision you make there.
That pertains to combat in that beyond a basic level of altercation, we start to make optimization choices. We can't equally develop all facets. We can't be completely prepared for all situations.
In the past that leads to completely different styles adapted to their testing grounds. TKD vs BJJ for example is this sort of idea taken to an extreme.
So I believe the best course of action is to train adaptability. Become a handshake.
We all have different hands and different ways of shaking them, but they come together and match perfectly. Some say you can read everything you need to know about a man by how they approach and accomplish this.