phitruong

constant wars and armed conflicts. i was from vietnam. vietnam history went back a bit over 2000 years (the US history is 300). out of that 2000 years, we didn't know peace for longer than 50 years at a stretch. the vietnamese first ruler was a woman who won the nation on the back of the war elephant. so while most western society where women still in the kitchen cooking and kniting, the vietnamese already decided the women role in combat, and that's over 2000 years ago (now consider that we, the US still haven't figure out the role of women in combat). so the question of how a smaller, weaker person can overcome a larger, stronger opponent has to come up sooner or later? advance weaponry is one of the answer. another answer is what if a smaller, weaker person can train to use his/her entire body to focus it for a strike or to divert a stronger person power and prevent said person from using it. Thus, you have the old saying (Asian old saying) of "4 ounces of force to direct/deflect a thousand pound". think of maneuver trusters of those huge rockets. the maneuver trusters are small and weak compared to the large gravity lifting rockets; however, those trusters can change the direction of the giant rocket. so the training has to take into account of less muscle mass, but focus on highly integrated body mechanism; and here is the key, it has to be controllable, i.e. change and adapt at will (read intent). and one other thing, the outer appearance didn't (shouldn't) change; thus cannot be copy by just looking at it. can't have bigger folks steal the secret or else they would have all the advantage. didn't one of the japanese teacher said not to teach the aiki secret to large white foreigners? so, you wondered why secret? when your life and your family lives depend on it, then mum is the word.