Ebb and flow

Funakoshi Principle #19: Do not forget to correctly apply: strength and weakness of power, stretching and contraction of the body and slowness and speed of techniques.

On a physical level, or an ego level, people tends towards doing things as hard as they can, or as fast as they can. Something in the strength and speed makes them feel powerful or skillful. Of course, what younger practitioners often encounter when speeding along through their brute strength is a big fat brick wall that is a lot harder and stronger than they are. Ouch! Naturally, this is not limited to newer practitioners or even to martial arts. It happens all the time in life.

People love to speed through things or barrel their way into situations. This principle points out what should be an obvious fact: sometimes doing things slowly or with softness works better.

If you are going through an intersection and a train is coming, do you barrel through without looking because you think that getting hit by a train could never happen to you? Sometimes, like in this situation, it pays to take a moment to look around and assess the environment before going over the tracks.

There are myriads of examples like this, but the point is that you can accomplish many things with softness and a well-placed lack of action, just as you can accomplish some things with force and speed too.