Another stimulating point of view Tim. Personally, I also think that the study of the polarity between 'relaxation' and 'tension' is one of the most important elements of budo, and that the evolved Wado style offers important perspectives on this. Whether you approach that from a Western point of view and call it 'body mechanics', or from a more Eastern point of view and call it 'internal training', both approaches are ok. Indeed, what matters is efficient management of body energy and the employment of natural laws for maximum effect and minimum energy expenditure; that is, how one deals with incoming forces on the body: does one divert them or absorb them by developing purely reactive counterforce? Of the latter strategy, Okinawa-te is a very good example. And when one realises that virtually all Japanese karate styles are indebted to this, it is to Hironori Otsuka's great credit that he dared to think "out of the box" against all the orthodoxy of the time. And thus made Wado a maverick that brought it up to the level of, say, the sophisticated principles of Judo or Aikido.
Food for thouht.....
Another stimulating point of view Tim. Personally, I also think that the study of the polarity between 'relaxation' and 'tension' is one of the most important elements of budo, and that the evolved Wado style offers important perspectives on this. Whether you approach that from a Western point of view and call it 'body mechanics', or from a more Eastern point of view and call it 'internal training', both approaches are ok. Indeed, what matters is efficient management of body energy and the employment of natural laws for maximum effect and minimum energy expenditure; that is, how one deals with incoming forces on the body: does one divert them or absorb them by developing purely reactive counterforce? Of the latter strategy, Okinawa-te is a very good example. And when one realises that virtually all Japanese karate styles are indebted to this, it is to Hironori Otsuka's great credit that he dared to think "out of the box" against all the orthodoxy of the time. And thus made Wado a maverick that brought it up to the level of, say, the sophisticated principles of Judo or Aikido.