This morning I was teaching a lesson that focused on empty hands, my goal being to show applications based on Serrada’s weapon techniques. Midway through the class the student expressed frustration at learning a lot of things, saying he preferred to get just one. Now I don’t disagree with this, since one good move is better than a lot of poorly executed ones, but the guy was confusing himself by trying to make everything a memorized pattern to fit specific situations, which is rather contrary to how I see the art or teach it.
This fellow is an old-school karate guy in the true sense of the meaning. He’s about a dozen years older than me and was probably churning out kicks and punches when I was still a toddler. On the other hand he probably hasn’t trained since about the time I began getting serious about this stuff, which would be, oh, around 35 years ago (yikes!) On the one hand I give him credit for knowing a fair amount, but then I see his sticking points, where half-remembered techniques of yesteryear freeze him up in the moment. He’s a physically powerful guy; the challenge is to keep him focused in the moment.
Anyway, we were analyzing the cross block, which is where we deflect an attack to our left side, right side forward, with our weapon or lead hand angled downward and the check hand crossed underneath. From there, as the check hand controls the opponent’s arm we were doing a raking downward backfist (or chop) to the bicep (as opposed to the neck) and then a short straight punch to the solar plexus. One variation of a finish from there was to close in and trap the head with the left while delivering a smash with the right elbow. It’s a nice, short explosive combination but he was over-thinking it and freezing up. I was trying to get him to relax and see how the moves flow from one position to the next logical available target.
It was at this point that I came up with a new analogy. I asked if the guy did home repair and if he had a toolbox, to both of which he answered affirmatively, so I surmised that he probably knows the difference between a hammer, screwdriver and pliers. Again hearing confirmation, I then said that he probably would not be confused as to which he’d need for any particular task, to which he also agreed. Here I drew the analogy, calling the bicep strike a hammer, the short punch a screwdriver, and the head smash pliers. He immediately got the message.
I then asked if philips head screwdrivers were better than slot head screwdrivers, making the point that neither is better, but each is the proper tool for a particular job. So it is with punches. A twist punch is neither better nor worse than a straight punch; each has suitable applications though there can be overlap in choice.
Since he got this too, I then described the technique as a work project, where different tools might be needed along various stages of the process. Rather than pre-determining what tools he might need at any moment, I suggested that he dip into the toolbox at any point to get the one needed right then.
Sometimes martial arts seem such a mysterious and confusing whirlwind. Usually that’s because the vision is too tightly focused and cannot see the forest for the trees. I had already described applications of several punches, each of which basically used the elbow to create a defense against a counter while attacking. You may recognize this as the JKD principle of an intercepting fist. By seeing them as similar, not unlike a slot or philips screwdriver, it becomes easier to focus on the main idea of hitting the target while simply integrating the angle of the arm for protection.
In this case using the toolbox analogy brought some clarity to seeing options. With the three basic tools of hammer, screwdriver and pliers we are either smashing, drilling or squishing a target. The most important thing is to see the “what” while being flexible and adaptive about the “how.” I constantly reinforce the mindset of being “target oriented” - see the target, hit the target. How you do it is a variable, and training should teach us how to use our tools and why they fit certain situations. Correctly understood, this should lead to efficiency because one learns to strike quickly with any opportunity rather than wasting time and motion trying to find some position that might distant or unavailable. Again using JKD philosophy, it’s using the most direct weapon to the closest target.
It is said that speed cannot be coached. However there is raw linear speed and then there is adaptive speed, which includes the mental triggers that initiate timing and control motion. Watch a world-class sprinter sometime. Everything propels him forward towards his goal. The arms pump straight ahead and back; rocking them side-to-side is less efficient and unbalanced and will cost the runner time in races that are measured to 1/1000 of a second.
It is the same with fighters. A good fighter may see someone draw back an elbow to throw a haymaker, and respond by shooting a jab straight forward. It isn’t necessary that the fighter be faster than his opponent, though it may appear that way to onlookers. Simply by being more efficient at identifying the threat and responding, he is quicker to the target though not necessarily moving at greater physical speed. When we know how to use our tools, we don’t spend as much time thinking about those choices. When we know how to use a greater variety of tools, that opens our creativity.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Knowledge, Skill and Ability
Today I began thinking of various elements of training and these three words – knowledge, skill and ability – stayed with me. This is another use of the triangle as a concept, keeping in mind that it is still a single integrated structure and why it is commonly shown within the circle to denote wholeness. So why did I choose these three words? They are a reflection of certain memories that surfaced, and so are representative of key concepts.
It is said that knowledge is power, but I think it would be more correct to say that knowledge is a key to power. One can know something without grasping its value or understanding the implications. It takes action to apply knowledge for effect. Nevertheless, knowledge is the foundation, the means from which understanding can grow. Great thinkers like Archimedes and Descartes understood that having a single certain truth enabled them to establish valid and logical principles.
Serrada founder Angel Cabales understood the value of knowing the principle of one. He taught to hold the ground on which you stand because we already know how to move; being immovable is much harder. By not moving, we are the leverage with which to move others. This doesn’t mean we lack mobility, but that we can ground ourselves where and when we need, and this is a great generator of power. Similarly, our defenses use a single point of contact to create a powerful fulcrum. Two points are inherently unstable because balance tends to shift back and forth, but one point simply controls the balance, as it has nowhere else to go.
Skill is application of knowledge. How many of us have trained with people who can explain the how and why of techniques in intricate detail but cannot demonstrate them well enough make the application work? I specifically remember one guy back in my Kenpo days who was an orange belt (the first promotion) back when I was a white belt. By the time he got his next promotion I was already several belts past him, and over a decade that was it for him. Now this guy was a walking encyclopedia of details from the day I met him, a veritable engineering whiz at blueprinting every move in our system. He was also built like a warrior dwarf from “Lord of the Rings” and was one tough punching bag, emulating his hero boxer Tex Cobb, who was known for relying on an iron head to survive his fights. Unfortunately Kenpo is designed for speed, accuracy and mobility, all of which my friend was lacking. Perhaps it was a bad match of body type and the art (he’d have made a good MMA guy) but all his knowledge of this system seemed of little practical value.
The third level is ability, a term I’m using as a catchall to describe a level encompassing and surpassing the previous two. It is how well we exhibit our knowledge and skill, as having those things does not intrinsically qualify our performance. On the one hand we each have natural potential, greater for some than others, but which can be enhanced for any through proper physical conditioning. On the other hand, ability goes beyond the physical to include our willpower. Training can build physical and emotional toughness, but then sometimes athletes leave their game in the locker room. Certain things cannot be coached beyond narrow limits, such as size, speed and desire. Heart is something that is revealed only when it is tested, though it can be nurtured through the learning process as steps are mastered.
Physical strength is always an asset, though perhaps not as vital in weaponry as in other arts such as grappling. Still, one needs to be strong enough to handle pressure and have the endurance to finish a fight. A problem I have in teaching is that I see most students only once a week for a couple of hours. Escrima can be very technical and requires focused attention. When training time is constrained, it is imperative to work on skill, leaving conditioning for the student to pursue elsewhere. Leaving conditioning to chance is a mistake, because hard, grueling practice can reveal character. To excel takes hard work, and as they say in motorsports, the last 10% of performance is 90% of the expense. The mountain is always steepest at the top.
I miss the old days at the Kenpo school because we had access 24/7, and classes ran several hours every day. With that much time, conditioning was well-integrated into training, as opposed to haphazardly hoping students will take it on themselves to get sufficient work in on their own. We had a basic conditioning cycle we used to do, consisting of 100 jumping jacks, 25 pushups, 50 situps (or crunches, done in pairs with our feet interlocked and slapping hands with each other when we came up to add torsion), and then 25 more pushups. We would typically open class with 2-5 cycles, done quickly to get warmed up before bagwork, kick trading or sparring; we always worked up a good sweat quickly.
Another component is stretching, which again is less significant in Escrima than in an art that emphasizes kicking. Current recommendations are to stretch when fully warmed up, better at the end of a vigorous workout because muscles are more pliable when hot. Not only do we not spend time on this in short classes, we rarely get that hot in Escrima, even when sparring hard. Back in the 70’s when I did a little Tai Chi with Master Chiang at the Wen Wu School, I was taught that flexible legs were a key to longevity. In my 20’s this was a distant concern, but now I can feel what a difference it makes. In the last 8 years I’ve gone through graduate school and endured a period of difficult health. During those times my conditioning was neglected, and I can attest that it doesn’t come back as easily as when I was younger.
Many of us take up martial arts to defend ourselves or for sport, health being the third reason people often give. As we get older and our skills become honed, we come to rely on efficiency rather than strength. This is all well and good, but to maintain our health we need to still make room for the less glamorous side of training. As the saying goes, what we do now will show up in our health in 10 years. The work we do today pays off in the future.
It is said that knowledge is power, but I think it would be more correct to say that knowledge is a key to power. One can know something without grasping its value or understanding the implications. It takes action to apply knowledge for effect. Nevertheless, knowledge is the foundation, the means from which understanding can grow. Great thinkers like Archimedes and Descartes understood that having a single certain truth enabled them to establish valid and logical principles.
Serrada founder Angel Cabales understood the value of knowing the principle of one. He taught to hold the ground on which you stand because we already know how to move; being immovable is much harder. By not moving, we are the leverage with which to move others. This doesn’t mean we lack mobility, but that we can ground ourselves where and when we need, and this is a great generator of power. Similarly, our defenses use a single point of contact to create a powerful fulcrum. Two points are inherently unstable because balance tends to shift back and forth, but one point simply controls the balance, as it has nowhere else to go.
Skill is application of knowledge. How many of us have trained with people who can explain the how and why of techniques in intricate detail but cannot demonstrate them well enough make the application work? I specifically remember one guy back in my Kenpo days who was an orange belt (the first promotion) back when I was a white belt. By the time he got his next promotion I was already several belts past him, and over a decade that was it for him. Now this guy was a walking encyclopedia of details from the day I met him, a veritable engineering whiz at blueprinting every move in our system. He was also built like a warrior dwarf from “Lord of the Rings” and was one tough punching bag, emulating his hero boxer Tex Cobb, who was known for relying on an iron head to survive his fights. Unfortunately Kenpo is designed for speed, accuracy and mobility, all of which my friend was lacking. Perhaps it was a bad match of body type and the art (he’d have made a good MMA guy) but all his knowledge of this system seemed of little practical value.
The third level is ability, a term I’m using as a catchall to describe a level encompassing and surpassing the previous two. It is how well we exhibit our knowledge and skill, as having those things does not intrinsically qualify our performance. On the one hand we each have natural potential, greater for some than others, but which can be enhanced for any through proper physical conditioning. On the other hand, ability goes beyond the physical to include our willpower. Training can build physical and emotional toughness, but then sometimes athletes leave their game in the locker room. Certain things cannot be coached beyond narrow limits, such as size, speed and desire. Heart is something that is revealed only when it is tested, though it can be nurtured through the learning process as steps are mastered.
Physical strength is always an asset, though perhaps not as vital in weaponry as in other arts such as grappling. Still, one needs to be strong enough to handle pressure and have the endurance to finish a fight. A problem I have in teaching is that I see most students only once a week for a couple of hours. Escrima can be very technical and requires focused attention. When training time is constrained, it is imperative to work on skill, leaving conditioning for the student to pursue elsewhere. Leaving conditioning to chance is a mistake, because hard, grueling practice can reveal character. To excel takes hard work, and as they say in motorsports, the last 10% of performance is 90% of the expense. The mountain is always steepest at the top.
I miss the old days at the Kenpo school because we had access 24/7, and classes ran several hours every day. With that much time, conditioning was well-integrated into training, as opposed to haphazardly hoping students will take it on themselves to get sufficient work in on their own. We had a basic conditioning cycle we used to do, consisting of 100 jumping jacks, 25 pushups, 50 situps (or crunches, done in pairs with our feet interlocked and slapping hands with each other when we came up to add torsion), and then 25 more pushups. We would typically open class with 2-5 cycles, done quickly to get warmed up before bagwork, kick trading or sparring; we always worked up a good sweat quickly.
Another component is stretching, which again is less significant in Escrima than in an art that emphasizes kicking. Current recommendations are to stretch when fully warmed up, better at the end of a vigorous workout because muscles are more pliable when hot. Not only do we not spend time on this in short classes, we rarely get that hot in Escrima, even when sparring hard. Back in the 70’s when I did a little Tai Chi with Master Chiang at the Wen Wu School, I was taught that flexible legs were a key to longevity. In my 20’s this was a distant concern, but now I can feel what a difference it makes. In the last 8 years I’ve gone through graduate school and endured a period of difficult health. During those times my conditioning was neglected, and I can attest that it doesn’t come back as easily as when I was younger.
Many of us take up martial arts to defend ourselves or for sport, health being the third reason people often give. As we get older and our skills become honed, we come to rely on efficiency rather than strength. This is all well and good, but to maintain our health we need to still make room for the less glamorous side of training. As the saying goes, what we do now will show up in our health in 10 years. The work we do today pays off in the future.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
New webpage on making training blades
Once again my blogging has been on a backburner because of other projects. I'm now filming classes so I can provide DVD's to my students so they can review what we covered. I find it useful as a teacher, enabling me to monitor their progress and also evaluate my own teaching methodology. New technology isn't always simpler than the old. Whereas before one would make a videotape and then copy it, now I have to transcode the file through two different processes to finally get it on disk. It's awkward, and it requires a lot of computer resources for hours. Each transcoding takes about as long as the actual running time of the viewing material.
Additionally I've been focused on making my training blades. At this stage I've probably worked as hard getting my shop set up for this as actually making blades. I've had to integrate new equipment, which includes a dust collection system along with the tools, so I've reorganized my small space a couple of times to get everything to fit together as comfortably as possible.
I've also updated my website, as I posted previously, and yesterday I added a new page describing the process of making my training blades. I'll add photos at some point, when I have someone available to take pictures while I'm working in the shop.
Additionally I've been focused on making my training blades. At this stage I've probably worked as hard getting my shop set up for this as actually making blades. I've had to integrate new equipment, which includes a dust collection system along with the tools, so I've reorganized my small space a couple of times to get everything to fit together as comfortably as possible.
I've also updated my website, as I posted previously, and yesterday I added a new page describing the process of making my training blades. I'll add photos at some point, when I have someone available to take pictures while I'm working in the shop.
Friday, September 14, 2007
New training weapons production
I'll keep this brief, since I don't want to rewrite what I've put on my website.
Due to the closure of many machine shops and the exporting of so much production overseas, it was not longer economical to get training knives made here, as costs are now as much as I've been selling them at retail.
The upside is that I've invested in equipment to make my own blades, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities since I'm no longer locked into single designs for production runs, and no longer at the mercy of programmers and machine codes reinterpreting my designs.
I've added a section on my custom training blades, which, like my sticks, are designed to handle contact sparring. There are samples of work I've done on there, and more designs are already on the way by request, most notably barongs and kerambits. Check it out!
Due to the closure of many machine shops and the exporting of so much production overseas, it was not longer economical to get training knives made here, as costs are now as much as I've been selling them at retail.
The upside is that I've invested in equipment to make my own blades, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities since I'm no longer locked into single designs for production runs, and no longer at the mercy of programmers and machine codes reinterpreting my designs.
I've added a section on my custom training blades, which, like my sticks, are designed to handle contact sparring. There are samples of work I've done on there, and more designs are already on the way by request, most notably barongs and kerambits. Check it out!
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Native Filipino Bikers!
These guys are from a mountain tribe called the Ifugaos. Aside from the incongruity of native dress and ersatz "motorcycles", the ingenuity and craftsmanship of their bikes is as cool as their clothing is colorful. Photos courtesy of guro Peter Freedman.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sonny’s Anniversary
This past Friday was the first anniversary of the passing of Sonny Umpad. I didn’t make the last-minute gathering in Alameda that afternoon, but on Sunday a group of about 20 met for dinner at the New Gold Medal Restaurant, one of Sonny’s favorite eateries in Oakland’s Chinatown.
This was a very informal affair, just friends and students sharing food and catching up on lives, but Sonny’s presence was strong in the room. That’s hard to ignore when that many people come together for no other reason than a connection they share through one source who remains an inspiration for continued personal growth and that of a community. A year ago I wrote about how Sonny’s energy went out into the community when he died, and it’s good to see that this energy has become focused rather than dissipated. That is a special feat in itself.
We didn’t lift a toast Sunday evening, and I’m sure if we’d done so when Sonny was around, he’d have been embarrassed, but not quite speechless. It’s too bad we didn’t meet like this when he was alive, but I can’t say “when he was still with us” because he is.
Late note: As a follow-up to the dinner, there is now a write-up for Sonny on Wikipedia.
Mabuhay ang Sonny Umpad!
This was a very informal affair, just friends and students sharing food and catching up on lives, but Sonny’s presence was strong in the room. That’s hard to ignore when that many people come together for no other reason than a connection they share through one source who remains an inspiration for continued personal growth and that of a community. A year ago I wrote about how Sonny’s energy went out into the community when he died, and it’s good to see that this energy has become focused rather than dissipated. That is a special feat in itself.
We didn’t lift a toast Sunday evening, and I’m sure if we’d done so when Sonny was around, he’d have been embarrassed, but not quite speechless. It’s too bad we didn’t meet like this when he was alive, but I can’t say “when he was still with us” because he is.
Late note: As a follow-up to the dinner, there is now a write-up for Sonny on Wikipedia.
Mabuhay ang Sonny Umpad!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Sifu Larry Hartsell passes away
The martial arts community has lost another giant with the passing of JKD grappling legend Larry Hartsell. Though I never met him myself, I know the high regard in which he is held by so many excellent martial artists. Sifu Hartsell was an early catalyst for the revival of grappling within the martial arts community. My condolances to his family, friends, students and the JKD community in general for his loss.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Progress in Training
Progress in martial arts training is rarely a linear progression as growth comes in spurts. The fastest and steepest learning curve is at the beginning, when all seems new. Even then, everyone has their own rate of learning. Some absorb information like a sponge while others struggle to squeeze in each drop.
Ironically, it’s the latter who most often seem to rise to excellence. Knowledge that is hard fought to acquire has value. Those with great talent sadly seem rarely destined to achieve their potential. Taking their abilities for granted, it’s “easy come, easy go.” What is learned without effort seems of little value, another way of interpreting the phrase “you get what you pay for.”
I sometimes compare learning to building a dam on a river. As the dam rises, the water fills in the reservoir behind it. That filling in takes longer than building the dam. So it is with learning. Acquiring information is one thing; having the knowledge of how to use it is another. The dam represents the structure of your learning; the water is your experience.
The water level rises as it fills in behind the dam, quickly at first where the reservoir is narrowest at the bottom, more slowly as the surface area increases along with depth. When the reservoir has filled, one can then raise the dam, and once again it will take time to fill the volume behind that interface. Thus a new dam may need to be fairly tall, but successive levels might go up in smaller increments.
Similarly, with experience it becomes harder to learn new things because so much is already understood. Eventually any new nugget of information is like a precious jewel, adding some glow to what is already polished.
Our unconscious mind operates like water. We are only aware of what floats or is reflected on the surface, though we may intimate the ripple of currents below or surmise the contours of the bottom.
Knowing how to learn is its own skill set, related to but separate from the actual subject at hand. One’s internal perspective can either help or hinder the learning process. Meditation is helpful because it turns down the volume of self-talk, the dialog we carry on with ourselves. As we learn to tune out distractions, we gain clarity, which helps us become better focused on what is important.
How many people beat themselves up mentally and emotionally when they make a mistake? What a huge waste of energy that is! Such a person is stuck in the past, which cannot change. A feedback loop of negative self-talk is called “stinking thinking.” It’s better to stay focused on the positive. Simply acknowledge the error, recognize what needs to be fixed, and correct it.
One form of negative belief is that it will take a long time to learn something. If that’s what you believe, then that’s what you will get. We program our experience through such internal structures. I use a Huna technique, which is to program new patterns in three repetitions. It works like this:
The first time you do something new, your unconscious mind ignores it. It’s busy thinking about someone on whom you have a crush while digesting lunch, maintaining heart rate and metabolic temperature and balancing a tall vertical structure on the narrow platform of your feet.
You then repeat the behavior (thought or action) immediately and EXACTLY. Not similar, but as close to duplication as possible. Your subconscious mind still hasn’t paid attention to the content of your new behavior, but because it is a repetitive pattern, it rises to a higher level of significance. Your mind is geared towards noticing things like patterns.
Now you repeat the behavior for a third time; your subconscious has been primed to pay attention to the message itself. Add to this the fact that your conscious mind is focused on this exercise, which will increase its attraction to the unconscious.
Programming the basic behavior can be that quick, but without reinforcement it will be forgotten. Each subsequent repetition over time will deepen the channel. We build our neuro-networks to find and access our information. This is why it’s important to learn something correctly the first time, because it is harder to change established patterns of behavior than it is to create new ones.
Some teachers will let students flounder for a long time without correction. Perhaps this is to allow the chance for self-discovery, but then isn’t the function of the teacher to point the right direction? There is plenty of self-discovery to take place even when looking in the right direction. That is why I take pains to establish the foundation with beginners, because then they can go much further on their own. At least this way, if they don’t stay in the art, at least they will understand basic principles, which will be of more benefit in the long run than merely trying to remember sequences of movements.
As martial artists, one of our skills is to become fighters. Even in arts like Tai Chi, to raise energy and focus there should be a sense of an enemy standing before oneself. In arts like FMA, this goal is explicit. Some people are born with a fighting spirit, or acquire it early from their environment. Others have to learn it later, and perhaps more by choice than necessity.
There is a difference between “knowing” and “not knowing” that is irrespective of intellectual content. As Sijo Adriano Emperado has said, “one must turn on the light; once it is turned on, it cannot be turned off.” One obstacle to overcome is equating anger with intensity. Think of the scene early in “Enter the Dragon” when Bruce Lee gives a lesson to his young disciple. Anger clouds judgment; intensity focuses it like a laser.
It is the natural fighter who seems to learn quickly. One of my recent students was an experienced martial artist who learned six angles of escrima in three months and was able to use them fairly proficiently. At the other extreme I have a student who has been with me for half a dozen years, and it took much of that time for him to become actualized, someone in whom the art lives as opposed to “just doing it.”
The first guy is tough, already knows how to fight. Escrima added a new skill set, filling in knowledge not yet acquired. What he learned serves him well as he is proficient with those basics. The question is whether he will deepen that skill or whether he will set aside his training as he goes on to other things. The only way to really become good is, just like tennis or many other sports, to continue to test oneself against better opponents and thus elevate one’s game. As I wrote at the beginning, it is rarely the fastest learner who excels. Hmm, like the tale of the tortoise and the hare.
The second guy is a professional who likes to spend his free time outdoors. Escrima was just an add-on activity, something he found interesting. For a long time he seemed to be sleepwalking through training; my challenge was to find a way to awaken him. The trigger finally turned out to be switching from stick to blade, sparring with the swords I’m now making. That one change injected a higher perception of risk that propelled his skills to a significant level, and suddenly he has become very hard to hit.
To see the light come on is the moment I wait for as a teacher, because I know that now the art lives in this person. When it takes a long time, as it sometimes does, the struggle itself has meaning for it is what gave birth to a new reality.
What difference does this make? For one who has “seen the light” the answers come from within. In practical terms it means this person will perceive and counter attacks even faster than he consciously realizes them. When I spar such a person I can simply attack, knowing that it will take all my skill to find an opening I can exploit. Against someone who is merely proficient, I not only must protect myself against their attacks, but must also take responsibility for protecting them against my own!
At one level, one trains a student to spar by giving them opportunities to succeed; there is a danger that they will see this as ultimate success. It seems particularly true in fencing arts that it is easier to attack than defend, lending credence to “the best defense is a good offense.” Perhaps, though, it is simply harder to learn good defense, as that involves reading the opponent’s intentions accurately rather than leading them, or worse, ignoring those signals. Boxers may be willing to trade blow for blow, but with weapons that is rarely a wise course of action. Those that strike without concern for safety risk getting set up in the worst way.
To quote another saying, “There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.”
Ironically, it’s the latter who most often seem to rise to excellence. Knowledge that is hard fought to acquire has value. Those with great talent sadly seem rarely destined to achieve their potential. Taking their abilities for granted, it’s “easy come, easy go.” What is learned without effort seems of little value, another way of interpreting the phrase “you get what you pay for.”
I sometimes compare learning to building a dam on a river. As the dam rises, the water fills in the reservoir behind it. That filling in takes longer than building the dam. So it is with learning. Acquiring information is one thing; having the knowledge of how to use it is another. The dam represents the structure of your learning; the water is your experience.
The water level rises as it fills in behind the dam, quickly at first where the reservoir is narrowest at the bottom, more slowly as the surface area increases along with depth. When the reservoir has filled, one can then raise the dam, and once again it will take time to fill the volume behind that interface. Thus a new dam may need to be fairly tall, but successive levels might go up in smaller increments.
Similarly, with experience it becomes harder to learn new things because so much is already understood. Eventually any new nugget of information is like a precious jewel, adding some glow to what is already polished.
Our unconscious mind operates like water. We are only aware of what floats or is reflected on the surface, though we may intimate the ripple of currents below or surmise the contours of the bottom.
Knowing how to learn is its own skill set, related to but separate from the actual subject at hand. One’s internal perspective can either help or hinder the learning process. Meditation is helpful because it turns down the volume of self-talk, the dialog we carry on with ourselves. As we learn to tune out distractions, we gain clarity, which helps us become better focused on what is important.
How many people beat themselves up mentally and emotionally when they make a mistake? What a huge waste of energy that is! Such a person is stuck in the past, which cannot change. A feedback loop of negative self-talk is called “stinking thinking.” It’s better to stay focused on the positive. Simply acknowledge the error, recognize what needs to be fixed, and correct it.
One form of negative belief is that it will take a long time to learn something. If that’s what you believe, then that’s what you will get. We program our experience through such internal structures. I use a Huna technique, which is to program new patterns in three repetitions. It works like this:
The first time you do something new, your unconscious mind ignores it. It’s busy thinking about someone on whom you have a crush while digesting lunch, maintaining heart rate and metabolic temperature and balancing a tall vertical structure on the narrow platform of your feet.
You then repeat the behavior (thought or action) immediately and EXACTLY. Not similar, but as close to duplication as possible. Your subconscious mind still hasn’t paid attention to the content of your new behavior, but because it is a repetitive pattern, it rises to a higher level of significance. Your mind is geared towards noticing things like patterns.
Now you repeat the behavior for a third time; your subconscious has been primed to pay attention to the message itself. Add to this the fact that your conscious mind is focused on this exercise, which will increase its attraction to the unconscious.
Programming the basic behavior can be that quick, but without reinforcement it will be forgotten. Each subsequent repetition over time will deepen the channel. We build our neuro-networks to find and access our information. This is why it’s important to learn something correctly the first time, because it is harder to change established patterns of behavior than it is to create new ones.
Some teachers will let students flounder for a long time without correction. Perhaps this is to allow the chance for self-discovery, but then isn’t the function of the teacher to point the right direction? There is plenty of self-discovery to take place even when looking in the right direction. That is why I take pains to establish the foundation with beginners, because then they can go much further on their own. At least this way, if they don’t stay in the art, at least they will understand basic principles, which will be of more benefit in the long run than merely trying to remember sequences of movements.
As martial artists, one of our skills is to become fighters. Even in arts like Tai Chi, to raise energy and focus there should be a sense of an enemy standing before oneself. In arts like FMA, this goal is explicit. Some people are born with a fighting spirit, or acquire it early from their environment. Others have to learn it later, and perhaps more by choice than necessity.
There is a difference between “knowing” and “not knowing” that is irrespective of intellectual content. As Sijo Adriano Emperado has said, “one must turn on the light; once it is turned on, it cannot be turned off.” One obstacle to overcome is equating anger with intensity. Think of the scene early in “Enter the Dragon” when Bruce Lee gives a lesson to his young disciple. Anger clouds judgment; intensity focuses it like a laser.
It is the natural fighter who seems to learn quickly. One of my recent students was an experienced martial artist who learned six angles of escrima in three months and was able to use them fairly proficiently. At the other extreme I have a student who has been with me for half a dozen years, and it took much of that time for him to become actualized, someone in whom the art lives as opposed to “just doing it.”
The first guy is tough, already knows how to fight. Escrima added a new skill set, filling in knowledge not yet acquired. What he learned serves him well as he is proficient with those basics. The question is whether he will deepen that skill or whether he will set aside his training as he goes on to other things. The only way to really become good is, just like tennis or many other sports, to continue to test oneself against better opponents and thus elevate one’s game. As I wrote at the beginning, it is rarely the fastest learner who excels. Hmm, like the tale of the tortoise and the hare.
The second guy is a professional who likes to spend his free time outdoors. Escrima was just an add-on activity, something he found interesting. For a long time he seemed to be sleepwalking through training; my challenge was to find a way to awaken him. The trigger finally turned out to be switching from stick to blade, sparring with the swords I’m now making. That one change injected a higher perception of risk that propelled his skills to a significant level, and suddenly he has become very hard to hit.
To see the light come on is the moment I wait for as a teacher, because I know that now the art lives in this person. When it takes a long time, as it sometimes does, the struggle itself has meaning for it is what gave birth to a new reality.
What difference does this make? For one who has “seen the light” the answers come from within. In practical terms it means this person will perceive and counter attacks even faster than he consciously realizes them. When I spar such a person I can simply attack, knowing that it will take all my skill to find an opening I can exploit. Against someone who is merely proficient, I not only must protect myself against their attacks, but must also take responsibility for protecting them against my own!
At one level, one trains a student to spar by giving them opportunities to succeed; there is a danger that they will see this as ultimate success. It seems particularly true in fencing arts that it is easier to attack than defend, lending credence to “the best defense is a good offense.” Perhaps, though, it is simply harder to learn good defense, as that involves reading the opponent’s intentions accurately rather than leading them, or worse, ignoring those signals. Boxers may be willing to trade blow for blow, but with weapons that is rarely a wise course of action. Those that strike without concern for safety risk getting set up in the worst way.
To quote another saying, “There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.”
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Sonny Umpad online clips and interview
Pierre Hartmann has a video tribute to Sonny Umpad up on his website. These are highlights from Sonny's seminars in Geneva, Switzerland. Click this link and then click on "Medias" near the top of the page.
Check out the other clips also. One is of Mr. Hartmann and the other is of Uwe Muller, his teacher, from 1985. I was rather impressed with these, particularly the latter. Mr. Muller has the look of someone who's had a lot of practical experience; fast entries, strong finishes.
There is also an interview Pierre did with Sonny. Anyone interested in FMA should find these insights valuable, both what Sonny had to say and Pierre's impressions of him.
Check out the other clips also. One is of Mr. Hartmann and the other is of Uwe Muller, his teacher, from 1985. I was rather impressed with these, particularly the latter. Mr. Muller has the look of someone who's had a lot of practical experience; fast entries, strong finishes.
There is also an interview Pierre did with Sonny. Anyone interested in FMA should find these insights valuable, both what Sonny had to say and Pierre's impressions of him.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Blocks, Parries, Passes and Checks
Blocks, parries and passes describe a continuum of defensive options based on redirection of an opponent’s attack.
Though employing different energies, each method is a means to an end, which is to avoid injury and create an opening to counterattack or escape. In any martial technique, there are two essential phases: entering or opening your opponent, and what you choose to do after that.
Blocks are kind of the workhorse of the trio. They are powerful sweeping strikes, the kind usually taught to beginners in martial arts to give them structured form and develop muscle control. Advanced practitioners don’t need the big wind-up, though. Their movement is direct and efficient, integrating the whole body in explosive movement. Power comes from focus at the point of impact.
The lower part of the forearm, from the midpoint down to the elbow, should be used for blocking. This is the strongest part of the bone, well supported by muscle, and doesn’t exert a lot of leverage against one’s elbow and shoulder. Some arts, like Isshin-ryu karate, strike with the muscle on inward or outward sweeps to protect the bone from injury, but most arts use the hard edge of the bone as the weapon.
While sometimes disparaged as slow or basic, as used by an expert these are dynamic and powerful limb destruction techniques. Muay Thai is famous for elbow strikes, and some empty-hand styles of Filipino martial arts employ a variety of hard joint-breaking techniques as well.
While hard blocks can be devastating if successful, the risk is leaving oneself in a vulnerable position as a consequence of committing too much power. This is as true of a fencer being open to a riposte as it is of a driver losing control of a speeding vehicle in a corner. Control of balance allows options.
Parries might be thought of as lighter blocks, redirecting an opponent with less force, a way to bypass an opponent’s attack with minimal energy. Parries can range from soft touches to forceful pops, slaps and whipping motions that attack joints and pressure points. These can be done with the upper forearm or various parts of the hand, which, because of the extension and leverage of the arm, move faster than the elbow. Being speed based, the whole body dynamic is generally lighter and more mobile for parries than blocks, though both methods seek to focus against an opponent’s weaknesses while avoiding their power.
Both blocks and parries intercept and deflect the trajectory of an attack. A stop-hit is a form of defense that uses aggressive timing and angles to beat an opponent to the punch. A vigorous parry performs a stop-check type of hit, generally grabbing or sticking to the opponent’s limb for control rather than knocking it askew.
Filipino arts often utilize 1-2-3 timing in sequences like parry-check-hit. Some classical arts teach 1-2 block-and-strike timing while other arts may teach simultaneous block-and-counter moves. The 1-2 timing is a natural rhythm that often winds up with trading blows, whereas the 1-2-3 timing interjects a limb immobilization through checking that disrupts an opponent’s natural instincts.
Simultaneous timing works best either by surprise or if there is a clear technical superiority against an opponent. In other words, there is a higher risk/reward factor here, less opportunity to get out of trouble. 1-2-3 timing helps establish control over potentially dangerous counterattacks, and practicing this form of continuous checking develops one’s sensitivity and quickens the reflexes for both defense and offense.
Sometimes the best option is to pass, essentially a longer parry or block that sweeps the opponent’s attack along using momentum and knowledge of leverage to gain a tactical position of advantage. Whereas I think of blocks and parries as mostly linear deflections, passes tend to be more 3-dimensional and use misdirection as well as redirection of energy to overextend or exaggerate an opponent's movement.
The general intent of a pass is to reposition oneself either from the inside to outside of the opponent, away from the opposing hand, or vice versa to attack vital centerline targets, all the while keeping him unbalanced while moving purposefully oneself.
Passes can be categorized as high or low, and to the inside or outside. These are the four key components. Beyond that, they can be smooth redirects, such as a single parry that sweeps an attack away harmlessly, or can utilize a disruptive check/hit as a setup for the pass. Here again we see the 1-2-3 timing as parry-check-pass, which should be the lead-in to a follow up finishing sequence such as strikes or holds.
Passes cross our centerline, a vulnerability of the tactic. Control your opponent’s reach without changing your own range by extending the vertical angle of the opponent’s limb. In other words, if passing a low slash, suppressing it downward as it crosses your midsection is equivalent to taking inches from his reach while pointing the weapon further away from its target. A straight pass alone may only hasten or lead the opponent in to his target. If doing an overhead pass, give it some lift to upset an opponent’s balance and limit his options.
Passes, as well as blocks and parries, are not executed by one part of your body but by the whole. The three key elements I first identify in techniques are right hand, left hand, and body alignment. From these I should be able to identify balance, footwork and movement.
To make any technique work, body language must be congruent. This means top and bottom, left and right, front and back, inside and out. To block hard, feel strong. To parry elusively, be quick. To pass effectively, take charge and be directive. You are controlling not just your own timing but your opponent’s as well, dictating where he goes and predicting his responses. Done well and he has as much free choice as a mark on the street playing Three Card Monty.
Though employing different energies, each method is a means to an end, which is to avoid injury and create an opening to counterattack or escape. In any martial technique, there are two essential phases: entering or opening your opponent, and what you choose to do after that.
Blocks are kind of the workhorse of the trio. They are powerful sweeping strikes, the kind usually taught to beginners in martial arts to give them structured form and develop muscle control. Advanced practitioners don’t need the big wind-up, though. Their movement is direct and efficient, integrating the whole body in explosive movement. Power comes from focus at the point of impact.
The lower part of the forearm, from the midpoint down to the elbow, should be used for blocking. This is the strongest part of the bone, well supported by muscle, and doesn’t exert a lot of leverage against one’s elbow and shoulder. Some arts, like Isshin-ryu karate, strike with the muscle on inward or outward sweeps to protect the bone from injury, but most arts use the hard edge of the bone as the weapon.
While sometimes disparaged as slow or basic, as used by an expert these are dynamic and powerful limb destruction techniques. Muay Thai is famous for elbow strikes, and some empty-hand styles of Filipino martial arts employ a variety of hard joint-breaking techniques as well.
While hard blocks can be devastating if successful, the risk is leaving oneself in a vulnerable position as a consequence of committing too much power. This is as true of a fencer being open to a riposte as it is of a driver losing control of a speeding vehicle in a corner. Control of balance allows options.
Parries might be thought of as lighter blocks, redirecting an opponent with less force, a way to bypass an opponent’s attack with minimal energy. Parries can range from soft touches to forceful pops, slaps and whipping motions that attack joints and pressure points. These can be done with the upper forearm or various parts of the hand, which, because of the extension and leverage of the arm, move faster than the elbow. Being speed based, the whole body dynamic is generally lighter and more mobile for parries than blocks, though both methods seek to focus against an opponent’s weaknesses while avoiding their power.
Both blocks and parries intercept and deflect the trajectory of an attack. A stop-hit is a form of defense that uses aggressive timing and angles to beat an opponent to the punch. A vigorous parry performs a stop-check type of hit, generally grabbing or sticking to the opponent’s limb for control rather than knocking it askew.
Filipino arts often utilize 1-2-3 timing in sequences like parry-check-hit. Some classical arts teach 1-2 block-and-strike timing while other arts may teach simultaneous block-and-counter moves. The 1-2 timing is a natural rhythm that often winds up with trading blows, whereas the 1-2-3 timing interjects a limb immobilization through checking that disrupts an opponent’s natural instincts.
Simultaneous timing works best either by surprise or if there is a clear technical superiority against an opponent. In other words, there is a higher risk/reward factor here, less opportunity to get out of trouble. 1-2-3 timing helps establish control over potentially dangerous counterattacks, and practicing this form of continuous checking develops one’s sensitivity and quickens the reflexes for both defense and offense.
Sometimes the best option is to pass, essentially a longer parry or block that sweeps the opponent’s attack along using momentum and knowledge of leverage to gain a tactical position of advantage. Whereas I think of blocks and parries as mostly linear deflections, passes tend to be more 3-dimensional and use misdirection as well as redirection of energy to overextend or exaggerate an opponent's movement.
The general intent of a pass is to reposition oneself either from the inside to outside of the opponent, away from the opposing hand, or vice versa to attack vital centerline targets, all the while keeping him unbalanced while moving purposefully oneself.
Passes can be categorized as high or low, and to the inside or outside. These are the four key components. Beyond that, they can be smooth redirects, such as a single parry that sweeps an attack away harmlessly, or can utilize a disruptive check/hit as a setup for the pass. Here again we see the 1-2-3 timing as parry-check-pass, which should be the lead-in to a follow up finishing sequence such as strikes or holds.
Passes cross our centerline, a vulnerability of the tactic. Control your opponent’s reach without changing your own range by extending the vertical angle of the opponent’s limb. In other words, if passing a low slash, suppressing it downward as it crosses your midsection is equivalent to taking inches from his reach while pointing the weapon further away from its target. A straight pass alone may only hasten or lead the opponent in to his target. If doing an overhead pass, give it some lift to upset an opponent’s balance and limit his options.
Passes, as well as blocks and parries, are not executed by one part of your body but by the whole. The three key elements I first identify in techniques are right hand, left hand, and body alignment. From these I should be able to identify balance, footwork and movement.
To make any technique work, body language must be congruent. This means top and bottom, left and right, front and back, inside and out. To block hard, feel strong. To parry elusively, be quick. To pass effectively, take charge and be directive. You are controlling not just your own timing but your opponent’s as well, dictating where he goes and predicting his responses. Done well and he has as much free choice as a mark on the street playing Three Card Monty.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
It's A Riot!
Just found this, a video from Cebu, Philippines, of 1600 inmates in orange jump suits at the prison there doing a choreographed dance routine to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Kinda bizarre but definitely has some good moments. According to the article, dance choreography was instituted to replace calisthenics, which many (no surprise) found boring, and to instill discipline in a hard-core crowd.
Speaking of hard core, I just got a look at a sampler DVD entitled "Secrets Of The UK's Best Self-Defense Instructors". Two thoughts - this stuff looks very effective, and these guys have a lot of experience doing these things. Each instructor has his own flavor, so there's material that resembles Kenpo, Systema, FMA, etc. with some nice practical details.
An article you may find interesting by Tai Chi instructor Harve Kurland, Man of the Tao vs Martial Art Hucksters about ethics in teaching. He has some old footage of Gichin Funakoshi there, whom he holds up as an example of someone who taught the art from love and dedication as opposed to ego. Harve also has several video links of old-time Tai Chi masters here. Wu Tu Nan is perhaps 104 in the film (he lived to 107); quite impressive.
Back to Cebu, the site of most of tonight's "Human Weapon" program. The show wasn't bad, but already it seems to be settling into a format that is heavier on travelogue and less on training. Also because there is a competition at the end, coverage seemed heavily skewed towards Doce Pares.
On the other hand, I'm probably being overly critical since that was mostly doing stuff that's pretty familiar to me. I would have liked to see more variety of training, particularly the rural training methods of Leo Gaje such as the caribao wrestling. Might that be a part of Buno training?
All in all, though, a cool program; glad they started with some lesser known arts like FMA.
Speaking of hard core, I just got a look at a sampler DVD entitled "Secrets Of The UK's Best Self-Defense Instructors". Two thoughts - this stuff looks very effective, and these guys have a lot of experience doing these things. Each instructor has his own flavor, so there's material that resembles Kenpo, Systema, FMA, etc. with some nice practical details.
An article you may find interesting by Tai Chi instructor Harve Kurland, Man of the Tao vs Martial Art Hucksters about ethics in teaching. He has some old footage of Gichin Funakoshi there, whom he holds up as an example of someone who taught the art from love and dedication as opposed to ego. Harve also has several video links of old-time Tai Chi masters here. Wu Tu Nan is perhaps 104 in the film (he lived to 107); quite impressive.
Back to Cebu, the site of most of tonight's "Human Weapon" program. The show wasn't bad, but already it seems to be settling into a format that is heavier on travelogue and less on training. Also because there is a competition at the end, coverage seemed heavily skewed towards Doce Pares.
On the other hand, I'm probably being overly critical since that was mostly doing stuff that's pretty familiar to me. I would have liked to see more variety of training, particularly the rural training methods of Leo Gaje such as the caribao wrestling. Might that be a part of Buno training?
All in all, though, a cool program; glad they started with some lesser known arts like FMA.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Human Weapon
This past Friday evening the History Channel on cable tv launched a new program, Human Weapon. The series is based on two Americans who travel through Asia exploring martial arts. One is a mixed martial artist, the other a wrestler and former NFL player, and the hook for each episode is a competition between one of them and a local champion in the indigenous art being studied. The conclusion isn't really in doubt, since they come across as enthusiasts taking on professionals, but the real interest isn't in the result so much as the exploration of martial culture.
The first episode was on Muay Thai, a promising start because the series immediately began with a lesser known art, compared to karate or taekwondo. The show did a decent job showing different schools and philosophies of training, ranging from modern sport to military to traditional combatives. It was the latter which for me provided the most interesting bit, as it showed the depth of the art as it is still practiced for survival in remote and self-reliant locales.
Even more intriguing were the trailers for next Friday's episode, which will highlight Filipino martial arts in the Philippines. Such coverage is unusual here in the U.S. and this looks to show rare glimpses into the hard-core traditional training that few Americans appreciate.
The Human Weapon airs at 10pm Pacific time and, if consistent with the first episode, will repeat again at 11pm.
The first episode was on Muay Thai, a promising start because the series immediately began with a lesser known art, compared to karate or taekwondo. The show did a decent job showing different schools and philosophies of training, ranging from modern sport to military to traditional combatives. It was the latter which for me provided the most interesting bit, as it showed the depth of the art as it is still practiced for survival in remote and self-reliant locales.
Even more intriguing were the trailers for next Friday's episode, which will highlight Filipino martial arts in the Philippines. Such coverage is unusual here in the U.S. and this looks to show rare glimpses into the hard-core traditional training that few Americans appreciate.
The Human Weapon airs at 10pm Pacific time and, if consistent with the first episode, will repeat again at 11pm.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Force vs. Flow
The best classes are those where insight is gained towards resolving blocks to improving our skills. Often we have the information all along but in pieces; insight is making the integrative connections resulting in new perspectives that deepen our understanding.
Recently I had one of those days where I felt particularly attuned in class, able to analyze vividly what both my student and I were doing in sparring. Teaching is like uncovering a mystery, peeling back layers to get to deeper truths in oneself and in others. To share insight one must find the key to another’s understanding. A good teacher has many tools, but as any mechanic knows, it’s having the right tool at the right time that makes a job go smoothly. Being in the flow leads us to our solutions by allowing the unconscious to produce insights.
During sparring I was consistently finding openings to my student’s centerline with a variety of tactics, but always with the strategy of what I call “falling in the gopher hole”. This is based on Bruce Lee’s theories of slight forward pressure to create springy energy. When the opponent creates an opening, we are already there at the threshold; the pressure is released and we automatically fill the gap without time consuming thought. Pressing the opponent’s centerline while guarding ours keeps this energy direct and balanced.
Our conscious awareness being much slower than the unconscious mind, we perceive through our senses what is already done. If we think first how to act, it is two stages, thought then action, the latter most likely inhibited by the weight of processing the former.
Awareness without thought: Our minds should be aware of the dynamics of the fight without excessive micromanagement over movement. Our strategy is our goal; tactics need be executed with instinctive reactions. We do this every day in ordinary life while walking, driving or feeding ourselves. The more stress we can handle in this ordinary manner, the greater the internal resources available for other purposes.
Sometimes we go unconscious in action, our conscious mind simply unable to keep up with the flow of action. At such times we may perform things seemingly beyond our abilities, but evidently not beyond our capacity to imagine. Our unconscious mind of course remembers every detail of the experience, and through methods such as NLP, hypnosis, meditation etc. we can later recall much of this information through accessing our multiple sensory memories. All states of awareness are constructs, hence hypnotic, since we build these on more subtle beliefs that direct our thought. What we cannot rationalize is expressed through emotion, the domain of the unconscious, and revealed in the gross and subtle actions of our physical bodies.
Here’s an example of the mind going unconscious in action. Three decades ago I knew an acquaintance of my older brother, a bear of a man with Aikido and Kendo training. This man fought his way to the kingship of the Society for Creative Anachronisms several times in their rough-and-tumble early days. In his most memorable fight, he felt he had been fouled grievously towards the end of a round and was extremely angry. During the break he centered himself and when he came out for the next and decisive round he knocked out his opponent. All he remembered was how blue the sky was that day, which he described as a Zen-like state of bliss which enabled him to bypass his judgmental conscious mind, giving him complete freedom of action.
Verbal expression is a way to hone in and clarify our thoughts; to get from theory to practice, I needed to communicate my own intuitive impressions. An axiom in hypnotherapy is that in order to create a state within a client, one must access it first within oneself so as to lead another person there. In martial arts, as in NLP, we can do this through mirroring and matching. I was using this on him; my goal was to transmit this skill too, leveling our playing field.
To begin with I could see my student’s movements were too wide and blocky, creating openings and losing timing. He was swinging from the shoulder, using muscular energy rather than finding a more natural internal rhythm. This was isolating the dynamics of his arm motion from the rest of his body, resulting in discordant footwork and poor body alignment. Correcting this one thing would unblock an entire cascade of improvements to his overall technique.
My first step was to get him to pay attention to how he was handling his weapon, changing his technique to make it tighter and smoother. A supple wrist is important to be able to control balance of the weapon. Every weapon has its balance point. We can try to impose our desired movement regardless of this, or we can let the weapon follow its natural trajectory. This lets us guide it by controlling its center of balance, a much more fluid relationship.
Identifying a physical point of resistance was the leverage to understanding its effect in our sparring dynamic, which is where we both were able to see a deeper picture. By using his arm in a muscular way he was relying on force, which by its nature, using the concept of equal and opposite reaction, creates the resistance that it encounters. Most of us have had experiences of struggling to make something happen and getting nowhere, only to stop fighting and suddenly achieve a breakthrough.
In terms of our sparring, his desire to force the action made him stiff because he was overthinking each move, which in turn telegraphed his intention. As long as he projected an attachment to a particular outcome, I could easily see what he was trying to do before he did it, a clear example of how the body responds to the conditions of the mind. Escrima is an art with a lot of deception. It takes fluidity and adaptability to hide one’s intentions.
Connecting his sense of power to the need to force an outcome exposed a rigid dynamic between thought and action. Changing his physical rhythm created a new mental pattern as well, allowing him to experience the process itself rather than the need to focus on a specific tactical goal.
Let me restate that. If force is required for a particular result, then flow is allowing the process to find its own path. This could be the path of least resistance, or it could be the path of greatest understanding, but either way it should give us what we need.
The effect on his sparring was immediate and dramatic, raising it to a level I’d never seen in him before. As soon as he began to flow, the old familiar gaps in his technique were gone. For the first time I felt him nullifying my attacks effortlessly.
I’ll finish with a brief story that illustrates a difference between force and flow. In 1189 King Richard I (Lionheart) met Saladin during the Third Crusade. To demonstrate the strength of his sword and sword arm, he hacked through a bar of iron. Saladin then demonstrated the keenness of his sword by dropping a piece of silk across the edge, slicing the fabric in half by its own weight. Both ways can achieve results, but one requires great effort and the other almost none.
Recently I had one of those days where I felt particularly attuned in class, able to analyze vividly what both my student and I were doing in sparring. Teaching is like uncovering a mystery, peeling back layers to get to deeper truths in oneself and in others. To share insight one must find the key to another’s understanding. A good teacher has many tools, but as any mechanic knows, it’s having the right tool at the right time that makes a job go smoothly. Being in the flow leads us to our solutions by allowing the unconscious to produce insights.
During sparring I was consistently finding openings to my student’s centerline with a variety of tactics, but always with the strategy of what I call “falling in the gopher hole”. This is based on Bruce Lee’s theories of slight forward pressure to create springy energy. When the opponent creates an opening, we are already there at the threshold; the pressure is released and we automatically fill the gap without time consuming thought. Pressing the opponent’s centerline while guarding ours keeps this energy direct and balanced.
Our conscious awareness being much slower than the unconscious mind, we perceive through our senses what is already done. If we think first how to act, it is two stages, thought then action, the latter most likely inhibited by the weight of processing the former.
Awareness without thought: Our minds should be aware of the dynamics of the fight without excessive micromanagement over movement. Our strategy is our goal; tactics need be executed with instinctive reactions. We do this every day in ordinary life while walking, driving or feeding ourselves. The more stress we can handle in this ordinary manner, the greater the internal resources available for other purposes.
Sometimes we go unconscious in action, our conscious mind simply unable to keep up with the flow of action. At such times we may perform things seemingly beyond our abilities, but evidently not beyond our capacity to imagine. Our unconscious mind of course remembers every detail of the experience, and through methods such as NLP, hypnosis, meditation etc. we can later recall much of this information through accessing our multiple sensory memories. All states of awareness are constructs, hence hypnotic, since we build these on more subtle beliefs that direct our thought. What we cannot rationalize is expressed through emotion, the domain of the unconscious, and revealed in the gross and subtle actions of our physical bodies.
Here’s an example of the mind going unconscious in action. Three decades ago I knew an acquaintance of my older brother, a bear of a man with Aikido and Kendo training. This man fought his way to the kingship of the Society for Creative Anachronisms several times in their rough-and-tumble early days. In his most memorable fight, he felt he had been fouled grievously towards the end of a round and was extremely angry. During the break he centered himself and when he came out for the next and decisive round he knocked out his opponent. All he remembered was how blue the sky was that day, which he described as a Zen-like state of bliss which enabled him to bypass his judgmental conscious mind, giving him complete freedom of action.
Verbal expression is a way to hone in and clarify our thoughts; to get from theory to practice, I needed to communicate my own intuitive impressions. An axiom in hypnotherapy is that in order to create a state within a client, one must access it first within oneself so as to lead another person there. In martial arts, as in NLP, we can do this through mirroring and matching. I was using this on him; my goal was to transmit this skill too, leveling our playing field.
To begin with I could see my student’s movements were too wide and blocky, creating openings and losing timing. He was swinging from the shoulder, using muscular energy rather than finding a more natural internal rhythm. This was isolating the dynamics of his arm motion from the rest of his body, resulting in discordant footwork and poor body alignment. Correcting this one thing would unblock an entire cascade of improvements to his overall technique.
My first step was to get him to pay attention to how he was handling his weapon, changing his technique to make it tighter and smoother. A supple wrist is important to be able to control balance of the weapon. Every weapon has its balance point. We can try to impose our desired movement regardless of this, or we can let the weapon follow its natural trajectory. This lets us guide it by controlling its center of balance, a much more fluid relationship.
Identifying a physical point of resistance was the leverage to understanding its effect in our sparring dynamic, which is where we both were able to see a deeper picture. By using his arm in a muscular way he was relying on force, which by its nature, using the concept of equal and opposite reaction, creates the resistance that it encounters. Most of us have had experiences of struggling to make something happen and getting nowhere, only to stop fighting and suddenly achieve a breakthrough.
In terms of our sparring, his desire to force the action made him stiff because he was overthinking each move, which in turn telegraphed his intention. As long as he projected an attachment to a particular outcome, I could easily see what he was trying to do before he did it, a clear example of how the body responds to the conditions of the mind. Escrima is an art with a lot of deception. It takes fluidity and adaptability to hide one’s intentions.
Connecting his sense of power to the need to force an outcome exposed a rigid dynamic between thought and action. Changing his physical rhythm created a new mental pattern as well, allowing him to experience the process itself rather than the need to focus on a specific tactical goal.
Let me restate that. If force is required for a particular result, then flow is allowing the process to find its own path. This could be the path of least resistance, or it could be the path of greatest understanding, but either way it should give us what we need.
The effect on his sparring was immediate and dramatic, raising it to a level I’d never seen in him before. As soon as he began to flow, the old familiar gaps in his technique were gone. For the first time I felt him nullifying my attacks effortlessly.
I’ll finish with a brief story that illustrates a difference between force and flow. In 1189 King Richard I (Lionheart) met Saladin during the Third Crusade. To demonstrate the strength of his sword and sword arm, he hacked through a bar of iron. Saladin then demonstrated the keenness of his sword by dropping a piece of silk across the edge, slicing the fabric in half by its own weight. Both ways can achieve results, but one requires great effort and the other almost none.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Sicko - a review
I saw "Sicko" last night and my old Kaiser line about "paying money to be uninsured" no longer seems funny or an abberation. As one who has been on both sides of the insured/uninsured issue, suddenly our country seems not just woefully unenlightened, but a so-called democracy in the grips of oligarchs. This goes beyond just a condemnation of our health care system, to an indictment of the care with which those entrusted with our governance have sold out our trust. After seeing this, I read about Massachussetts' experiment with mandatory health insurance, and the complexities of that so-called remedy seem woefully antiquated and unnecessary, just a further dip into the murky waters of profiteering at the expense of public health. For the first time in my life I truly have to question the premise that this country is "the greatest". Michael Moore may not be without the baggage of his agenda, and there may be some errors of omission in this work, but without a doubt he raises important debates, and this is one that should hit home in every household in America.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Another great blog from Alex!
I'm going to be lazy and once again refer readers to Alex Castro's blog. Alex is a sharp writer and has benefitted from training with various guros in his travels and relocations. These days he's putting out cutting edge information on Serrada (pun intended), while I've been concentrating lately on retooling my shop for making my blades and improving my skills in that endeavor.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Some quick notes
Darren Tibon's production company has a really nice presentation of the demonstrations of various martial arts from the 2007 Disney Qualifier in Anaheim, including, of course, excellent Serrada (especially lock-and-block by Chez Tibon and Gelmar Cabales).
I also highly recommend reading Alex Castro's current blog on "Assassination Tango" (he's also linked on my right-hand column). Great information on dance and martial arts!
I also highly recommend reading Alex Castro's current blog on "Assassination Tango" (he's also linked on my right-hand column). Great information on dance and martial arts!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Training with new training blades
It’s always special to see something come together that’s been a long time coming. Sometimes a small change makes a big difference, breaking up what is routine and opening new possibilities.
My inspiration comes from the late great Sonny Umpad. Last weekend was a gathering of the Visayan clan. I was already thinking of how to get copies of a magnificent 12" training blade Sonny made for me many years ago. It was so nice I never wanted to use it or risk losing it (which I did for about 2 years, another story). With the cost of manufacturing so high around here, I decided to make my own copy by hand.
The first one took me hours. I traced the original, scanned it into the computer, then resized it to fit a piece of paper and printed it out. I cut that out and taped it to a solid billet of plastic and then went through various stages of cutting, grinding, filing, sanding and polishing. When I was done, I had a really cool training knife!
The next day I decided to make another, which went faster. Now I was more confident in the techniques I needed to make these. I had one last odd shaped piece of material left, which I turned into two 19” krisses.
Here’s where the fun began, because now my students and I got to start playing with the new toys to see how well they hold up in use. The plastics I use are much tougher than almost any wood yet gentler against other sticks than metal. The way I finish these makes them look like wood. Sometimes I have a hard time convincing folks it isn’t what they think.
What surprised me was the sudden increase in accuracy my students showed with the krisses compared to regular sticks. While the techniques themselves required some adjustments to really align the blades, it was the basic strikes that caught my attention. Whereas I’ve critiqued students at times for holding back and not throwing strikes to the target, with the krisses their attacks were as close and precise as I could wish. There was something about the mass and shape of the weapon that focused their mind and body into the strike in a new way.
The krisses, at 19”, are heavier than most sticks but feel secure because of the grip. The triangular blade shape seems to draw attention towards the tip, which has a slight downward hook. One student called it a “hawk’s beak”, saying he felt as though it wanted to bite into the target. Whatever the reasons, drills and sparring this week hit a new high, and those are moments a teacher savors and will remember.
Of the two large blades, the first has a thinner handle because my material was oddly shaped, missing a rectangle I’d cut out years ago for the prototype of my commando blade. It lacks the mass of the lower guard in front of the knuckles at the bottom of the blade, which helps balance the tip, so I made the blade thinner and lighter (except for the tip, which I’m leaving blunt). I always say the weapon will tell you how it likes to move; this one has a light feeling, responding like an extension of the fingers with quick reversals. The balance is almost like an Indonesian kris.
The second kris feels bigger, with a slightly broader handle and blade and a straighter alignment. This is more similar to my heavy Moro kalis seka and is more suited to powerful slashes, with control coming from the wrist.
My smaller knives follow a similar pattern, with the first slimmer in the hand and the second one more robust but with more defined grind lines.
After 2 hours of heavy use yesterday, they don’t look quite as shiny and new, but that’s ok, these are supposed to be training weapons, not show pieces. I love having these in my stick bag, but I’m sure they won’t stay there much when it’s time to play!
I’ve already had several people ask if I’m going to sell these. The answer is probably yes. These are labor intensive, but if I make them by hand I can sell them retail for what machine shops would charge me just for cutting the basic form, which I still have to finish by hand. I won’t have large quantities in stock, and each one will be a little different, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just need to keep honing my skills so I can refine various grips and blade balances towards specific goals.
Note: Last night, after writing this, I went to a party at grandmaster Mark Gerry’s house, a fantastic gathering of masters and grandmasters attending Wally Jay’s 90th birthday weekend events. The first, lighter kris really caught the attention of everyone who played with these.
Nice!
My inspiration comes from the late great Sonny Umpad. Last weekend was a gathering of the Visayan clan. I was already thinking of how to get copies of a magnificent 12" training blade Sonny made for me many years ago. It was so nice I never wanted to use it or risk losing it (which I did for about 2 years, another story). With the cost of manufacturing so high around here, I decided to make my own copy by hand.
The first one took me hours. I traced the original, scanned it into the computer, then resized it to fit a piece of paper and printed it out. I cut that out and taped it to a solid billet of plastic and then went through various stages of cutting, grinding, filing, sanding and polishing. When I was done, I had a really cool training knife!
The next day I decided to make another, which went faster. Now I was more confident in the techniques I needed to make these. I had one last odd shaped piece of material left, which I turned into two 19” krisses.
Here’s where the fun began, because now my students and I got to start playing with the new toys to see how well they hold up in use. The plastics I use are much tougher than almost any wood yet gentler against other sticks than metal. The way I finish these makes them look like wood. Sometimes I have a hard time convincing folks it isn’t what they think.
What surprised me was the sudden increase in accuracy my students showed with the krisses compared to regular sticks. While the techniques themselves required some adjustments to really align the blades, it was the basic strikes that caught my attention. Whereas I’ve critiqued students at times for holding back and not throwing strikes to the target, with the krisses their attacks were as close and precise as I could wish. There was something about the mass and shape of the weapon that focused their mind and body into the strike in a new way.
The krisses, at 19”, are heavier than most sticks but feel secure because of the grip. The triangular blade shape seems to draw attention towards the tip, which has a slight downward hook. One student called it a “hawk’s beak”, saying he felt as though it wanted to bite into the target. Whatever the reasons, drills and sparring this week hit a new high, and those are moments a teacher savors and will remember.
Of the two large blades, the first has a thinner handle because my material was oddly shaped, missing a rectangle I’d cut out years ago for the prototype of my commando blade. It lacks the mass of the lower guard in front of the knuckles at the bottom of the blade, which helps balance the tip, so I made the blade thinner and lighter (except for the tip, which I’m leaving blunt). I always say the weapon will tell you how it likes to move; this one has a light feeling, responding like an extension of the fingers with quick reversals. The balance is almost like an Indonesian kris.
The second kris feels bigger, with a slightly broader handle and blade and a straighter alignment. This is more similar to my heavy Moro kalis seka and is more suited to powerful slashes, with control coming from the wrist.
My smaller knives follow a similar pattern, with the first slimmer in the hand and the second one more robust but with more defined grind lines.
After 2 hours of heavy use yesterday, they don’t look quite as shiny and new, but that’s ok, these are supposed to be training weapons, not show pieces. I love having these in my stick bag, but I’m sure they won’t stay there much when it’s time to play!
I’ve already had several people ask if I’m going to sell these. The answer is probably yes. These are labor intensive, but if I make them by hand I can sell them retail for what machine shops would charge me just for cutting the basic form, which I still have to finish by hand. I won’t have large quantities in stock, and each one will be a little different, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just need to keep honing my skills so I can refine various grips and blade balances towards specific goals.
Note: Last night, after writing this, I went to a party at grandmaster Mark Gerry’s house, a fantastic gathering of masters and grandmasters attending Wally Jay’s 90th birthday weekend events. The first, lighter kris really caught the attention of everyone who played with these.
Nice!
Friday, June 01, 2007
June updates
A reminder that tomorrow is the Mata Sa Bagyo potluck picnic in Pittsburg, Ca. This is open to the FMA community in general and the Serrada community in particular. I'm hoping people will attend what is becoming an annual gathering, which bring me to ....
... something I've discussed here before, which is the lack of support for so many events happening here in the NorCal FMA community. Last weekend there was a Balintawak seminar in Pleasanton, a town conveniently located between the East Bay, San Jose and central valley communities such as Stockton and Modesto. Once again there was an astonishing (to me) lack of turnout. There were about a dozen members of the Tabimina Balintawak club that sponsored the event, and there was me.
Sorry if I'm preaching from a soapbox here, but for years I bemoaned the lack of events such as this in our region, a chance to see top instructors from related arts sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. Over the past year or so there have been many opportunities to attend events like this, but participation has been so sparse that the promoters are now shying away from the effort involved to make these happen. Besides posting on my blog calendar, I also directly emailed nearly 50 people about this event, letting them know there was a steep discount if they mentioned my blog. Of those, exactly NONE showed up. For $50 they could have had 5 hours with grandmaster "Nene" Gaabucayan of Teovel Balinatawak Arnis; for $10, the cost of a movie, they could have watched.
This was an excellent seminar with a top instructor. I often say an event like this is a success for me if I learn one thing new. By that definition, last Saturday was more than just a success because I picked up a few good ideas. It's too bad nobody else has the time or desire to do the same.
For those who live in S.F. or on the peninsula, a reminder that there is a two day Richard Bustillo seminar this weekend. If anyone from here attends, let me know. I'd like to hear about it, and maybe it will relieve some of this sense of futility about such events.
... something I've discussed here before, which is the lack of support for so many events happening here in the NorCal FMA community. Last weekend there was a Balintawak seminar in Pleasanton, a town conveniently located between the East Bay, San Jose and central valley communities such as Stockton and Modesto. Once again there was an astonishing (to me) lack of turnout. There were about a dozen members of the Tabimina Balintawak club that sponsored the event, and there was me.
Sorry if I'm preaching from a soapbox here, but for years I bemoaned the lack of events such as this in our region, a chance to see top instructors from related arts sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. Over the past year or so there have been many opportunities to attend events like this, but participation has been so sparse that the promoters are now shying away from the effort involved to make these happen. Besides posting on my blog calendar, I also directly emailed nearly 50 people about this event, letting them know there was a steep discount if they mentioned my blog. Of those, exactly NONE showed up. For $50 they could have had 5 hours with grandmaster "Nene" Gaabucayan of Teovel Balinatawak Arnis; for $10, the cost of a movie, they could have watched.
This was an excellent seminar with a top instructor. I often say an event like this is a success for me if I learn one thing new. By that definition, last Saturday was more than just a success because I picked up a few good ideas. It's too bad nobody else has the time or desire to do the same.
For those who live in S.F. or on the peninsula, a reminder that there is a two day Richard Bustillo seminar this weekend. If anyone from here attends, let me know. I'd like to hear about it, and maybe it will relieve some of this sense of futility about such events.
Dog tricks pt. 2
I knew my dog was quick, but now I have proof.
Normally my dog trots, about my jogging speed, or lopes along at what is my running speed. About once a month she hits another gear. I'll look up and there she is at the park or beach, flying impressively ahead of a pack of dogs. Still, she prefers to stop and sniff; she'll stand for half an hour over a gopher hole if I let her. Sometimes she'll catch them, other times she's just fascinated to watch. One day I even saw the gopher touch her nose twice without consequence!
On Memorial Day we were near the end of a long walk when I stopped to talk to two ladies who were helping look for a lost dog. I turned a minute later to call my dog but she wasn't there. I called and called for perhaps 2-3 minutes when I spied her over 100 yards away. She was running and I saw what I thought was a small dog. "Oh good! She's playing." Then I realized she was chasing a jack rabbit, the first I'd ever seen at the Albany Bulb (a wild landfill being slowly strangled by the park bureaucracy).
I started running toward the action while calling my dog when suddenly the rabbit headed straight towards me. Perhaps it understood that by doing so, I'd have a chance to grab the dog. The rabbit actually changed directions a couple of times right in front of me but my attempts to snag the dog's collar were futile.
I could see with every cut the rabbit made that my dog was closing the gap, a few inches at a time. While she was perhaps 6-7 feet back when I first spotted them, as they made the last cut in front of me the distance was less than half that. At this point I took off running after them, understanding what the outcome was going to be.
About 50 yards into the weeds the rabbit tried one last cut and the dog cut it off and pounced, coming up with a limp rabbit in her mouth. I was about four running strides behind, yelling "DROP IT!" My dog started to run off and then thought better of it and did as told, turning towards me in submission. I grabbed the collar and snapped on the leash and led her a few feet away from her prey. I looked back and the rabbit was watching, panting hard from under a clump of dry weeds. I didn't see any blood on either animal so we quickly left, hoping the rabbit could recover without being found by another dog.
Meanwhile my gal was panting heavily with her tongue out, which I'd never seen her do before. She kept that up for 15 minutes and slept quite well when we got home. I guess I can't sing Elvis' "Hound Dog" any more, since she HAS caught a rabbit. I've never seen a solo dog run one down before, though I've seen two dogs team up to do it. I've certainly never before had a dog with this combination of speed, agility and endurance. I was quite impressed and she seems to have a new sense of her prowess as well, which means I've had to go Alpha on her once or twice to let her know she's still #2 in my house.
We went back the next day to make sure there was no sign of a dead rabbit; the field was clear. I guess jack made it home ok. The birds (mostly red-wing blackbirds) made a big racket while we were out there though. It was as though they recognized my dog as the "almost" killer and were putting out the word.
What was so impressive was the drive and determination to complete her task once she was in motion. As martial artists, we could learn a lot from that.
Normally my dog trots, about my jogging speed, or lopes along at what is my running speed. About once a month she hits another gear. I'll look up and there she is at the park or beach, flying impressively ahead of a pack of dogs. Still, she prefers to stop and sniff; she'll stand for half an hour over a gopher hole if I let her. Sometimes she'll catch them, other times she's just fascinated to watch. One day I even saw the gopher touch her nose twice without consequence!
On Memorial Day we were near the end of a long walk when I stopped to talk to two ladies who were helping look for a lost dog. I turned a minute later to call my dog but she wasn't there. I called and called for perhaps 2-3 minutes when I spied her over 100 yards away. She was running and I saw what I thought was a small dog. "Oh good! She's playing." Then I realized she was chasing a jack rabbit, the first I'd ever seen at the Albany Bulb (a wild landfill being slowly strangled by the park bureaucracy).
I started running toward the action while calling my dog when suddenly the rabbit headed straight towards me. Perhaps it understood that by doing so, I'd have a chance to grab the dog. The rabbit actually changed directions a couple of times right in front of me but my attempts to snag the dog's collar were futile.
I could see with every cut the rabbit made that my dog was closing the gap, a few inches at a time. While she was perhaps 6-7 feet back when I first spotted them, as they made the last cut in front of me the distance was less than half that. At this point I took off running after them, understanding what the outcome was going to be.
About 50 yards into the weeds the rabbit tried one last cut and the dog cut it off and pounced, coming up with a limp rabbit in her mouth. I was about four running strides behind, yelling "DROP IT!" My dog started to run off and then thought better of it and did as told, turning towards me in submission. I grabbed the collar and snapped on the leash and led her a few feet away from her prey. I looked back and the rabbit was watching, panting hard from under a clump of dry weeds. I didn't see any blood on either animal so we quickly left, hoping the rabbit could recover without being found by another dog.
Meanwhile my gal was panting heavily with her tongue out, which I'd never seen her do before. She kept that up for 15 minutes and slept quite well when we got home. I guess I can't sing Elvis' "Hound Dog" any more, since she HAS caught a rabbit. I've never seen a solo dog run one down before, though I've seen two dogs team up to do it. I've certainly never before had a dog with this combination of speed, agility and endurance. I was quite impressed and she seems to have a new sense of her prowess as well, which means I've had to go Alpha on her once or twice to let her know she's still #2 in my house.
We went back the next day to make sure there was no sign of a dead rabbit; the field was clear. I guess jack made it home ok. The birds (mostly red-wing blackbirds) made a big racket while we were out there though. It was as though they recognized my dog as the "almost" killer and were putting out the word.
What was so impressive was the drive and determination to complete her task once she was in motion. As martial artists, we could learn a lot from that.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Dog tricks
Just yesterday at the beach an adolescent male ridgeback stole my dog's ball and wouldn't let it go. He kept running farther away while chewing on it vigorously. That kind of ruins my game with my dog,to say nothing of how fast some animals can ruin a good ball. Then too dogs sometimes get into a scrap over something like stealing a toy. I figured these two dogs combined weighed about 130 lbs. and my bitch was shadowing him pretty closely, so forestalling any escalation seemed a good idea.
When I finally got close enough to the ridgeback to be able to make a move, I yelled "DROP IT!" which worked, slightly to my surprise. Of course he went right for it again, which is why I wear stout boots for dog walks. I stepped on the ball and said "LEAVE IT!" and "OFF!" while crowding him off the spot.
Mind you this can be risky; I've stepped away from a dog or two if they seemed especially determined. I don't relish my toes as a chew toy. I'd never met this dog before, and particularly being young and rambunctious, I couldn't be not entirely sure he knew or would respond to common commands. By the same token I didn't think he'd be overly dominant yet.
I believe that a dominant tone of voice is really the key to grabbing control anyway. In most circumstances, when immediate attention is required, from either man or beast, a strongly projected"YO!" seems to be universally effective in establishing one's presence.
What reminded me of yesterday's experience was an email that arrived this morning with a similar theme (a nice synchronicity!) In it was a story about a man who was attacked by a dog. He retreated behind a car and shouted "SIT", which worked! Just about every dog knows that word, unless it's been taught in German or Spanish or Vietnamese, etc., but even then it's a word they might very well have heard and recognize.
The point is, use of a common command in a strong voice can be a valuable trick. Pitching a hand up high over a dog's head (or towards one further away) reinforces this with body language; as a dog's nose goes up, the other end tends to go down.
There are similar psychological tricks in fighting. For instance, grapplers learn to release holds when their training partner taps out. On the street, this could aid an escape. The better response, from the grappler's point of view, would be to stop increasing pressure or ease back a bit, but not to relinquish control unconsciously.
The idea is to control direction of attention. NLP is useful because it teaches modalities of consciousness. Applied Kinesiology or similar body therapies are good for learning pressure and release points. Lead the mind, the body follows. Lead the body, the mind pays attention.
When I finally got close enough to the ridgeback to be able to make a move, I yelled "DROP IT!" which worked, slightly to my surprise. Of course he went right for it again, which is why I wear stout boots for dog walks. I stepped on the ball and said "LEAVE IT!" and "OFF!" while crowding him off the spot.
Mind you this can be risky; I've stepped away from a dog or two if they seemed especially determined. I don't relish my toes as a chew toy. I'd never met this dog before, and particularly being young and rambunctious, I couldn't be not entirely sure he knew or would respond to common commands. By the same token I didn't think he'd be overly dominant yet.
I believe that a dominant tone of voice is really the key to grabbing control anyway. In most circumstances, when immediate attention is required, from either man or beast, a strongly projected"YO!" seems to be universally effective in establishing one's presence.
What reminded me of yesterday's experience was an email that arrived this morning with a similar theme (a nice synchronicity!) In it was a story about a man who was attacked by a dog. He retreated behind a car and shouted "SIT", which worked! Just about every dog knows that word, unless it's been taught in German or Spanish or Vietnamese, etc., but even then it's a word they might very well have heard and recognize.
The point is, use of a common command in a strong voice can be a valuable trick. Pitching a hand up high over a dog's head (or towards one further away) reinforces this with body language; as a dog's nose goes up, the other end tends to go down.
There are similar psychological tricks in fighting. For instance, grapplers learn to release holds when their training partner taps out. On the street, this could aid an escape. The better response, from the grappler's point of view, would be to stop increasing pressure or ease back a bit, but not to relinquish control unconsciously.
The idea is to control direction of attention. NLP is useful because it teaches modalities of consciousness. Applied Kinesiology or similar body therapies are good for learning pressure and release points. Lead the mind, the body follows. Lead the body, the mind pays attention.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Serrada and Wing Chun
Alex Castro has written an interesting post comparing Serrada and Wing Chun. He was one of a number of people who trained with me who also trained under Wing Chun grandmaster Chris Chan.
Nice to be able to reference writings of someone with whom I've worked in the past, especially one with such a solid and varied background ....
Nice to be able to reference writings of someone with whom I've worked in the past, especially one with such a solid and varied background ....
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Alex Castro's Serrada Blog
There's a new escrima blog by Alex Castro which I've linked in my sidebar. Alex trained with me for a couple of years when he started escrima. Since then he has lived mostly down in Texas, with some time spent briefly back here in California. Though he is writing from a Serrada perspective, Alex offers insights from a much broader perspective. He is a talented martial artist who was deeply involved in Shuai Jiao when I met him. He's often left thoughtful comments on my posts, so I'm happy to see him writing his own.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Wally Jay's 90th Birthday Dinner and Seminars
If you want to catch the action, make your dinner reservations for Friday June 15 now! This is the date of Wally Jay's 90th birthday banquet at the Hong Kong East Ocean Restaurant in Emeryville, one of the Bay Area's finest and most scenic Cantonese restaurants.
An event for Wally Jay attracts the very best the martial arts world has to offer, with exhibitions and seminars on Saturday and more. Here is a flier for the event.
PS - If anyone is interested in going in on a table, let me know ....
An event for Wally Jay attracts the very best the martial arts world has to offer, with exhibitions and seminars on Saturday and more. Here is a flier for the event.
PS - If anyone is interested in going in on a table, let me know ....
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Snap/Cut (slight update)
Normally I practice with a natural flow, keeping tight but exploring how things like footwork, body angle and alignment, weight distribution, etc. all are components that contribute to the outcome of any specific phase of an encounter. In other words, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
I decided this morning to break my movement down to the lowest common denominator, stripping techniques down to the absolute minimum. I used two tools in this exercise. First was a blade; specifically one made for me by Sonny Umpad. It was playing with this that got me into a creative space, feeling the balance, hearing the “swoosh” through the air.
The second tool was a mirror. Live time feedback, how we did it before video. Great for checking alignment, seeing what others would see. Just don’t fall in love with your own image …
Here’s the exercise: stand in front of the mirror; fine-tune your best alignment with that “opponent”. Do each movement of a technique extremely mechanistically, as tight and minimalist as possible. Don’t worry about speed; that always comes with familiarity. This is about precision, identifying start and stop points, how to get from one to the other as efficiently as possible.
Kung-fu practitioners talk about tendon strength as being more important than muscles. That's because their elasticity can generate a powerful pop in striking, but puts great stress on these connective tissues. Muscles grow and increase strength faster, making one look and feel strong, buta danger is if one part of the system overwhelms another. A possible sign of steroid use is when bulked up athletes constantly tweak tendons and joints, which have not yet caught up in development. It takes time to handle as much power as one can generate, so don't rush and risking injury.
Make each movement a “snap”; just go from touch at one point - SNAP – to touch at the next point. Don’t worry yet about trying to string it together, just feel each snap. The whole body should move together as one, every part doing what it should do, going where it needs to be. It’s a bit choppy at first, but it defines your tightest options within the technique.
Example: On a Serrada inside block there are essentially five moves: parry, counterstrike, hit under the arm, hit over the arm, lock (en garde) position. Each of these movements has an apex in time, where the energy of that move completes itself and begins turning into the next. This is the moment of impact where a blow discharges energy. Too many people think past that to the follow through, but that is relative, depending on many factors including the design of your technique.
I’ll postulate a theorum here: The least amount of movement necessary at the end of the chain has the most control. Everything preceding the strike – root, foundation, trunk, branches and stems – has done everything to maximize the potential at the end, so there is less final adjustment and therefore a finer degree of tuning. More like a bullet than a boomerang ;)
Back to the exercise …. So I’m practicing using the target in the mirror and I start picking up a distinct rhythm as I’m linking together the snaps in a technique (specifically an inside block for angle #1, a tip-up defense common to most systems). The first move snaps hard and rebounds to the next position, which cuts with a slower tempo. An inside block would start as a parry/counter in snap/cut timing. In Serrada our next moves would be to cut under and then over the arm, so that’s the next snap/cut pair. It’s important, especially on this one, not to skimp past the first impact point (snapping upward into the arm) just to get to the next. It isn’t a race, it’s about being effective, so each move gets dialed in.
Why is this important? Well, besides making each strike potent in its own right, it also allows us the versatility to respond more effectively to unexpected changes. Having a good base means having resources available. If your base is weak, you are fighting yourself as well as an opponent.
To continue the exercise, there are now two phases, to which we’ll add a third. The first phase is snapping to each move individually to dial it in. The second phase is snap/cut in pairs. The third phase is turning the in-between transition points into snap-cut combos. In our inside block, we would now look at the counterstrike/upward cut as the snap/cut, and then the downward chop and lock position as the next snap/cut.
Each sub-pattern within the larger framework becomes more focused, utilizing more sudden “shock power.” Now with a sense of continuity between each of these points, begin doing triplets. This would be parry/counter/upward cut, then the forward spin cut/abanico/turn-and-check (the last 3 – abanico, turn, check) are all components of returning to our lock (en garde) position.
Can we just snap each and every hit? Probably, but will it be targetted well enough to be effective or just a flurry of motion? Eventually our patterns become so ingrained they are natural and unconscious, and that kind of tight, focused speed comes from an inward sense of touch and balance; proprioceptive qualities.
A whole technique should be strong in all components. What you don’t see (or know or understand) CAN hurt you, which is why every detail in techniques is important. These are the elements that comprise the polishing process. If we want to have longevity in the arts, eliminating mindless errors minimizes careless injuries. The best techniques don't just strike an enemy, they protect us internally as well. Deepening our self-understanding elevates our process on multiple levels. We may never use everything we practice in a real situation, but the better our attributes, the more we improve our chances.
I decided this morning to break my movement down to the lowest common denominator, stripping techniques down to the absolute minimum. I used two tools in this exercise. First was a blade; specifically one made for me by Sonny Umpad. It was playing with this that got me into a creative space, feeling the balance, hearing the “swoosh” through the air.
The second tool was a mirror. Live time feedback, how we did it before video. Great for checking alignment, seeing what others would see. Just don’t fall in love with your own image …
Here’s the exercise: stand in front of the mirror; fine-tune your best alignment with that “opponent”. Do each movement of a technique extremely mechanistically, as tight and minimalist as possible. Don’t worry about speed; that always comes with familiarity. This is about precision, identifying start and stop points, how to get from one to the other as efficiently as possible.
Kung-fu practitioners talk about tendon strength as being more important than muscles. That's because their elasticity can generate a powerful pop in striking, but puts great stress on these connective tissues. Muscles grow and increase strength faster, making one look and feel strong, buta danger is if one part of the system overwhelms another. A possible sign of steroid use is when bulked up athletes constantly tweak tendons and joints, which have not yet caught up in development. It takes time to handle as much power as one can generate, so don't rush and risking injury.
Make each movement a “snap”; just go from touch at one point - SNAP – to touch at the next point. Don’t worry yet about trying to string it together, just feel each snap. The whole body should move together as one, every part doing what it should do, going where it needs to be. It’s a bit choppy at first, but it defines your tightest options within the technique.
Example: On a Serrada inside block there are essentially five moves: parry, counterstrike, hit under the arm, hit over the arm, lock (en garde) position. Each of these movements has an apex in time, where the energy of that move completes itself and begins turning into the next. This is the moment of impact where a blow discharges energy. Too many people think past that to the follow through, but that is relative, depending on many factors including the design of your technique.
I’ll postulate a theorum here: The least amount of movement necessary at the end of the chain has the most control. Everything preceding the strike – root, foundation, trunk, branches and stems – has done everything to maximize the potential at the end, so there is less final adjustment and therefore a finer degree of tuning. More like a bullet than a boomerang ;)
Back to the exercise …. So I’m practicing using the target in the mirror and I start picking up a distinct rhythm as I’m linking together the snaps in a technique (specifically an inside block for angle #1, a tip-up defense common to most systems). The first move snaps hard and rebounds to the next position, which cuts with a slower tempo. An inside block would start as a parry/counter in snap/cut timing. In Serrada our next moves would be to cut under and then over the arm, so that’s the next snap/cut pair. It’s important, especially on this one, not to skimp past the first impact point (snapping upward into the arm) just to get to the next. It isn’t a race, it’s about being effective, so each move gets dialed in.
Why is this important? Well, besides making each strike potent in its own right, it also allows us the versatility to respond more effectively to unexpected changes. Having a good base means having resources available. If your base is weak, you are fighting yourself as well as an opponent.
To continue the exercise, there are now two phases, to which we’ll add a third. The first phase is snapping to each move individually to dial it in. The second phase is snap/cut in pairs. The third phase is turning the in-between transition points into snap-cut combos. In our inside block, we would now look at the counterstrike/upward cut as the snap/cut, and then the downward chop and lock position as the next snap/cut.
Each sub-pattern within the larger framework becomes more focused, utilizing more sudden “shock power.” Now with a sense of continuity between each of these points, begin doing triplets. This would be parry/counter/upward cut, then the forward spin cut/abanico/turn-and-check (the last 3 – abanico, turn, check) are all components of returning to our lock (en garde) position.
Can we just snap each and every hit? Probably, but will it be targetted well enough to be effective or just a flurry of motion? Eventually our patterns become so ingrained they are natural and unconscious, and that kind of tight, focused speed comes from an inward sense of touch and balance; proprioceptive qualities.
A whole technique should be strong in all components. What you don’t see (or know or understand) CAN hurt you, which is why every detail in techniques is important. These are the elements that comprise the polishing process. If we want to have longevity in the arts, eliminating mindless errors minimizes careless injuries. The best techniques don't just strike an enemy, they protect us internally as well. Deepening our self-understanding elevates our process on multiple levels. We may never use everything we practice in a real situation, but the better our attributes, the more we improve our chances.
Kali Means To Scrape
Recently there were some online forum discussions on disarms. Some folks feel they are impractical, usually, I think, because people put too much emphasis on the technique by itself. I personally think they are good to know as finishing moves, but don’t ignore other things that take precedence (like striking or otherwise gaining control). My argument was two-fold, that 1) its better to know and not need than to need and not know, and 2) if we don’t practice the hard things, it’s certain we’ll never gain those skills.
Recently I had a chance to view Nick Papadakis’ video “Kali Means To Scrape.” One old grandmaster, manong Legaspi, had had his arm shattered (and permanently crippled) at the outset of a fight, yet still managed single-handedly to drive away multiple opponents after disarming one and taking his knife.
His story gives me new appreciation for Angel Cabales’ teachings that take control of an opponent's weapon rather than just discarding it, or worse, thinking it cannot be taken at all. Angel’s reasoning was so we could use it and nobody else could pick it up. Legaspi’s story exemplifies this possibility. After all, it saved his life!
Recently I had a chance to view Nick Papadakis’ video “Kali Means To Scrape.” One old grandmaster, manong Legaspi, had had his arm shattered (and permanently crippled) at the outset of a fight, yet still managed single-handedly to drive away multiple opponents after disarming one and taking his knife.
His story gives me new appreciation for Angel Cabales’ teachings that take control of an opponent's weapon rather than just discarding it, or worse, thinking it cannot be taken at all. Angel’s reasoning was so we could use it and nobody else could pick it up. Legaspi’s story exemplifies this possibility. After all, it saved his life!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Sonny Umpad DVD from Dog Brothers released
Yesterday a student gave me his copy of the new Dog Brothers DVD "The Grandfathers Speak: Maestro Sonny Umpad." I have to admit it was bittersweet watching this, appreciating the value of preserving his legacy, missing the man. The interview parts are sometimes difficult to understand because Sonny had a strong Visayan accent and was close to his untimely death from cancer at the time. On the other hand, the archival footage of Sonny in his prime is simply amazing, even if the old 8mm film stock was less than stellar. The breadth of his teaching can be seen in the footage of students working out with sticks, staffs, knives and swords; be sure to check the "Extras" for more of that.
Wednesday Evening Class Update
My Wednesday evening class is moving to a new location in Pleasant Hill, the Gracie Sports Center at 150 Longbrook Way #D, Pleasant Hill, Ca. 94523. Class time is 7:30-9:30pm starting next week; fees are $75/month.
This is exciting because for the first time in many years we will be working out in a well-equipped martial arts gym which includes mats, heavy bags and even a boxing ring. Cesar Gracie is a world class fighter and trainer to other top competitors, and I hope access to his facility will inspire those of us who use it toward greater levels of achievement as well.
This is exciting because for the first time in many years we will be working out in a well-equipped martial arts gym which includes mats, heavy bags and even a boxing ring. Cesar Gracie is a world class fighter and trainer to other top competitors, and I hope access to his facility will inspire those of us who use it toward greater levels of achievement as well.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Out In The Cold
On the last Tuesday of April I found out that the weekly class I’d been teaching Wednesday nights for the past two years was getting cancelled at the end of the month. In other words, the next day was my last class there. I’d had a feeling this was coming through a series of increasingly clear hints, but still, that was abrupt. Heck, even the husband of the site’s owner didn’t know this was coming, and he’s been taking my class.
It isn’t easy finding a new location. I jumped on the internet last week, spending a couple of days looking up schools and community centers, making calls and leaving messages. Out of perhaps a dozen places where I left messages (sometimes more than one) I got two return calls. One place is pretty far from where we’ve been training, an inconvenience for my steady students though possibly better for one or two occasional ones. The other guy expressed a lukewarm interest and hasn’t returned any subsequent attempts to contact him.
Considering the high cost of renting a place here in the Bay Area, I’d think there’d be more interest in utilizing down time for facilities. Then again, prime times are limited. A few places I reached were happy to let me use Saturday afternoons, but how many people are willing to commit the heart of their weekend to taking classes? The failure of so many quality seminars gives me that answer. As for bigger community centers, I don’t know why they don’t answer messages, unless it’s the “We already have Tai Chi” mentality that I’ve encountered a few times at those places.
It’s difficult enough to sustain a class even with a stable environment. I figured at least we’re heading into nice spring weather following a dry winter, but lo and behold, this first Wednesday of May is supposed to rain. Some people would perhaps shrug this off as minor adversity, but I’m just not excited about holding class outdoors when it’s cold, wet and dark. Until this gets resolved, I guess I’ll be trying to get by just my private lessons and we’ll see who’s still around when a new group location becomes available.
It isn’t easy finding a new location. I jumped on the internet last week, spending a couple of days looking up schools and community centers, making calls and leaving messages. Out of perhaps a dozen places where I left messages (sometimes more than one) I got two return calls. One place is pretty far from where we’ve been training, an inconvenience for my steady students though possibly better for one or two occasional ones. The other guy expressed a lukewarm interest and hasn’t returned any subsequent attempts to contact him.
Considering the high cost of renting a place here in the Bay Area, I’d think there’d be more interest in utilizing down time for facilities. Then again, prime times are limited. A few places I reached were happy to let me use Saturday afternoons, but how many people are willing to commit the heart of their weekend to taking classes? The failure of so many quality seminars gives me that answer. As for bigger community centers, I don’t know why they don’t answer messages, unless it’s the “We already have Tai Chi” mentality that I’ve encountered a few times at those places.
It’s difficult enough to sustain a class even with a stable environment. I figured at least we’re heading into nice spring weather following a dry winter, but lo and behold, this first Wednesday of May is supposed to rain. Some people would perhaps shrug this off as minor adversity, but I’m just not excited about holding class outdoors when it’s cold, wet and dark. Until this gets resolved, I guess I’ll be trying to get by just my private lessons and we’ll see who’s still around when a new group location becomes available.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
MAMBA articles
Those who read this blog know I am interested in the mental and spiritual aspects of martial arts. My M.A. in holistic health education explored healing, somatic psychology and spirituality through the relational perspective of quantum physics. Hypnotherapy, in which I’m certified, has furthered my belief that the mind and body are not separate but rather different frequencies of energy expressing self-reflective qualities.
In a sense I see physical reality as the manifestation of many vortices, little energy black holes defining specific points of energy in the matrix of the universe. We record the experiences we attract through our minds, encoding the memory within the physical structures of our bodies.
Physical training in martial arts gives us skills, but how far we go in pursuit of those skills and how we choose to use them or integrate them into our lives are personal choices, which underlie the activity itself. Furthermore we make these choices constantly throughout our daily lives. We think of ourselves as single entities when in fact we are complex organisms constantly adapting to our environment through evolving physical and emotional states, of which our conscious awareness is itself a final product.
From time immemorial, warriors have strengthened themselves through rituals which strengthen beliefs, attitudes and convictions, allowing them to become role models in their societies and to deal with the consequences of their actions. There are those who argue that the FMA are only about practical and efficient methods of physical combat, ignoring the rich tradition of anting-anting and oracion.
In fact, a warrior mindset is invaluable for maximizing physical attributes. As the saying goes, “it’s the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight.” Without desire and focus, what will be achieved? With it, what cannot be? Whether we acknowledge it or not, training affects us on a multiplicity of levels. If we do acknowledge it, we may gain insight faster because we align our attention consciously with deeper values.
A recent link submitted to the yahoo group “csemt-serrada_escrima” revealed a treasure trove of articles on shamanism, hypnosis and martial arts by James Overton Sr. whose website is at mamba-ryu.com. MAMBA stands for “Mastering the Art of Mind and Body in Action”. Nice acronym for a very well developed version of what I’m aiming towards through my “Self Empowerment Practice And Theory” (SEPAT) © .
SEPAT coincidentally spells “TAPES” backwards, a nice metaphor for hypnotherapy as a way to “unwind” or deprogram limiting beliefs. In Tagalog “sepat” refers to a “wild child”, another nice metaphor for letting loose our innate curiosity and sense of freedom.
As martial artists, our best attribute is to reach freedom in movement, to be responsive to the flow of energy. The paradox is we gain control by giving up control, just letting things happen. We can still be aware and making decisions, but they are natural and constrained, like a car driving along a road. We can think about what we are doing, but we needn’t think about how we are doing it.
Our bodies are responsive to our minds. The more our minds are free, the less inhibition on the resources the body can utilize. It is easy to see with beginners how their “stuckness” in movement is the same in their mind. Peeling away resistance allows one to see more possibility. Fear is a limiting factor; recognizing it is empowering if used as a way to control the energy of the emotion.
In a sense I see physical reality as the manifestation of many vortices, little energy black holes defining specific points of energy in the matrix of the universe. We record the experiences we attract through our minds, encoding the memory within the physical structures of our bodies.
Physical training in martial arts gives us skills, but how far we go in pursuit of those skills and how we choose to use them or integrate them into our lives are personal choices, which underlie the activity itself. Furthermore we make these choices constantly throughout our daily lives. We think of ourselves as single entities when in fact we are complex organisms constantly adapting to our environment through evolving physical and emotional states, of which our conscious awareness is itself a final product.
From time immemorial, warriors have strengthened themselves through rituals which strengthen beliefs, attitudes and convictions, allowing them to become role models in their societies and to deal with the consequences of their actions. There are those who argue that the FMA are only about practical and efficient methods of physical combat, ignoring the rich tradition of anting-anting and oracion.
In fact, a warrior mindset is invaluable for maximizing physical attributes. As the saying goes, “it’s the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight.” Without desire and focus, what will be achieved? With it, what cannot be? Whether we acknowledge it or not, training affects us on a multiplicity of levels. If we do acknowledge it, we may gain insight faster because we align our attention consciously with deeper values.
A recent link submitted to the yahoo group “csemt-serrada_escrima” revealed a treasure trove of articles on shamanism, hypnosis and martial arts by James Overton Sr. whose website is at mamba-ryu.com. MAMBA stands for “Mastering the Art of Mind and Body in Action”. Nice acronym for a very well developed version of what I’m aiming towards through my “Self Empowerment Practice And Theory” (SEPAT) © .
SEPAT coincidentally spells “TAPES” backwards, a nice metaphor for hypnotherapy as a way to “unwind” or deprogram limiting beliefs. In Tagalog “sepat” refers to a “wild child”, another nice metaphor for letting loose our innate curiosity and sense of freedom.
As martial artists, our best attribute is to reach freedom in movement, to be responsive to the flow of energy. The paradox is we gain control by giving up control, just letting things happen. We can still be aware and making decisions, but they are natural and constrained, like a car driving along a road. We can think about what we are doing, but we needn’t think about how we are doing it.
Our bodies are responsive to our minds. The more our minds are free, the less inhibition on the resources the body can utilize. It is easy to see with beginners how their “stuckness” in movement is the same in their mind. Peeling away resistance allows one to see more possibility. Fear is a limiting factor; recognizing it is empowering if used as a way to control the energy of the emotion.
Monday, April 23, 2007
The Roundabout – It’s A Riot!
Sometimes a twist on an old drill yields interesting results. This drill is something I came up with recently in a class. Originally dubbed “the riot drill” or the “barroom brawl”, we now mostly use the term “roundabout” to describe the process itself.
Often when people drill techniques, they pair up and take turns feeding strikes to each other. If there is an odd person out, as happens in class, this can turn into a threesome, feeding strikes to each other in a circle.
Sometimes we turn this into a game where we might feed back randomly to either partner. This gets closer to the “roundabout” but we are still dynamically locked in one-to-one with a partner and giving ourselves time to complete techniques. In most drills the pattern is to automatically engage the person who just attacked us, but the attack you just neutralized might not be your most immediate priority if another is coming in. In a brawl or riot one might have multiple opponents swinging away freely from any direction.
One solution, commonly seen in Aikido randori, is to direct the first opponent into the path of any successive attackers, solving two problems at once (finishing the first while engaging the second).
Back in the 70’s the BKF had a drill where everyone in the room would fight everyone else at random, a training exercise specifically for surviving such a melee. I’ve been in riot situations where everything was chaos. Who is nearby can change by the second as the surging mass of a crowd moves individuals in its current.
This drew my attention to the idea of how to train for randomness. The roundabout drill seems a way to introduce this factor into training by manipulating the variables of speed and direction. Getting to the details, the new idea works like this –
In a three person circle:
Person A feeds a strike to Person B.
Person B gets a single block/parry/deflection …..
But instead of counter-striking back at A, he throws that strike at Person C!
Person C then takes that incoming blow and counter-strikes towards A, etc.
It’s a bit like playing “telephone” where a message goes around a circle. More people can be added but too many will slow the drill, negating much of its value. If there are more than five participants, I suggest breaking up into smaller groups.
It sounds easy, but here’s the nitty-gritty. When we trade techniques such as in lock-and-block or numerado, the timing is several beats or moves in the counter, then maybe even a timing break to reset before a strike is returned; we have time to see the pattern creating the next incoming attack.
In counter-for-counter sparring or sumbrada, it’s pretty much one-for-one continuous rhythm. Either a counterattack is a logical outcome of a defensive position or it is not. In either case we can learn to either anticipate or follow the intentions of our opponent.
In the roundabout, the strike you just fed is coming back on the third beat, which is faster than what we experience in most normal technique exchange, and much less predictable than the rhythm of counter-for-counter. Coming from a different direction, however, and off an angle unrelated to the strike you threw just a second ago, you must quickly reorient and adapt from one person to the other.
This can accelerate going around a circle, and the speed it acquires plus the redirection of attention raise the difficulty factor significantly. Doing this in a continuous direction creates different challenges from a typical two-on-one type of drill, because each person has to maintain the same kind of focus and attention.
Giving a single counter to our attacker before turning to hit the next person can slow the pace of the drill, but the biggest challenge is to defend, turn and strike. If nothing else, this forces us to break and reexamine our ingrained responses in a new way.
Finally, changing directions is important because it reverses our left-right feeds and receives. As the drill emphasizes immediate responses, we tend to receive an attack with the side closest that person, and attack on our opposite side. This affects where our movement is open and how we reach across our body.
Drills can get hypnotic, which is good for building neuromuscular memory, but sometimes when people go into flow trance their conscious mind tends to check out. Redirecting attention rapidly from one opponent to the next helps break tunnel vision and broadens the scope of our potential reactions. If we stop trying to control everything and just watch and monitor the direction things unfold, we have a better chance of keeping a clear mind. That “one mind” is important because mental conflicts cause glitches that break our flow.
Often when people drill techniques, they pair up and take turns feeding strikes to each other. If there is an odd person out, as happens in class, this can turn into a threesome, feeding strikes to each other in a circle.
Sometimes we turn this into a game where we might feed back randomly to either partner. This gets closer to the “roundabout” but we are still dynamically locked in one-to-one with a partner and giving ourselves time to complete techniques. In most drills the pattern is to automatically engage the person who just attacked us, but the attack you just neutralized might not be your most immediate priority if another is coming in. In a brawl or riot one might have multiple opponents swinging away freely from any direction.
One solution, commonly seen in Aikido randori, is to direct the first opponent into the path of any successive attackers, solving two problems at once (finishing the first while engaging the second).
Back in the 70’s the BKF had a drill where everyone in the room would fight everyone else at random, a training exercise specifically for surviving such a melee. I’ve been in riot situations where everything was chaos. Who is nearby can change by the second as the surging mass of a crowd moves individuals in its current.
This drew my attention to the idea of how to train for randomness. The roundabout drill seems a way to introduce this factor into training by manipulating the variables of speed and direction. Getting to the details, the new idea works like this –
In a three person circle:
Person A feeds a strike to Person B.
Person B gets a single block/parry/deflection …..
But instead of counter-striking back at A, he throws that strike at Person C!
Person C then takes that incoming blow and counter-strikes towards A, etc.
It’s a bit like playing “telephone” where a message goes around a circle. More people can be added but too many will slow the drill, negating much of its value. If there are more than five participants, I suggest breaking up into smaller groups.
It sounds easy, but here’s the nitty-gritty. When we trade techniques such as in lock-and-block or numerado, the timing is several beats or moves in the counter, then maybe even a timing break to reset before a strike is returned; we have time to see the pattern creating the next incoming attack.
In counter-for-counter sparring or sumbrada, it’s pretty much one-for-one continuous rhythm. Either a counterattack is a logical outcome of a defensive position or it is not. In either case we can learn to either anticipate or follow the intentions of our opponent.
In the roundabout, the strike you just fed is coming back on the third beat, which is faster than what we experience in most normal technique exchange, and much less predictable than the rhythm of counter-for-counter. Coming from a different direction, however, and off an angle unrelated to the strike you threw just a second ago, you must quickly reorient and adapt from one person to the other.
This can accelerate going around a circle, and the speed it acquires plus the redirection of attention raise the difficulty factor significantly. Doing this in a continuous direction creates different challenges from a typical two-on-one type of drill, because each person has to maintain the same kind of focus and attention.
Giving a single counter to our attacker before turning to hit the next person can slow the pace of the drill, but the biggest challenge is to defend, turn and strike. If nothing else, this forces us to break and reexamine our ingrained responses in a new way.
Finally, changing directions is important because it reverses our left-right feeds and receives. As the drill emphasizes immediate responses, we tend to receive an attack with the side closest that person, and attack on our opposite side. This affects where our movement is open and how we reach across our body.
Drills can get hypnotic, which is good for building neuromuscular memory, but sometimes when people go into flow trance their conscious mind tends to check out. Redirecting attention rapidly from one opponent to the next helps break tunnel vision and broadens the scope of our potential reactions. If we stop trying to control everything and just watch and monitor the direction things unfold, we have a better chance of keeping a clear mind. That “one mind” is important because mental conflicts cause glitches that break our flow.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Back Online
Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of weeks but I had a computer problem; it was crashing intermittantly, causing me to lose data, emails etc. I suspected a hardware problem and code indicated memory or motherboard but none of the diagnostics showed anything, so I started uninstalling recent software updates. I finally found a program that reads the SMART (self-monitoring and reporting technology) software on my hard disks. It turns out my backup disk, an old one, was about to crash from causes that had nothing to do with the data or disk surface itself (why diskcheck and Spinrite didn't help). There went a week of long hours and late nights, leaving me to play catch-up during tax time. If anyone tried to contact me and didn't get a reply, this is why.
A reminder of the tournament in Stockton this Sunday , which includes demonstrations of Filipino dance and martial art styles.
Next Saturday is an opening in Oakland for the IESA and UMA organizations. Check the calendar for this and other updates.
A reminder of the tournament in Stockton this Sunday , which includes demonstrations of Filipino dance and martial art styles.
Next Saturday is an opening in Oakland for the IESA and UMA organizations. Check the calendar for this and other updates.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Starting from the bottom
How aware are you of your feet? Experienced martial artists always recognize the importance of footwork, because it is the foundation of everything you are doing above it. Balance, stability, positioning, power, all rely on this.
Here are some thoughts I had yesterday about walking. It’s the most common daily exercise, even if it’s just getting up in the morning and going about your business.
When you walk, do you just put your foot on the ground, or do you pay attention to how and where you place it? Do you slap it down flat, or do you roll forward from heel to toe? Does your foot roll from one side to the other as you shift your weight? Do you distribute your weight evenly on both feet or are you weighted more towards one side of your body? If you are not sure of these questions, look at the bottom of an old pair of shoes. How they are worn will tell you a lot about your habitual patterns of stepping.
What are some things to do to enhance our awareness of our feet? One is to spend some time applying TLC (tender loving care) to your feet. After all, they deserve some attention after the daily grind of getting you where you go.
Massage your feet, paying attention to areas that are sore. According to reflexology, we have 72,000 nerve endings in our feet that happen to map out our internal organs. Massage will not only make your feet feel better but is also a way to affect organic imbalances elsewhere in the body by getting energy to flow better.
Since body parts are interconnected by tendons and ligaments, feel free to work from the toes upward, releasing tension as you go. Besides the toes, areas that often create problems are the arch and ankle.
Bend and flex your toes. You can do this while massaging the feet, and also while standing barefoot and rolling one foot at a time on the balls and knuckles. I frequently do this before putting on shoes, so my feet are de-stressed and ready to go. This is also good for warming up the ankle joint and calf muscles.
Speaking of shoes, they should be fit properly and be comfortable. Poorly fit shoes can bind and restrict movement of the bones and muscles in the feet and cause permanent distortion and damage.
Walk barefoot (or in socks) a bit each day, allowing the feet to stretch and spread naturally. If you notice pain or soreness in part of your step, that’s a clue to work out whatever tension is in that area. Letting something like that slide can become chronic, and eventually you’ll wonder why walking has become so painful.
As you walk, pay attention to how you center your weight, letting yourself roll forward with each step. For brisk walking, reach with your stride, and as you push off with the toes at the end of the step, allow yourself to feel the stretch in the front of the hip and thigh to complete the movement. Opening up this joint is important for athletic performance.
As for the knees, we tend to lock them when standing or walking slowly. When you walk more quickly, let them relax slightly, keeping a bit of flex. A lot of people experience knee pain, especially as they get older, and this is another area where a little attention can have strong benefits.
So this was a simple prescription for walking – push off with the ball and toes of the foot, relax the knees, stretch the front of the hips. See if it doesn’t improve balance and mobility in your martial arts movement as well.
Here are some thoughts I had yesterday about walking. It’s the most common daily exercise, even if it’s just getting up in the morning and going about your business.
When you walk, do you just put your foot on the ground, or do you pay attention to how and where you place it? Do you slap it down flat, or do you roll forward from heel to toe? Does your foot roll from one side to the other as you shift your weight? Do you distribute your weight evenly on both feet or are you weighted more towards one side of your body? If you are not sure of these questions, look at the bottom of an old pair of shoes. How they are worn will tell you a lot about your habitual patterns of stepping.
What are some things to do to enhance our awareness of our feet? One is to spend some time applying TLC (tender loving care) to your feet. After all, they deserve some attention after the daily grind of getting you where you go.
Massage your feet, paying attention to areas that are sore. According to reflexology, we have 72,000 nerve endings in our feet that happen to map out our internal organs. Massage will not only make your feet feel better but is also a way to affect organic imbalances elsewhere in the body by getting energy to flow better.
Since body parts are interconnected by tendons and ligaments, feel free to work from the toes upward, releasing tension as you go. Besides the toes, areas that often create problems are the arch and ankle.
Bend and flex your toes. You can do this while massaging the feet, and also while standing barefoot and rolling one foot at a time on the balls and knuckles. I frequently do this before putting on shoes, so my feet are de-stressed and ready to go. This is also good for warming up the ankle joint and calf muscles.
Speaking of shoes, they should be fit properly and be comfortable. Poorly fit shoes can bind and restrict movement of the bones and muscles in the feet and cause permanent distortion and damage.
Walk barefoot (or in socks) a bit each day, allowing the feet to stretch and spread naturally. If you notice pain or soreness in part of your step, that’s a clue to work out whatever tension is in that area. Letting something like that slide can become chronic, and eventually you’ll wonder why walking has become so painful.
As you walk, pay attention to how you center your weight, letting yourself roll forward with each step. For brisk walking, reach with your stride, and as you push off with the toes at the end of the step, allow yourself to feel the stretch in the front of the hip and thigh to complete the movement. Opening up this joint is important for athletic performance.
As for the knees, we tend to lock them when standing or walking slowly. When you walk more quickly, let them relax slightly, keeping a bit of flex. A lot of people experience knee pain, especially as they get older, and this is another area where a little attention can have strong benefits.
So this was a simple prescription for walking – push off with the ball and toes of the foot, relax the knees, stretch the front of the hips. See if it doesn’t improve balance and mobility in your martial arts movement as well.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Validation
Sometimes the universe has a funny way of validating things.
Last night as I was laying in bed ready to go to sleep, I began having visions of a carjacking, and thinking about ways of foiling it so that the perp was badly hurt, like deliberately crashing the car. I haven't had thoughts about carjackings in perhaps a dozen years.
This afternoon there were helicopters over my house for well over an hour, and when I called the sheriff's dept. about something else, they said they were a bit busy at the moment. It turns out some guy tried a carjacking at a gas station right around the corner from where I live. When the cops arrived ( and they hang out at the Starbucks across the street, which is probably why they were right on top of this) the guy refused to put down the two knives he was waving, so they shot him once.
He's expected to survive.
The point of yesterday's blog is that everything is interconnected, and on deep levels that we rarely acknowledge we have access to connection. Based on a few emails I got back this morning, it's hard for some people to acknowledge on any level, even though this is within the conceptual realm of quantum physics.
As martial artists, we strive for attributes to elevate our skills. Some are innate, like genetic predispositions such as height. Others can be manipulated, like physical conditioning. We can develop the physical senses, such as touch, but things like mental sensitivity develop on levels that are even less readily apparent. Psychics (the real ones) are no different from the rest of us, just more attuned to subtle vibrations. Think Yoda feeling a disturbance in The Force. Warriors have had mystical experiences since time immemorial.
When we listen, our vocal cords resonate with the words we hear; we essentially speak back the message we are hearing. Even deeper, there are mirror neurons in the brain that fire sympathetically with those of other people. As science pushes back the boundaries of knowledge, the mysteries deepen.
Angel Cabales used to say that a high escrima skill was like reading your opponent's mind. He may have been more accurate than we knew.
Last night as I was laying in bed ready to go to sleep, I began having visions of a carjacking, and thinking about ways of foiling it so that the perp was badly hurt, like deliberately crashing the car. I haven't had thoughts about carjackings in perhaps a dozen years.
This afternoon there were helicopters over my house for well over an hour, and when I called the sheriff's dept. about something else, they said they were a bit busy at the moment. It turns out some guy tried a carjacking at a gas station right around the corner from where I live. When the cops arrived ( and they hang out at the Starbucks across the street, which is probably why they were right on top of this) the guy refused to put down the two knives he was waving, so they shot him once.
He's expected to survive.
The point of yesterday's blog is that everything is interconnected, and on deep levels that we rarely acknowledge we have access to connection. Based on a few emails I got back this morning, it's hard for some people to acknowledge on any level, even though this is within the conceptual realm of quantum physics.
As martial artists, we strive for attributes to elevate our skills. Some are innate, like genetic predispositions such as height. Others can be manipulated, like physical conditioning. We can develop the physical senses, such as touch, but things like mental sensitivity develop on levels that are even less readily apparent. Psychics (the real ones) are no different from the rest of us, just more attuned to subtle vibrations. Think Yoda feeling a disturbance in The Force. Warriors have had mystical experiences since time immemorial.
When we listen, our vocal cords resonate with the words we hear; we essentially speak back the message we are hearing. Even deeper, there are mirror neurons in the brain that fire sympathetically with those of other people. As science pushes back the boundaries of knowledge, the mysteries deepen.
Angel Cabales used to say that a high escrima skill was like reading your opponent's mind. He may have been more accurate than we knew.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Transmutation
Yesterday I watched my dog watching a gopher push dirt from a hole.
This morning I watched my cat eat a rat he had killed.
This afternoon I had a vision …
As I was playing with my dog, I thought of her watching the gopher.
I thought of the gopher pushing out dirt, excavating tunnels and rooms.
I thought of why gophers need a lot of tunnels, and suddenly I envisioned a snake;
Not the whole snake, just the head poking through a hole underground.
Tough nose, nasal slits, hungry eyes, darting tongue; death.
I realized I had became the gopher in a moment of life or death,
Fighting against an overwhelming foe
If cornered
Or perhaps to save the young …
And then I became the snake, hungry yet patient, willing to wait to strike, willing the prey into fatigue and resignation, knowing the outcome in advance.
I became the gopher again, living through dying, surrendering into the belly of the snake and joining the life force there, just energy ever changing and permutating to take on aspects of new forms. Gopher becomes snake; snake is gopher.
Snake dies, snatched by an eagle to fly away to be eaten. Remains fall to the ground, some now digested, the eagle playing a part. The nutrients and essence enrich the soil, and now gopher/snake/eagle waves upright in the breeze as tall grass.
Cows come by, eat the grass; we humans eat the cows.
Each of these I saw in progression, time rushing forward like seconds on a clock. Each one felt real, not separate but the same, the energy rushing through each connected to all which preceded, back into infinity.
Every molecule, every atom, has a history that we do not know! There are vibrations imprinted that are part of what makes us who we are, and everything we see, feel and touch.
I always interpret, and martial arts is my metaphor, so this is how I want my martial art to be: crafty, like the gopher, who survives by creating back doors to escape; patiently relentless like the snake; swift and sure like the eagle; resilient like grass; strong and life-giving like the cow; sensitive as a human, seeking wisdom of awareness through the pinpoint of consciousness.
Imagine martial arts as not about fighting but as a way of being aware of life. Not awareness itself, which is deeper, but a way of knowing it is there. If we seek completeness in our art, it must exist in our mind. To exist in our mind, we must feel it in our spirit. To feel it in our spirit, we must be aware. To be aware is to understand there are those truths beyond our limits and trust our intuition.
Flow is not flow when we think about flowing, though it can point the way. It is flow when we have access to all, when we become aware of being more than who we are when we think of who we are. It is more because it uses things that exist where our minds do not go, except by letting go.
Anything can have flow; nothing can “have” flow.
It comes but it cannot be taken.
Flow is what takes you with it, not what you contain.
You ride it by letting it show you what it wants to reveal; if you try to force it, it will show you only what you already know.
This morning I watched my cat eat a rat he had killed.
This afternoon I had a vision …
As I was playing with my dog, I thought of her watching the gopher.
I thought of the gopher pushing out dirt, excavating tunnels and rooms.
I thought of why gophers need a lot of tunnels, and suddenly I envisioned a snake;
Not the whole snake, just the head poking through a hole underground.
Tough nose, nasal slits, hungry eyes, darting tongue; death.
I realized I had became the gopher in a moment of life or death,
Fighting against an overwhelming foe
If cornered
Or perhaps to save the young …
And then I became the snake, hungry yet patient, willing to wait to strike, willing the prey into fatigue and resignation, knowing the outcome in advance.
I became the gopher again, living through dying, surrendering into the belly of the snake and joining the life force there, just energy ever changing and permutating to take on aspects of new forms. Gopher becomes snake; snake is gopher.
Snake dies, snatched by an eagle to fly away to be eaten. Remains fall to the ground, some now digested, the eagle playing a part. The nutrients and essence enrich the soil, and now gopher/snake/eagle waves upright in the breeze as tall grass.
Cows come by, eat the grass; we humans eat the cows.
Each of these I saw in progression, time rushing forward like seconds on a clock. Each one felt real, not separate but the same, the energy rushing through each connected to all which preceded, back into infinity.
Every molecule, every atom, has a history that we do not know! There are vibrations imprinted that are part of what makes us who we are, and everything we see, feel and touch.
I always interpret, and martial arts is my metaphor, so this is how I want my martial art to be: crafty, like the gopher, who survives by creating back doors to escape; patiently relentless like the snake; swift and sure like the eagle; resilient like grass; strong and life-giving like the cow; sensitive as a human, seeking wisdom of awareness through the pinpoint of consciousness.
Imagine martial arts as not about fighting but as a way of being aware of life. Not awareness itself, which is deeper, but a way of knowing it is there. If we seek completeness in our art, it must exist in our mind. To exist in our mind, we must feel it in our spirit. To feel it in our spirit, we must be aware. To be aware is to understand there are those truths beyond our limits and trust our intuition.
Flow is not flow when we think about flowing, though it can point the way. It is flow when we have access to all, when we become aware of being more than who we are when we think of who we are. It is more because it uses things that exist where our minds do not go, except by letting go.
Anything can have flow; nothing can “have” flow.
It comes but it cannot be taken.
Flow is what takes you with it, not what you contain.
You ride it by letting it show you what it wants to reveal; if you try to force it, it will show you only what you already know.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Swap meet/Seminar cancelled
Just a quick note that this upcoming weekend's last minute seminar and swap meet has been cancelled because too few people pre-registered to cover basic costs. Too bad, folks. WE are the FMA community, and we lose when this happens.
I would like to point out that there was no shortage of instructors willing and ready to teach. That leads me to wonder: where are their students?!!
The value of something like this is a chance to grow by learning what OTHERS are doing in the art. As GM Angel Cabales used to say about Serrada, it isn't designed for fighting other Serrada folk (which would be silly, as it is such a relatively small group) but to face other fighters from other systems, and that takes experience.
Those teaching should be encouraging their students to participate, learn and grow. If not, is it to protect their own "rice bowl" or to protect their ego from fear students will like something else better?
On the other hand, times are tough. Bridge tolls went up 33% in January. Gas rose $.45/gallon this past month. Within minutes of four gasoline refineries, I'm seeing the highest gas prices in the country. This winter's fuel bill was double that of last year. I don't care what the government says about inflation being low, I know discretionary incomes are evaporating; I hear the lament from students who quit because they no longer can afford training at the 1985 prices I charge.
I would like to point out that there was no shortage of instructors willing and ready to teach. That leads me to wonder: where are their students?!!
The value of something like this is a chance to grow by learning what OTHERS are doing in the art. As GM Angel Cabales used to say about Serrada, it isn't designed for fighting other Serrada folk (which would be silly, as it is such a relatively small group) but to face other fighters from other systems, and that takes experience.
Those teaching should be encouraging their students to participate, learn and grow. If not, is it to protect their own "rice bowl" or to protect their ego from fear students will like something else better?
On the other hand, times are tough. Bridge tolls went up 33% in January. Gas rose $.45/gallon this past month. Within minutes of four gasoline refineries, I'm seeing the highest gas prices in the country. This winter's fuel bill was double that of last year. I don't care what the government says about inflation being low, I know discretionary incomes are evaporating; I hear the lament from students who quit because they no longer can afford training at the 1985 prices I charge.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Meeting Mushtaq Ali
The martial arts world can be a curious place. In its most elemental state it is about the quest for personal power. One can say that about politics or business, for that matter, but martial arts distill this down at the primal level, dealing with physical ownership of one’s personal space on physical and emotional levels.
Whatever the reasons people come to train, the arts act as a filter that reveal our personalities. Some come to validate themselves by testing their courage. Many earn recognition through hard work and dedication, which might be rewarded by titles or rank, though some aggrandize themselves with the illusion of such achievement.
At its best, martial arts strip away pretense. We learn success through failure, enduring challenges of pain and frustration to refine ennobling characteristics of perseverance and fortitude. There is a saying that “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” referring to the process by which the ego is put in place by the reality of experience. So it is that those who rise authentically to positions of leadership are often very genuine in their dealings, demonstrating humility that reflects accumulated wisdom of direct experience.
This weekend I finally got to meet Mushtaq Ali, the “Traceless Warrior,” who embodies those qualities I admire most in anyone, not just martial artists. It is said of angels that “they can fly because they take themselves lightly,” and so it was refreshingly delightful to experience the unpretentiousness with which he shares his broad skills and knowledge. I’ve always been picky about those with whom I train, and so though I’ve known Mushtaq for a few years online and by reputation, it was more than a little gratifying to feel my expectations were not misplaced.
The orientation of this seminar was interesting as it was not geared towards those already immersed in S.E. Asian martial arts. The majority of participants are involved in Scott Sonnen’s Circular Strength Training (CST), as is Mushtaq, and this seminar was sponsored by D. Cody Fielding, a certified trainer in this system. This brought an interesting dynamic to the weekend.
First, the participants overall had a very deep sense of kinesthetic awareness in body movement. Mushtaq joked a couple of times about the California mentality, but in truth this was an unusual group even for here, which included body workers and energy healers. At times it felt more like a gathering of somatic psychologists in the ways in which the participants were able to tap into and articulate subtleties of their class experience.
Second, because of the nature of this group, Mushtaq proposed to do an experiment, which was to teach a complete martial system in one day. Now before some of you get huffy or indignant, let me point out that a martial system is not the same thing as a complete and detailed art. By focusing on fundamental principles, the goal was to impart a framework that can be filled out through later experience.
The first day did not even touch on martial arts, but was oriented to ways in which we learn, and how the body and mind interact. Skill is based on sensitivity to a changing environment, and so the first session was devoted to visualization and movement exercises designed to promote integration of left/right coordination in order to accelerate the physical learning curve. Most people are unconscious of their own movement, creating habituated and often limiting gaps in both mental and physical responsiveness. Deepening self-awareness increases one’s potential by accessing those hitherto neglected resources. This is a key to Mushtaq’s concept of “splitting time,” which is a significant aspect to controlling centerline as well as the larger kinosphere (the space around us which we can fill with our movement).
Day Two was devoted to principles of movement in martial arts. Keys around which drills were practiced included the three dimensions of physical movement, nodes of rotation and integrated body movement. Weapon orientation was addressed in terms of point up, forward or down, and outward, center and inward. Exercises were done first with sticks, progressing later to blades. It was fun to watch the progression in skills of participants over such a short period of time.
Many martial art systems overcomplicate these natural tools with formalities that feel counter-intuitive until thoroughly mastered, a process which can be artificially elongated. Yes, there is the necessity of time to develop physical conditioning and responsive techniques, but if one can build on natural movement, the whole process becomes easier.
I’ve long been a believer that self-defense skills are innate. We all know how to shoo a fly away, or wipe a cobweb from our face, building blocks for more powerful applications. I’ve taught core movements in as little as a single session, even taking raw beginners to a high level of sensitivity to empty hand flow in an hour or so, but in general I teach Serrada inductively, using the specific techniques to derive the general principles.
My Tai Chi teacher, the late John K. Wong, was a master at going straight to the underlying principles as a way to create and develop technique. He showed us how to improvise on the fly through sensitivity according to basic precepts, and Mushtaq is the first person I’ve seen in many years to use this methodology.
This seminar was a bold yet crafty way to maximize the limited time available in a weekend workshop. Too often people are taught a bunch of fancy techniques which are quickly forgotten. By presenting simple and easily remembered techniques within a logically memorable framework, Mushtaq gave participants enough clues for years of development. Though this does not negate the value of further guidance and instruction, it was a gift of great value. There are far too many in the martial arts who can parrot movement mindlessly, without that sense of “aliveness” that is so apparent in truly competent practitioners. As one instructor watching another, I truly admire Mushtaq Ali for the skills to impart such a lesson.
Monday, March 05, 2007
A Traceless Warrior Visits the Bay Area
This coming weekend the San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to have a rare visit from Silat master teacher Mushtaq Ali. Some of you may be familiar with his Traceless Warrior Blog which is listed on the right side of this page. Others may know of him through comments in various forums by folks like Steve Van Harn, a top tournament competitor from the Midwest. The point is this - if you know of Mushtaq, you will probably be excited at this opportunity to absorb his teaching, and if you don't know about him already, then it's time to see what the buzz is about. I myself have never met him, but we've corresponded about technique and philosophy over the years and he's been high on my list of people in the martial arts I'd like to meet. I'll be there, and if any readers make the seminar, I hope you say hello. Be sure to check the FMA calendar for details!
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