As I posted earlier, I'm going to share all my legacy material, including the full bulk of the WMA stuff. But we are going to start from the beginning.

I started studying martial arts in 1980, under Steve Short, in Golden, BC. My family moved a lot, so following that, I studied a LOT of different styles. I don't remember dates very well, but I do remember influences.

Sensei Nairn Semple's Shotokan Karate-do was a huge influence on me. During the time I was training there, I spent a lot of time sparring and working on things with my friends Paul Lew and Jari Adler. Those two have been huge influences on me. Paul was a student of Wing Chun, and he really balanced out what we learned in Shotokan.

After Shotokan, I spent a few years studying Hung Gar Gung Fu under Sifu Stephen Chang, and then moved on TaeKwonDo under Master Bill Haskill. Bill really taught me how to be martial artist, more than anyone...he is also about the most physically competent martial artist I have ever met...and that's really saying something. After this, I dabbled in Aikido, Muay Thai, Pancration, Taiji, Hwarangdo, Silat...probably a few others I've forgotten. Also started teaching under the too-brief mentorship of Frank Evans.

 I've always had a bug for studying and organizing things. I turned this interest lose on my martial arts training. At first I was looking for the mythical "mother art" of all martial arts. Talked to a lot of people, read a lot, watched tons of people training. I was fortunate to be living in Vancouver, which is the perfect city for martial arts. You can find any art here, if you try hard enough. Anyway, my efforts really just led me in circles, so I turned to science.

My wife at the time was working on her MA in linguistics, and was reading about language origins. Particularly, about the tools linguists use to analyze languages and compare them. I was working at a music store and discovered Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchesography." Which led me to modern labanotation. It struck me that you could shift labanotation to a written language, instead of a series of symbols, and thus create a language out of it. I thought perhaps that I could use this language to sort and categorize the varied martial arts forms, and then apply linguistics tools to the output to try and discover the root of all martial arts.

Nice theory, with many holes. I started to study all the martial arts I could once I had the format worked out, and then...well, I stopped. The more martial arts I studied from around the world, the more I realized that every culture creates it's own martial art...and at heart they are all the same. They just dress it up with their own culture ideals, and specialize in things that their local conditions make logical.

So, the first thing I will share is my old synopsis of methods:

From January 07, 1998:

   Word Structure is CVCVC, semitic-language based, with affixes.

   Consonants are english based.
The 3 consonant cluster is used to indicate the basic technique
element.

Vowels:
a    bat
e    get
i    bit
o    bop
u    cut
aa   bay
ee   beep
oo   boot

   Vowels are used to indicate the direction of gross movement the
basic technique is to be performed in.

Additional grammar:
affixes: -e left side
         -a right side (assumed)
I make a rudimentary distinction between natural and chambered techniques.
Natural meaning the technique begins from the natural resting place of the
body part, or continues from the end point of the last executed technique.
Chambered indicates the technique begins from an artifical position. variations
in chambers will be notated at a later date, but for now it's assumed to be the
chamber common to the particular style, for the particular technique.
assumed technique (no affix) is natural, right hand. (hand/foot/knee/etc.)
         -en left hand natural
         -et left hand chambered
         -at right hand chambered
There is another series of affixes for indicating the same as above, but also
encoding infomation regarding whether the technique is to be thrust or swung.
I decided this was redundant.

sequence markers:
    then: e  (technique followed by another)
    and:  a  (technique simultaneous with another)


Movement:

     nw    n    ne     
       \     |   /
     
     w -       - e
     
       /     |   \
     sw    s    se

subject is standing in center, view is from above.


Mid level:          Rising/upper:      Dropping/lower:
ai    aa    ae      ia    eo   eu      oi    oa   oe
  \   |   /           \     |   /          \     |   /

au-       -ao       ie-   uu  -ia      ou-   uo  -oo

  /   |   \           /     |   \          /   |   \
ee    ei   ea       iu    ii   io      ui    ua   ue

Elbow techniques:
point of elbow (thrust)      djt
sides of elbow (swing)       djs

Knee techniques:
point of knee (thrust)       knt
sides of knee  (swing)       kns

Foot techniques:
heel: side kick (thrust)     pbt
      axe kick                   pbk
      back kick                 pbn
      front kick                pbg
sole of foot:
      inside crescent kick   pds
knife edge of foot:
      outside crescent kick  pkd
      side kick                   pkn
ball of foot:
      roundhouse kick        pnk
      front kick                 pnt
instep:
      roundhouse kick        pgk
shin:
      roundhouse kick        pst

Hand techniques:
palm:
     palm strike                   sbk
     grab (palm and fingers)  sbl
     chop (base of knifedge) sbt
     slap                             sbn
     claw (palm/fingertips)    sby
inside edge of hand
     ridgehand                    sdc
second knuckle of index finger
     index knuckle punch     sfn
knife edge of hand
     knifehand                   sgg
outside 3 first knuckles
     vertical fist punch     shh
fingertips
     spearhand               skm
     fingertip thrust/flick  skt
first 2 first knuckles
     jab                        stb
     hook                     std
     punch                   stk
     uppercut                stt
back of hand
     backfist (knuckles)     syp
     backhand slap           syn

Receiving techniques:
outer forearm
     rising block               nyt  "age-uke"
     outside-to-in block     nyb  "sote-uke"
     down block              nyk  "gedan-barai"
     forearm brush           nyf  -scooping motion inwards
     ward                       nyn  -forearm thrust out
inner forearm
     inside-to-outside block nlp  "uchi-uke"
     lower block                nlg  "7 star block"
     forearm scoop            nll  
knifedge of hand
     knifehand block         ngg
     hook/grab                ngn
inner wrist
     wedge block             npt  "tan sao"
outer wrist
     hook/pull               nrn  "fook sao"
     scoop                   nrt  "huan sao"
palm
     palm slap                nbl  "wu sao/pak sao"
     palm brush              nbr  taiji/arnis
top of forearm
     wing block              nnl  "bong sao"
back of wrist
     wrist block             nrw  taiji opening
point of elbow
     elbow block             njl
shin     
     shin jam                nst
sole of foot
    sole jam                 ndw
knife edge of foot
   thrust jam                nkn

Movements:
step
   step                      mss
   crossing step          msc
   shift                     msh
weight shift
   ""                        mww
jump
   jump                      mjj   both feet move at same time
   leap                      mjl   one foot to the other
   hop                       mjh   one foot to same
turn (torso only)
   clockwise                 mtt
   counterclockwise          mtc
pivot
   one foot                  mpp
   two feet                  mpt
bend (torso)
   ""                        mbb

Still coming:
stances -natural, horse, goat
        -t stance, back, cat
        -front stance, immoveable, crescent
        -crane
        -kneeling horse   
immobilizations -armbar
                -bent wrist outside pressure
                -figure 4 lock
                -elbow "bar"
                -shoulder lock
                -wrist bend forward/backward
                -finger lock -backward
                -knuckle lock
                -hammer lock
                -variations on above for legs

 Enjoy!