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The concepts of hard to soft, Shaolin to Wudan, striking to grappling have been with us a long time. Many people have likened the concepts to the yin yang, turning them over and over. In the end, however, there is no argument, merely a progression, an evolution if you will, of art within individual.

A child starts out with karate. Heads out to the corner store and has fantastic contest with the other kids. Pecking orders are established, and the beginnings of the martial path are laid out.

As the child grows, he might come across a Wudan style art, like tai chi chuan or pa kua chang. He begins to understand that all is not bashing, and that there might actually be something to learn here. He begins to look at concepts, principles, and apply them life.

As the child reaches middle age, his youthful vigor wanes, and he begins looking for easier ways to do things. Maybe his body has been injured, maybe the muscles are just not working as well as they should, whatever, he starts relying on technique as opposed to brute force. And, he is now taking definitive steps into the True Art.

The True Art is based upon intelligence, and intelligence is had by looking at things and understanding the differences. A punch in’t all there is, and can he look at guiding with flow, manipulating with intelligence? Or is he just going to planted in violence, a grown man relying only on force?

Thus, he begins searching for a softer way to move, a way to move that won’t tax the muscles, and rely upon the muscles, so much. He explores Wudan seriously now, searching for the key to effortless movement. And, the unfortunate result of age and injury, he finds those effortless methods.

Yet, wouldn’t it be smarter for him to just search for the softer arts in the beginning? The answer, surprisingly, is no. For a man to truly learn the soft he must learn the hard, he must have something to gauge it against, to compare and contrast it against, so that he might truly think and learn.

Yet, how much hard must a man experience before he becomes able to use his mind? I would recommend several years of karate, or at least a dozen months of matrix karate, or, if he doesn’t like Karate, then an art influenced by matrixing like Shaolin Kung Fu, something like the Shaolin Butterfly. To make the leap to soft, flowing arts like Wudan, or, at the very least, an intelligent art, one must see both sides of the spectrum, this is the only way for the bird to fly across the sky.

Al Case has researched martial arts for forty++ years. A writer for the mags since 1981, he is the originator of Matrixing technology. You can pick up a free ebook which will explain matrixing at Monster Martial Arts.