Recently the Karate Nerd postulated that there may be a connection between FMA and Karate.

The other day I watched Tuhon Apolo teach a technique that is also known as Split Entry in the iKali Empty Hand module – see below :-

When I saw it I thought of this movement from the Dong family Tai Chi Fast Form as demonstrated by GM Dong Yingchieh.

Conspiracy theorists might point to this as a possible link between FMA and Tai Chi 🙂🙂🙂

Some connections are real, some spurious and some coincidental. Since there are only so many ways to move you should not be surprised to come across the same technique across styles from different cultures, different countries.

For example, what we call Umbrella in FMA can be found in Chinese broadsword or even in this Sao Lim (Shaolin) pole I learned from one of my Tai Chi teachers in 1978.

So should I then conclude that there is a connection between Shaolin and FMA?