Tuesday 31 March 2020

Universal truths of budo and body mechanics

The title of this post has been taken from a quote from a martial arts friend of mine. He was discussing the cross-over he saw in internal Chinese martial arts and internal power trained in Japanese martial arts.

At the TSYR dojo where I train, we have karateka, aikidoka, judoka and gendai jujitsu folk training together. We all bring something different to the training based on our previous disciplines (in many cases people still train in that discipline). We often talk about how certain principles overlap in many of the martial arts.

A human being has a finite way of moving efficiently. By this logic, a martial artist has only a finite way to strike, apply locks or throw someone effectively. What we are noticing as we train is that we are conditioning our bodies to move more and more efficiently and as we look at the principles behind many of the techniques we see overlap in other martial arts.

Jigoro Kano and Kyuzo Mifune

Here are some of the 'universal truths' I have discovered, please note that some of these concepts are hard to explain with words alone and some have to be experienced to get the full meaning of what I am trying to say. Also I am sure I will change my mind about some of these ideas as I refine my understanding. So, a disclaimer - this is how I understand things as of now, in no particular order of importance, and they are all up for discussion.

POINT OF IMBALANCE (the third point)
Humans stand on two feet. Although this has its advantages, the major drawback is that we are not very stable compared to our four-legged counterparts. Good martial arts exploit this fact. If we trace a line between the two feet and then another line perpendicular to that one (forming a T), the end point of that line is where a person will lose balance if we put their centre of gravity there. Put very simply we have two such points, one at the front and one at the back. If you ask a friend to stand square on to you in a relaxed manner and then lightly pulled their shirt from the chest, they would tilt forward and have to step or fall over. You can move them by pushing them backwards gently as well. It doesn't matter what stance they take, there are always two points of imbalance waiting to be exploited. This concept can be found in aikido, judo, TSYR and I'm sure many other martial arts. How this is achieved depends on the martial art.

DOUBLE LOADING
So you take someones balance, so what? They will just step or readjust their weight won't they? Of course they will. To maintain an advantage the martial artist must stop this happening. Double loading/weighting is just one expression used to describe an opponent's weight being trapped in both feet so they cannot step without falling. This is hard to explain only with words. Imagine you are at that point where you are about to fall but you are so extended or compressed that if you should lift either foot, you will collapse on the ground. This is double loading/weighted. A martial artist will try and set an opponent up in this position so that they can then dictate where or how the opponent will move next. This might result in a strike, throw or joint lock. Double loading takes away an opponent's options. Without a secure base they cannot counterattack and therefore are severely compromised.

HAVING A SOLID BASE
It is important in any martial art to move from a position of power. To maintain your own balance and be 'strong'. It is no good executing a technique while your own balance is compromised. This goes for transitioning from one movement to another as well. Should you not be in a position of balance as you move, your opponent can take advantage of this. I have heard dancers comment on the importance of 'finding the ground' with your feet at all times. They too know the importance of a solid base. 



This may mean lowering your centre of gravity by bending your legs (like the sumo practitioners above). It may mean having your feet flat on the ground or it might mean making sure you have your weight directly over your feet, or one of your feet at all times. 

MOVE FROM CENTRE
This usually refers to the use of the legs and lowerback/pelvis/core to support and move the body about. To correctly move from centre the practitioner is not using extra muscles to complete the movement. I find this simple idea to be one of the most challenging to achieve in practice. Through my life I have generated certain body/movement habits. As I train myself to move from centre I am discovering these habits and am challenged to change them into new ways of moving. If you are moving from your centre correctly, your upper body is stacked on the bowl of your pelvis and will move where your centre moves. This is written too simplistically but hopefully gets my point across.

CONNECTING TO ONE'S OPPONENT
This is an extremely difficult one to explain but I will try. By making contact with another person, the practitioner can feel into their opponent's centre and take their balance. It requires a great deal of sensitivity and we spend some time every training session on this at the dojo. Ellis Amdur calls this the Listening Skill. I believe all martial arts that have elements of prolonged contact are ultimately trying to develop this. You can see this in the BJJ of the Gracies, the interplay between two fencers and the subtle Judo of Kyuzo Mifune. Once you can feel where an opponent's balance is, you can move it, take it away and ultimately control their actions.

POSTURE
Maintaining a good posture as you move is fundamental to Japanese Martial Arts. Even when a person bends at the waist they do so with a straight back. Does this mean you can't bend? No. However, where you bend from is important. Many people bend from the lower back or round their shoulders to get lower to the ground. What is better, is to bend at the hips or bend your knees. In this way you keep your centre engaged, your upper body stacked upon the pelvic bowl to tap into the power of your waist, hips and lower back. I have had both my instructor and a ballet teacher talk about 'moving around your spine'. Essentially this is the same idea. You shouldn't be twisting your spine or rounding it in a way that takes strength away from your structure. If you can spin or turn on the spot without your head moving, then you are moving around your spine and maintaining good posture. 
Throwing with good posture.
STRUCTURE
This term refers to body structure - the alignment of bones and muscle to remain stable and strong. Misalignment of the bones will cause certain muscle groups to contract to maintain stability, when this happens, an adversary can exploit this moment of increased tension. Unifying the structure of your body with sophisticated joint articulation, muscle coordination and controlled breathing leads to internal power. This is the ability to use maximum power with little effort. Threadgill sensei discusses this in depth in his book Shindo Yoshin Ryu: History and Technique. 

I believe all of the above concepts apply to good martial arts mechanics. If I see someone applying these principles, no matter what their background or training history then I know I am looking at a proficient martial artist. 

Train safe.






Tuesday 24 March 2020

What are your win conditions?

When we bow onto the mat, whether it is judo, aikido, kendo or some older budo, we engage in controlled violence where there are set rules, limitations and boundaries. No matter how hard I train I know that I will still be getting in my car afterwards and driving home, healthy and happy.
That is a good thing. I want to reuse my training partners from week to week and we all need each other fit and healthy. Unfortunately, this mentality doesn't lead to good self defence psychology.

I have been re-reading Rory Miller's book, Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence. I also have been listening to an Australian podcast called Managing Violence by Joe Saunders and another podcast called Walking with the Tengu by Matthew Kreuger. These three men have left me with many thoughts about my own martial arts training.

Joe Saunders has created the Violence Survival Pyramid. He talks about four factors that go into increasing your chances in a violent encounter. From the most important at the base of the pyramid to the least important at the top. If you have a look you will notice that he puts physical techniques at the top (the least important factor). Rory Miller writes about dealing with sudden, violent encounters. Although he wrote a whole book on the subject, most of his writing is not on physical techniques, why? Finally, many Walking with the Tengu episodes mention win conditions. Despite the different topics this podcast host explores, he often returns to win conditions. 

These thoughts and ideas have been percolating in my mind. I keep coming back to win conditions. What have you decided is your goal for any given confrontation, whether it is verbal or physical? In sport karate it is scoring a clean touch on a designated area. In MMA it is getting the tap or the knock out. In kendo it is getting a clean strike on a designated target area while showing strong spirit. As a high school teacher managing challenging student behavior, it is deescalating the situation to a point that allows learning to continue. For a police officer it may mean the restraint of a person with handcuffs. To a soldier it may mean killing the enemy. 

All these win conditions set up very different training regimes for the people above. It makes no sense for a karateka training for his next tournament to learn the verbal deescalation techniques of a teacher. The teacher does not need to learn how to fire a rifle to get the focus of students in a classroom and teaching an MMA fighter how to strike with a kendoka's shinai is not going to help him much in the cage. This may seem obvious but people still have arguments over 'the best martial art' or 'the best technique' when what they should think about is the win conditions assumed with each of those statements.

If I am put in a self-defence situation where my life is threatened and I may be able to escape,  my win condition is to get away. Everything I do in that moment is to try to make that a reality. Any actions I might perform that aren't helping me achieve this goal are pointless and in this case, potentially deadly. 

If you are practicing a martial art I hope you have thought about the win conditions that have created the training paradigm you are involved with. Is this what you thought you were training for? Is it not clear what you are training for? I started aikido in 2002, I joined because a workmate of mine had been practicing a long time, he was a black belt and because he was a nice guy. I thought the dojo must be pretty good to churn out a guy like that. I went into it with the thought that I would do it as long as life didn't get in the way. Little did I know that martial arts training would become part of my life. However, my reasons for training in aikido changed over the years and so did my assumptions about its practice. You could say that my interpretations of what the win conditions were changed. At first I considered the win conditions to be the resolution of conflict through superior technique. An aikidoka could skillfully use his opponent's force against him and the adversary would see the error of his ways. The more I trained, the more I found this difficult to believe. So I started to doubt my practice and the purpose of my training. That was a confusing time for me. Because the win condition was not clear, it was hard to decide which elements of my training I should focus on and which parts I should forget. Then I decided the win condition of aikido was still about conflict resolution but through deescalation and we were practicing a physical metaphor. It was more about training a mindset that was open to resolving conflict through deescalation be it verbal or physical. The physical training kept me fit and flexible and wasn't that practical. For me, this was particularly true of aikiken, the wooden sword training. At this point I had started as a high school teacher in a co-ed state school and the mental skills I had learned in aikido practice paid off. I could see a link between my training and my profession. My training found renewed purpose. I could also blow off steam on the mat. 

I still had my doubts about all the sword swinging I was doing. That didn't seem to fit into my deescalation paradigm very well. In 2011, I was introduced to Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu. This is a classical Japanese sword school. Everything I thought I knew about using a Japanese sword was wrong in this training paradigm. The win condition in TSYR is very clear. Kill the other guy. However, do this in the context of medieval Japan. The mindset is different. Deescalation is not important. You have to have the mind of a predator in this martial art. Everything I learn and train for in TSYR is to gain advantage over an adversary to kill him. This makes training so much clearer and straight forward. If I perform a movement that gives an advantage to the other person or is done in an inefficient manner I am 'dead'. There is something very pure about this type of training. 

The funny thing is, I still practice some aikido. I teach it to children. My TSYR training has clarified the win condition of my aikido practice. It most certainly is not the desire of my aikido training to kill the other guy. That, I am very sure of. So what is it? 
 I believe it is beneficial to learn to be strong of mind but willing to deescalate a situation. That is the win condition I have for my students. Do what is needed to deescalate and no more. That is a valuable skill I can give them to take into the world. 

So I go back to Joe Saunder's "Surviving Violence Pyramid". We see mindset is the very foundation of this diagram. As he says, "get your head straight" and everything else falls into place.  Rory Miller discusses the psychology of both attackers and victims in his book. He understands that the mindset of a person is key. Know what your win conditions are and train hard to ensure you can achieve them. Your win conditions will decide your mindset, your mindset will decide your training parameters. Then you can train with sincerity and purpose, without distraction and without the 'fluff'. 

When I step onto the mat I will be one of two people in that moment. If I am practicing TSYR, then I am the predator, seeking an opportunity to kill. If I am practicing aikido then I am the mediator, seeking to find a solution through deescalation but not devaluing myself in the process. As my mindset shifts, so too does my training. This gives me a sense of clarity.

So, what are your win conditions?

Train safe.