For anyone who truly understands Uechi Ryu, it is easy to see how correct Art Rabesa is in his analysis of the use of Uechi blocks.
So why the performance of the blocks in the traditional method and traditional kata?
Such traditional, mainstream execution achieves the objective of creating the critical neural pathways to the brain until the neurons communicate with the muscles automatically.
You’re developing the ability for muscles to record patterns and lines of direction and soft/hard force so you can do them without thought at the angle the incoming stimulus is calling for by reaching out for that ‘one piece of the pie’ _
And you do this by moving out of the traditional form into the ‘operant conditioning’ aspect of training…to wit
Back in the day - in the sixties, we would wade into kicks and punches in the dojo. One would load up and fire strikes at you. You would handle them and not strike back. Just keep blocking.
Resulted in quite a conditioning drill also. We had quite a group of top quality fighters back then. Our fighting sessions became something everyone wanted to view. This is where I became aware of just two or three simple deflection blocks.
Art Rabesa
So it was in the ‘protective applications’ of the ‘pre-conditioned’ neural pathways …against full force punching and kicking attacks by very capable tournament champion fighters in our Boston dojo,[operant conditioning] that you would develop and refine the kind of ‘blocking/intercepting/ redirecting’ skills Art is talking about that allowed so many of our fighters to win open tournaments.
This is the most important reason why one must follow the original, time proven, kata patterns of practice of the particular system, because the student will encode concepts unique to those ancient moves, with his body moving and responding in accordance with those templates , that will populate his neural pathways _and allow the particular style’s techniques to encrypt via operant conditioning_ drills, scenarios and free fighting against other styles, as we did.