the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

hi all,

'Martial Man' just released his interview with Sam Chin.

Did you like it?

Watched it a few times and wondered who would be first to link to it here....

You see how Sam upon touch connects directly with the opponents structure. There's no gap between touch and connect. Why can so few Tai Chi practitioners demonstrate how to do this? They usually just lose connection between defence and counter. Or they touch but don't connect. I wonder why... Yup, Sam shows himself to be a very good Tai Chi teacher in this vid.

Did you like it?

Yes i like everything i have seen and felt of Sam.

Many ICMA teachers like to talk about connection and maintaining contact, and use arts such as boxing, kickboxing, and Karate as examples of "disconnection" (while implying that they are less sophisticated and inferior).

Connection and disconnection shouldn't be either/or. A good IMA fighter should be able to do both, especially to have disconnection within connection (i.e., to keep certain body parts connected to the opponent while allowing others to move freely to strike and throw.)

Many ICMA teachers like to talk about connection and maintaining contact, and use arts such as boxing, kickboxing, and Karate as examples of "disconnection" (while implying that they are less sophisticated and inferior).

Connection and disconnection shouldn't be either/or. A good IMA fighter should be able to do both, especially to have disconnection within connection (i.e., to keep certain body parts connected to the opponent while allowing others to move freely to strike and throw.)

Completely agree with you. There is a previlance for ICMAists to disregard fast simple techniques that do not create a maintained contact point like the Jab etc. However, i think Sam is mainly talking about his styles approach to the problem of fighting, which is focused on the ability to contact and disrupt the individual.