I was teaching the #3 disarm today–this is where an opponent swings a stick with the right hand to your left rib area, with the disarm being a post block with your stick, and then reaching out with the left and, snaking around the opponent’s hand and disarming the stick. As I was showing this the back and forth motion of the left hand stood out to me. As much as the hand needs to extend to reach around the opponents hands to disarm, this motion also serves the function of misdirecting and disorienting the opponent because the hand basically flies out close to their face, then comes back it close to your chest and then shoots back out for the disarm. It manipulates the focus of the opponent as they are being disarm by rapidly changing the distance of the disarming hand. Even in close quarters, the back and forth movement can be an effective way to keep your opponent disoriented. Of course on a larger scale, this is much more visible when an opponents energy is redirected from a punch to a backwards throw, but I was delighted to notice the same type of redirecting happening, perhaps at a mental level if not a purely physical level.