kenneth fish wrote:We stand facing each other within arm's reach. I will indicate where I will strike. Then, without any cue, I will punch. I am curious to see how you block or evade a fast punch without having trained to do so. This will also test your reaction time and awareness (as I will not be giving cues as to when I will punch nor telegraphing my punch).
This is actually a drill we do in both Xingyi and Tongbei (although I think it may have come from Tongbei).
That was exactly how praying mantis master Brendan Lai tried to test my speed when he visited Austin while Adam Hsu was right there (Both Brendan and Adam were invited to give praying mantis workshops to my UT Austin students). Brendan thought I trained long fist and SC. He didn't know I also trained Zimen.
IMO, sometime speed can solve problems that power can't. The advantage to have speed can be:
- If you can touch your hands on your opponent's face 3, 4 times before he even raises his arm to block your strikes, you may discourage him from continue that fight.
- You can use speed to set up clinch for your throw.
- speed is important in blocking/dodging.
- In knife fight, speed is more important than power.
- ...
It makes no sense to train "power" without training "speed".