Horizontal v. Vertical Fist Punching

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in the martial arts. Outrageous "facts" from great "masters" are quoted as the truth and wild theories that go against science are put forth as proof of the "facts." Mumbo jumbo is used to confuse reason and hide the truth. The following illustrates how a clever rearrangement of the facts may confuse the truth.

Three men shared a room at a hotel. The price of the room was $30, so each of them paid $10 for his share of the room. Later, the hotel clerk realized the price of the room should have been $25, so she gave the bellhop five $1 bills to return to the men. The bellhop wondered how to divide the $5 equally between three people, and he came up with a solution. Since the men did not know the cost of the room was actually $25, he told them that the cost of the room was $27, which meant that each man should have only paid $9 for his share of the cost of the room. Therefore, he then gave each of the men a $1 refund, and kept the remaining $2 for himself.

Therefore, the men paid $27 for the room. The bellhop kept $2. This totals $29. What happened to the other $1? It disappeared!

Answer. Later in the day, the men learned that the price of the room was actually $25. Since they had originally paid $30 for the room and were only refunded $3, that meant they had paid $27 for the room, $2 more than the $25. They demanded and received the remaining $2 from the bellhop. $25 plus $3 plus $2 equals $30; the missing dollar reappeared!

Sometimes a "master" gets something right in the explanation of a theory, however, this does not make his or her entire premise correct. Even a bind golfer sometimes hits a hole-in-one. For example, in December 2005, Zohar Sharon, a blind 53-year-old Israeli golfer whose caddy gives him verbal directions, hit a hole-in-one. Likewise, even a pseudo master may sometimes say something profound, but that does not mean everything he or she says is correct.