by David Zacker

Created on: May 05, 2009

Bruce Lee introduced it and tried to explain it first, He demonstrated it's effectiveness at Ed Parkers long beach nationals. But die hard traditionalist didn't understand it completely and myself training back in the 1960's and 1970's didn't either. It would take many years before it would find it's way back to me and a much deeper understanding to go along with it. It was Bruce Lee who coined the phrase forms aka kata dont work. Now this was a hard pill for the traditional karate die hard's to swallow But inside we often wondered to ourselves was Bruce correct in his assumption? We trained in forms or kata. If we were Korean stylist we called it hyung, And we went through the patterns, the motions, correcting each and every stance and body movement all the while wondering to ourselves how does this work in a real combat situation? We would ask our sense's, teachers, masters and we would be given answer's that made little sense or informed it was disrespectful to ask or question. We waited believing some day they would reveal the answer, Yet that day would never come. It took many years and cross training in other styles before I would come to a much deeper understanding. We blocked using our arms as defense, rather then strike. We were taught about ki to the extent of a vocal yell but never were instructed in universal life force energy. We had a clouded version of karate's history. Now allow me to share this with the reader in the attempt to make things clearer and remove the clouds so the reader can see the forest for the tree's.

When the classical forms were being created the intended purpose was vastly different then found in modern times. The fighting was at close range. And to accomplish this power to strike and punch at this close grappling range one would need an understanding of energy transfer. But first an understanding of how Ki flows throughout the human body. Ki or universal life force energy circulates throughout the body by vessels known as meridians. This unseen energy flows across the back of the hand and exits at it's strongest location between the thumb and forefinger. The ridge hand side. Arts like Qigong, and Reiki use this energy from their hands for healing because this is where the energy can be drawn out from it's most powerful point. Here's how it works. Just for a moment imagine what it would feel like to get hit with a bag of rocks. That's what the transfer of energy punch or strike feels like, And it's accomplished at very close

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