A new martial art?

Yesterday afternoon, as I was trying to round up some people for a Slushie Run (I ended up going alone), I apparently was absent-mindedly doing some Ba Gua/Tai Chi-ish movements, with an alternating low stance and rising blocks with push-hands. (Kind of like this photo, from http://www.shenwu.com/bagua.htm)

Some of my colleagues laughed at me -- which is fine, since I'm open to lightening people's hearts. ;)

Anyhow, this was probably floating around in my uncoscious, because that night, when I was brushing my teeth, I found myself getting into low stances again and slowly, gracefully(?) windmilling my arms. This in itself isn't unusual. But, this time I was combining it with thoughts I'd had before: that some styles of blocking (within the Hun Gar style, for example) are tactically a bad idea, since the back of the hand is facing your opponent. This opens you up to some painful nerve strikes, since the back of your hand is very un-padded, but with a lot of nerves and such directly between the bone and the skin.

Based on this, I experimented with ways of performing circular blocks where you always have the back of your hand away from, or at least at right angles to, your opponent. Similarlly, backfist strikes are a dangerous idea, as a mis-calculation could cause the back of your hand to strike something bony -- injuring yourself as much as you opponent. Hammer-fists, though, would work well.

Based on this, I think I've come up the with beginnings of a workable martial arts style: at the very least, a foundational philsophy/strategy.

Too bad I'm so out of shape, in terms of physical implementation. It'll all theoretical: I'm not up to practical testing. ;)


--GG