Hello Gavin:
You badly, badly misperceived my intent with your analogy re: shooting.

If I perceive the method you use correctly it has a... staccato rhythm if you will to the fast-slow, fast-slow dynamic correct? A different speed/timing for the slow-dynamic than is used for the fast components correct?
What do you make of the single rhythm, the 4-4 speed consistantly throughout a particular dynamic tension kata? Many Uechi practitioners for example seem to have a far, far faster contraction cycle than their ~Goju cousins~? I was curious of your perspective as to that curious difference (ie can the contraction be done (& practiced for that matter) at combat speed)???
<<the contraction/release of contraction was probably a bit off topic and in relation to actual kata,
We read the thread header differently... but not a problem. The details IMO are what matter... I cannot use merely the "blanket" of ~dynamic tension~ without helping explain, examine the components, aspects of the bigger idea. If we only go that far (ie barely-merely surface level) things become clice, platitudes dangerously easily.
<<preparation of the body for this release....
Radical/heretical query...do you think the "release" has inherent power within it?

Most focus exclusively on the hard parts, what I call the ~dramatic~... anybody examine the ~other end~ of the action with the same vigor & systemic scrutiny??? I hear what you mean re: showing benefit via tension from the weight lifting parallels. I wonder given the physicality of peoples from the past, I wonder if the need for such an exercise was as great then, if at all???
<<it does good things by encouraging some celluar level thingys!
More O2, more blood so far I'm with you!
<<There is a shiatsu technique that involves the massage of the digestive tract...
Which triggering combatively would be baaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!! You can definately move things around literally manually, but the dynamic tension to do so??? If so now we're heading into the Hatha-Yoga and the assorted "locks" they use to move internal viscera around.
<<Just hunching up the shoulders as hard
Yup, which is why the release end to me at least is far more interesting, but almost never articulated in a deep way... tense, anybody can do tense... and see-feel tengible "power". But what about the comparitively (so called) soft-side with the release!!!! Ever seen anybody describe the subtle parts in a martial context as they always do the "hard"???? Pages and pages of materials always the dramatic hard pieces, but ever seen the soft described in nearly the same depth????
J