So much martial arts media is taken up on either ridiculing or supporting these subjects. Many of the originators came from a good martial arts background including karate, tai chi, systema and the military. Although I have a deep background in philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism and other systems, I also have a strong background in the fighting arts and the security and law enforcement fields. So I tend to have a very practical outlook.

In tai chi we extensively use techniques to block neurology, blood, oxygen and lymphatic systems, we press, poke, strike, and rub cavities, shorten tendons, muscles and fascia and all these techniques have their limitations and antidotes.

We have ‘springing hands’ drills in tai chi where we compliantly practice using our ‘jins’ where the receiving partner practices retreating by gliding backwards to remain in balance but we don’t have any ‘hopping’ or flailing with unstructured weakness.

Our internal ‘iron shirt’ training means that we can prevent locks, pressure points and many other techniques from working on us. I haven’t found anyone in my 50 years of study that could make these techniques work on me – and many have tried. I can only speak from my own study and direct experience. I have had students that are highly sensitive and have reacted violently to my techniques where I have only expected them to move a bit and acknowledge that it worked. I’ve only demonstrated with minimum power for many years after accidentally stopping someone’s heart a long time ago.

In martial arts we are all like blind men holding a different part of the elephant and shouting that we know what an elephant is. It’s a good idea to constantly challenge our views like I have in competition, teaching seminars internationally and people with practical experience on the street, on the doors and in law enforcement, that way we can be as sure as possible that our art works, but be humble enough to know that we still might not know what a complete elephant looks like.