The knife hand strike, once the crown jewel of karate demonstrations, has had quite a fall from grace. Once upon a time, every martial arts student dreamed of chopping through boards like a lumberjack with an anger management problem. Instructors would proudly line up pine planks, and students would step forward with the confidence of someone who definitely wasn’t about to bruise their hand. These days, though, the karate chop feels like it’s been filed away with other retro

These are people whose own humanity, whose sense of civility, is so strong that they’re caught vacillating between fight-or-flight decisions

When violence happens, it’s explosive and often catches you off-guard.

I agree with that quote, but when it comes to martial arts, I think it’s only part of the picture.