I don't believe it is surprising that as much as things change they also can stay the same. I was looking at an older video of mine on youtube and noticing that I teach basically the same technique as a starting point to students but I've changed some details over the years for a few reasons. I almost believe that the original techniques passed down to me were intentionally somewhat flawed. I don't mean that I was misled, but more that I was provided something that was full of subtle details that I could not see at the time made any difference. I'm not seeing everything, but I'm seeing more of the fundamental in these techniques today than I did thirty, twenty, and even ten years ago. Here is the video link: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DLG-kJfsqA"]Grab Arts 1 & 2 RW201 - YouTube[/ame] Starting with the first part (Grab Art #1): What I'm seeing today is that the first principle besides not getting hit is the connection between my kicking foot and my supporting foot (e.g. the ground). I am late at bringing my hips forward on my front snap kick. Then rather than what looks like leaning back, it would instead be arcing my back with my head over my supporting leg. I probably was losing 10-20% of my kicking power doing the kick as in the video. The second principle is the connection between my supporting foot and my hands. This is so that the force from my training partner is neutralized in a way that his forward force pushes into the ground... the more he goes forward the more he uproots himself. Pretty much the same in the video as I do today except now as the kick hits, I bring my partners elbows down and into him so that his hands don't rise up and hit me in the face. The third part is just getting off the line in a position to counter attack. In the video I step laterally to the right. This had a few issues, one is that it promoted turning and stepping at the same time, which basically is not a good thing unless I'm purposely trying to unbalance myself (e.g. for a sacrifice throw). Since I'm not trying to purposely unbalance myself I should avoid turning and stepping at the same time. Also it put me at the wrong angle for counter attack... notice I needed to step up (instead of in) with my left foot to punch. I don't use that foot work anymore. Instead, I "hop" to the right and back. Since both my feet are off the ground, I can turn and move at the same time. I'm also moving away so that as my partner leans/falls forward, I don't get hit by his hands. I'm in the correct alignment to step in with the left foot, outward block with my left hand to strike/clear my partner's arms, and punch right to his ribs. This is just Grab Art #1. I do Grab Art #2 differently also, mainly by bringing my hands up the middle on the inside instead of down from the top. I'll post later on how I do Grab Art #2 differently when I get around to it.
