Push Hands: Learn to Fight, Not Push

By Eli Montaigue of WTBA ©2014

Push Hands, is probably one of the most misunderstood training methods in Taiji.  Most schools of taiji teach push hands for the sake of doing push hands, to beat other people at push hands.
Taiji is about learning how to defend yourself in a fight. Pushing is not fighting.  No one is going to come up to you in the street and try to push you over. They are going to punch your face in, then kick you while you’re down.

I know people who have been training in push hands for many many years, and they are very good at “push hands”. If I play push hands with them, we are of equal skill etc.
However, I have been taught to hit from push hands. With these same people, when I start to put in any kind of strikes, they have no idea what to do. Because they have only trained in how to push. They might for example push me a little off balance, which makes me react with a strike. Followed by “you can’t do that, we’re doing push hands!” This only applies to a beginner doing push hands. Of course they must do it in a certain way, to learn certain principles. But if two advanced Taiji practitioners are doing push hands? You can do what you want. You can stand there and kick me in the groin, or head but me in the face. If I cannot stop you? My push hands is not good.

picture 1

Ok, so how and why do we train push hands?

First up, stance!
Most schools of Taiji teach Push Hands from the same stance as they would use in the Taiji form. See picture #1.
This is a big mistake! The large stances in the form, are there for 3 main reasons. 1, to build heat in the legs to help the flow of Qi. 2, to strengthen the legs. 3, to stretch the legs. It is for health and exercise, and is in no way meant to be used for fighting.

The big stance in push hands teaches us many bad habits.  My father Erle Montaigue, use to teach big the stance to beginners, then he would advance them onto the small stance later on.
This is how he was taught.
However, after years of teaching, he found that the big stance, although easier to learn, was teaching the student nothing but bad habits. The big stance gives you a false sense of balance. What use is it to be able to hold your balance in a big stance, when you can’t fight from a big stance. In a small stance, you are more
mobile, you can protect your groin and knees, and you are
training yourself to be able to fight from the stance you’re already in when walking down the street.
The only way to deliver force from a small stance, without losing balance, is to use the same muscles as you would to strike. Via twisting of the waist, compression and release of the spine.
Thus training your body how to strike with power.

picture 2

In a big low stance, you will be more likely to be training your body in the best way to push.

There are no pushes or pulls in Taiji, as they do not have a place in self defence. Unless your opponent is standing on a cliff edge!
{See picture #2}
It’s like if you were doing 500 squats every day and
hoping it would make you a faster runner.
You have to train the muscles for the work you want them to do. When we hold a big stance, this causes us to get into a forward backward weight change.
The pusher comes forward, the receiver evades by sitting back. See picture #1 again.
What’s the first thing you learn in self defence?
When someone attacks you, don’t sit back! You are
putting yourself in a vulnerable position. See picture #2.
In a small stance, when we shift the weight, this causes us to evade to the side, maintaining our forward intent. This now changes the intent of the pushing, from you attack and I defend, to you attack and I defend by attacking! In every attack there is defence, and in every defence there is attack. Basic Yin and Yang. See picture #3 and #4. Notice the closer proximity of the players, and that in Lu #4, it is applied with an intention of sitting to the side, rather then sitting back as in Pic #1.
This means you can maintain forward intent, and truly evade the attack. Sitting back does not get you out of the way of an attack. The closer lateral evasion also puts you in a
position to re attack.
The mind set is most important in Push Hands. Even if you are doing a pushing movement, you should have the body structure and intent of striking.

picture 3

picture 4

Hard or soft?
Ok here is where a lot of people get things wrong. Ever heard the quote “Steel wrapped in cotton?”.
This means we should seem soft on the outside. It does not mean we do things in a soft manor.
Anyone who tells you that you can defend yourself without using any substantial force, has clearly never been put under pressure.
What we do however is to structure the body so, that we have to use very little strength to get great effect. This is what P’eng training is all about. We learn this first in single Push Hands.

For example, when I do Push Hands with a beginner, but someone with much bigger muscles than me, their arms will get sore before mine. To them it seems like I have really strong arms, not that I am all soft and jelly like. But in fact my muscles are not stronger, it’s just that I am structuring my body so that I only have to deal with half the pressure.

The pressure of the incoming push, should start soft for the student to learn. Too much pressure in the
beginning can cause the student to use bad technique. But be sure to increase this to as much pressure as you can develop, as someone attacking you is not going to do so lightly!
From the receiving part, well you should use as much pressure as you need to. As you get more advanced, this amount will get less, as you will learn to move your centre around the force coming in.
Very soft training has it’s place, this teaches us to “listen” with our hand.
But to have this as your only practice? Well that would be like learning to kick without being able stand on one leg.

When I was learning push hands, if I did something wrong, lost my balance, or opened my guard etc,
I did not get pushed over. I got punched in the side of the head! Or kicked in the groin!
Two advanced Push Hands players should look like they are having a fight, not like they are dancing.

picture 5

Ok now onto attacks.
In the beginning, for students learning the ground work for Push Hands, we do some “pushing” attacks. This teaches the beginner how the hold up a strong guard, stay grounded and move their centre out of the way of the
incoming force.
Then the power speed and aggression of the attacks are increased gradually, till they are full real attacks. Any type of attack can be put into push hands, from a practical cross punch, (see picture #5) to a silly back spinning kick to the head. It is most important not to see Push Hands as a competition!
It is a training method. Yes you try your best to hit the other guy, so you could say that you are trying to beat him. However, what you have to do in your push hands, is to use all types of attacks, not just the ones you’re best at. For example, if I was competing, I would only use the techniques that I knew were best for me. But this would not give my partner a very rounded training.

I would never throw a back spinning kick in a competition, because I know it is not my forte.
Same with grappling, I would not use this if I wanted to beat the other guy.
But I will use them in training, so that my partner gets to train against them. I still throw the attack as best I can, trying to catch my partner out. But knowing that due to the fact that I am throwing an easily defeated attack, I will most likely be the one to get hit. I have tested this one many people. They only train practical attacks, then they get hit by the silly attacks, because they are not use to them.

picture 6

In defence though it is different. You see if you attack, you are not reacting, you have made a conscious choice to attack. But if you are defending, you are reacting to
something your partner is doing. And when you are training your subconscious to react, you want to train it in the most practical way that will be best for protecting yourself in the street.

Your first reaction in a situation should be to strike.

It is the quickest and most likely way to protect yourself. See picture #6. In my opinion, other methods such as arm/wrist locks, sleeper holds etc, should only be used when you know you have control of the situation. Perhaps there is a drunk guy in the pub, you have some mates there, you know there’s no real danger. So you would try to take care of the guy without doing too much damage.
But someone breaks into your home and catches you off guard, you have to protect your family. So your first reaction should be to strike. This is why we practice our locks and holds from the attacking part of push hands.

So to consolidate, if you have been training in push hands for anymore than a year, but don’t feel comfortable when someone is throwing punches at you, then your push hands has not done its job.
As I said at the top, what use is a training method that only makes you good at doing the training method.

♦

Eli is a guest writer for the CombativeCorner.  If you enjoyed this article, please check out the others that he’s done for us.

– 10 Questions with Eli Montaique

– Standing Three Circle Qigong

Special thanks to Francesca Galea, Leigh Evans, and Lars-Erik Olsen, for appearing in the pictures

Proof read by Francesca Galea
Written by Eli Montaigue 04/12/2014

© Eli Montaigue 2014

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Eli Montaigue is a man of many talents.  He’s the chief instructor of the World Taiji Boxing Association, inherited from his late, legendary father-teacher Erle Montaigue and also the lead singer of the band Powder Monkeys.  Originally from NSW, Australia he currently resides in London, England.  Intent on spreading quality martial art teaching, he conducts many workshops throughout the year, locally and internationally.  For more information, visit the WTBA website at www.taijiworld.com

Embodiment Of The Butterfly

Three years ago I asked a question of dozens of martial artists within my circle & social networks.  The question I asked was, “Within your martial art, what (if any) animal/spirit/creature/etc do you associate yourself with?”  The responses were numerous and surprisingly varied.  But the connection that I made, several years ago, was with the butterfly.  Here’s the original article.  Enjoy!

Before I get into the fillet of the article, I’d like to say that previously I worked with “the dragon.”  Historically, the dragon is the juggernaut of the martial world.  The dragon spews bellows of fire, claws at his prey and whips his tail unexpectedly.  The dragon is definitely the pinnacle of yang energy and leaves all the others… “how should I say… lacking.”  But it occurs to me, being so dramatically yang OR embracing the spirit of the dragon does not correspond to the natural and quintessential aspect of Taijiquan.  If one is to do the taijiquan form, the spirit must be above the form… we must be quick and evasive, yet resilient and rooted when needed.

THE BUTTERFLY

I don’t know how it came to me.  But after thinking for a moment on said question (of “What do WE/TAIJIQUAN Embody?”)… I remembered being in a butterfly farm.  This was quite a few years ago and I hardly remember the experience, but it DID make an impression.  Just like the first time I went snorkeling, the experience of having several butterflies land on my arm gave me an instant connection with nature.  Besides the new-found love for these delicate creatures, I remember the impression it left.

Funny that it never crossed my mind before… but you can’t tell when a butterfly lands on your sleeve (at least I couldn’t).  There is no weight.  When you move your arm (obviously this depends on the shyness of these butterflies, but I was at a butterfly farm for pete sake) their legs have a sufficient hold that naturally adheres, without having to grip.  The wings, which you would think would be like an umbrella in the wind, actually adjusts to your movement (as long as the disturbance isn’t a violent shake).  But as it flies.. it eludes you with such lightness, and fluttering quickness.  You need a net to catch one.  Has anyone caught a healthy, wild butterfly with their bare hand (one that didn’t want to get caught)?  I would think it would be a tremendous task.

Taijiquan has the reputation of being boringly slow.  However, the truth is that Taijiquan should be as spritely and lively as a dancing butterfly.  That is just my opinion.  There are probably some classic taiji players that would disagree with me… but I can truly relate to this “dance.”  I don’t know anyone who has seen a real-life dragon, so for me… it would be quite a stretch of the imagination to be one of those.  Plus, dragons are quite the carnivore.  And I’m desperately trying to separate myself from that.  At least as much as I can.

Coach Joyce

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10 Questions with Master Hai Yang

Master Hai Yang is an amazing martial artist and teacher from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The CombativeCorner got to know of him through his videos on YouTube.  What caught our eye was his strong, fluid and explosive Xingyi forms.  Little did we know that he’s well-versed in Chen Taijiquan and Baquazhang as well!  He has been running the Center for Wudang Internal in Montreal since 2001.  To learn more about Master Yang and his school, visit his website at InternalStyle.Com.  To view is YouTube Channel, simply click on the graphic above.

What was life like when you were younger? Did you always know you were going to be a martial artist?

I was born in 1968. When I was a child life was totally different compared to now in terms of lifestyle and living conditions. I was born in the city of Tianjin (beside Beijing), which had been a hot bed for development of internal martial arts, especially for Xingyi and Bagua. So, I had much more opportunities to experience direct teachings from some famous masters. Also I had the chance to learn some styles and practices which have begun to disappear.

China was very poor back then. We did not have many choices for entertainment. There was no Internet and no big screen TV (i.e. there was TV but only 2 channels). There were a lot of movies, but mostly communist revolution related. So in Tianjin, it was very popular to practice martial arts. I still remember clearly that during the summer time in my living area (Hedong district, many famous Xing Yi master lived there), you could see martial art demonstrations on the street every night, which is like summer music festival in North America.

In my family, there is a tradition in which each generation would have one person practice these arts in order to maintain the family practice. I was the only child who was chosen by my grandparents. So, I did not have any idea of why I had to practice and what I would do with this training in the future, because all I could do was follow what they told me to do.

With time, I found out that there’s so much fun in practicing. Therefore in my 20’s, I began to have the dream of having my own martial art school.

If martial arts and teaching hadn’t been such a big part of your life what would you probably have done for a career?

In China, I have obtained two degrees at two universities; one was in engineering and the other one was in Chinese medicine. Teaching martial arts was my hobby. I began teaching when I was 18 years old, but still, it remained as a hobby. After I moved to Canada, I realized that my life would be much more interesting if I had worked as a martial arts teacher. So instead of trying to find a job in IT or Chinese medicine, I just opened my own martial art school in Montreal.

So, what would I have done if I hadn’t devoted myself to teaching martial arts as a career? I think that I’d probably focus on Chinese medicine. I still am currently practicing Chinese medicine as part of my “hobby” here. I do not think we can separate these two practices totally because they are from the same fundamental root.

What is your favorite aspect of teaching others Xingyiquan, Taijiquan & Baguazhang?

I like the straightforwardness of Xingyi, the subtlety of Taijiquan and the fluidity of Baguazhang. More importantly, I like the diversity of each style and the common characteristics of them as a whole.

When I practiced in the beginning, I was told to maintain the distinctive characters of each style and I did exactly that. Lately, I realized that it is very beneficial and helpful to combine some basic principles of these 3 styles together. This idea is very useful during teaching. So, I always tell my students what the manifestation of the other styles are in order to realize the same result through the one they are learning.

So, simply speaking, I can say that I love all of these three styles equally. It is not because that I lost myself in front of the richness of these arts, I try instead to abstract the essence from these three styles and apply them into my teaching.

As a student of the martial arts, is there an area in which you feel you excel more? (and do you give equal attention/time to each style of your martial arts training?)

As I mentioned in question 3, I love them equally.

In chronological order, I started Xingyi training first, then as a teenager, I began my Baguazhang practice. Finally, in my late teenage years, my grandfather taught me Taijiquan (Yang style first, then switched to Chen style under my uncle’s tutelage). Right now, I mainly focus on the Chen style Taijiquan practice.

What do you think is important that other teachers know about teaching the internal arts?

-I have some students who teach martial arts in different cities and countries. I always feel very happy to share my experience and I would like to learn from their teaching experience as well. There are many important aspects to martial art teachers. I would like to talk about this based on my own experience.

-Learn how to teach. Teaching is an art. Some teachers are good at combat or demonstration, but they lack teaching experience. Teaching is not for showing how good he/she is, but also, the teacher should be able to make the learner master the content, which they are teaching. Sometimes, transferring knowledge is more difficult than gaining the knowledge alone.

-Combine physical practice and theoretical study together. Some teachers focus greatly on physical practice, but they do not put enough attention on the theory, the concepts and the principles. Teaching martial art involves physics, philosophy, psychology, history, culture, medical knowledge, strategy and so on.

-Focus on details. I always tell my students: there are only two type of teaching in the martial art field. One is good teaching and the other one is bad teaching. The difference between them lies on the depth of understanding the details of each movement. Our ancestors created these arts with detailed thinking, researching and testing. Focusing on details of each movements will help us to be able to follow their path of practice.

-Be open to other styles and arts. Any style’s existence offers an opportunity for us to learn from. Martial art teachers should not be restricted by their own style. Concentrating on our own style does not prohibit the martial artist from borrowing useful principles from other styles. Most of my students have a certain training background. I found that most of the time their former training experience can be helpful in learning internal styles.

How important is spirituality or meditation in martial arts you practice?

Theoretically, martial art practice should combine spirituality and meditation.
Technically, practitioner should know how to differentiate these practices to each other.

They are related to each other, but one cannot replace one for the other one.

Who in your life has had the most impact on your development as a martial artist/teacher and why?

I have the fortune to study from many prominent masters. Among them, I think my grandfather gave me the most impact on my development as a martial artist. He taught me not only the form, routine, application, but also he helped me understand how important and beneficial it is to practice these arts.

I had experienced some very hard times in my life, and my practice helped me overcome these difficult periods.

So, I appreciate him greatly from the bottom of my heart.

When a beginning student comes to your school, what is the most important thing for them to concentrate on?

Mastery of basic practice of the style.
Then, understanding the basic idea of timing, angle, speed, concentration and related topics.
Adapt a healthy life style and apply training concept in real life.

Teaching and martial arts aside, how does Master Hai Yang have fun?

I love painting, calligraphy, Beijing Opera, Chinese Poetry and technology.

All of them are related to martial arts if we talk about it from a broad level..

This month’s discussion is on goal-setting. Seeing as though it’s the New Year, do you find it important to make goals for yourself? What kind of changes or aspirations do you have for this year and/or years to come?

I totally understand that without a proper goal, we will lose our target in life.

I setup my personal goals at every New Year’s season. It has been my personal “tradition” for years.

In the Year of Rabbit, I have two goals. One of them is to polish my Taijiquan teaching, in order to help more and more students go master this style in a systematic way. The other goal will be more interesting. I will try to combine modern technology with traditional Kungfu training together, in order to more efficiently promote what I have learned.

∞

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10 Questions with Frank Allen

The Combative Corner had the great privilege to interview the legendary bagua, xingyi, and taijiquan teacher, Mr. Frank Allen.  Allen “Laoshi” has practiced the internal energy arts since 1973 and is the founder of The Wu Tang Physical Culture Association of New York City (with a brother branch in Frankfurt, Germany).  Along with his partner, Tina Chunna Zhang, Frank Allen is the co-author of two great books, “Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan: The Fighting Art of the Manchurian Palace Guard” and “The Whirling Circles of Ba Gua Zhang: The Art and Legends of Eight Trigram Palm.” Mr. Frank Allen teaches workshops throughout the United States, Europe and holds regular classes in New York City. [Click the above picture of Mr. Allen to visit his homepage]

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You’ve been a student of the internal arts for over 30 years.  What experience/emotion/etc pulled you to study the internal martial arts rather than the external?

When I began studying martial arts in the early 70’s, my first teachers, Jan “The Iron Man” Lang and “Irish” Jimmy O’Mara were East Village fighting legends and instructors of Chinese Internal martial Arts … I was properly impressed … Then I met B. K. Frantzis in 1975 and at that time his fighting skills were phenomenal… and … there was also the arrival in New York City of Master B. P. Chan, the first person here to teach Ba Gua & Xing Yi to non-Chinese … The example of these four men led me into studying the Chinese Internal Martial Arts as a complete system of fighting, health improvement and meditation.

Many martial artists talk about becoming a master of only one style.  You, however, have deeply studied Bagua, Xingyi, Taijqiuan, Qigong, Western Boxing and Wu Style? What is your take on learning a particular system or systems?

The constant thread through everything I teach and practice is the Internal Principles which join the arts of Ba Gua, Tai Ji and Xing Yi and are applied to everything I study and teach.

How frequently do you train (outside of teaching) and how strongly is meditation/qigong a part of your training?

I train daily, but with varying amounts of training time depending on the day. Personally I run the principles of Qi Gong through my forms practice, augmenting this with a few Qi Gong exercises. I have periods where I meditate daily and periods when I don’t.

Do you (your school) place much emphasis on the martial aspects of each art form? (or does it vary on the class/participant)

I try to ALWAYS teach the martial aspects of everything in our martial arts classes. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Qi Gong and Meditations sessions.

I understand that you take annual trips to China to continue your training.  Do you feel that you get a deeper understanding of the martial art by being in China? And/Or do you feel the quality of teaching/information is better there?

My partner Tina Zhang leads annual training trips to Beijing as she is from there. I’m extremely pleased to get to study with Cheng Style Ba Gua Grandmaster Liu Jing Ru (who Tina and I are formal disciples of) and Grandmaster Li Bing Ci of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan. These men are the absolute top of their fields and training with them is a major opportunity and a complete joy.

As someone who is quite recognizable for his long hair, beard and tattoos,… where you ever discriminated against in martial art circles?

I have never been discriminated against in any martial arts circles … when I started my look was fairly common in those environments.

Now that you’re in your 60’s, I understand that you are taking on disciples? Did you never take on disciples before your 60th or are you following a martial art tradition of teaching?

I am following the Chinese martial arts tradition that says that no one is actually a master until they have passed their 60th birthday … and are a formal disciple of a Grandmaster whose teachings they are obligated to pass on to their own disciples…. therefore I began accepting disciples at the age of 61 and a couple years after becoming a formal disciple of Grandmaster Liu Jing Ru.

In many of your pictures, I see you have lots of fun sparring with boxing gloves.  Is this just to practice your love of western boxing or do you implement your various styles into each session?

I DO love western boxing… but I teach boxing in my Fighting for Health classes With all the Internal Principles inserted into Boxing … as well as kickboxing.

A century from now, when we remember Mr. Frank Allen, what would be the main thing you’d like people to remember about you?

A century from now I would like people to remember Frank Allen as a competent teacher who lead many students into a study of the Chinese Internal Martial Arts.

Any future hopes or aspirations…  Any dreams that remain unfulfilled for Mr. Frank Allen?

All of my hopes and dreams are in place and working and I simply hope for more of the same.

∞

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Roundtable Discussion 001: Knowledge

In regards to the martial arts –

“What do you know NOW that you wish you knew THEN?”

VAUGHN :  This question had me scratching my head for a couple of hours but I finally came up with an answer. It’s not so much what I wish I knew, but what I wish I had and that’s confidence. I wish I had the confidence in my martial arts abilities. That is the one thing that has grown by leaps and bounds since I was younger. No matter how well I did in class or how often my instructor told me how much I was improving I always had that little seed of doubt in the back of my head. I couldn’t help wondering, “Will this stuff really work?” “What if the bully tries to hit me, could I really defend myself?” I was even hesitant to compete in tournaments when I was younger because I was afraid that I wouldn’t do well. Now after years of participating in what I’m sure have been hundreds of classes, test, sparring matches, and self defense drills I now have a good idea of how I will react in a real confrontation. Like my current instructor says I’ve finally developed that switch that I can turn on when I need to. I’m not saying that I can easily dispatch an army of crazed ninja without a scratch, but I’m pretty sure that I can hold my own.”

KUO :  “Every technique works, and every technique doesn’t work.” One of my buddies and I had this discussion one day when we were reminiscing on our training journeys and discussing the martial arts flame wars we see arise in discussions. We came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an ultimate move or unbeatable technique. Sometimes person A can use a technique on person B, but fails to use it on person C. Yet, person B can’t do the technique on person A, but has no trouble using it on person C. If the movement were the only factor, then the the technique should work universally.

There are several factors determining whether a technique will actually work: the physical ability to execute the movements, understanding of the interplay of forces, timing, distance, and most importantly, the ability to recognize the conditions (in real-time) that allow the technique to work. The success of the technique depends on conditions and understanding.”

DAVIS :  “I began Brazilian (Gracie) Jiu-Jitsu without much prior knowledge of the style and therefore without my previous Hapkido based goals in mind. I was hooked; Jiu-Jitsu just spoke to me, as they say. Its training required me to be an athlete, a scientist, and an inventor all at the same time. I realized, then, that there are innumerable styles of martial arts and any one of them with proper instruction and dedication will lead the practitioner to be an effective fighter. This left the only variable in the martial arts to be me and my only criteria for choosing a style to be how much I enjoyed the training. In my mind I still wanted to be that same style of fighter I was working towards in Hapkido but with Jiu-Jitsu I saw that I could be just as effective a fighter while enjoying my training more than previously. This newfound attitude positively expressed itself not only in my demeanor while training but also in the rate of my learning because I simply wanted to train more. I found myself going to class four or five days a week in Jiu-Jitsu rather than the two classes a week schedule I previously maintained in Hapkido. Today I consider myself in love with Jiu-Jitsu and, as is the true nature of love, it is something I must work at relentlessly to maintain but do not feel overly burdened by my efforts. This love, based purely on the fun and enjoyment of training, is that which I wish I had known of when I first began the martial arts. Now that all the emotional stuff has been said; drop the ego, the preconceived ideas, and the expectations; find the style that fits you, not that you want to fit you; and go have some fun.”

JOYCE :  “Like many of us, ‘What I knew then’ wasn’t very much.  All I knew was that I was in love with the combative sciences – from shaolin monks breaking walnuts on a student’s head, watching a boxer find the reserves to stagger back to his feet, dig in deep and come up with the victory, to the old shadow boxer performing ‘step back & repulse monkey.’  Therapists sometimes talk of a stifling love – of loving something so intensely that it’s unhealthy, harmful, or deadly.  When I came into the martial arts, I wanted to ‘climb the ladder’ and succeed beyond my instructor’s belief.  The problem came when I’d be standing knee-deep in a waterfall doing one-inch punches against the granite, or purposely falling onto my upper back only to try my hardest to spring back like a ninja.  I had an unbelievable amount of get-up-and-go attitude, but was too ambitious for my own good.  Once I went to college, got my degree in sport science, later became a licensed massage therapists, read stacks of books on proper exercise training, (not-to-mention gotten older & wiser) did I understand where I went wrong and why my body continued to hurt more year-after-year.  Nowadays, I listen closely to professionals and I am in no rush to out-perform anyone.  My happiness comes from my personal expression of what I’ve learned and as a coach, the thought of my students learning to joyfully express themselves.”

Nothing.  Growth in knowledge and wisdom is possible from not knowing.  The beauty of life is in not knowing.

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Please shot us your comments in the comment section below and let us know your answer to this very interesting question.

– The Combative Corner Crew