WHICH IS MORE ADVANTAGEOUS -- USING A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE OR A COMPLEX TECHNIQUE?
If other things were equal, using a simple technique is more advantageous
Question
If all things were equal, is it more advantageous to use a simple technique against a simple attack (a boxer's jab for instance)? Or is it for an advanced practitioner better to use techniques found in advanced sets such as Essence of Shaolin?
Sifu Roeland Dijkema
Answer
If all other things were equal, it is more advantageous to use a simple technique against a simple attack. For example, if a boxer at an elementary level were to attack you with a simple jab, presuming all other things were equal, which means you are also a boxer at an elementary level, it is advantageous to use a simple technique like parrying it with your hand.
If both of you are equally skillful, it is also advantageous to parry the jab. If you use a more complex Boxing technique, like moving to his side to counter-strike him, because he is equally skillful, he can strike you as you attempt to move to his side. Technically, he has a good chance of hitting you while you are moving.
However, if you are more skillful than him, which means other things are not equal, you have a good chance of hitting him with this more complex technique. Your less skillful opponent may not know what to do, or even if he knows, he is too slow for your counter-attack.
If a Boxer were to jab at you, presuming you are using kungfu, which means that all other things were equal except that he uses Boxing and you use kungfu, it is also advantageous to use a simple kungfu technique against the jab. If you try to move to his side to strike him with a kungfu technique, because he is equally skillful, irrespective of whether both of you are at the elementary, intermediate or advanced level, he can hit you with another jab while you are moving.
If you try to grip his attacking arm with a complex chin-na technique, he will also hit you with another jab. This is because you need to make 4 movements in chin-na, and he makes only 1 jabbing you. If you use other complex techniques, it is also disadvantageous, because as both of you are at the same level, your techniques are complex and his techniques are simple.
This is what we do at my courses, though the reason may not be the same. When a Boxer jabs at us, we use a simple technique to defend against the jab. Normally we use “thread-hand” in Shaolin Kungfu or “lift hand” in Taijiquan at a Bow-Arrow Stance from outside in. The reason is not because it is advantageous to use a simple defence against a simple attack, which actually is a good reason, but because we want to have “safety first” before we learn to counter strike our opponents. We use a “thread-hand” or a “lift-hand” because it is simple, direct and effective.
If you are more skillful than your opponents, which means that other things are not equal, it is more advantageous to use complex counters against your opponent, provide you have the skills to use these complex techniques competently.
If you move to a side and counter with a strike or a kick, it they are equally skillful, many of your opponents know how to defend or counter. But if you use felling attacks or chin-na techniques, many of your opponents may not know how to defend or counter. This is because there are no counters in their repertoire against such attacks. But you must have the skills to apply these attacks.
Even when your opponents trained in Boxing or other martial arts apart from kungfu are more skillful than you, unless the difference in skills is overwhelming, if you successfully apply sophisticated attacks on them, they would not know how to defend themselves. As an analogy, a car is a more sophisticated vehicle than a bicycle. Even when a cyclist is more skillful in cycling a bicycle than a driver driving a car, the driver will be faster than the cyclist.
Similarly, even when your opponents using other martial arts are more skillful than you, because you use kungfu, you will be more combat efficient than your opponent. Of course, you must be able to use kungfu effectively in combat.
In the Essence of Shaolin course, you will learn sophisticated techniques, or otherwise simple techniques used in a marvelous way.
If other things are not equal, using a complex technique is more advntageous
This question and answer are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on Essence of Shaolin in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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