"Do you suppose they will choose to make war against lean, solid dogs rather than against fat and tender sheep?"
W.E. Fairbairn's fights can't have looked cool. If done by the book, they would last just a couple seconds and look ugly and artless, more like a car wreck than a Jackie Chan movie. But that doesn’t mean Fairbairn didn't hide a lot of clever “programming” deep in the code. Nowadays it is a cliché... Continue Reading →
in which we meditate on what Wing Chun has to do with the historical European martial art (HEMA) of British World War II combat master W.E. Fairbairn, late of the Shanghai Municipal Police W.E. Fairbairn (1885-1960) of the pre-war Shanghai Municipal Police. More than anyone else in the 20th century, Anglo-Chinese expatriate W.E. Fairbairn shaped... Continue Reading →
“A wrestling tournament crash-landed at a Renaissance Fayre and they all intermarried,” was my thought. I'd tagged along with a trio of friends to SoCal Swordfight, a weekend-long HEMA competition: That’s “historical European martial arts,” three days of armored people fighting politely but hard with steel longswords, rapiers, daggers, and sabers. I’ve been practicing with... Continue Reading →
So it feels like an ever-new mystery to get overpowered in fight training by short, thin, or otherwise gracile people who, it seems to me, can’t possibly have as much power. Not just outmaneuvered and outskilled, but manhandled or just plain pounded. I’m talking thin teenagers, featherweight women, even a girl who’s too young for PG-13 and weighs less than my checked luggage. What gives?