Sword and Circle

Snake Charmer

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

The last couple posts were both answers to questions I'd been given, and the eskrima post was inspired by the idea of guards/ fighting stances.

Here is a follow up to the previous post regarding the counter intuitive idea, 'opening the line'.

So the theory, as it was empirically laid out for me in my workout times with Sonny, is this.
2 opponents facing off with swords.
The outcomes are - win/lose, lose/win, lose/lose, win/win.
Win/win - the most sensible outcome, involves both parties backing away and calling it quits.
Say this is not likely - we're practicing dueling after all, so the fight is on.
This leaves only one other worthy outcome for me - I win, they lose.
Problem is, even at the most basic level of statistics, that's a 1 in 3 chance. Me getting hurt is twice as likely.
So, there's nothing else for it, you have to control the game. Leaving it to chance is just too risky.
How to you control it? You become the snake charmer not the snake.
Winning comes from opportunities and motion. Learn to create those and take advantage of them, and you can improve your odds considerably.
Like Sonny said - "They are coming for you anyway, open the door and invite them in, (because) if I know what you are going to do next and when you are going to do it, I can beat you."
Make it happen, don't hope that it will.

3 + Time II

2012-01-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

Covering the line vs the parry vs the block - All kinda the same thing, yet all kinda different.

- Covering the line does not engage the opponent's blade, it's more of a 'I see you and want you to know I have'. It forces the opponent to look for other options.
- Parrying engages the blade, deflecting the weapon away from it's target. It can be used as a way to enter, a bridge if you like, to create an offensive opportunity.
- Blocking OTOH often happens because you are late, and the only way not to get hit is to use your blade to protect yourself (There is a difference here between edged and point only weapons, here I'm mostly talking about slicing/cutting blades). It too can be used as an opportunity, but often, because you are so 'late', it just buys time. It is possibly the least beneficial move offensively, but the most useful defensively, especially on an exit.

The other option of course it to open the line, to invite the opponent in.

All are range/time and angle dependent, and require a recognition of what is real threat vs what is not.

Dueling by it's nature, plays at the boundary between danger and safety - the opponent will not be tempted if it does not look ... tempting, and you cannot reach them without getting into range, which means you are either in danger, or have to 'seem' in danger.

A useful practice is to gain insight into how close you can play the margin, how little you need to engage with the opponent's blade, and how late you can be if you have to defend yourself.

Ideally you only need to use your weapon to protect yourself after you have struck them.

Less risky, is to engage on the way in to create a safer path, making sure the opponent cannot counter.

At worse, you misread and scramble for a block .... Unless of course you are really tricky and only seem like you are late ... using awkward and 'disadvantageous' positions to really surprise your opponent off a late block.
Riskier, but high percentage, and really funny if you can pull it off.

Bottom line - Don't waste your blade engaging the opponent's blade unless you are going to use it for good.
And practice what you can get away with.
How late? How close?

3+Time

2012-01-27T06:42:00.000-08:00

There's this thing about 3s that keeps coming up, it seems a very human number, if there can be such a thing .... and as a generalization seems to hold true when it comes to describing sets of important things. But just like 5 and 8 - auspicious numbers often used in traditional teachings - can contain an extra 1 or 2 'secret' parts to complete the picture, so it may be with 3 also.

With this in mind, a brief description of how I have come to understand the basics of Bagua body training in my system -

There a 3 circles - vertical, horizontal and oblique (one could argue that the oblique is merely a combination of vertical and horizontal, but there you go).

There are also 3 basic methods of inherent power generation -

Using the bones as struts, structural elements if you like, connecting what you do to the ground (for rebound, redirection, leverage etc), and even by accessing the inbuilt hydraulic plates between the joints for 'spring'.

Using soft tissue, fascia and tendons, for twisting, coiling and uncoiling.

Using gravity, or body weight (by shifting from one leg to the other, stepping, dropping or jumping etc).

Both the 3 planes of motion- the circles, and the ways to generate power require time - the 4th dimension - to make them useful.

Bagua's basic body training practice - walking the circle - bring these elements together:
- Improving structure and the connection to the ground using physiological alignment principles and the practice of relaxing to gain articulation in every joint of the body within these alignments.
- Improving the flexibility of the fascia and tendons to increase range of motion using twisting, and so adding torque to the system, again, whilst keeping these alignments true.
- Improving the balance and ability to shift weight smoothly, to preserve the ability to use the natural power from the structure and the tissues at any moment, adding the power of gravity to the equation.

It's a very smart system really.

3 circles + time (walking) aka 'tri-planar' motion + time = a spiral.
Natural motion of the soft tissue in the body = spiral. (... + time = continually available torque)
Best way to break an opponent's structure - use tri-planar motion = a spiral.

Structural alignment + torque + gravity in motion = A great combination.

Dilemma

2012-01-23T07:45:00.000-08:00

I have a personal bias against martial arts DVDs - not videoing in general, but the idea that you can learn something just from watching it on a monitor.
Many will disagree perhaps, but that has been my experience.
Of course, if you already KNOW physically what you are doing, and just need a reminder as to some of the technical parts, alignment etc of what you are practicing, then they are very helpful as an 'external memory' device, holding information until it has been fully integrated through practice.
The dilemma comes when folks start asking for material to work on remotely that have zero to very little idea of what they are doing.

A common question I get asked is about the availability of training videos of Sonny's material, and my answer has up to now, been no, sorry, not at this time.

Part of me really wants to keep it this way. I believe you learn to 'dance' best with a partner, reacting and moving because they move, and learn particularly well if you have a skilled partner that can lead you and set up 'questions' that you have to find the answers to.
It's pertinent, practical, and in my experience, a highly efficient training method, with hopefully, little 'un-learning' to be done on the way to understanding the art.

The other part of me thinks, sure, why not have some material that is available to practice remotely? After all, the pendulum and all it's variations are perfectly possible to practice solo, especially if you can hang a ball or some kind of weight on a string, from the ceiling to move with ....
But then I remember how errors creep in with no feedback, especially for those with poor proprioception, and am leery to encourage folks to imprint these errors through repetition, if these problems will only have to be erased later. The human mind has a high capacity for delusion and has a particularly hard time being objective, even with physical movement .... So ...
Dilemma.

To video, or not to video ...?

Is not videoing preserving the integrity of the method? Or just being a control freak?
Is distributing a learning video sharing knowledge? Or just throwing out meaningless information?

Verbalization Practice

2012-01-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

After having tea the other day with Sensei MikeE, he challenged me to write down what I think and feel about martial arts, and my place in them.
So here are some thoughts as of right now, not in any particular order. This list is, I'm sure, incomplete and liable to change:

I have been practicing one kind of martial art or another for a total of about 30 odd years ... perhaps 16 seriously.

I believe folks practice martial arts for a variety of reasons, none really more valid than any other, my reasons have generally been curiosity, a love of physical movement, probably a good dose of fantasy esoterica and some historical fascination with swords, the era in which they were important as weapons, and the cultures that used them.

Martial arts are also just COOL.

They make me happy, literally, when I do them, I feel healthier, and they have bled into other parts of my life in positive ways - understanding human behavior and gaining an interest in meditation. Oh, and I don't like how I feel when I don't do them.

I've made some of my best and longest lasting friendships through doing them and have hopefully expanded my imagination and fed my brain too.

I've often been the token minority in the room and guess have grown used to the idea. I do not strongly gender identify ... well actually not at all, and am constantly having to remember that I am considered the 'wrong' gender to be doing what I do because I forget.

I think way more women should practice martial arts - and I think the healthiest class setting is co-ed, for the women and especially for the men, though am happy to teach separate groups.
I would love to encourage more women to participate in martial practice, but am unhappy with the stereotypes that exist today. I am looking for a new path based on the individual, not on a particular gender.

I would not say that I particularly run a 'nurturing' or 'friendly and supportive' class, but I'm a huge believer in the power of play as a path to learning, and the concept that training should feel satisfying if not downright fun. You may feel 'empowered' from it or you might not. It will probably be harder that you thought it would be, and you will suck more than you thought you would. But in my book that's what makes it engaging.
I believe most things worthwhile in life contain failure and difficulty. They should not be 'easy and quick', or involve no effort. The effort and the obstacles are what makes them worthy.
Perhaps that means that some folks aren't up for it. That's OK.

I don't like imposed ranks or hierarchy, and ritual and rigid traditions do not interest me too much. I will know how much respect you show by the way you practice and the way you conduct yourself without formal rules to follow. And the more effort you put in, the more you will get out.

I don't teach for the money, honestly class fees are a token, nothing more. If I was making my living teaching martial arts, I would not be teaching in the way I do.
I believe the time my teachers put into their practice and their understanding, and the effort I have put in can only really be repaid by the student putting the time in themselves and appreciating the exchange that is taking place. The rent still needs paying though, so such is life.

I believe the difference between martial practices and those purely for health is that you have to connect what you do outside yourself. There is a point to them, they are FOR something, and as such what they are for generates how they are done. Lose the meaning, lose the point.

I believe that traditional martial arts hold much good and valid information within them. They may not be the fastest way to learn how to fight but all the information IS there if you know what to look for. They also have many side benefits that make them a fabulous way to keep fit, stay flexible (mentally and physically) and can be done (if done right) until you keel over and kick the bucket.

As far as conflict in general goes, here is a thought from Rory Miller that I agree with wholeheartedly -
"I don't think conflict is a physical problem most of the time .... and even when it is a physical problem, there are minds and social rules and the world involved. The more of those elements you can manipulate skillfully, the better off you are. Sometimes you play the cards, sometimes you play the person and sometimes you play the table."

I also believe that training martial skills is healthy. Power and skill are neutral elements that a clear mind and a good moral compass point towards good or bad depending on choice.
I believe it is unbalanced for folks to refuse to look at conflict and ignore it as part in life. Chaos and destruction are as important a part of the cycle of life as creation and sustainability.
Scary things should be met, leaned against and explored. That which is understood is in the end far less scary than that which is left a mystery. Martial arts seems to me like a safe place to start this conversation.

In the end I guess I'm a student of Strategy, and see no real disconnect between researching the great warriors and commanders of history, to understanding animal behavior and human psychology, to learning how to debate.
It's all about humans - agreeing and disagreeing. Imposing will and denying it. Working together, and making things happen. Creating change, and protecting the status quo.

I believe stagnation is death and that all things move, vibrate, oscillate, pulse, shimmy and jolt. I read once that if it was not for the volcanic nature of the Earth, the liquid core and the constant motion of the crust, we would all be gone and the planet would be a featureless sphere of dust.
In that spirit I believe we all need to learn to surf this constant movement, and for some reason training martial arts can help with this. I suspect it has to do with becoming comfortable in chaos, accepting that some things may stay unknown, and gaining the confidence to enjoy the ride .... at least that's the goal.

If you think you can learn something worthwhile from me, I would love to have the opportunity to share some of what I have been given by my teachers.
If I can expand your imagination, take your brain into places you had not thought of before, enhance your ability to move, connect to your body and to the moment, and generally improve your understanding and enjoyment of life and the folks that populate it, then I've done my job.

Mr Wang Critiques ......

2012-01-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

Pertinent critique from Mr Wang. Not sure when this interview was ... 1940/50s?
Enjoy.

http://taikiken.blogspot.com/2007/09/interview-with-wang-xiangzhai.html

Cross Pollination

2012-01-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

Workouts right now have been on climb ups, stealing distance, entries and openings.
Starting with Largo, moving to Bogsai, sword and then to Pangamut, basically long to short.
The common handwork pattern called Pangamut is the start point for empty hand flow training in many Filipino systems. Some systems do it standing still or facing the opponent, we do it in conjunction with the pendulum step so these climb ups, range stealings, entries and openings are easier to practice.

By the end of the session we started inserting entries from Bagua and Hsing-Yi into the mix - Pi, San Pa Shou, Kai Kan, Li, Gai etc - and looking at trips and throws from Hsing-Yi and Bagua to add to the mix of Moro footwork, kicks and locks. Any time the players got stuck we worked Hubad (tying and untying) to look for disengagements and reversals.
Good times.

Classes for the New Year

2012-01-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

As those of you who attended Luo Dexiu's seminars last year will know, Laoshi has been concentrating on passing forward the Hsing-Yi of the Yizong school.
The Yizong system contains the 'trinity' of Internal Arts - Tai Ji, Hsing-Yi, and Bagua.
For many years the focus has been on Bagua, and rightly so in my opinion as it is a most elegant and beautiful martial system. However Hsing-Yi, too, is an integral part of Yizong with a directness and beauty all it's own. Practical and accessible to beginners, yet subtle and fascinating for more advanced level practitioners.
As such it seemed appropriate to organize the morning class schedule in a way as to be able to concentrate on both Bagua and Hsing-Yi equally, yet separately. Therefore I have decided that over the year I will be teaching 4, 8 week courses, each looking at different aspect of the Bagua and Hsing-Yi of the Yizong system to give both the time for in-depth study they deserve, and so students can choose which courses to attend depending on their interest.

1 - Starting on Tuesday January 24th, I will be teaching an 8 week course on Bagua circle walking for meditation, health and martial practice.

2 - Starting on May 1st for 8 weeks, Hsing-Yi for meditation, health, and body training for martial practice.

3 - Starting July 17th for 8 weeks, Bagua straight line forms with fighting applications.

4 - Starting September 18th for 8 weeks, Hsing-Yi linking forms and 2 person An Shen Pao.

All classes are Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7.30 to 8.30am at Suigetsukan Dojo http://suigetsukan.org/

Courses are open to beginners and continuing students.
Cost is $150/ 8 week course (16 classes)

Eskrima classes are ongoing.
I teach mostly privately but there is an open group class that meets every Thursday from 3.30 to about 5.30pm.
Looks like I will be in Europe some time in March into April. I will be in the UK for about a week, then in Switzerland, possibly Germany though no firm plans/dates as yet.

Anyone interested in seminars, on going classes, or privates can contact me at the e-mail address below. Also to sign up for the 8 week courses.
randomflow@gmail.com

No Monotone

2012-01-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

As kind of a follow up rant to the 'Outside' post, and I'm sure repeating things in the post a while back about acceleration and deceleration, an idea for any form practice -

There is a reason you traditionally practice slowly to start off with, the thinking is that you need to gain the proprioception needed to co-ordinate your body into the most efficient way of moving possible, gain the ability to have a strong 'root', i.e. connection to the ground, and from that the ability to issue, absorb or redirect power at any moment, and have the ability to recycle power in the 3 dimensions.
Our skeletal structure is designed to work in gravity so there IS a 'best' way to align the bones, and there is a need to free up the tendon and fascia of the body to improve power and efficiency of motion.
There is also a need to un-learn some of the bad habits we have grown into through our every day inattention to alignment and structure that have tightened up the body, caused stiffness, diminished range of motion and our ability to relax etc etc.
BUT ..... If .... IF you are trying to connect the forms to anything martial, or even if you are purely doing it for health, DON'T GET STUCK HERE.
It's only the first step. The soporific effect of a slow, monotone tempo will in the end freeze your brain - perhaps some will disagree - but I truly think that to connect what you do to the environment you are in, your surroundings, and anyone else in it, you need to move WITH the moment.
I'm not saying you can't influence the moment by a calm demeanor and a slower pace, but don't expect the world to follow you if this is the only pace you know.
Stuff does not happen at the same speed all the time, in fact it rarely happens slowly at all, unless you really are trying to connect with the purely natural world of plants growing and glaciers shifting.
Practice at different speeds, trying a form really fast will point out errors going slow will never find.
Practice varying the tempo, and even momentarily holding moments, accelerating fast, stopping, slowly moving again, sudden, sharp movement followed by a slow deceleration, whatever you can think of.
And make it DIFFERENT every time you do it.
Ignore what SEEM like the natural breaks in a form and try to express the power of the move AFTER that.
If a form has a natural 4 count, try to pause every 5 count.
It's good for the body AND the brain.
It's a part of how I teach my students, and how we do form work. If you practice by yourself you can pick pretty much any adverb you like to add to your form - slow, fast, jerky, smooth, heavy, quiet, sneaky, big, powerful, invisible, syncopated ....
Give it a go, see what you think.

A Bird in the Hand

2012-01-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

Read an article the other day about an FMA practitioner who sells Rattan sticks. He described how folks would come in, spend a while rolling the sticks, sighting along them and feeling the balance before either rejecting of buying. Everyone likes a weapon that feels good in the hand.
However, he also pointed out that back in the day, his grandfather, and Eskrimadors in general, would often just cut a weapon straight off a tree to use - adapting to whatever curvature, balance points or unevenness was naturally present.

A machete, golok, bolo, broom handle, iron pipe or tree branch all have quirks that must be felt. The recycle time is different, the grip and weakness of handle play a part, the weight of the weapon and how it's held when not in use, the weight of the tip, or the lack of a tip. The sharpness and length of the edge, or lack of edge all contribute to how it's used.

The way a weapon is used derived from what it is, and how it feels in the hand. Straightness, and good balance are a luxury. Weapons specifically designed for fighting and not for work, were generally not daily carry, so this ability to adapt to circumstance was key to being able to defend oneself.

Even for weapons specifically designed for fighting there are differences depending on manufacture, quality, personal preferences and physical size of the maker compared to the user. Style of blade shape (culture), length, weight, balance, thickness, handle length, and purpose (battlefield, skirmish or duel), etc etc.

I watched many times when Sonny was handed a gift of a new weapon - many people would bring him gifts from around the world. He'd hold it, shift his grip around the handle, test the tip weight, flourish, and start to move with it, often flowing with whoever was there at the time. I wish I had video footage of all the times to compare now, but I know each time was different depending on how the weapon felt.
Sometimes the comment after was 'Nice. I like that'. Other times a few weeks later that weapon would be transformed into something completely different.

Sonny spent much of his free time fabricating training weapons, and redesigning and altering these live blades that were given to him. He would rework the shape of the blade, change the handle, make new sheaths and essentially create works of art - eminently practical, form following function perfectly.
All the 'flaws' would be manipulated to create a weapon with perfect balance, that moved amazingly well in the hand and in space, with small design features contained in the curvatures in the blade and the handle that would become apparent when you started handling the weapon and using it for the purpose it was meant for. The thought that went into each piece was amazing .... though probably completely natural to one who could see all the possible pros and cons of each shape and alteration.
Everything you see in pictures or video footage on the walls of his living room, was reworked, or made from scratch by him.

This was also true for his Aluminium and soft style training blades - everything had great balance and the different designs he came up with, he used to teach different parts of the system.
What was amusing to me was that Sonny would always make his training blades in pairs, but because each was made by hand, the slight variation between the two would mean that he would have a favorite that he would always choose over the other. Even there, he could tell the difference between 2, ostensibly identical, blades.

So yes, given the choice, why not choose the most comfortable weapon to suit your body type, personality and context of the fight? But I guess the thing is not to get too comfortable with 'perfection', ass you must be able to adapt to anything put in your hand - an unbalanced piece of crap, a weirdly bent tree branch, an overly long broom handle or someone else's sword. A rock on a piece of string or a rolled up newspaper, a Barong, a Pinute, a Katana or a Rapier. They all have a personality, a distinct way of moving that can be used to your advantage if you learn to understand it.

If I have an ambition in training, it would be this understanding.
That would be cool.

Outside

2012-01-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

One of the hazards of practicing so called 'Internal Martial Arts, or concentrating purely on Nei Gung (Chi Gung), is the tendency to start focusing inwards all the time.
It's all well and good learning how to feel what's going on inside your body, and working out how to control it, but in the end, if it never manifests outside, you are just masturbating.
I have heard the Taoist view that the physical body is a gateway to understanding the 'higher' levels of human consciousness, pain and cold for instance are very immediate and real things to experience, and as such the physical world is the arena you practice in first - harder to delude yourself when there's real stuff to deal with.
But here's the thing, it's absolutely possible to be totally in your physical body, incredibly in tune with it, yet completely disconnected to the moment you are living in, what is going on around you, or have an ability to move with that moment.
Higher meditation practices often imagine a connection to the edges of the universe, or to infinity, but trust me, you'll certainly be deluded about that if you can't even connect to where you are right now, what you touch, the ground you stand on, or the space you move in.
Everything you do connects. You are a part of it all, not separate.

Thought for New Years

2012-01-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

There's nothing to remember

........... if you learn how to 'see'.

Touching Points

2011-12-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

If my hand is touching your hand, my elbow can touch your elbow.
If my elbow touches your elbow, my hand can reach your shoulder.
If my foot is touching your foot, my knee can touch your knee.
If my knee can touch your knee, my hand can reach your head.

This goes for most folks unless they are unusually tall or very short.

So if my right foot is in contact with your right foot, and my left hand has your right elbow, what points can I reach with my right hand?

Consider that each contact point has weak angles you can effect to break the structure or cause rotation, and the real game begins.
And yes, you do have to move your feet.

Jamaica and Trinidad

2011-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

Started workout last Thursday inspired by Chiron's post talking about smooth vs non smooth motion. One of my students pointed out that predators key on to prey through motion, and many types of prey do have jerky motion, especially when spoooked - think mice, sheep, antelope. Predators on the other hand tend to move smoothly so they can get in range to pounce - think big cats and wolves. Perhaps there is something primal in the way our eyes perceive motion that is clued in to this, both as prey and predator?
Anyway, what we ended up playing with was smooth vs not, being seen vs not being seen.
Fakes have to be seen - see the Buying and Selling post, and this is often achieved through a change in tempo (juke) to create a reaction, and therefore an opening you can take advantage of. A sudden motion is often key to making something happen.
OTOH a subtle tweak in tempo or smooth adjustment of angle can often be overlooked completely, and is most useful to take advantage of openings unseen by your opponent.
It is important not to confuse the 2, be smooth when you do not want to be seen, but be jerky when you do. Practice this. Sometimes you think you are moving in a certain way whereas your opponent can't see it at all.
Another point about fakes - Don't wiggle and juke more than twice, you are in danger of being caught if your opponent can read you. It's a binary system - the go, they do not. High/low. Left/right. And there's something about 'waltzing' that is innately human, so be very very careful if you can't pull something off within that timing.
Strike. Fake - strike/Fake - exit. Fake fake strike/Fake fake get the hell out of range. :-)
Happy Solstice.

Direct Transmission - Eskrima

2011-12-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

I learned Eskrima from Sonny Umpad. Sonny was, and is, a huge influence on how I teach.
More than a couple of his students have called Sonny's style or training method their Rosetta Stone. I had the same experience. Training with him made many concepts and ideas fall into place, in Eskrima and in other martial arts. Many hypothetical 'what ifs', become 'ah, I see'.
But still, he died too young, the training left hanging as though there was so much more to do and see. We'll never know if there was a 'complete picture' or just an endless series of progressions and refinements, but that's OK, fitting even, as a legacy of how he was as a man.
I personally think he sits in the genius category with a mind perfectly suited to his obsession, which was to study the arts of his homeland. Don't get me wrong, the man was no saint, and he was certainly no role model for health and happiness, but he was a singular human being, hugely talented, humble, generous to a fault, massively creative, smart, focused and patient - Wow was he patient! Not having any Eskrima friends to play with, he started to teach so as to make some for himself! He wanted to create skilled practitioners that could push him so he too could keep his skills up. What a fabulous motivation.
So what made him a superior teacher?
Well apart from just being a very interesting person, he was highly skilled, obviously, and moved with an uncommon grace highly unusual in the field - this quality in particular drew people to want what he could do.
He was also eternally fascinated by the art of teaching itself - How will the student get this concept? Does this work? How about this? Ah, that worked ... but will it work on the others ..?
He understood the psychology of fighting really well, he saw patterns of behavior and individual traits he could use to put points across depending on the personality of the student, and encouraged students to play with each other as much as possible to see what the combination of personalities brought out.
In the Transmission post, the comments section brought out some commonalities other folks have found in great teachers. Apart from the emotional connections mentioned before, great teachers tend to push their students to perform at the edge of their abilities, great teachers do not spoon feed but encourage independent thinking, inquiry. They critique and expect high levels of performance. They also have a passion for what they do, and gain satisfaction in seeing their students improve.
Sonny had all of these, though perhaps his greatest insight, and most useful in terms of learning to fight/duel was the constant feeling he created in his students (and certainly in me) of constantly standing on the edge of chaos, of uncertainty, and the looming abyss of failure .... OK, that might be a bit dramatic, but I think that this emotional aspect of the training was a key component of why it was so effective.
Life is uncertain after all, decisions may or may not be 'correct'- I hate to say right or wrong, perhaps 'easier path' and 'more difficult path' would be better descriptors, so training in that same emotional space is very valuable as that is where 'stuff' is going to happen.
He understood this, perhaps not in so many words, but came to realize that it created a most efficient way to teach Eskrima.

Playing/teaching in the chaos, close to the edge, but not over it, is a skill in itself. It involves personal, one on one time, understanding the student and being able to read how they are faring. Sonny was great at frying your nervous system one day, but keeping you encouraged enough to keep going, giving you glimpses of the possibilities, but keeping you from becoming too obnoxious when you thought you had something.
He wanted you to see through his eyes, through mirroring his movement, flowing with him, defending yourself against him, watching him play others, trying what you'd learned whilst he watched.
It's very old school. Like I said, one on one, a systemless, troubleshooting approach with the individual as the focus.
In my opinion it's a highly effective, and possibly the most efficient way to learn, like an apprenticeship, not sure if it's for everyone though. Sonny has some really good students, some not very good ones, and many drop outs. The lack of structure, and the constant uncertainty was too difficult for some to handle, though of course others thrived in it, and the ones that spent the most time in it, are the ones that got the most out of it.

Just as a side note, from the teaching end of things, I've always said that I thought Sonny connected fighting to teaching through his interest in learning how to figure people out. His ability to disappear, blend, lead and trap was truly phenomenal. All these he could do so well because he was a superlative study of people, and he used these skills both dueling and teaching. I think he saw them as sides of the same coin - one constructive, and one destructive, and as a natural fighter, this is what kept him so engaged and creative in his thought, and teaching, process.

Transmission II

2011-12-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

Arguably, human beings have been so successful as a species because of their ability to pass on important information, skills and learning, to their offspring and to others.
Still, many thousands of years later, we are still working out how to do this most efficiently.
Whether it's learning something from scratch, or upping performance of something already practiced, it usually takes an objective 'other' to teach you new stuff, or perhaps better, show you how to improve yourself. Of course, the other important half of the equation is that you yourself must want to learn, or think there is something unknown out there in the universe that you want.

Big thing is, you don't know what you don't know. You may know THAT you don't know ... but you probably have no idea what that knowing will feel like until you actually experience it, so on some level you have to trust that the teacher you have chosen will take you in the direction you expected, or at least towards something worthy, however unexpected the journey might be.

As a child you go to school and have little choice in who your teachers are, as an adult, however, you can choose for yourself, and change teachers if you do not connect with them, or what you are learning at the time.
Part of this connection is to do with your personality and how it connects with the teacher's method, or to the teacher's own personality.
Part of the connection will be to the material, the style and the context the learning takes place in.
Part of it is also timing - You can meet the best, most highly skilled and qualified teacher, with the best reputation, but if your paths connect at an inappropriate time in your training, you may be so out of your depth, afraid, embarrassed, closed minded, or not know what you are looking at, that you never get anything out of the encounter.

There is a saying that it takes 3 years for a student to find a teacher, and 10 years for a teacher to find a student. Whether this is numerically accurate is debatable, but the basic feeling behind the saying does ring true, and again goes back to a searching for connection - personal, material, timing.

But if passing on knowledge is so dependent of these things, are there some absolutes that hold true regardless?
Do certain teaching paradigms create similar problems in students? Or do those problems vary based on the individual?
Are there highly efficient ways of teaching that only a few can grasp? Can those that fail/drop out learn the same material another way? Or are they just not cut out to perform in this field?
Are all people 'teachable'? Should they be? Should the method vary enough to encompass as many folks as possible? Or should the method focus on excellence in the few, regardless of failure rate?
ARE there commonalities to all good teaching? Teachers? Methods?
Should the method be as 'fast' as possible? Or should it be a 'lifetime study'?

Transmission

2011-12-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

Started to write a post about the best teachers I have known, and the best teaching methods I have experienced, trying to see similarities, connections, differences. But I thought I'd put a question out there first.
Who were(are) your best teachers?
Why?
Do you think it was just them? Or a combination of you and them, that worked so well?
And the kicker - Looking back, do you think you learned what the teacher was trying to teach you? Something related? Or something absolutely unrelated?

Kendo vs Miao Dao

2011-12-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

http://6.cn/watch/5941602.html

Here's a great sparring clip between some Kendo practitioners and some Miao Dao folks. It points out some interesting things. (Wait through the animated, winged, fantasy warriors for the actual sparring bouts)

First I like how the participants are going pretty full on - decisive entries and engagements, some good power strikes and opportunities taken. (Don't go low, if your opponent can take high, folks! :-))
There's even blocking, tangles and body checking - Nice!

Now of course much of this is possible because the participants are wearing armor.
Fair to say that the Katana and the Miao Dao were both battlefield weapons where armor was employed, so tactically taking glancing blows in a historical context is absolutely valid, however, this sparring scenario is set up more as a one on one duel, circling instead of forward pressure, and square stances instead of shoulder first stances, more common to armored systems where the armor itself is used for defense and offense.
So here, the armor has both benefits and drawbacks.

The benefits I listed at the beginning - Armor allows for committed entries, greater risk taking and heavier, safe contact.
The drawbacks - Greater risk taking, and more 'double deaths'.
Note that as many strikes connect on exit as entry, probably more, and how disengaging is a tricky business. Both Kendo and Miao Dao guys are aware of this, succeeding some of the time, but not at others.

Getting out is a big part of the puzzle, and should not be forgotten about. Building in a loss of focus, or a feeling of everything being over, in range, is never desirable during training. Practice entries of course, but never forget you have to exit too.

Criticism

2011-12-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

There's an art to criticism, just like there is an art to conversation, and flow training, and 2 main reasons to participate. (There may be more, please let me know)
One is to interact, understand, learn something new perhaps, or make the other look to improve their work. It is entered into with an open mind without preconceptions about the outcome (I know this part is hard, but say as few preconceptions as possible) and is hopefully a learning experience for both parties to increase excellence on both sides.
The other is purely to put something down, close it off, with a mind already made up, seeing evidence that only supports a presupposed theory, and none that negates it.
The first is about 'not knowing yet', the second is about taking comfort in the sound of your own voice. The first about trying to understand what you don't know, or to try to change the mind of the other, the second does not care about effecting any change, just about stopping the other. The first is interactive and involves 2 people, the second needs no second viewpoint.

As an aside, one of my pet peeves is having a so called conversation with someone that does not believe the listener is a participant too. My rule is that if I could replace myself with anybody else, or a cardboard cut out with no effect on the words being said, then it's not worth wasting my time with. Similarly in flow training. Flow training is about LEARNING. It is a very different animal than fighting where the object is to win.

When winning is the objective, then screw the 'other' - there's be no back and forth, or generous creations of openings, pauses, politeness or trying to understand ... there would be ranting with no chance of a counter, no care about learning something new or helping the 'enemy' improve their game.

So, conversation, criticism and training, and 2 ways to go about it - the learners who play/flow/converse, and the fighters who want to consolidate their positions and only see enemies, not allies.

Personally I don't think I'm done with learning yet, I know there's alot I don't know, so am willing to try to understand opposite views. I suspect there are many others who are the same as me in this respect, but there are also plenty of folks 'fighting' to shore up their positions in any way necessary, who have no intention of letting other thoughts and ideas threaten them. They see all interaction as combat, with winning as the objective. Not sure yet how to talk with these folks .... not sure if it's possible, or desirable, but occasionally I've found it interesting to be 'the enemy', and very useful for understanding the difference between fighting and playing, even though it is only with words.

Steal from the Best

2011-11-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

One more post about getting out of yourself, being someone else for a change, and understanding other peoples' movement and psychology. Because as you know, if 'All war is deception', then it's not all going to be about you.

Here is a new video clip of Steve Morris talking about self reliance and mindfulness, unfortunately the sound quality is rather bad, but you can make out what he's saying if you turn it up. I thought it was interesting in many respects, but in the context of this post I wanted to connect his idea about 'stealing from the best' with what Sonny called 'Mirroring' i.e. discovering useful material by copying others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHk-IaiLo3Q

Steve Morris talks about 'watching the fight' and extracting material from it that you can play with and see how it integrates in what you do. I particularly love the part where Steve talks about 'being' Mike Tyson for a month, moving like him, immersing himself in his rhythm and fighting attitude.
Sonny had a similar, but different, way of doing this. He called it 'Mirroring' (though also used the same term for more specific mirroring - like in cut angle, or which side of the center line the hand moves).

Mirroring the whole person is about moving like your opponent, being their real, live, reflection in a mirror - Stepping with them. weight shifting with them, moving the blade and hands like them etc, the only difference is adding the pendulum concept in the forward back direction to avoid clashing (if they move towards you, you do not close on them you step back, they step back, you move forward).
It's not something you can do 100% of the time as the flow tends to stop. There is a skill to keeping it going by noticing the natural breaks in the opponent's rhythm and breaking off also, perhaps instigating an entry, then back to mirroring to understand the reaction.
It's also not an intellectual exercise, it's a 'feeling' practice, which is why you have to flow to practice it, at least at first.
Everyone that trained with Sonny got to flow a great deal with the man himself, and thus got a chance to mirror him, his movement, and his many, many, different rhythms. It was hugely valuable and obviously helped us 'steal from the best'. However, I would say that it was also immensely valuable to try mirroring everyone I flowed with to try to understand how they moved, just the fact they were not me gave me new ideas and ways to move I'd never thought of before regardless of their skill level.

Mirroring within flow also makes it easier to watch movement on video and 'feel' it, and be able to steal from there too, as Morris does, but you definitely need a context to put it in or it is rather meaningless.
For instance, I can watch soccer or snowboarding, and though I can possibly find stuff in their movement patterns to help my dueling, there is no connection in my body to what they are doing in their context, so the visual information is only pertinent to what I actually, physically, practice, and can integrate in my personal 'real wold' experience.
Also, though Steve Morris, with his wealth of actual fighting experience, can insert new ideas pretty easily into his repertoire with probably little or no separation between seeing something and internalizing it, when he coaches his guys, they try out new ideas shadow boxing or on the bag, in partner drills and sparring. These ideas then get tested in the ring, to see what works for each individual and what does not.

In our system, we practice mirroring in flow and test in sparring/dueling with a variety of opponents. Having a variety of ways to move depending on your opponent is the goal, finding what works for you and against whom.

As an aside, not everyone's moves are keepers in a bigger sense of expanding one's tool box- but using a personal rhythm against itself - i.e mirroring the opponent as a tactic, is certainly useful. It's hard to explain in print, but watch soccer or basketball defensive play to see what I'm talking about. Couple mirroring with breaking the mirror, and leading off the opponent's rhythm, and you have much of what you need to understand them, steal from them if you wish, and hopefully beat them too.

Stack the Deck

2011-11-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

The Vikings vs Finns post illustrates the difference in tactical choices between a highly armed, superior force and a smaller, weaker one. The Finns take their stuff and run for the forests, fighting guerrilla style - hit and run, from cover - as the Vikings retreat with whatever booty they have managed to pillage. Not sure about their magical ability to create storms of course, but nice timing all the same. They menace, in sight, from the shore to make sure the invaders don't land again.

About 800 years later, my father did military service, as did (and do) pretty much all men in Finland. He was basically taught to fight guerrilla style - hide, fight and run, using the natural environment, trees and snow, as cover - The best option for an out-manned and out-gunned force, which Finland with a population about 5 million (that's half the population of London living in a country the size of Italy), will always be.
The most famous Finnish example of this, of course, is The Winter War, when the Finns took on Stalin's invading army and succeeded in pushing them back despite all odds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_War

How does this little excursion into Finnish history relate to dueling you might ask ....? After all is it not hard to equate a full scale war or straight out ambush with 2 parties facing off (unless they have friends and are not interested in 'honor' and a matching of skills of course .....)?
Well, the underlying connecting piece, at least to me, is this - Fighting from a level playing field is always undesirable, regardless of if you start 'even', or worse. Even if your skills are in theory better than your opponent, Murphy's Law always plays a part, so the common thread in all these examples is the necessity to stack the deck in your favor.
Of course some may consider this unfair, or call it 'cheating' ... but usually only if they lose.

Ways to do this -

- Increase your level of protection
Hide in the forest, lie in the snow unseen, have a great defense, be out of range

- Be able to see, and seize the moment when it comes
The enemy is exposed (in a clearing), trapped (in the forest), or at a disadvantage (no exit)

- Deception [Mental, physical, and emotional.]
Intimidation/fear, feigned weakness, surprise, confusion, uncertainty/certainty

None of this is new. Strategists have written about it through the ages. The way Sonny said it was
Don't get hit. Learn to see. Tell a lie.

- First part is about you, your strengths, weaknesses, the best way to move and keep yourself protected.

- The second part about the 'you and them situation' (as Luo De Xiu would say), range, angle, timing, rhythm.

- Third part is about them .... perhaps a little about you, and the you and them situation, but mostly about who they are. You are deceiving them, not yourself, and if you are too much stuck in yourself, you cannot affect change in them. Some human psychology is pretty universal, but some, especially in a dueling situation is very particular to your opponent.

..... And of course there is always luck/witchcraft, but that you can only influence ... maybe ... Certainly not rely on .... :-)

The Few Against The Many.

2011-11-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

I have ancestors on both sides of the equation so I am not taking sides :-)
"Then he (Olav) sailed to Finland, landed and pillaged there, but all of the locals escaped into the forests and took all their possessions with them away from the area/region. The king ventured far inland and through some woods; there were valley regions called Herdalarna. They took some property, but no men. When evening drew near, the King began his way back to his ships. But when they returned to the woods, they were confronted by men from all sides, and harrassed and shot at fiercely. The King told his men to take cover/protect themselves. But before they could get out of the woods, he had lost many men and several were wounded. He arrived at the ships in the evening. In the night, the Finns created a great storm with their witch-craft. But the king ordered to lift up the anchor and raise the sails, and they travelled along the coast during the night. The King's good luck was then, like so often, more effective than the witch-craft of the Finns. They managed to sail along the coast of Balegard and then out to sea. But a band of Finnish warriors followed them on land as the king sailed along the coast."

From: http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=Viking_Age_Finland

You .... Or Is It?

2011-11-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

Rory Miller talks about how people have this tendency to stand in front of each other when fighting even though it's possibly the least sensible place to be. Of course, if your adversary knows you are coming, it's hard not to be caught in front, unless you are at a certain range and have the opportunity either through distraction or their movement towards you, to get around them ...

Another reason he postulates for this is the Monkey Dance paradigm - in a dominance type interaction (and dueling certainly falls into this category), it's part of the plan that a 'you' wins in relation to 'them'. Being in front makes sure they know who beat them.

So what happens if 'they' have your number, as it were?
You can't win as 'you' - they know 'you' are coming, can read who 'you' are, and on some level this means that everything 'you' do is a tell .......

Seems obvious, but you have to become someone who can instigate a rash decision, a mistake or cause a distraction in THEM. You need to change, and become whoever you need to become to make that happen. Sometimes it can be 'you', other times it can't.

Sonny was one of the few people I have seen fight/spar/play who could do so as many different 'people', changing his game to suit the moment and the opponent. I always admired this ability greatly, not only because it was fascinating to watch, but also because tactically, it made a great deal of sense.

“If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
"If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.
"If his forces are united, separate them.
"Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
― Sun Tzu

Neutral Points

2011-11-13T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sonny had a term for places within movement where you could change your mind. In other words, places where you could 'hang out' (really for just a split second), wait for your opponent to commit, and decide if you yourself are going to go - left/right, in/out, strike/abort.
He called these places neutral points, or being 'in neutral'.
The weapon can be held in neutral positions, and footwork can be in neutral too.
The place where the feet pass each other when stepping is a neutral point. People rarely pay attention to it, though Bagua uses it as a focal point, probably for the same reason Eskrima does - it's important.
It's a great place to hide your intention, hide which side leg you are weighted on, and an easy place to switch weight from one side to the other and change direction, or get off line.

I wrote a post a while back about how Sonny used his knowledge of dance to create movement methods with a partner to practice dueling skills. I don't know the first thing about Salsa or Hustle dancing, or Cha Cha, so it was very cool last week when one of my students brought a friend to class who was in town for a visit. She is a professional dancer so I got her to teach us some basic steps and we all did some Cha Cha - Forward, center, cha cha cha, back, center, cha cha cha.
Cha cha cha are all neutral points.
As we were working on moving from weapon contact, the 'Sticky Blade' (akin to sticky hands) mentioned a couple posts back, it was a great place to put the two things side by side.
It was very interesting to add some syncopation, deception, and moving round, instead of straight to see how something cooperative can turn into something combative with very little effort.

Gentlemen's Blood

2011-11-11T14:52:00.000-08:00

Just finished re-reading Barbara Holland's fine book "Gentlemen's Blood: A History of Dueling from Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk.

http://www.amazon.com/Gentlemens-Blood-History-Barbara-Holland/dp/158234440X

Some reviewers have pointed out that the book has some flaws and errors, including the fact that there are no footnotes to back up some of the anecdotal stories, but it is a wonderful book, and a fascinating read none the less.

I think Barbara Holland would have been a fabulous neighbor. I woulds have loved to listen to her talk about life and the universe over a cup of tea ... or perhaps a few shots of whiskey.
Her wit is razor sharp, her humor as cutting as the duels she writes about. Her sense of irony is pitch perfect and lord knows I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of her insults, sometimes so off hand and subtle you would not have felt the wound until you had bled out.

Here is a excerpt from the end of the book:

"Unfortunately, like the impersonal pistol replacing the personal sword, the weapons involved have moved a long way from the human hand. ......
"Battle now is not only too mechanized, it's also too big. Thousands of people can be killed at a clip, in the blink of an eye. Since Hiroshima, the idea of making elaborate arrangements to try to kill a single man seem ludicrous; surely one enemy's death is hardly worth the trouble of unsheathing a sword.
Or perhaps it is."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Holland

Counter Intuitive

2011-11-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

Things that feel counter intuitive (I'm sure there are more ...) -

1a) For swords with edges, holding your blade closer to you is safer than holding it away from you (distance varies depending on single or 2 handed weapon).
1b) If cornered and panicked, it's safer to pull your sword towards your center than slash about away from your body.

2) Looking at an incoming cut is safer than turning your head away from it.

3) From contact, it's often safer to close on your opponent than back out again.

4) You can reach further if you drop lower.

5) Letting go the weapon is sometimes safer than trying to keep hold of it.

6a) You can gain advantage by slowing down.
6b) Stealing the timing by slowing down or stopping can be just as effective as speeding up.

7) One of the most dangerous moments for you is when you are striking.

Puntaria

2011-11-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Pre-dawn Toyama-Ryu sword class was awesome again. Worked and talked on many things including how arcs meet straight lines and the deflection that creates.
Also the connection of the sword to the person and the person WITH their sword to the opponent - For power strikes, relative positioning (strong vs weak lines) is just as important as being able to reach the target ... especially when body checking comes into play.
Also looked at hooking and weight shifting, controlling space and creating distance, and choosing same side, or crossing of the center line. (Basically choose In or out? Left or right?)
Well, no surprise, but it turns out that all these elements require your feet to be under you and your body and feet working WITH the sword .. and by extension the opponent, to create 1) Safety and defensive line, 2) Advantage (angle and time) and 3) Power when needed.

Funnily enough, yesterday in Eskrima we were also looking at positioning, timing, set ups and moving off line. In Eskrima the only difference is that we were using single handed, shorter swords where power generation is less of an issue.The rest of the stuff - positioning, distance, timing, arcs ... all very similar.
And as far as the 'having your feet underneath you' part - absolutely crucial.
Now this is not a static thing. Steve Morris talks about moving the head and having the feet catch you, and especially in sword dueling, this is an essential skill - the head after all is a huge target, and taking it off line is a great idea in itself, and as a side effect is one of the fastest ways of having the rest of your body follow.
Sometimes though as a pre-set, if you are, say, setting your opponent up, or creating an exit, it's wise to set up the feet and weight in a way to make the next step, and change of angle possible without telegraphing.
Sonny called this 'Puntaria' and is based on the very simple idea that if you point your toes at something, when you shift your weight to that leg, your hips will face in that direction. Point your toes at your opponent, and when you step on to that foot, you should be facing them.
Trick is to keep your knee and foot pointing in the same direction, and to let your body and weapon align above.
Note, it is REALLY important not to be flat footed. A firm footing is key for issuing power, but learn how to pivot, either on the heel, but mostly on the ball of the foot to move - you'll be much more mobile, and you'll save your knees into the bargain.
Also, learn how to hook step, and how to shift your foot even with weight is on it, and make sure you don't get caught with your legs crossed at an inappropriate moment :-)

Entropy

2011-11-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

Unless you are one of the rare few (are there any?) who have spent their whole life training or at leisure, practicing healthy exercise without injury, you will have used your body up in some way.
Age and wear takes it's toll. Gravity is a one way street. Entropy is omnipresent.
Work - from sitting at a desk all day, or in a car, to doing the hardest manual labor, will crunch, stack, compress, twist, misalign, and repetitiviely strain your body ... and that's not including injury - tendons that never quite go back to how they were, scar tissue that restricts range of motion and blood flow, bones broken, cracked and healed ... maybe straight ... maybe crooked.

Thing is, we are all like this, it's what life IS, and it's unavoidable .... well, perhaps some of the stuff from the 'stupid' file could have been avoided, but the rest ...? We all live there. They are fact, real, normal.
So please ... stop complaining. Use what you have. Work from where you ARE not from where you would prefer to be, or some fantasy alternative that does not exist.
Can't put your feet parallel? Can't squat? Can't straighten your fingers, wiggle your toes, fold in your hips, freely rotate your joints, flex your spine evenly?
Think you 'should' be able to do all these things? Sure, but if you've never spent any time doing them, why should you be able to?
Because I can? Other people can?
Well ... I can because I practice, other people probably because they practice too.
Do I have asymmetries, aches, repetitive strain injuries, old injuries, a job that 'damages' my body? Yes.
Can I ever be 'perfect'? No.
Can I be better? Yes.

You can mitigate a bunch of the wear that your body goes through every day, heal some stuff, improve a bunch more and generally work towards your potential IF ... and it is a big IF .... you pay attention, and work at it. Regularly, every day, all the time if you are a big enough nerd and have some imagination.
You are never going to be 'perfect' (what does that mean anyway?) but you could be way better than you ever thought you would be. So stop complaining, this is what life is. Work on yourself, let go of perfection, or some fantasy of your lost youth, and start moving towards your own, real, full potential, now, in the real present.
And no ... it's never too late to start.

Sticky Blade

2011-10-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

This week we worked on some 'defensive' stuff in class .. I hesitate to say 'defensive' as defense and offense can often be indistinguishable, but defensive in the sense of staying protected whilst looking for or creating openings.
We call these flows '2nd flow' because they start from blade contact with the checking hand coming into play if necessary because of the closer range.
We worked with the emphasis on slicing (rather than cutting/chopping or poking) and looking at the opportunities such contact gives. The most obvious one of course is indexing, because the moment you make contact with your opponent's blade, you know where the rest of their body is.

One particular 2nd flow is called 'Sticky Blade'. This flow builds in sensitivity to heavy contact, (to disengage) and lost contact/drop offs, (that open the center line) and works on positioning and relative angles depending on which side of the center line you want to play. It also works on extending to insert, and receiving, to 'flush block' against your body, as baits and draws.
The focus is on adding this 'blade pendulum' to the weight shift and stepping without losing contact with the opponent's blade.
With practice you can keep this contact whilst your opponent tries to open the center line by causing an error, drops off, or disengages for the hit.

What you are start to feel after a while is a 3 dimensional defensive ball - the picture I get in my head is of a rattan Sipa ball - which you are inside of, rather than a 2 dimensional wall. An arc meeting a straight line has a very different effect than 2 straight lines meeting - Bagua is based on this idea. Works very well with swords too.

Use Your Powers For Good

2011-10-26T06:55:00.000-07:00

Teaching is a veritable Monkeyland minefield .....
There you are, self appointed head monkey, teaching volunteer junior monkeys to dance.
The whole thing is a set up for potential stupidity, and the worst part is that you are IN Monkeyland, with all it's rules and scripts, and because you are in it, it's hard to see them.

Here are the ones I've at least noticed, and this is from the teacher end, not the student end -

Status is a tricky thing - get some as a teacher and some part of you wants to keep it, or get more. It'll make you want to stay in your comfort zone, never risk losing - to anyone, and always create the impression that you know all the answers. It'll have the tendency to make you stop experimenting or putting yourself in situations where you can screw up ... i.e. it will make you avoid risk and chaos as much as possible. And it will make you occasionally tyrannical if you think that status is being challenged.
Status will also make you want to pander to your 'followers' - Make them like you, re-affirm your status, enjoy the time they spend with you, find you entertaining, be comfortable, succeed, get their egos stroked ... so they keep coming back. Make it easy, non confrontational, nice.

On the other hand, this same status can give you the attention of those open to learning new things. Status can give you the opportunity to lead by example, open peoples' minds and imaginations, teach how to enjoy problem solving and critical thinking, how to be present, mindful, aware, alive.
As a teacher you can create environments to show alternative ways to be, encourage excellence, reward growth, be ethical and upstanding in decision making and choices, and refuse to get drawn in to all the monkey games that the in built hierarchy of a martial arts class can tempt you with.

I don't think it's easy, I personally have to keep watch on myself on a regular basis to make sure I'm not getting trapped, but if I remember what I'm here for, what the point of what I'm doing IS ... then it's easier.
I don't want to create carbon copies of me, or loyal fans that think I'm great. I want to create students that can beat me at my own game. Once they can do that they should move on as I can't teach them anything more.
And that would be just fine with me.

If, at the same time, I can pass on the same joy I get from playing Eskrima, that would be awesome too.

Oops

2011-10-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

Many people, especially women have a tendency to apologize if they make a mistake - does not matter if the opponent gets hit or not, if it's an error in a drill or in sparring.
I do it, but nowadays only if I ding someone accidentally hard through an error on my part. I don't apologize if it's their error, or it's what I intended, but martially even this is a bad habit, I know that, but decades of polite upbringing are hard to break.

Today at workout it came up during a Palakaw exercise - One of the students - 'Oops'. 'Sorry. Oops. Oops. Hell. Sorry. Oops'!
Gotta stop saying Oops

Sensei MikeE has a solution to this problem. I think it's inspired so I thought I would share for all those afflicted with this same politeness virus.
His advice - "When you f*#k up, don't say 'Oops', say 'I will haunt you'!
How cool is that?

Thanks to Liat for passing that on.

Watch Yourself

2011-10-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

Got the chance to sword spar recently with someone with great skills. A friend videoed the fun and I got to see the footage yesterday and it was really interesting.
As I've mentioned before, Sonny video taped all his classes and we all got to go home with a VHS tape and review the workout, but since his passing I have rarely taken footage of spar time, so it's been quite a few years since I have been able to watch what I do free style as an observer.

Here's what I noticed:
- Sparring is basically a form of Monkey Dancing which is fun, and when you are having fun the game is absolutely playing you and it's hard to remember to get off the carousel.
- Fun is seductive - it makes you forget.
- Having fun makes you think you are doing better than you are ... and as such gives you no reason to change your tactics.
- All the stuff I practice to gain advantage over an opponent when I'm training, or at least much of it, is subsumed by the fun I am having being danced by the monkey.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having fun. I am a huge fan of play as a vehicle for learning .... But here's the thing, I don't recall any specifics of our sparring time, and I know if I could, there would be stuff I could learn from, I just can't put my finger on it from memory alone.
(Aside: The post I wrote on Ego, Death and Progress comes exactly from this forgetting, and 'being danced'. )

But there is a secret weapon - I watch the VIDEO.

... Ahhhh .... Wow, look at all the stuff I forgot to do. Look at all those opportunities to try something different. Look at the strange loops, decisions and errors ....
Why did I keep trying that same combo? Didn't work the last 2 times I tried it ... Why didn't I ....? Or ...?
Hmmmm.....

Actually it's inaccurate to say I don't recall anything, I do remember contemplating trying some tactics and plays that did not manifest physically, but dismissed them as unworthy.
For instance, I didn't think I could fake or bait this opponent - they're pretty good at reading, and the marginal advantage between something that looks real to a seasoned player and is not, is very risky to try .... But was that a correct read on my part, or no? I think I should have investigated more, not just assumed.

To reach a higher level of skill you have to become more open, be willing to lose, invite your opponent in more and start thinking a bit further out of the box ... the monkey box ... and make yourself DO IT during the dance to test what works.
Through the power of video and the third party point of view it bestows, I have visual confirmation that I did not try a large part of a repertoire I have at my disposal (in theory), and so the next time I play I'll have a place to start and to seek improvement, to practice again remembering to play AND think.
And who knows what will and will not work .....? I actually have no clue, but if you believe you can get better you must expand your imagination and try it out.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is why I highly recommend you video yourself too.

Workout Oct 13

2011-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Looked at how to practice accuracy of cut and blade angle - tabletop, tuning fork.
Hiwa cuts - curves and arcs.
Recycling and neutral points - Increasing the options from each point.
Connecting the sword to the body so the whole moves as one.
Gunting open and close, connection of live hand, and cut angle to center line.
Worked all these concepts into Palakaw - fixed step to make the hips work.
Added Hiwa defense as offense + added all the concepts + repetitions and doubles.
Ended with a short 2nd flow a.k.a. Sticky Blade and introduced the timing of the 3 main openings.

Getting Your Learn On

2011-10-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

What I learned -

There are sometimes no good answers ... or perhaps better ... sometimes no answers that satisfy. Apparently our tendency as humans is to reframe the question to create more answers until we find one we like.

Sometimes you just don't know and there's nothing you can do about it.

Things happen for reasons.

Luck is real.

We all have blind spots and because we are in them, we can't see them, and can't even hear directions on how to get out.

Smart (my definition) people are good readers and writers (Sonny's terms). They can listen and they can lead.

We are all who we are - we are obvious. It takes skills to hide these things.

I know I have blind spots because I don't know how to connect what I learned to change what I do.

Chinese/Filipino Sword Afternoon

2011-10-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Had a blast yesterday comparing elements from a Northern Shaolin 'Five Tigers' Sabre form with Filipino Barong and Kampilan usage.

The 3 swords we compared are shown below, each is different in some respect from the others -

The Chinese Dao is a curved, single edged, single handed (hand and a half) sword, about 30 inches long.

The Barong is a leaf shaped, single handed blade about 20 inches long.

The Kampilan a long, straightish, 2 handed sword up to 40 inches long.

What they have in common however is that they are all heavy, slashing and chopping weapons, weighted towards the front, with a sharp tip that can be used to thrust or gouge. The Kampilan is probably the only one specifically designed for battlefield use, though all three have been used as battle and skirmishes weapons.
Because of these similarities some of the ways of using them overlap.

I've seen very little Chinese style sword work up close, especially done by someone willing to free flow some ideas, so it was a very cool to have Scott (Phillips) perform the 'Five Tigers' form, I'd comment on certain parts that looked familiar to my Eskrima and we'd compare the body mechanics, observing also the subtle changes that would occur due to the difference in weapon design and cultural flavor. Scott would give insights from his research, and his teachers' comments about it, to add to the mix.

It was also interesting to take out parts that did not look familiar at all, and try to work out how they might be used, or why they looked like they did.

Of course knowing which direction the bad guy is attacking from is part of the puzzle, or if there are multiple opponents.
Wide open space, or narrow street?
If the move is a passing move, a closing move, making distance, targeting hand or body/head, or an 'oh sh*t' last line of defense.

Of course it's all speculation in the end, but great fun never the less.

Mud Walking

2011-09-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

There's a way you walk in Bagua - kind of a glide, pushing off the back foot, making contact with the ball of the front foot, rolling on to the whole foot, shifting the weight forward, and pulling the back foot in, that's called 'mud walking', and though not a necessity - you can quite legitimately walk Bagua heel toe - it is found as a standard practice in many schools.
The soles of the feet stay parallel to, and only just above the ground, and to open the lower back up, you can practice trying to pick the ball of the back foot up before the heel as it steps in. The other key element is noticing the moment the feet are right next to each other, kind of a balanced 'neutral point' where changes of direction can occur.
Walking this way certainly does open up your back, gives you good balance, connects the lower and upper halves of the body, and generally keeps your center of gravity low.

The name 'mud walking' implies that it's for walking through mud ... OK, maybe, but a more inclusive theory is that it is for walking across any uneven terrain where you have to be certain of your footing but cannot necessarily keep looking down - battlefields and blood were mentioned, and this make better sense.

What I do know for sure is that it is a very natural way to move when you are continuously cutting with a large blade whilst trying to move fast - I was practicing moving with a Katana the other day and cutting with each step, and ended up mud walking without even thinking about it ....
I also know it bears a resemblance to the step you use when you are trying to creep up on something, and it's certainly what happens in the dark of night trying to detect and avoid sleeping black dogs and cats camouflaged on dark carpet.

Romance & Reality

2011-09-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

"It is a principle of the art of war that one should simply lay down his life and strike. If one's opponent also does the same, it is an even match. Defeating one's opponent is then a matter of faith and destiny.

".. Every day without fail one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai."
The Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai:

"At night we don't shoot, we use (our) Bolo knife. When the crazy Japanese start charging without concern for their health, they are easy to chop down. Because they are not concerned about death".*
Leo Giron founder of the Bahala Na system (describing fighting the Japanese in the PI during World War II):

* - From The Dog Brothers DVD: The Grandfathers Speak Vol I

'What's the Damage'?

2011-09-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

In England this is slang for 'what'll it cost me'?

The damage of conflict through history has always been great, but one has to imagine that at some point, some clever warrior started looking at better ways of gaining resources than just running head on at the enemy and seeing who came out on top. Ways to lessen the damage, yet still win the fight.

Stealth and ambush come to mind as very ancient hunting tactics, as surprise stacks the deck very much in your favor. Fighting with a plan, in units, as pairs or more, also highly effective. And of course deception - using guile and understanding of human psychology to manipulate your opponents into traps of your making.

Dueling with swords is in essence a Monkey Dance not resource predation, but fails that description in one crucial way - Monkey Dances are not meant to be fatal, they are about status.
George Silver in his 'Paradoxes of Defense' in 1599 bemoans the deaths caused by dueling. Kings and military commanders have banned it over the centuries due to it's high casualty rate as the confusion between wanting to fight 'for honor', but making the mistake of using lethal weapons has killed off many of the best warriors of each generation.

You still see this confusion nowadays in the sword play martial artists do, as we try to understand the blade - most fights end up with both people damaged or dead.
I personally think this is a problem, this 'learning to die' thing. It is certainly a step on the way to understanding, but there is a step beyond that, the hardest one to reach of course, and that is the one where you get to walk away afterwards.

I see very little in systems about the 'exit'. A great deal of time is spent on the stuff in range - what to do after engagement, some time is spent on entries, but where is the part about 'getting away'?
I know it's possible, Musashi showed that it was about 400 years ago when medical help was not an option. You may say that he chose his opponents so he always had an advantage ... but maybe that tells you something ......?
George Silver himself lived to a ripe old age, as did plenty of skilled warriors back in the day. Who did they fight? How did they win? When did they decide not to fight?
Obviously hard to say, but I suspect this idea of walking away afterwards played into their tactics as much as how to enter, and how to engage.

What'll it cost me? - As little as possible please.

Defining The Win

2011-09-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Putting this out there as a question -

In a confrontational/fighting context, how do you define a 'win'?

If there are multiple parts to your answer, which is the most important?

And yes, this really is just a question - I know my answers, just curious what yours are ....

And PS: Quoting Charlie Sheen or Conan doesn't count ;-)

The Pen and the Sword, In Accord.

2011-09-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Spent an evening talking and a day doing Chinese calligraphy this weekend.
I have known for a long time that there is a link between sword play and doing calligraphy, I know of friends who have studied Zen where both calligraphy and sword practice are a part. I enjoyed the movie "Hero" immensely because of this element in the plot, and have seen, at least in books, the calligraphy of noted swordsmen.
But as with many things, it is only the actual doing of it that opens the door to understanding why.

The evening lecture started with a discussion about Asian art appreciation. From a traditional Asian standpoint, there is no distinction between art and craft - a soup bowl can be high art in the same way a painting can, and as can calligraphy.
What is of most interest in a piece, more than the content, is it's 'energy' - and before the eye rolling starts this is not some new agey fluff - what this means is that a piece painted say by a concubine, or a general, will look different because of the different lives the painters have led.
Even if the subject is exactly the same, the difference, or the 'quality' of the piece, depending on who made it, is what is most important. The ability to see these differences and understand what they mean is a huge part of Asian art appreciation.

These qualitative differences arise in calligraphy in the same way that western handwriting varies from person to person, and can even vary day to day in one person, depending on mood. Add a brush and ink to the equation instead of a ballpoint, and it is even easier to see, as every movement in the holder transfers directly to the paper in a much more dynamic fashion.
It is important to note that there is no 'perfection' or single place to aim for in this practice. In the same way that there are many beautiful yet wholly different pieces of music in the world, each individual can create a unique piece that can speak to an audience regardless of style.
Of course there is a lifetime's worth of study in the subtleties in how the brush moves on the page, how it is held, it's still points and flow, that all play in to this appreciation, and of course that takes practice, but understanding this, and every child does indeed start practicing at a young age, helps an audience understand the quality of the calligrapher.

But back to the links with sword play ....

Without going in to the details of what we practiced in the class - and one day is really only a scratch at the surface - the points that I found most interesting were to do with the relationship between freedom and control - you need space around you, and your body oriented in a way to give free range of motion front, back, side to side, and into and off the paper - much like connecting your body, arm, hand and fingers to the sword, and something at the other end of it.
You have to be precise, committed, and flexible, no vacillating, hesitating, or weak intent. You also always have to know where you are going next, but not get fixated when the ink starts doing something you didn't expect. You are creating the flow, but also going with it, trying not to get physically or mentally stuck in a corner, present and focused until the brush leaves the paper for the last time.
Hmmm .......

Also in the practice - it is not about repeating the same thing over and over again, trying to create perfection, but more of an investigation into the brush and how it works connected to you. Obsessive repetition often produces the same mistake over and over again, which shows up very clearly on a page of rote characters done too 'tight'. It is a stagnant way to practice, lacking 'qi'.
Better is freeing up the mind and playing, which also produces mistakes, but produces all kinds of different ones and so is a much more dynamic way to work and discover more.
Of course unlike dueling, the paper does not fight back ... but it is certainly a mirror to every glitch and gap you have, and as such, your opponent IS in front of you, it's just this time it's your ego.

Many thanks to Liu Ming for teaching. Ming is one of the most clear and interesting teachers of ancient Asian culture and science in the Bay Area, and as a side note to the 'Sound Effects' post - demonstrated how he uses whistling as an aid to practice the different feelings of the individual strokes when writing characters.
All in all a fascinating day.

Forms

2011-09-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

This may sound obvious, but forms were created by people who knew what they are doing. What I mean is, a Xing-Yi spear form was created by someone that had 1) used a spear before, 2) understood how to use it best, and 3) knew the common errors/problems associated with using it wrong - lack of power, lack of balance, inability to transition through moves or move with the weapon smoothly, getting stuck, inaccuracy of targeting etc etc

Forms were invented as ways to solo practice and refine skills, and improve on and remove errors.
Great if you know what you are doing and have some 'raw material' to refine ... but what if you have no idea what spear fighting feels like? Have no idea how to visualize an opponent? Do forms help then?

It's really fairly easy to tell if someone doing a form has an idea of what they are doing and what it's for. A personal cringe for me is seeing sword work done by folks that have never used one or have confused how a stick moves with edged steel. Even then there are levels, there are those that have maybe practiced target cutting with live blades but have no context, or those that understand fight tactics but without bladed weapons. I am limited by never having had a sword fight where someone was actually wanting to kill me with a real weapon, or even a challenge match for first blood - and before you ask or volunteer, I'm absolutely OK with that :-) - so my movement will probably look different from someone that has had that experience.

Sonny believed that all preset patterns and forms have a soporific (hypnotic/feel good) effect on the body/mind, and because they begin and end, are inherently glitchy. He believed that patterns can override reactions, and like a song that gets stuck in your head, are hard to undo once ingrained. Which is why he stopped teaching them. On the other hand, he did practice alignment and accuracy a great deal, and used certain movement combinations to refine these, but never in a repetitive way, always using a basic idea and riffing off it.

Personally I love form work and get a great deal out of the practice (perhaps it's the soporific effect?), and think they are great for training full body integration and understanding wave and rhythm, but really they only start to make sense once you have felt the problem they were created to solve or the skill they were meant to refine. Practicing them without knowing the context, and I mean 'knowing' in an experiential sense, might be a head start for when you do .. but perhaps it's not ...?

Sound Effects

2011-09-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

Why is it that adding sound effects to movement makes them better?
I'm sure we all do it - we did it as kids, I do it quite alot when I teach, and I often do it either inside my head or for real when I practice certain moves.
Teacher Luo does it also, he is a very expressive teacher and uses his voice to create different sounds to give the flavor of the power he is using. He often uses his facial expression and body expression too to convey different feelings, but always sound.
Last night at the San Shou (Sticky Hand) class we were working on pretty small and subtle changes of angle. I started adding the same sound effects that he was doing to the scoops, hooks, wiggles, swings and catches we were practicing, and when I did, the movement got better. I started experimenting with different partners, each of us adding the sound effects as we practiced on each other ... and yup, movement improved for everyone.
I guess until last night I just never thought about how doing it might actually create a different shape in the brain to improve physical movement, rather than it just being a dorky thing that's fun to do and seems to feel good.

Tha Wave

2011-09-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Luo De Xiu from Taipei is in town. He's been coming over to teach seminars for over a decade, I think this will be year 10 or 11 for me (sadly last year he had to cancel).
Obviously I think he is a great teacher and pretty much sign up for everything he chooses to teach in the 8 days he is here.
First evening was Tai Ji push hands, not really my thing but absolutely related.

Luo focused on the 3 circles that make up the movement - vertical (can be forward back, coronal plane and all angles in between), horizontal circle (at any height) and obliques circle (as many angles as you can think of) - Bagua has the same.
He talked about how in each plane of circle there is a part of the circle where power can be released, and part where it can be collected, dependent on gravity and movement (weight shift or step). Knowing where these places are in the timing is crucial, and push hands is a place to practice finding out.
He also talked about the properties of the 'wave', where instead of the rotation round a circle being the recycle mechanism, its a swing that captures the potential energy at the cusp of the movement and returns it back.

Training good body structure alongside flexibility and the ability to control one's movement in a way that is not overtly obvious to the opponent, means that the natural power of the circles, and the places where it can be used the best, can be altered to one's befefit, and this can be done by using 'the wave'.
In the same way that 2 waves (of light or water etc) coming from different directions can interfere to cancel out or magnify power, so can timing and tempo dissipate power or augment it's effect.
The wave can also change an incoming angle to another, conserve the power and throw it back.

This wave appears also in the '2nd flow' practice of Visayan Eskrima - the body pendulum and the stepping pendulum are just manifestations of the same concept and are integral to the understanding of how to stretch and compress the tempo, draw and bait the opponent.

The other big take away ... Movement is the generator, big and obvious at first, then smaller and smaller as skills improve .... where have I seen that before ..? ;-)

Simple, yet ....

2011-08-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Seems like everyone is writing about basics, fundamentals and simplicity right now, it must be in the air.
This morning, at the semi regular workout I get to do with my friend T and Sensei Mike E, we were working on the Kumitachi (partner practice) from the Toyama Ryu sword system.
Toyama Ryu is a military school system and as such shares the quality that many military systems, like Xing-Yi, have - simplicity and pragmatism.
'Simplicity' of course is a relative term and what struck me learning the techniques, I think we did 6, was how 'simple' here refers to the most direct approach ... which also means that you deviate from center the least you can with your sword, and move the least you can with your feet ... thus the price of screwing up the Ma-ai - range and timing - means eating the attack. These techniques are eventually practiced with the opponent running at you and cutting full power, and of course you closing to meet them also.
The technique works great IF your read of your opponent's intent is good, and you are in the right place at the right time, with good alignment, to do the thing, at the right moment, relative to what your opponent does. (OK, so there is some built in safety redundancy .... but not a whole helluva lot.)
So ... 'Simple' here means utilizing the quickest route between A and B with sword and footwork - not much choreography - but is also means you are on, or very close to the center line and the power of the incoming attack of your opponent, which means that if you screw it up any one small aspect - relative contact point along the sword, how rotation meets the straight line, your structure vs their structure, range etc - you are toast.
So simple, yet .....

Fascia

2011-08-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the first part of a 3 part talk about fascia and how it works in combination with muscles to produce power.
Really interesting, especially for the 'Internal' practitioners amongst us when comparing a western explanation of force transfer and physiology to the classically described alignment and movement principles of Bagua (and Xing-Yi and Tai Ji).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SMUA3QfVw

Anniversary

2011-08-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went over to San Francisco to my friend Chris's new training space. He was hosting a get together to celebrate the opening of his school in conjunction with what would have been Leo Giron 100th brithday.
There was huge piles of Paella, fresh shrimp and the joyful banging of Rattan. Chris was a great host and I wish him all the best with his new place.
For those that don't know, Leo Giron is the founder of the Filipino style called Bahala Na, named after the motto of the battalion he fought with in WW2. It means 'Come what may' or words to effect.
Giron did not want anything to do with violence after the war, he had seen most of his action behind enemy lines working recon, often using the sword over the firearm as his weapon of choice, so up close and personal to say the least. When the war ended he hung up his Bolo and called it quits.
Many years later, he heard that a man with a knife had attacked a group of nurses including some Filipinas, killing several. Giron thought that if only the nurses had had some training, with their strength in numbers they would have been able to overcome the attacker and thus lives could have been saved. This convinced him to start teaching again, and the system Bahala Na was born.
Leo Giron died in 2002 at the age of 91.

This coming Wednesday will also mark the passing of my teacher in 2006. Another day when people came together to sit, remember and tell stories. I prefer to remember his birthday more than his death (though he himself hated it and tried to keep it secret), but I'll probably play some sword and burn a Winston all the same.

The Gory Details

2011-08-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

There's really no way round the gory details when teaching sword play. I forget this until new students come to class and I start to talk about the 'whys'.
So much of why you do what you do, especially the way you hold the weapon and the way it moves in space comes down to blade and handle design and how that 'interacts' with human anatomy.
The targets that you aim for, the cut angles, the blade angles, the retraction and recycle possibilities all involve explanations of blood, bone and guts, and this leads seamlessly to the reasons for evasion, body angle, and footwork (which by this point have become self evident to all that are paying attention .....) and thus the reason you do what you do.
I guess it's a good test of character to see how those new to the idea take in all the squishy information ...

Warm Ups

2011-08-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not getting any younger, and though sword play is less hard on the body over the long term than many striking or grappling arts, I certainly pay attention to alignments and how I use my body to prevent injury and retain range of motion, flexibility and 'quickness' (I was going to say speed, but this is better) as I would like to keep playing for many decades yet.

Most of what I know about healthy movement comes from the years I've spent studying the Chinese 'Internals' - Tai Ji, Xing-Yi and Bagua, along with their related Nei Gung exercises.
One of the most important things these systems pay attention to is how the weight is dropped into the ground through the weighted leg - knees and hips are notoriously prone to injury, especially for martial artists, so maintaining accurate lower body alignment is key to keeping injury free. Eskrima, Bagua, Tai Ji and Xing-Yi all emphasize the 100% weight shift thus making the alignments through the weighted leg particularly important.
Add to this Eskrima's emphasis on deception and evasion with it's quick direction changes, angle feints and weight shifts, and you get a recipe for soft tissue damage if you do not pay attention.

VCKE has a set of warm up exercises - The Moro Foundation Set - that work these alignment principles, with an emphasis on improving flexibility in the hip joint, the accuracy of hip and shoulder alignments, and the ability to pivot safely.
Pivoting requires the weight to be distributed mostly on the ball of the foot with the heel kept light so the heel is free to turn (heel pivoting is also possible of course but we focus mostly on the ball of the foot pivot). This ensures that the toes and the knee of the weighted leg are always facing in the same direction, and if there's one alignment advice I pay particular attention to it's this -
TOES AND KNEE, SAME DIRECTION, ONE OVER THE OTHER.

Those of you that practice Chen style Tai Ji or Silat will know that the 'one over the other' thing does not always hold true, and if you have developed the fascia, tendons and ligaments along the leg enough you can do this, but in general these are good principles to keep to, at least that has been my experience.
This then brings me to the importance of warm up sets. Most traditional systems have them, and I am reminded of what Luo De Xiu said - Don't dismiss the warm up sets as trivial and unimportant - Why does the teacher make you do them every time? Not because they are convenient or easy, but because they are the most important movements in the system.

Sizing

2011-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sonny had some great words for describing things that sometimes did not connect until you thought about it, for instance "Today we are going to work on rappelling" turned out not to be about ropes and rock faces, but "repelling", as in the thing that similar poles of 2 magnets do when they come close.
And what we were actually working on was disengagements where the moment of disengagement had a feeling like 2 magnets, very close yet repelling around each other at the last minute.

Yesterday Kev was talking about 'Sizing' in the flow, a word Sonny used for a way of moving with an opponent.
In dueling or empty hand sparring, there is some time spent working out how your opponent moves, their rhythm, their tendencies, some 'sizing up' being done.
'Getting the measure of' might be another way of putting it, physically and psychologically ... and movement is the key.

To quote Steve Morris:
"... movement is the translation of our emotions thoughts and sensations [intero, extero and proprioceptive ] within the integrative action of the CNS."
Or S Higgin:
"Movement is inseparable from the structure supporting it and the environment defining it."

So moving with someone can tell you much about them if you how to play it.

'Sizing' is a really important skill, to do it successfully you have to be in the moment, present and listening, but not hypnotized or frozen. You can't be grooving to your own tune as though no-one is there, yet you cannot be just following what your opponent is doing.
You can't be in range, yet you should not be too far away either as your opponent needs to have a reason to move - remember it's the movement that's key, however subtle.
Lastly sizing is not purely defensive, part of it is cutting off opportunities or intentions from your opponent. If they have an opening, they might attack straight away so you are instantly out of time, you have to learn to move so as to cut these off at their inception.
Of course in a duel you are not going to wait around any longer than absolutely necessary, but flowing helps build this skill set so increasing the flow time here is an advantage, and to do that you not only have to be able to cut them off, but at the same time invite them to keep trying, so you can learn as much about them as possible.

Sizing skill should be practiced with many different partners, though especially with someone that can change the flavor of their movement as the flow progresses. The ability to adapt through the changes is crucial.
Sizing is like learning to see the lines, but dancing in the gaps.

Fulcrum Striking

2011-08-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

There are a handful of power acceleration methods developed by Sonny that form part of the impact weapon skill set of Visayan Corto Kadena Eskrima.
For a style where mass, in the form of the size of the practitioner (Sonny weighed probably about 110lbs) or the weight of the weapon, is limited, timing and relative (between weapon and target) acceleration are king ... along with deception and evasion of course.
Yesterday I was playing with R in the back yard and we were exchanging what we had been working on. We talked about the parts of the style that personally resonate with us as individuals, and R pointed to the Bogsai. The Bogsai is a hugely versatile weapon and the 'fulcrum striking' power acceleration skills that are part of it's usage are certainly R's forte.
Fulcrums are achieved by pulling, pushing and twisting the hands and body relative to each other along the weapon, and with the correct timing can produce short range, high impact power at the tip with a very fast recycle to the next strike.
We worked on some mirroring + weapon manipulation exercises, worked some quite unusual combinations and angles, looked at still points, high, middle and low strikes, and explored climb ups and disengagements across the center line.
Very cool.

Playlist

2011-08-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

Sonny always played music when we flowed, perhaps occasionally it would stop, or the player would act up, but it was pretty much a given that there would be something playing throughout the workout session.
I think I've mentioned before how he used music to get the student outside themselves, to feel rhythms, relax, focus or wake up. He did not have a very extensive collection and consequently most of us came to know the selection pretty well, enough to have a somewhat Pavlovian response on hearing certain pieces.
The majority of the stuff he played was trance-y, mellow stuff, some had eastern rhythms, some were his own compositions which mostly had dance rhythms like the cha cha or the hustle, and then there was some pretty awful 'Eurodisco' that I am sure served it's purpose with it's generic thumping, but am happy that I never need to listen to again ...
So now it's my generation's turn to choose a playlist for teaching flow and I thought I'd share a few musical ideas that seem to work very well for me. If they have anything in common it's a fairly languorous back beat wherin it is possible to insert syncopations, counter rhythms and break beats. It's actually very fun to flow to Hendrix or The Prodigy, The Sword or the soundtrack to Sucker Punch ... but it just tends to get a bit exciting, so if you are teaching or trying to focus, here is a short playlist of rhythms that seem to fit the bill:

ORISHAS - 537 CUBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejduw4z7fh0
MORCHEEBA - BLINDFOLD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJSvNLvcwhg
CURTIS MAYFIELD - SUPERFLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmo6MRYf5g
DEATH IN VEGAS - ALL THAT GLITTERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOaNyOXhHA
BLAKROC - DOLLAZ AND SENSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvmppAUuuv8
AMON TOBIN - 4 TON MANTIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seEW9rEAksE
AMADOU AND MARIAM - SENEGAL FAST FOOD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J43T8rEOg-I
And for some local flavor :-)
THE COUP - DIG IT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsUDGxdeICw

Ghost

2011-08-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

A successful attack works because the opponent is busy. Busy blocking or evading something that is not there, busy striking something that is not there, busy being frozen by something they think is happening, (or is actually happening) or just busy with the white noise in their heads ...

But..
They have to be busy doing something other than dealing with what you are actually doing.
Don't be where they think you are, don't strike where they think you're striking and commit when they are busy dealing with your ghost.

Here's a great clip of Bernard Hopkins talking tactics with Rashad Evans before a fight. What he says about rhythm, timing, cutting angles, range and set ups holds just as true for dueling. Thanks again to Steve Morris for sharing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHwPBTDDp00

The Goal

2011-08-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

I posted a comment on the previous post and at http://considertraining.blogspot.com/ about goals.
People seem to forget that the goal is to get away. You may be unsuccessful in attaining your goal, but it's still the goal.
A while back I was chatting with some friends about how to build this goal in to dueling as it seemed that most training duels were ending in double death. The last post looked at attribute training to get past this, here is a scenario option.
In fact I suggested 2 scenarios:
1) One person is guarding an object, the other has to get the object and exit the field of combat with it.
2) Both parties start from different sides with the same goal of getting the object and leaving with it.
The size of the 'field of combat' would be whatever was agreed.
The 'object' could be just something to touch, or something to really carry. Point is the importance of the exit.

As an aside, we did a very fun, somewhat related, drill once at Sonny's where both participants attached a post-it note onto the center of their T-shirts with a safety pin. Game was to grab the opponent's post-it without getting your own taken. This drill was about evasion, timing and range, and did not really emphasize the exit but certainly had some similar elements to it.

Ego, Death and Progress

2011-08-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

There's nothing wrong with testing your skills against an adversary with the goal of winning - that's the point of dueling after all, but because of this natural tendency of our ego wanting to 'win', any free flow partner practice can turn into a competitive sparring match without much effort whether intending to or not.
If 2 people are free flowing, often one will enter when they see the first opportunity, and because entering itself creates an opening in the attacker, the other takes that as their opportunity, both parties end up attacking together and both generally 'die'.
A series of glorious double deaths is a sure sign that neither party is learning anything useful anymore, just how to throw their lives away. One is attacking rashly and trusting to luck, the other is only seeing the opening not the consequences. (Please read George Silver's rant about this all the way back in 1599 to see that it has been a long standing problem - Monkey Dancing with it's non lethal format + bladed weapons, which by their nature are lethal = not a good combination.)

But how to progress past this?
It seems like you need to create a format to practice in context, but without the need for the ego to always win. (Technically I would not call dying 'winning' .... but it seems that getting a first hit on the opponent equates with winning in our heads regardless of the consequences. Apparently the monkey ego is not that smart ....).
If you are familiar with Rory ConCom material and can 'de-escalate yourself first' from an interaction, you can pretty much play and generate progression with anybody, the problem is when neither party can escape from the dance.

I've found 2 ways to work past this (there are probably more) -

1) Assign different tasks to each party - one is the initial attacker, the other the counter attacker, let each person 'win' or succeed at their game for a while, then add a counter from the other side to the game ... then add another level of difficulty.
Example - A cuts at B who does not defend
                  B tries to defend against the cuts (without hitting back)
                  A adds faking and timing to trick B
                  B keeps trying to not get hit
                  B gets to counter, but after A's attack only
                  A tries to cut B then evade/block the counter
                  Etc .....
This game can go in many directions:
                  A cuts at B who does not defend
                  B hand tags A as they attack
                  A tries to avoid the hand tag and still cut to B's body
                  B hand tags but also tries to evade/block the attack
                  Etc ......

Narrowing the parameters this way focuses the game and seems to take away the need to impose status.

2) Start the flow with a question that needs investigating. E.g. "How does using a cane change the dynamic if you are fighting a short sword"? or "What happens if I only counter strike"?

Now both parties are on the same side trouble shooting a question, not adversaries in a contest.

Neither of these are permanent training formats, each individual has to learn for themselves how to not get caught up in their ego if they want to progress, but at least they can facilitate an exit from the loop.

The Maestro

2011-07-31T08:48:00.000-07:00

There are so many self proclaimed 'Masters' out there, every man and his dog has a title to give them status and authenticity.
Sonny told me that the title 'Maestro' was only to be given by others, not only others but people outside his system. In the old days, a man was expected to show his prowess, fight in public if challenged and carry himself in a way deserving of the title, and only after years of study, practice and teaching did this title become true. Others would notice it as obvious and thus it became bestowed upon the person deserving it.
Sonny insisted that his students called him Sonny, he even grimaced at 'sir', and would not tolerate bowing or any sycophantic behavior. He was a man of the old school and a true role model of a man who needed no external reinforcement to know who he was or what he had.

Here is a piece written by Edgar Sulite, a highly respected Eskrimador, that says it very well.

Thursday, September 29th, 1994
What Makes A Grandmaster?
By Punong Guro Edgar G. Sulite (edited by Master Reynaldo S. Galang)

"To be recognized as a Grandmaster or Master of combat arts in the Philippines, you must have made your reputation and show mental maturity and physical age. Grandmasters question the rankings of other grandmasters.

Masters and grandmasters are criticized and questioned regarding their skills and abilities. Who bestowed their title? Do they have enough skills for the titles they carry? How many years have they been practicing the art? How old is he? How many followers and students does this man have?

In other martial arts, the attainment of a certain level automatically designates the title Master or Grandmaster. In the Philippines, there are certain norms to be satisfied before one can be called and accepted as a Master or Grandmaster.

A master of the art must be a master of himself. He must be in control. His daily life epitomizes a man in control of his life, his destiny. A master of the art must know his art, its origins, its history, its philosophy. He must know the techniques, the interplay of techniques, and the reversals of techniques.

A master must know the basics, the intermediate forms and techniques, and the advance levels of the art. Mastery of the art does not only mean so many years in the art, but the amount of experience using the art, one's personal evolution within the art and personal dedication and contribution to the art.

A master of the art must know how to teach and impart knowledge from the art. He must be able to communicate, elaborate and present the art in such a way that each student learns on a personal basis. Each instruction is adapted to the learning process and ability of the student. A master must be a real maestro, a real teacher.

A master of the art must be of good character. He should epitomize the qualities of a leader, the majesty of a noble, and the courage and strength of a warrior.

A master of the art is called and acknowledged a Master by other masters, never by himself."

Do I think Sonny was a Master of his art? Of course I do, but don't believe me, decide for yourself.

Earlier Than You Think

2011-07-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped - African proverb

If you are always getting stuck in the same corner, or getting hit in the same way, freezing, 'running out of angle' or losing your balance.
The problem is not at the moment of failure, it's in the moments leading up to it.
You are probably repeating a mistake, not noticing something important, playing your own game without watching your opponent, failing in your set up or lacking in guile.
Failure is the end result, not the problem, and the point of no return often comes much earlier than you think ..... Though having said that, the more creative you are, the later it tends to be.

Timing

2011-07-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a fabulous video of Michael Jordan playing basketball. I really enjoy watching his timing as he evades his opponents' defense, passes and/or shoots.
Musical analogies work well - He breaks beats, stutters, holds notes, stops suddenly or flows seamlessly whilst passing in an unexpected direction.
Watch how he does not commit the shot until he has an opening, the use of curves instead of straight lines, the turns, pivots, jukes and of course the timing.
And then imagine doing this with swords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDLoHqXgMCs

Buying and Selling

2011-07-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

You have to sell a fake, and it has to be bought.

It has to be something your opponent wants, or wants to avoid.

You can't just put something out there and hope it looks like the genuine article and assume someone will take it.

A successful fake must look real, read - attractive or dangerous, if it looks like a fake and it is not particularly attractive or dangerous it does not work.

You have to understand what real things look like, and what looks real to people. And also how different things look real to different people.

You can't sell fakes until you first learn how to sell reality.

A TMA* Interlude ....

2011-07-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

My teacher is coming next month from Taiwan.
Luo De Xiu is one of the world's best exponents and teachers of the so called Chinese Internal Arts .... in my humble opinion of course .... and every year he does a 'world tour' of schools and groups that practice his lineage of Bagua, Xing Yi and Tai Ji (The Yizong system).
This year he is focusing a great deal more on Xing Yi than in previous years perhaps because he harbors a slight worry that the more popular Tai Ji and Bagua will mean less people are going to be able to pass on the deceptively straightforward, and as such perhaps somewhat 'boring' Xing Yi.

And I admit it - I thought it was somewhat boring too. Bagua is much more fluid and beautiful and you get to work your body in all sorts of unusual planes and angles that don't appear elsewhere, and Tai Ji has at it's core a long, elegant form that can keep you entertained for decades ... but Xing Yi? Well it comes from military training from way back when they fought with spears and halberds, it is always moving forwards (almost always) in a straight (almost) line, repeating a simple series of movements left and right, and there are only 5 ways of doing that (... OK the 12 animal forms etc ... but they came later).
Of course now, years later, my appreciation for the simplicity of it's forms and concepts has grown. The forms are restful, meditative, and the power development and body integration that comes from practicing them is noticeable .... and you get to play with long weapons ... and swords ... and that's cool all by itself.
It keeps you healthy, flexible and strong too.

* TMA = Traditional Martial Arts

Here's my teacher demonstrating the 5 elements that make up the basic practice.
I find it incredibly restful to watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3ek8i9pT4

Stimulus Response

2011-07-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

'Catching a ball is a stimulus-oriented response and not a motor one . In other words one that has been thought out . The conscious mind is simply incapable of organizing such a complex motor event. You can provide the stimuli to catch a ball but you cant consciously organize those motor events by which to catch it. That's why it is far more important to know what you have to do than how to do it .' - Steve Morris

The body possesses an intelligence that is innate. At the bottom of this post is a link to a pdf about 'Biological Motion' for those that are interested, it's a fascinating paper about the skills we are all born with.

So how this relates to training is this - Giving the body a problem, and some physical cues to copy if it can't work out a solution - the 'Mirroring' concept - and working from there is a faster and more efficient way of ingraining suitable responses that rote learning without the stimulus. Kinda 'Don't get hit' as opposed to 'Step left as I cut down, bring the sword hilt to you hip and make a small arc as you catch the weapon'.

Now maybe the most efficient way to deal with this particular cut is as described above ... but what if it's now slightly different in angle or timing? Perhaps with your feet in a different orientation and the start point of your weapon elsewhere ..? Do you teach more individual solutions ... or just stay with 'Don't get hit'?

Now you may be thinking that there are many different ways to 'not get hit' - absolutely true. And that some are more appropriate at certain times than others depending on what might happen next .... true again. So as you flow add the next thing as a stimulus/problem to solve - "Well that would work, except now you are really open over here, so how do you fix that"? (This sentence is a physical question not a verbal one). The problems keep coming as one thing always leads to the next ......

In case you were wondering, the conscious mind does have a part, but gets added later as an observer almost, until it can keep up with what's going on and choose different courses of action i.e. tactical decision making. Like driving where you are not paying attention to the physical movements of your arms and legs, but deciding which route to take to your destination.

Sonny never explained his concept in this way, but essentially that is what he was doing when he started teaching random flow. He created a format in which to present 'problems' and have the student 'solve' them. The key of course was to calibrate the problems to the student, always seeking to work at the edge of their potential, and at a pace where the conscious mind couldn't .... 'interfere'.

That's a real skill, and one of the ways that Sonny connected his fighting ability to his teaching ability - He spent every day he worked out testing people, watching them, leading them, setting them up and seeing what came out. After workouts he would watch tapes of what happened - he could rarely consciously repeat sequences of movements in class, which was frustrating to those of us who asked 'What did you just do"??

But in the end it was better because he would always answer, "Let's go again and see if it happens" .... which then meant you were now paying attention to the lead up to what might happen next, and if you were lucky could find what you were looking for directly from a problem solving context. The body would be engaged in the doing, the mind in the watching.

The fact that Sonny could calibrate his movement to each student was a huge gift to us of course, but ultimately meant he was also constantly in problem solving mode - solving how to get the student to 'see', and at the same time handicapping himself in speed and opportunity to match the student, improving his fighting skills and ability to get out of tight corners later, slower, and with the least movement possible.

Cool.

http://www-brs.ub.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/netahtml/HSS/Diss/JokischDaniel

Are you a good student?

2011-07-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Sonny asked me that once - it was a trick question of course.

On the one hand, you need to be respectful and polite, follow instructions and take the teacher's lead, take on board criticism and suggestion, listen carefully and modify your actions at their behest ...... On the other hand, everything you hear or learn should be taken with a pinch of salt, tried, tested, examined, thought about critically, investigated and played with. It's worth remembering that everything that is not personally experienced is hearsay.

For it to be your personal 'truth' you need to own it. You need to understand the context, the reasoning, be able to see it's worth and it's limitations .... and physically be able to manifest what you are talking about to complete strangers.

You have to be an active participant in your growth, willing to try things, but not get attached to their validity. You have to be open minded, attentive, work hard and think critically .. and laterally too.

You should also be able to adapt and change the information to mesh with who YOU are, and be able to expand who you are to test the edges of your possibility.

And perhaps most importantly, you have to be willing to fail and put yourself in positions where that is a distinct possibility, it is where some of the best learning comes from. I guess this is where it becomes important to have good 'others', in that I mean teachers, opponents, training partners etc to be authentic bad guys ... or honorable enemies. Your skill set will only improve in any meaningful way if the stimuli that you get to play against is authentic, challenging and as varied as possible.

We all seek guides in the subjects that we choose to study, but they are there to open our eyes, perhaps point the way, but not to carry us up the mountain. - Perhaps it would be best for us always to think of our teachers as honorable enemies? Someone for whom we have great respect as to their skills, but who we eventually need to learn how to beat. I know for sure that Sonny kept his personal 'secret weapons' in his back pocket, he refused to show his draw for instance, saying "I'm not going to show you my underwear", so on some level he was teaching us to not trust anyone completely. A worthy lesson in itself.

In the end, as Sonny said: "I am not teaching you, I am showing you what I do. It is then up to you to take it and make it yours". He could have added ... 'So that you can get good enough to defeat me'

Collaboration

2011-07-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

It is hugely fun to play with people outside your style, some of my best insights have come from seeing things I'd not even thought of before from playing with 'outsiders'.
When a new student started at Sonny's, their first lesson was usually to get straight in to the flow with him, Sonny would give openings that invited attacks and observe what came out. His only 'instruction' was to grin and say 'Don't kill me, right away OK'? By which he meant keep it light - both physically and emotionally.
He'd go easy at first, then start to 'close the doors', pushing buttons until a general picture of the students personality and tendencies came out.
He was not only learning ABOUT them, he was learning FROM them also.
Often during class he'd just ask - 'Show me some of what you do', and would love it if you explained how something similar was done in another style, either application or body training - By the next week he'd have incorporated the information into his material.
Filipino martial arts have been continually evolving over the generations, and without getting in to the political minefield of 'origins', it is certain that their various enemies were a factor in this. Such it is with all martial arts - you have your style because of who you are, and then there's all the stuff you learn to be able to beat your enemies because of who they are. Others were, and are a catalyst for creativity and evolution.
In fact anyone that is not you is ..... if you learn to understand them.
And a good way to understand them ...? Play with them or fight them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvmppAUuuv8

Guy throws a #1 ........

2011-07-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

So, the guy throws a #1 ....
... Why did he throw it?
Because he thought he had a shot.
...Which means my left upper quadrant was open somewhere and in range I guess
Yeah
... Where was my defense? I mean the guy is only going to throw if the target is open, so it means my defense line is open.
Maybe you missed a shot and over committed?
.... So ... I take a shot at him because there is a target I think I can reach that is in range but I miss. I guess he evades?
Yeah, he evades.
.... That means he either must have the angle on me or he fades out of range?
I suppose.
... And my weapon must be off the center line and probably tip low as well then to leave my upper left undefended enough to make him try for it?
OK.
... And he must be to the left of my center, because the only target for a #1 on the other side would be my weapon arm which is not in range.
So he comes in and you block.
... How did that happen ...? If he already had the angle on me and my weapon was so far off the center line, there's no way I'd make it.
Your weapon was not that far off the center.
... Well that means that I was not really open, so why did he throw the strike?
He's not that smart
... So this is a defense against a stupid person ...?
OK, He faded back so had to step in which gave you time to cover
... So he's stepping in throwing a #1 and I have enough time to recover and block the strike. Why didn't I just step in and hit him, or evade, instead of wasting my weapon on a block?
You block. That's what happens next.
So if I can block a strike that was aimed at my head, it means we are both well in range .... Is he following up? I mean he's close, and he still has his left hand free.
No, you check his weapon hand with your live hand, pass it and cut behind it.
.... Well if I was him, I'd drop to jam the strike, pivot and spiral in, either way we both have hold of each other and we're both carrying swords, what happens now .....?
.....................................................

Planes and Space

2011-07-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a comment on the previous post about playing with a Capoeira Angola player, and how his entries and attack angles were incredibly hard to read because he could do with his legs what he could do with his arms and vice versa. Ultimately though, the angles themselves really were not that unusual, just the transitions (and hence the timing), and the fact I was not used to the head moving so much in relation to the rest of the body.

To quote Sonny - "If they are coming for you, let them come, they are coming anyway, do not keep them out".
What he meant by this was not about waiting, but about recognizing that if your opponent is aiming for you as a target, there are only so many attack angles they can throw and hit you ... so knowing this you can make sure you are not on that angle when they throw it.
This is obviously simplifying things somewhat, but the point is that for any strike angle, which really is a single plane for a cut or a slice, and a single line for a poke or a stab, ALL THE REST of the 3 dimensional space around that plane or line is safe for that time.
There is only one place that is unsafe - on that plane or line.
If you can learn to see the space around the cut, and see your opponent's attack as an indicator of where this space is, and how it moves .... where you have to go and what you have to do becomes more obvious.
Gifts and emptiness .....

Face Off

2011-07-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

New guy (Hi D!), just started training with us, and told me that one of the reasons he wanted to look more in to our Eskrima was that our training looks very similar whether we are drilling or free fighting.
He said he would watch clips on youtube of different martial arts, and see drills and exercises, techniques and partner practices, and then compare them to how the practitioners of the systems actually free fight/spar/duel. More often than not, the fighting does not resemble the training at all.
One of the most common things that gets thrown out of the window is the body angling and the footwork which seem to disappear when the fight is on.

We started talking about why that is, and amongst other things we started discussing 'exits'. All systems teach entries or techniques, but I'm not sure how many, if any, consider the exit as a very important piece of the puzzle.
Exit, meaning getting out of range, and your opponent no longer able/wishing to continue, or getting into such a position that your opponent cannot do harm to you and gives up.

I learned a while back that it is a huge, perhaps KEY piece of the puzzle in dueling, as I do not consider a glorious double death as a desirable goal .....

So, what are the pieces you need when you take the exit into account?
In dueling with swords - Footwork, body angle, timing, defensive structure, a good offense, and the ability to tell lies.
How do you train it?
Avoid training facing square to your opponent.
Do nothing tactical standing still, do very little on a straight line, and do as much as possible moving around.
Fights/dueling are dynamic, they can move in any direction, and staying in front is rarely a good idea. Training for the exit, or to be in safety, has to be worked from the get go or there is little chance of it manifesting when things get a bit exciting .... or if you've never thought of it as something to do .....

Rory Miller had an interesting observation that might play in here about why people have this tendency to stay in front of each other - He noticed that when teaching his one step drill at seminars, which is basically a one for one partner practice, most people end up standing in front of each other. The one step is not sparring, but the tendency to turn it into something similar seems to be common. There's apparently something innate about standing in front of the opponent, especially if you are winning, probably because it gives a very strong dominance message - It is not good enough to just win ... your opponent must see that it is YOU that beat them - classic 'monkey brain' behavior, but tactically not a good idea if the stakes are high, especially with edged weapons.

A constant lesson Sonny instilled in us that might be worth adding is that you don't wait standing still - you, as the target must be moving BEFORE things kick off, or at least already spring loaded to move, instantly. (If you doubt why this is a good idea please read Mac's latest post about exploiting hesitation in his opponents on Quantum Donuts.)
I suspect that if you are already moving it's easier to keep moving (as long as you don't freeze), whereas if you start standing, you are already on the center line and perhaps also behind the timing. Bear in mind that it is extremely difficult to gain a beat when you are already a beat behind, especially if you get hypnotized by the monkey dance, and it starts playing you. Dueling may be a classic Monkey Dance in style ... but with swords it is 'lethal', which puts it far from any empty handed dominance games. And this is a tactical problem that many may not consider when learning only their entries and techniques.

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

2011-06-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

To generate progression in any field you need to change - in a dueling context, you might need an adversary that is either your match, or higher in skill that can beat you, though someone unpredictable will often do. Or perhaps an injury, or just plain getting older. In other words there needs to be a reason to change.
Just the IDEA that there is a better adversary out there, or people that are unpredictable, or perhaps the knowledge that you WILL age can also motivate you to improve your skills.
Whatever the reason, there needs to be a problem to solve and one of the greatest skills to have is to find problems worth solving.
Unfortunately the ego is an impediment to this ... it does not like putting itself in uncomfortable and novel situations, and will convince you that it has found some great problems when in fact it has set itself up with familiarity and easily solvable crap to confirm what it already knows .....

Easy way?
Play with people higher skilled than you and learn how to beat them.
Another way?
Play with people outside your system, outside your range of experience, and see what comes up. Basically find out what you haven't even thought about, because if you look within your comfort zone, you aren't even going to SEE the problems ....
You just don't know what you don't know ..... so best find out.

Here is a rather dense piece by John Boyd, yes the same one that came up with the OODA loop, about reality, concepts, problem solving, and thinking outside the box (pdf format).
Thanks yet again to Steve Morris for sharing:
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/JohnBoyd/Destruction%20and%20Creation.pdf

Got Defense?

2011-06-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

Steve Morris shared some video clips on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/morris.method

Here is what he commented on Floyd Mayweather:
"Here is a master of defence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK9en6g9JTQ . It's not that Mayweather never gets hit, its just the way he defends reduces the effects of the shots as well as the percentage that reach him. thats what gives him the confidence to go on the offence. He knows he can deal with whats coming at him."

Give 2 people swords and get them to spar, and the most common pattern will be some dancing around from the outside with some hand tagging ... and then generally either this continues ... or both people get 'bored' and decide to enter and both 'die'.
Sonny asked me once after spent rather long dancing around him -
"Why don't you enter?"
"Because when I enter I get hit" ....
"So you need to work on your defense, no?"
Ahhh .......

Steve Morris:

"If the person you're fighting can't effectively strike you, clinch, tie you up, take you down, positionally control, submit or ground and pound you .. Then your chances of winning the encounter on the feet or the ground rise considerably ..... Provided that is you have a good offensive game by which to finish your opponent off and you are prepared to invest in loss as part of learning your defensive skills .. And there's the rub in that not many people out there are prepared to invest in loss because they are too much invested with winning the encounter ..."

"Invest in loss" - Wise words, and exactly what Sonny tried to teach me, except he called it 'give something to get', You need to put yourself in danger to learn, to actually LOOK at (and feel) what is going on, to understand it and to deal with it.

This may seem totally logical on paper, but the doing of it goes counter to our ego. As an example, I did a mental experiment one day to try to pick the slowest line to stand in at the Post Office and grocery store, tried to stay in the slowest lane of traffic, tried to make everything I did take the longest time possible .... it was much, much harder than I thought. I guess we are programmed to 'win' on some very deep level.

But ... in training - it's absolutely invaluable to reaching the next level of skill.

Here is another great clip Steve Morris shared on the defensive skills of Rocky Marciano:
Rocky Marciano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0yHvw-vW0

Make it Big

2011-06-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

I was watching a VHS training tape from Sonny's - one picked at random ... I did try to label them with good descriptions but you know, one forgets ... so despite the label, it was a mystery as to what was on it.
It was a series of flows starting with sword, moving to short blade, then to a double cane partner exercise, on to empty hand joint locking.
Sonny always taught long weapons first, just in general, but then specifically to show how the principle we were working shifted from one weapon to the next.
Longer weapons give you bigger angles, bigger visual and tactile clues as to what is going on, they also take more time to throw, so there is also more time to 'see'.
It was interesting that the same morning, in Yizong class (which is ostensibly a Bagua class but ...) we were working with some Hsing-I - Two of the five elements, Metal and Water.
To get a couple aspects of the movement across I demonstrated with a long pole, to show the angle of the attack, the connection between the right and left hands, and the small curves in the form. It always seems to make more sense when you can see the big manifest from the small ... and thus can recreate the small motions with the big in mind.
Same with the forms in Bagua, in the Yizong system the body training is often done with long stances and big circles, theory being that it is easy to make big movements smaller, but easier to miss subtleties when working with small movements only.
I really like using weapons to understand movement, but I do not think I would have come up with the double cane drill that Sonny showed on the tape. A very interesting take on how to understand angles, and how to lock and unlock the joints of the body. Basically it starts with one person holding a cane in each hand, the opponent takes hold of the other ends and you start to pendulum .... perhaps one day I'll post a video.
Really innovative stuff.

Cool

2011-06-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

It was a hot, hot day here in The O which meant by 6pm it was absolutely perfect. Spent the afternoon watching VHS tapes of workouts at Sonny's and then found some old film footage of FMA on youtube as inspiration for what to work on.
Franz, Renato and Eric all came by and we flowed a couple hours looking at low line disengagement with the cane, and shifting left/right targeting by body angle alone. Also looked at some really difficult 'clothesline' angles and possible deflection options, worked left hand and played with sickle, checking, rolling the contact point and disengaging the elbow.

We also talked about this great article Franz had shared about training back in the day at Raymond Tobosa's school. Sonny always cited Tobosa as an influence in his style, and reading the training methods, I can see where some of his ideas came from .... very cool.

Here is the full article: http://www.fmapulse.com/content/interview-pangulong-guro-charles-chuck-cadell-iii

And here is a section from it .... Apologies for the formatting .......

" ..... He (Dan Inosanto) told me that the teacher I needed to seek was a guy by

the name of Raymond Tabosa. He told me Batikan Raymond Tabosa of the

Vilabrille system would be the man to start with.

MS: So when you returned to Hawaii did you seek out Raymond Tabosa &

was he difficult to find?

CC: Actually he was very difficult to find. Once I had returned, one

day I borrowed my sister’s car & traveled out Hwy 1. I saw this big

sign along side of the road that said Filipino Martial Arts training

camp. It was in a really odd place, in between the highway & the

pineapple fields.

No fancy studio, the area had planks & outdoor workout facilities.

When I pulled up a guy came out & introduced himself as Steve Solero.

After a bit of kidding about my Midwest accent, I asked him what style

he taught.

Guro Solero told me that he taught the “Moro Style”. I then of course

I told him that I was looking for Raymond Tabosa & would like to train

with him.

With a sigh & a nod Guro Solero said ‘ah, I see, well you come train

with me for awhile & then we’ll see about Raymond Tabosa.”

MS: So did you train with Guro Solero.

CC: Well basically I said to myself, “well here I am, I had no idea

that I was being put to the test at all.”

It was in the hot sun, and if you’re not aware, you’ve got these

pineapple bugs, near the pineapple fields, they just irritate the hell

out of you. You know you’re sweating & they just get all over you.

It was backyard training. They stuck me right in the back corner &

there is a pit bull chained up, barking all the time behind me while I

was training. I kept one eye on the pit bull just to make sure it

didn’t get loose enough to get to me.

From that standpoint I can see that they were testing me to see how

serious I was about learning their art.

The training was very interesting, they had golf club tubes filled

with foam, so that we could practice double stick sparring. Many a day

I’d come home with bruises all over my arms & body.

They had sort of a dome made from 6 long rattan poles that were joined

at the center at the top, then they had a few rattan poles that went

around in a horizontal position, inside of this “dome” is where we’d

practice our body mechanics. The cage was a circumference of about 9

feet. You had to climb into the cage, there would be 2 guys in the

cage & you sparred. Then you’d turn back to back & then 4 or 5 other

practitioners, they would feed different angles of attack so that

you’d have to make the proper adjustments, learn calibration & of

course learn what it felt like to get poked as if stabbed. You & your

partner, back to back would have to be able to read each other’s

sensitivity in order to stay out of harms way. They would use rattan &

the blunt end of the rattan to thrust & stab. That was around the 3rd

week of training. During the 3rd week we began “plank” training. We’d

have to do our drills while balancing ourselves on the foot wide

planks.

About this time I really became tempted to say, “Ok, I’ve only got a

couple of weeks left, I’d really like to meet this guy Raymond

Tabosa.” But I’d thought the better of it and decided not to push the

issue. It was a good thing. He called him up, he said, “yeah, I spoke

to Mr. Tabosa, I told him about you.” I made it clear that I still

wanted to continue training there, but the instructor said yeah, it’s

alright, and you’ll know when he’s here.

I continue training, about the end of the 3rd week, here came this

older man with the cane, his alohai shirt (his silkie, the shirt was

made of silk), had his sunglasses on, & his baseball cap, & he was

with another guy, short & stocky; they stayed & watched.

So I’m thinking to myself, hmm, guess this was a guest instructor, so

I’m working out doing stick drills, feeling good even with the dog

barking, so these 2 gentlemen sit down to watch me.

They go over to Guro Steve Somero & basically tell him they wanted to

talk to me. So I’m called over during our break, & the older man

extends him hand saying “hello, I’m Raymond Tabosa.”

He looked at me kinda strange, with my curly perm, & says “you from

the island’s here”. I explained after having a good laugh about my

choice of hairstyle, saying “Ah, you da 1st Filipino with da curly

hair,” as he was laughing aloud. I stated I come here every summer &

that my mother is from Hawaii, that even though I was born here we

moved when I was about 6 yrs old, & that I had family there. Mr.

Tabosa said, “Ah, you have family here, I know a lot of people.” I

said yes. He then asked what the family name is. I said “Juanita

Naton”. Mr. Tabosa said “Naton, I knew a Naton, Marcos Naton,” I said

yes that’s my grandfather. Then he just kinda stood there holding his

cane, he turned, talked to the guy who was with him, Wayne Casillias,

then he looked back at me & a little tear came out of his eye. He

motioned and said “you come here; I’ll meet you tomorrow at 6 am. You

know your grandfather was a strong escrimador too you know. He also

teaches the Filipino dancing & he was a great Sipat practioners. Sipat

is the game that combines volley ball & soccer.

So right from there it was Raymond Tabosa that opened up the doors as

far as meeting the unknown & unheralded martial artists.

MS: The length of the stick was that 24, 26, or 28 inches?

CC: It was pretty interesting, it was about 28 inches. Because w had

gripping exercises we had to do so that we could adjust the stick

length to work from close quarters. So that if you got rushed you

adjusted the grip with the torque of your body in order to be prepare

for all combat confrontations.

MS: How long did you work with Raymond Tabosa?

CC: About several summers. It was really amazing, you know the “old

manong” were so willing to share with you, once you passed their

screening process of course.

Of course I’d have to wake at 5am because the manong would be ready to

train by 6am of course.

I’d say to Mr. Tabosa, don’t worry I’ll meet you, & Mr. Tabosa would

say, “no, no, no, I’ll pick you up. I’d offer to pay for gas, again,

no, no, no. So he’d pick me up & he’d take me to Zippy’s restaurant,

which is like a McDonald’s or Burger King here in the states. We’d go

& there’d be several of the older men there, Snooky Sanchez, Mr.

Pedoy, & a few other gentlemen. So I’d offer to buy breakfast for

everyone & of course no, no, no, they wouldn’t hear of it.

So I’m feeling kind of uncomfortable off the bat.

We sat drank coffee & started talking together. Then I was asked why I

wanted to learn the Filipino Martial Arts, and I said because I wanted

to learn about my culture & truly had no idea that our culture even

had a martial arts system associated with it.

So as we talked I was told, ok we’ll start off with this; so one of

the gentlemen would get up one at a time & demonstrate their technique

of their system

I truly wish I had a video camera at the time because of the unique

content, character & emotion that would be displayed by the manong as

they’d demonstrate their systems for me.

Snooky Sanchez then talked about how the stick would help develop the

proper body mechanics & assist with positioning. He was developing his

own system at that point, he referred to it as the “star system.” He

would talk to me about triangulation & the geometrics of the art.

These things were way above my head at that point, coming from the

tournament style of fighting that I had been exposed to in the past.

But these guys were talking about proximity, positioning, &

calibrations. I was so amazed with the sum of knowledge that they

shared. We talked for about 3, 4 or 5 hours.

Then everyone else would go their own way. Mr. Tabosa would take me

then to a Filipino restaurant and eat. I’d offer to pay but it was

never accepted. All summer it was like that.

That as a whole was my 1st lesson from Tabosa, “You serve your student.”

MS: So this was a complete 180 degrees from what you were used to previously.

CC: Yes, in the more traditional martial arts, back in that day, you

put on a code of arms for the instructors. But with these old manong

it was quite the opposite. That’s just the way they were.

MS: You indicated that you had spent several summers training in

Hawaii. Was that primarily with Tabosa at that time?

CC: When Tabosa and I would get together it was primarily research

into the Vilabrille System. It would be more like a conceptual thing.

As far as training we would talk principals. With Mr. Tabosa it was

more informative.

MS: In regards to the blade training, did Mr. Tabosa introduce you to

the methods of cutting, slicing & blade movement?

CC: This too is very interesting, because again his instruction was

more about micro adjustments, & how to position the blade.

During my time at Western Illinois University, I was a proponent &

student of European fencing. A lot of opinion is that fencing is one

dimensional, but that is only the sport aspect. In further research &

study one can see the adaptations made due to length & type of blade,

the type of positioning & adjustments made within the FMA as well as

European fencing with street applications.

MS: So after your training each summer & particularly after several

summers with Mr. Tabosa & the other instructors, after returning to

the Midwest, were you able to or did you incorporate the skills

learned with your Shuri te/Shorin ryu training?

CC: I kept the arts totally separate, as a matter of fact, after

training in the FMA, I never went back to training in the Asian arts.

Now that’s not to downplay the training in the Asian arts, it was just

a stepping stone for me. I took the philosophy which I was taught

learning the Asian arts was never wasted, it was the foundation for me

to move on & forward. Later I came back to some of the kata that I’d

studied before, while examining the translations within the FMA & saw

the valid similarities in some technique of the FMA & Asian martial

arts. There is valid training technique within the Asian martial arts."

Eye Sight

2011-06-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a thread from The Dog Brothers forum on bilateralism: http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=513.0
No-one can deny that the left and the right side must work together, and if you can use your left and right hands/feet interchangeably, all the better.
Any usage of double weapons will require this ability.
There is some debate however, about whether you should train your dominant side to stay dominant - it's stronger and better already and should be as good as it possibly can be, or whether you should train the non dominant side more - until it gains the same facility (or as close as possible) as the dominant side.

Sonny used double weapon training, and also 2 handed weapon training with the Bogsai to improve the non dominant side, in my case the left side, but was of the mind that there was no need to force both sides to be equal, as long as they both worked, and both worked together, one side could be dominant. He referred to them as the husband and the wife, implying that if they were by nature different, but if they worked together, that was good, if they were at odds with one another it was bad.
So the question is - it is it desirable, or possible to be completely bilateral?

A couple insights I had when training my left (non dominant) side. These come from house painting.
I trained myself to paint with my left hand by moving both hands together, my right hand would do the motion at the same time as my left. After a while I noticed that as long as my right arm muscles were engaged even if they were not moving, my left could paint - this actually took a long time to get rid of and now I try to consciously relax my right side when I use my left.
(I transferred this to learning how to use the sword in each hand - Both at the same time and also, switching from right for a move and then to left to copy the move.)
After a while it felt as though my left was pretty much as good as my right at painting accurately and quickly ... until I got a bad bout of tendonitis in the back of my right hand that made it very hard to use at all.
I was forced to paint entirely with my left for a while and what I noticed was how hard it was, and how bad my alignments seemed to be, my whole body seemed twisted and awkward.
Took me a while to realize what was going on - Even when I had been painting with my left, I had been changing my brush over to my right as I dipped it in the can or moved around, so only one part of the action was being done with my left. I had been avoiding the rest of the motions for a reason ....
I realized that the whole body actually has to re-orient around the hand, AND THE EYE, to paint constantly with the other side - or dip, or move, pick up and carry.
I am left eye dominant, so painting with my right hand involves my body aligning in a certain way to get the left eye/right hand coordination needed to paint a straight line. Switch to my left, and the alignments change to left hand, left eye. If I could sight out of my right eye I could keep the mirror image of the alignments .... but that would involve changing how I look out of my head ......
Hmmmm, so the question is, do you have to sight out of each eye in turn depending on which hand is in play to achieve true bilateralism? Or is it just one thing that you are doing ... sighting out of a single eye and aligning your whole body around it - left or right?
And then the obvious next question comes from how using peripheral vision plays into left side/right side hand eye alignment to the target ..... (I am wondering whether using peripheral, and then not using sight at all, at contact range, the whole ball game changes, and bilateralism becomes much easier and more natural)

Beauty

2011-06-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Mac's latest blog post http://quantumdonuts.blogspot.com/2011/06/levels-of-personalityhtml inspired this thought, or perhaps it was Steve Morris's latest blog post about multitasking: http://stevemorris.livejournal.com/50785.html

In any case I started thinking about what things really are separate, and what things really are just one thing, perhaps complex and dynamic, but a single whole none the less ...
For instance, is walking multitasking? After all many, many things are going on to propel you forward ... What about driving - lots of different things going on there? How about dueling?

Watching Sonny work was a thing of true elegance and beauty, though I have to say that finding it 'beautiful' was a strange thing to get my head around for a long time. After all, (to quote Rory Miller) he was in the business of making 'cripples and corpses' ...... perhaps not such a beautiful thing ....
Really, how could that be beautiful?

Took me a while, but what I realized was that the beauty came from his total 'connectedness'.
- His body was totally connected - all the parts worked as a whole - left, right, hand, body, hips, legs, toes, head, eyes ....
- His weapon was connected to this, the angle of the blade, the angle of the strike, the recycling and containment of the power all worked in concert with his body - no gaps or glitches.
- His alignments to hold his body in gravity with the most efficiency were precise and accurate. He knew his footing and was aware of his surroundings, using them to his advantage to trap and corner his opponents.
And ... He coordinated perfectly with his opponent ... by which I mean he played them as though were part of the scenery, a part of the moment like him, and just another element to connect with.

Like I said, a thing of beauty.

Just one thing going on - him, his weapon, his opponent, and his environment.

Weight Shift

2011-06-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason 100% weight shift is one of the hardest things to teach. It seems a large proportion of people, when asked to shift ALL their weight onto one leg, cannot lift the other leg off the ground without re adjusting or pushing off it .... which means they are not actually fully shifted over.
Think about it, if you cannot lift your leg off the ground without re aligning, you cannot be 100% on the other side. To test, you should be able to pick your leg up, put it down, pick it up again without the rest of your body moving - no shifting left or right, or front or back, or wobbling. Look in a mirror to check.
An observer looking at the upper half of your body only, should not be able to tell when you pick your leg off the ground - the upper body should look the same, as though nothing is happening. If you can do that, then you have found your 100% and the body alignment needed to make it work.
Now do it moving, as you walk, as you pendulum, as you flow.
Now, add to this the ability to balance and catch your weight so the whole shifting is controlled and you now have better options for stealing range and escaping without telegraphing, and the ability to hold neutral longer. You can also control the timing better and spend less time in range of your opponent. Oh, and as you can contain your power better, you lessen your chance of 'running out of angle' and increase your options for suddenly switching directions, changing tempo or dropping your weight for power when you need to.
And did I mention this means you can kick too ..... ?
Here is Jay Pugao, another of Sonny's students and a great exponent of the 100% weight shift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_vUA0e6s8

DBMA "Snake Range"

2011-06-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here is Crafty Dog, aka Marc Denny's take on the moments before contact - Dog Brothers style:
http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=2203.0
It's always interesting to compare perspectives, the different ways of seeing the opponent and how to size them up, and of course the language used to describe it.

The Evasive Reply

2011-06-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Recently we've been working on 'the box' and 'the wall' - basically blocks and parries.
It's never a great idea to clash swords force to force, even the highest quality Katana is susceptible to damage let alone Filipino swords that were generally made from much poorer quality metal.
If you are in range with no chance at evasion, and it's either your sword or you that will take the hit ... obviously you choose the sword, force on force or whatever, but more preferable is parrying, what we call having a 'wall'.
Note: There are ways of 'catching' a cut force on force turning a block into a parry, and ways of choosing which part of the blade to use to save the edge from damage.

One definition of 'parry' in the dictionary is an 'evasive reply', and though this definition was meant in the context of speaking, it also applies here as there has to be movement associated with going with the force of an opponents cut, as opposed to clashing against it.
Parries can be done near the edge of the range where there is still space for movement (shearing or 'cutting the angle'), or sometimes close in where you have to physically move your opponent's weapon off line and create space to move into (using an arc to meet a straight line), and are very useful as added security when closing.
Blocks are generally 'oh shit' maneuvers and generally occur well inside the range or to protect an exit.

On the way in, stay behind the wall, on the way out, stay inside the box ... and seeing as the majority of the time you should be either on your way in or your way out, not hanging out on the edge, best understand the defensive line as it needs to move with you.

(Note: The live hand can sometimes deflect a strike angle, changing force on force blocks to 'catches' or going with the force, but checks are a gift, take them if they are there to use, but chase them and you greatly up the risk of losing your hand.)

Intra-Brain Communication

2011-05-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Mac posted a piece about how the emotions play a key part in linking information to 'knowing' in the context of teaching/learning.
http://quantumdonuts.blogspot.com/2011/05/eureka.html
'Knowing' is my word for an ingrained understanding of something.
In an example I have experienced - After training for a while with Sonny I started to actively FEEL when I was open, physically perceiving those unprotected areas that are constantly being created by motion and striking. I swear I started to feel the breeze coming through them, like a window opened to let fresh air in, alongside the slight whistling sound of empty space. (Interesting - Not sight, but touch and sound ....)
This only came about of course because I spent many years getting hit. Not only getting hit, but trying not to get hit, i.e. failing.
The crucial part of the 'knowing' however came from linking the feeling/emotion of getting hit with searching for it's CAUSE.
Start to consciously try to feel the cause, and you can start to fix the problem.
So the Kadena in this case is - Don't get hit, it sucks to get hit, how do I not get hit?
Lizard, monkey, human ...... where perhaps the monkey acts as the bridge so human and lizard can 'converse' and actually effect useful change?

Cut and Thrust

2011-05-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Sonny impressed on us very heavily the notion that you can never take anything for granted, and that being within range of your opponent was always dangerous. Always. Even after what might seem a 'kill' strike, never ever let down your guard or stay in range.
Also, from the other perspective, just because you got hit does not mean you cannot strike back if your opponent is having their brief moment of glory and forgetting momentarily where they are ..... If they are in range, strike them. (Which reminds me of Rory Miller's admonition (paraphrasing here) - Don't die just because you think you ought to, keep going until you are actually dead!)
It has been said that the only real 'stopping' strike guaranteed to end a duel immediately is a decapitation, so best to always be sure of range and keep fighting whether it's you that gets the first hit in or your opponent.
Below is a link to a great article looking at accounts of historic duels, targeting, and the centuries (more?) debate about the relative efficacy of cutting/slashing vs thrusting.

http://www.realfighting.com/dubious_quick_kill_part_1.php

Wax On Wax Off

2011-05-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

Martial Arts are a great passion of mine, so when I am forced to take a break from training it feels very strange. Thankfully this break is not forced by injury but is job related, and as a painter I actually have the perfect job to compliment sword play - I get to practice dexterity, changing grip and manipulating the brush and other tools, I get to play with rolling poles and broom handles - no explanation needed as to how that is useful, hand eye coordination painting free hand lines, balance running up and down ladders - I try not to use my hands, pivoting and dropping using the Moro footwork for painting low area or picking things up, moving things with my feet only, painting left and right handed and switching hands seamlessly.
Additionally I can practice awareness and use of peripheral vision moving around other people, and whatever else might come into my mind during the day.
There's pretty much always an opportunity to train if you see the world as your playground.

Harmenberg's 'Shape'

2011-05-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

Thinking more on the'shapes' of things, I remembered this book called: 'Epee 2.0': http://shop.fencing.net/product_p/fb-e20.htm about a Swedish fencer, Johan Harmenberg, who was physically shorter and slower than his opponents, but who conceived of a strategy that worked to his strengths and against his opponents'. He became Olympic champion and revolutionized epee fencing ... some say to the worse, but his thought process is a fascinating read.
He understood who he was, how his opponents' fenced, and thus how to reach his goal.
Recommended.

Givens and Reasons

2011-05-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

Often my friend Tennis invites me to join him for the private sword class he takes with Sensei Mike Esmialzadeh. We practice the partner exercises from the system and I get to be 'the opponent' so Sensei Mike E can troubleshoot. Class is 6.15a.m. and without doubt is one of the funnest ways to start the day.
Sensei Mike E is high ranking in many Japanese systems, but has also trained various Chinese Arts, and Eskrima under Mike Inay. He is hugely knowledgeable, well read and highly skilled, and with this varied background can see behind the Arts to the principles that lie beneath - he can explain them, and he can do them.
Like I said - big fun.

Last class we were working attacks from the draw - counter ambush type stuff from the Toyama Ryu Battodo system, and that led to a discussion of the various ways that swords have been carried in different cultures and over time.
Mike pointed out that pre 1570 Katanas were generally carried edge down (as is the norm for sword carry in many cultures), but after 1570 though this was still true on the battle field, on the street the blade started to be carried edge up.

The 16th century had seen constant civil war in Japan which was to continue into the early 1600s, but after 1570 the climate quietened down, and the result was a country filled with warriors who had known nothing but war for generations, all carrying swords into an era of peace.
As one could also imagine, old feuds from the war era bled over into these times, and the integration of past enemies into peaceful neighbors was not a smooth process. This resulted in constant confrontations, street brawls, ambushes and assassinations. An attack could come at any time, from any direction, front, behind, round a corner, and could be a cut from above, the side, a poke, a disarm, and there could be more than one of them.
It became important to have counter ambush skills and a quick draw.

So why did this influence the way the sword was carried?

Carrying edge down gives you one good angle to draw and cut from (#3 in TRB), but makes it harder to draw the blade upwards or horizontally as you have to twist in and up on the scabbard to change the angle, and your wrist does not have so much range of motion in this direction - remember the sword is curved and so is the scabbard. But keeping the edge up means it is much easier to angle the body or twist the scabbard out and down (a much more natural movement) to change it's orientation, giving 5 good, quick draw directions, enough to (potentially) take care of any attack angle, from any direction when combined with movement.

So even in the most traditional systems, "why?" questions have answers rooted in pragmatism, historical or otherwise ... or should do.
Everything should have a good reason behind it, and asking "Why?" and discovering these reasons is a crucial part of understanding.

Note

2011-05-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

Morning Bagua will be on hiatus from May 12th through 26th. We will start back June 2nd.

Gifts

2011-05-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

Rory Miller often talks about 'gifts' - things that your opponent does that you can use to your benefit. Here is a great clip of a 220lb Sumo wrestler taking on an opponent much larger than him.
He never meets the force straight on, but either in wave, a curve or in shear, and uses his greater mobility to his advantage. Sadly he gets injured at the end of the clip when the big guy lands on his knee, but fun to watch up until then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16YHC1qM0S8

The Bridge

2011-05-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

This week we worked on 2nd Flow, which basically means that part of a duel after contact with the opponent's weapon.
We worked on Palakau, our version of close range practice using the cut, check, cut, check rhythm. It's kinda like what other systems call Hubad, but not really. In Sonny's system Hubad Lubag means 'tying and untying' and is a random locking flow done empty hand (and foot).
Palakau is done with weapons, and this time we worked the 'Hiwa' version or slicing, which entail the use of swords at a close range, cutting with the belly of the sword and making sure that the tip always crosses the center line on each cut.
At that range, the live hand must also come into play so is also part of the flow. The last important part is that it is done with a random set of strikes, limited to #s 1,2,3,4, but in no particular order.

'Tippy Tappy' drills have a great deal of bad press because often the reason for them is lost, perhaps in the attachment to set patterns or maybe just the joy of 'banging sticks'.
Tactically of course you do not want to spend anything but the shortest amount of time at this range, both parties are able to cut to the body from here and this makes it a very dangerous place to hang around.
It is a transitional phase only, but IMHO material has to be trained here as so many variables exist at this point - tactile sensitivity and the use of pressure and 'drop offs', when and how to use the live hand, how to manipulate a sword at close range, flush blocking, use of body angle to change strike angle, importance of the space between the cuts, rhythm and breaking it, not forgetting the added bonus of getting the eyes used to blades moving fast and close.
As with all things though, there needs to be a progression to the drills that may start with inaccurate targeting and inappropriate insertion of the live hand, but through the drill point out these errors, seek solutions, and promote more realistic behavior.
When I watch my old training videos with Sonny, after we would work on some particular skills within the Palakau and switched to an 'all targets are fair game' duel - the flow basically turned into enter, close, turn, cut, protect yourself as much as possible and exit ... much more realistic. As it should be.
One of Sonny's add ups was the 'Samurai on the Bridge' exercise (he watched alot of Samurai movies, Zatoichi was his favorite) where you and your partner start from opposite corners of the room and walk past each other as if on a narrow bridge. The goal of the exercise is to get to the other side in one piece .... Note the emphasis on 'one piece' as opposed to 'both dead'.
Have fun - it's not so easy as it sounds ..... :-)

Multi Dimensional Geometry

2011-05-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

So .... inspired by Mac's idea about drawing flows and from his blog post "Lifeshape": http://quantumdonuts.blogspot.com/2011/04/lifeshape.html, I started thinking more about the basic 'shapes' of dueling strategy. They all ended up needing to be 4 dimensional and looking like tangled balls of wool with the occasional knitting needle sticking out of them, or else abstract impressionist planes of red with a singular black dot in a far corner .....

Anyway, the basic strategy laid out in the last series of posts, using this idea of relative options is -
Narrow the opponents' options to one (or zero), whilst you remain with as many as possible until you have prevailed.
I guess in some way this is true for other types of combative encounters too, the main difference is that in ambushing, say, your opponent(s) starts with having none/one option if you are doing it right, dueling they may start with as many as you do, and your task is to take away theirs whilst keeping yours.

So shape wise, if you think about 3 dimensional space, you are physically cornering your opponent into 'running out of angle' i.e. options. Time wise (the 4th dimension) you either take it away from them completely, or you gain on them temporally so they are following. You can also 'corner' or freeze your opponent's emotional state by using psychology, their intent too, physically and psychologically. And of course you can use the environment to your advantage if you see it as yours to use.
So ultimately the shape is a corner, or a dead end (LOL) ... but it's a multidimensional corner, and I have no idea how to draw that ....

Finally it seems fitting to look at the view out from this corner, and this brings to mind Rory's comments about luck and chaos - luck being one of the 4 elements present in all interactions (the others being you, them, and the environment).
If you are winning, it's best to lessen the options, lessen the chaos and narrow the potential for lady luck to swing the other way, but,if you are losing ..... it behooves you to increase the chaos as luck is fickle, and if your options are tending towards one/zero you might as well create as much chaos as possible to shake up the many dimensions in which options exist.

Solutions

2011-05-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

In theory you or your opponent strikes when you think you can hit the other (if one of you is just striking without targeting, the game is probably one sided anyway).
These opportunities happen because an opening presents itself either through loss of the defensive line, or because striking by it's nature creates openings.

There are 3 'timings' for striking - before an attack, during, and after.
If your opponent has any gaps in their intent, before they have collected themselves, or when you sense they are about to go, that is your moment to go 'before'.
'During' is letting your opponent strike and adjusting so you are not exactly where they thought you were, but still protected and the weapon untangled enough to be able to strike back.
'After' is similar but utilizing the space behind a cut.

All involve either creating or waiting for a commitment of either intent or movement, and taking advantage of it, and if, as has been pointed out, waiting is dangerous ... then creating is the safest path - Sonny called this 'writing'.

The classics say - "My opponent moves but I get there before him".
This is often misread as waiting, but this is not so if options 1 and 2 from the previous post are not opposites. If 1 and 2 can happen simultaneously then you have room to play.
In this case, 'don't wait', means lead but don't commit. 'Don't commit first', means commit only after they do.
In easy English it means set them up, or make them an offer they cannot refuse.
As Sonny would say, the 2 most worthy dueling skills are 'Don't get hit' and 'Tell a lie'.

NOTE: Committing to an attack or strike has by it's nature narrowed your options to '1'. You had better be sure that you haven't wasted it by trying for a hit that's going to fail, or taking a hit yourself.
Keep moving/testing/leading but don't commit to one path until you have the time and space to get away with it.

BIG CAVEAT - This process is time dependent, you do not have infinite time to make this happen - Remember, the longer the status quo, the more dangerous it gets.

Problem

2011-05-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Carrying on somewhat on the theme of Options vs Opposites:

2 Big reasons why you get nailed -

1) You are a beat behind (following), and your opponent leads you into making a defensive error and hits you.

2) You enter and your opponent is laying in wait for you, takes advantage of the opening your strike creates, and hits you.

Hang on a minute .....
1) says my opponent leads and I get hit because I am behind, but
2) says if I go first and they are waiting, I get hit ....??

I wait, I get hit, I go, I get hit ... Hmmmmm .....

Life Touch

2011-04-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

Talking with Mac and Rory over coffee last weekend, the conversation meandered around many facets of martial training and life. I actually don't remember how we got talking about 'secret death touches' ... but Mac, without missing a beat said something like "I'm not interested in the death touch, I'm interested in the life touch".
I think he just defined for me what being a teacher should be about.
Cool.

Stasis and Stuckness

2011-04-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Stasis can happen in space or time. Those moments/places of equilibrium can be empty or full. If they are empty they are yours to exploit, if they are full but balanced you can wait - change is inevitable - and anything dynamic has by it's nature spaces within it where opportunity and possibility live.

Getting Your Learn On

2011-04-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

Along with the physical training, I had the pleasure of drinking coffee on Sunday morning with Rory and Mac. We must have sat there for about 3 hours and I have to say, what a privilege it was to listen in to 2 guys working at the level of awareness they do.
In the same way that the afternoon brawling session feels like soup ... no, perhaps better, a rich stew in my body, this conversation sits in my mind in the same way.
It's an elusive thing when you start to try to pin down what you talked about or what you learned, in the same way that intuition is lighter and stronger before you stare at it too hard.
I absorbed a great deal from the company of these 2 men, talking, listening, watching.

Learning with Rory Miller

2011-04-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Trying to formulate in words about training this weekend with RM, and I mean 'training' in the broadest sense - encompassing talking, watching, listening, feeling, flowing, forgetting, owning, reacting, losing, creating, and most of all playing. Definitely playing.
There was nothing to complete or accomplish, and I'm not sure if I could label what we did or what I learned, but I know it changed things. I had glimpses of possibilities and got to experience a different, more visceral kind of chaos than I had spent time in before.
Flying home brought to mind leaving Sonny's house after a training session, sitting in my car and feeling like I'd had my fingers shoved in an electrical socket - I felt disoriented, shifted somehow, and imagined that an observer would notice that my hair was somehow standing straight out from my head. Back then I often did not remember how I drove home.
This was kinda like that too, except now I know exactly where my ribs, neck and jaw are, I have tape around both my big toes, and I seem to have some random grazes that I don't think were there before.
What a gift to play with such a highly skilled, big cat that doesn't want to kill you.

A Quantum Donut

2011-04-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Poem from Mac -

"Stability is chaos;
Chaos is the gift;
Nothing, the goal."

Mac's blog -
http://quantumdonuts.blogspot.com

Your Own Personal Tree

2011-04-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

A couple new guys started training and we've been working on the basics. We started with footwork first of course, and worked upwards through shoulder knee alignments to learning some basic cuts and blocks/parries.
I found myself saying again - 'Remember, the weapon is an extension of your body'- a phrase that has been repeated through countless generations. And it most certainly is, it has to be, because it is the only thing that stands between you and your opponent's blade.
Pardon me for being so graphic, but humans are squishy - that's why edged weapons have been so effective through much of human history as killing implements. We leak when we get cut and become dysfunctional when too much does, or something gets cut off.
Nowadays we just get to play at dueling instead of actually putting our lives on the line of course, but it is still worth remembering what the sword can do. It is sensible to avoid having your opponent's blade tip or edge touch you if at all possible, and if your sword is the only thing standing between you are your opponent's weapon, it makes sense that it should be wielded relative to it in a way that protects as much of you as possible, as much of the time as possible.

Remember back to playing tag as kids in the garden or the park, and how if you managed to get a tree between you and the tagger, you could stay on one side of it and keep them away on the other by moving round with them. That's the concept you need to do this.
In dueling, your sword is the tree, and in the same way that you have to move around the tree to keep your opponent on the opposite side, so you have to orient your body around your sword and move your feet to keep your self protected as your opponent moves (from above too... unless your sword is tree height).

The weapon is an extension of your body - not just your arm. The blade angle, cut angle, body angle, foot orientation are all connected.
As Luo Laoshi says about bagua practice: "Make the body One".
I would add for Eskrima - make the body and sword, 'One' too.

Steve Morris on Knife

2011-04-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

I like how Steve Morris thinks and though he does not write on his blog so much any more, concentrating more on his forum, there's still good stuff to be found there.
The man loves to fight, has been doing it all his life - getting into scraps as an Army brat around the world, then through studying/teaching martial arts and all that involved back in the 70s and 80s, and on through to the present day - he's in his late 60s now.
He is constantly researching, physiology and kinesiology in particular, to find ways to generate more power and speed in his own body, and looking at how to pass that info on to others to make them better fighters whether in the ring or on the street. He is tireless in his search for improvement, and looks and moves like a man 20 years his junior. He is a true Force of Nature.

I had the pleasure of spending a weekend with him a couple years back, taking his 3hr 'Primal' class, and then a 3 hour private the next day. I was out of my depth in the class, so much of it being ground work and geared towards MMA fighting, but the private was excellent, focusing on striking, power, rhythm and recycling.
I knew he had researched many weapon arts including FMA, so when I heard he was going to release a DVD on Knife Principles and Drills, I was curious to see what his ideas around it would be.
I finally got a chance to watch it this last week.
Steve and Sonny both agree that learning to deal with blade will up your game whatever your primary focus of training, and working with a blade sharpens (LOL) your accuracy in hand eye co-ordination and targeting, your ability to judge range and you appreciation of timing.
My favorite idea from the DVD was when Steve said you have to fight like you are 'writing and screaming' at the same time .... akin to Rory Miller's Lizard brain conversing with Human brain.
I enjoyed it, and it was cool to see the same concepts that I learned from Sonny from a different point of view and explained with new terminology. I also really liked his drill for transitioning from flow to fight and back again as an effective way to test the ability to explode off a hair trigger with meaningful and consistent power - that's a keeper for sure.

Here is the description: http://www.morrisnoholdsbarred.co.uk/shop_item_new_knife.html

Quote:

"When you are dealing with someone armed with a knife, no two situations are ever going to be the same. The possible variations are so numerous that it would be impossible to devise a universal approach to dealing with a knife attack. But one thing is certain: whatever strategy and tactics you might employ, there’s a strong possibility that you will end up seriously injured or even dead. Choice-wise, you are between a rock and a hard place.

No matter how many options you have, none of them can guarantee a good outcome, but a sure way to have a bad outcome is to have few options (or only one) available to you. To prevail against a knife, you need to be able to adapt to whatever action possibilities the situation affords with regards to gaining control of the knife and incapacitating your attacker in some way.

The knife is dangerous, but how dangerous it is depends on the person who is using it. The greater their intent to injure or kill, the more dangerous they—and the knife—become. Their skill level with the knife is not as important as their mindset, which means that effectively anyone who is highly aroused can use a knife to deadly effect. As dangerous as the knife is, you also have to address the attacker who is wielding it, and you must do this at the same time as you address the knife itself. If you go for one and not the other, you are taking an enormous risk, possibly a fatal one. Being able to change goals and multitask is a valuable ability to have in any fight, but in the reduced space and time of a knife attack it isn’t an option—it’s a necessity. And the better you get at it, the better your chances of survival.

Multitasking has more than one meaning. You may be simultaneously performing two or more tasks, or you may be switching back and forth between tasks rapidly. You may be performing a series of different tasks one after the other, either to accommodate your original goal or because your goal is changing on the fly. So in addition to being able to do two things at once, you have to be able to ‘switch off’ the rules for performing one task and rapidly ‘switch on’ the rules for a different task. For example, you may be controlling the limb while hitting to the head one moment, and switching off the rules you use to control the limb while switching on the rules needed to instead attack the limb in the next moment as your tactics shift. It’s a very fast game, and a diverse one in terms of skill.

A knife can inflict serious or fatal injury in a reduced space, time and motion. And it is within the constraints of this limited space, time and motion that you have to be able to work. You must be able to read the situation, the opponent, the environment, and those visual, tactile and even auditory cues that your opponent provides. In this reduced space, time and motion you must set goals, switch goals, and carry them out through multitasking appropriate to the goal you’ve set.

This is why, as a martial artist, knife in many ways presents you with a supreme challenge. It challenges abilities and faculties at all levels because it requires you to do everything in a narrow time frame and under tremendous pressure, demanding among other things economy of movement, generation of short-range rapid/repetitive power, and extreme mental focus. It teaches you to instantly read and act upon your attacker’s visual/tactile cues despite the danger at every moment. At times, the left hand is simultaneously doing something completely different to the right—an ability that few people possess. Even if you were to ignore the street value of knife training, you would find that it yields tremendous dividends to your overall performance as an athlete and a fighter.

When knife defence is taught, it is typically with a one-option-at-a-time approach, or even just with a single paradigm intended to govern everything you do. I liken this approach to being a bus driver who is required to drive a given route and sticks to it at all times. It works well enough when there’s not too much traffic on the road, but when the congestion builds up or a given route is blocked, the bus is immobilised. A knife fight has a lot of traffic and unexpected diversions—openings appear and disappear unpredictably and in a flash. In a knife fight, you need to be more like a London taxi driver who has multiple choices of route stored in his head, so that if one way is blocked, he can switch to another route and still reach his destination in good time. He can even change destinations on the fly. With the bus, once you’re on it you’re stuck to a prearranged route.

The knowledge and experience required to be like a taxi driver and not a bus driver doesn’t come easy. It’s an ability that is acquired through doing. And once you have the ability to deal with multiple options and the fast, changing game, the knowledge provided by your prior experience doesn’t weigh you down. On the contrary—it speeds you up. Some people are afraid of cluttering up their head with too much information, because they fear they’ll freeze with indecision in the crunch. But this is only likely to happen if your training is all based on theory, demonstration, and drills that are one-dimensional; i.e., ‘if he does this, I’ll do that’. The way I teach knife is completely different, and it’s designed to impart skills and faculties straight into your neuromusculoskeletal system without you having to do a whole lot of thinking about it.

I have been working with knife on and off over the course of many years, but much of the material on this DVD comes from the past few years, through a process of teaching and experimentation with complete beginners outside of the martial arts. I have been developing, testing and refining these methods with a private group in London, and in early February 2011 I introduced the approach to the Gloucester martial art group you see on the movie (recorded 2 February 2011 at Murray Bruton’s training facility). Some of the participants on the DVD have had a lesson or two involving knife prior to filming; others have had no preparation or experience at all. There is no difference in my approach for beginners.

The DVD consists of a training session at Murray Bruton’s place, followed by an extended PS recorded at my home where I go over some details and finer points of what was covered in the class. Finally, there is another chunk of footage with some improved drills to round everything off. This is a substantial recording, a significant evolution from the old 1998 Stick and Knife DVD, and it contains a large amount of information. You can use this material to supplement your fight training whether or not weapons are normally a part of what you do. For those who have been following my ideas over the years, you will find that this DVD really pulls together the critical concepts and encapsulates the essence of what fight training needs to be."

Quote:

2011-04-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

"Art is not the 'what' it is the 'how'" - David Mitchell

RHD 3 - Discord

2011-04-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Once you can feel an opponent's rhythm, and have a range of your own to play with, you can use it to your advantage. You can jam them, bait them and generally screw with their timing. You can tempt them with openings and take them away, you can overwhelm them with a sudden change in rhythm, or force mistakes or rash moves.
Sonny has been called a 'ghost' on many occasions because he had an uncanny ability to appear to be in one place and then not, or suddenly close the range seemingly out of nowhere. He could also dissuade his opponent from attacking by timing their intent, or lead them into freezing or panicking by doing something unexpected.
The best analogy I have is a musical one - he could bend notes, or subtly extend or shorten them to tweek the tempo and steal range or force his opponent commit. He could syncopate, change tempo suddenly or slowly, turn up the volume or become barely audible.
He never explained what he was doing with musical terminology, but as he was a musician and composer, and also a dancer, it seems fitting. Music was a very important part of his training sessions - we rarely flowed without something playing in the background, and I know for sure that he was very precise about the pieces of music that he chose to play during flow, choosing them as subliminal indicators of the tempo he was trying to get us to feel.
Of course I did not realize this for many years - only after I started to notice the part that rhythm played in dueling.

RHD 2 - Harmony

2011-04-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

Dueling involves 2 people ... usually ... let's say at least 2 people.
The reason this is important is that what you do has to be relative to the other person in the equation - their personality, fighting style, physical size etc. You do what you do because it is that particular person facing you. If it was another person in front of you, you change your game to fight them.
An easy example would be noting the difference in tactics between fighting someone 6'5" (One of Sonny's students was this tall) vs someone left handed vs a Serrada player vs a high skilled VCKE player.
You are also part of the equation of course, with your own strengths and weaknesses, so again, relative to your opponent, you make choices regarding the best strategy to use (obviously the more options the better).
It's the same as dancing (or conversing*) with someone, the person standing in front of you is why you dance like you do - there are 2 people involved in the interaction, at least there should be (it's called playing with yourself otherwise), and dancing to your own beat with no regard for the other will get you 'killed' dueling if your opponent can read your game.
It's always a good idea to know who you are fighting, and in flow training, a way to find out who they are, to understand their rhythm, their personality, is to get out of your own head and body and into theirs.
What is their natural rhythm, cadence, tempo? Is there only one? More?
Can you find them?
BE them?
What does this tell you about who they are, how they fight?
Can you put their rhythm into your repertoire to fight others?
Sonny called this 'Mirroring' (FYI: there are many different types of Mirroring, not just regarding rhythm) and it is a very important skill in our system.

* - (For those that are interested, the article I wrote a while back (jeez it can't be 7 years ago already ...) about flow: The Art of Conversation is here: http://www.visayaneskrima.org/articles.html )

Rhythm, Harmony and Discord Part 1

2011-04-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Sonny videoed all his classes. He kept one copy, and he had 2 recorders hooked up so at least 2 people could get copies of each session to take home. I'm pretty sure some never spent much time watching their tapes, but most did, and I certainly spent a few hours every week reviewing the workouts.
Video is a hugely useful tool for gaining insight into your gaps and tendencies, teachers can point out personal glitches that you yourself can't feel, but seeing them in glorious technicolor gives you a whole new level of certainty that you cannot deny.
Watching yourself 'in action' can be somewhat cringe worthy at first, but getting used to watching your own movement, objectively, is great training for separating ego from skill, and as a start point for troubleshooting what needs fixing.
One of my great insights occurred when I started to notice how I had a personal rhythm, a way of moving when I flowed. The more I watched the more I could see the pattern of my movement, it predicted when I entered and dictated my (weak) attempts at faking. No wonder I was easy to read! It pervaded all I did and once I'd noticed it it became almost embarrassing to watch.
Once I got over that ... ahem ...... I noticed that everybody 'suffered' from the same issue - a personal, and unconscious way of moving that was predictable. So I started to pay attention more to peoples' innate rhythms, and tried to notice what separated the higher skilled players from the beginners.
Sonny was a chameleon, so was a great person to learn from by watching, and what I noticed was this - We all move like ourselves - Sonny Umpad's movement is totally recognizable as his, so is Floyd Mayweather's, Bruce Lee's etc ..... but, all these guys, though each has a distinctive way of fighting, also has many rhythms and tempos within them, as well as a whole spectrum of break beats at their disposal.
That is what separated them from the beginners that generally have only one game to play.

Finding new or different rhythms and ways of moving is actually fairly tricky because by their nature they feel ... unnatural.
Until you can make them yours they will be stilted and self conscious, like the physical equivalent of bad acting. They will also take a great deal of concentration to do, which means you are a much easier target during training, and in essence become a beginner again. Your ego may have a problem with this - not only the losing part, but the part that links who you are with how you move ......
But, it is a worthwhile endeavor and will up your game considerably if you practice. You'll still be you, but just more so.

Part 2 will look at the relationship between what you do and who you play with.

Don't Get Hit Part 2

2011-04-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

I shamelessly stole these video clips from a friend's blog.
Evasion is hugely important in Filipino style dueling, blocking too ... you really really don't want to take hits with an edged weapon if you can avoid it.
Your footwork, 'ma-ai' and defensive structure must all work together. Defense and offense should essentially be the same thing - focusing solely on evading is not a plan. Defense sets up the position for the offense ... after all 'not getting hit' can also be achieved by keeping your opponent busy defending themselves
Here's some nice boxing and MMA examples - (Note: the music and editing in the first clip are obnoxious ... but you can always press the mute button :-)
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNdIDIFT4Q

Anderson Silva:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9sxbvWSwQk

Original post on Jon Law's Blog:
http://epicmartialartsblog.com/sweet-science-%E2%80%93-lessons-from-boxing-defense/

Back in 1764 ......

2011-04-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

From Kenjutsu no Fushikihen (On Ignorance in Swordsmanship), written by Kimura Kyuhou in 1764.

The author's teacher traveled incognito and visited various schools of swordsmanship to compare systems. He said this:

"All of them employed paired kata and there were none who had achieved outstanding skill. Among those who showed little understanding were those orthodox teachers who created and taught choreographed patterns. Although it is said this makes it easy to understand and refine the principles of the style, the results should bear this out. They are unable to lead anyone to realization of the principle."

(I have yet to read the book. Quote was found on the blog: ichijoji.blogspot.com)

Drills Book from Rory Miller

2011-04-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

This came out a few weeks ago now and I have no idea why I didn't recommend it earlier. It's a very good book, not just physical drills, but some great 'plastic mind' exercises and some even bigger stuff to play with.

This is what someone else said about it:

"Rory, The title vastly undersells what you put together this time. It's not so much a drill book as a guide to re-engineering oneself.. One thing that surprised me (albeit only slightly) was the number of invitations for readers to come out and swim in deep, dark waters. Tremendous growth potential for folks who take those invitations seriously. Here's hoping they like, or at least can accept, what they find."

Like I said, it's very good.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/44993

How?

2011-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

In answer to CTK's question as to how to apply/practice from the 'Options not Opposites' post

Logic:
You need to understand the 'point of no return' and become aware of it. Then you have to try to feel it ABOUT to happen - i.e. when you still have options. Then you have to learn to DO something about it - that means not freezing and not looping, but CHANGING something.
What can you change? Well that's why you need to have your weight distributed and feet placed so they can move. Your body angled so it can move, your weapon placed so it can move, and the ability to see where is safe and where is not.

There's a bunch of tactical stuff here as to how not to get into this position in the first place (and a bunch on how to use it as a bait), but if you do find yourself losing options, but have not reached the point of no return, the list I gave is things that will help get you out, or perhaps turn the tide in your favor.

So to your question: How to apply/practice ..?

For the DO list -
For footwork - Out of context I would have to say soccer, basketball, salsa dancing, fell running, hackisack.
You can also practice hopping, skipping, stutter step. Opening and closing doors and picking things up with your feet. Creeping/stalking etc etc
You can have someone throw a ball at you whilst you stand in front of a wall and evade (see video clip from epicmartialarts blog coming up soon). Sonny would throw knives and balls at us to evade.
The weapon stuff is just a question of practicing with it in tight spaces and at close quarters.

For the 'SEE' list -
You are right, flow is how you put it all in context - you need some one who can set you up, or at least point it out from the side lines as it is happening, so you can see it, and engage your conscious mind into changing before it gets too late. So you can practice noticing where the point of no return is, and trying to change the game before it happens.
This is the best way, because it's really hard to pretend to get cornered and have to react spontaneously if you don't have to. It's also hard to pretend the angles of attack with a sword you are going to have to deal with ... without a sword.

Sword and Circle

Snake Charmer

3 + Time II

3+Time

Dilemma

Verbalization Practice

Mr Wang Critiques ......

Cross Pollination

Classes for the New Year

No Monotone

A Bird in the Hand

Outside

Thought for New Years

Touching Points

Jamaica and Trinidad

Direct Transmission - Eskrima

Transmission II

Transmission

Kendo vs Miao Dao

Criticism

Steal from the Best

Stack the Deck

The Few Against The Many.

You .... Or Is It?

Neutral Points

Gentlemen's Blood

Counter Intuitive

Puntaria

Entropy

Sticky Blade

Use Your Powers For Good

Oops

Watch Yourself

Workout Oct 13

Getting Your Learn On

Chinese/Filipino Sword Afternoon

Mud Walking

Romance & Reality

'What's the Damage'?

Defining The Win

The Pen and the Sword, In Accord.

Forms

Sound Effects

Tha Wave

Simple, yet ....

Fascia

Anniversary

The Gory Details

Warm Ups

Sizing

Fulcrum Striking

Playlist

Ghost

The Goal

Ego, Death and Progress

The Maestro

Earlier Than You Think

Timing

Buying and Selling

A TMA* Interlude ....

Stimulus Response

The body possesses an intelligence that is innate. At the bottom of this post is a link to a pdf about 'Biological Motion' for those that are interested, it's a fascinating paper about the skills we are all born with.

Cool.

http://www-brs.ub.ruhr-uni-boc​hum.de/netahtml/HSS/Diss/Jokis​chDaniel

Are you a good student?

Sonny asked me that once - it was a trick question of course.

For it to be your personal 'truth' you need to own it. You need to understand the context, the reasoning, be able to see it's worth and it's limitations .... and physically be able to manifest what you are talking about to complete strangers.

You have to be an active participant in your growth, willing to try things, but not get attached to their validity. You have to be open minded, attentive, work hard and think critically .. and laterally too.

You should also be able to adapt and change the information to mesh with who YOU are, and be able to expand who you are to test the edges of your possibility.

In the end, as Sonny said: "I am not teaching you, I am showing you what I do. It is then up to you to take it and make it yours". He could have added ... 'So that you can get good enough to defeat me'

Collaboration

Guy throws a #1 ........

Planes and Space

Face Off

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Got Defense?

Make it Big

Cool

Eye Sight

Beauty

http://www-brs.ub.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/netahtml/HSS/Diss/JokischDaniel