Last newsletter I talked about the basic poser technique,
a technique where the attacker has to wait
while the defender does the technique.
That’s the basic thing you’ll see
that makes a technique useless and unworkable.
A secondary poser would be one where
the defender has unrealistic hand speed.
The attacker throws a punch or two,
and the defender’s hands are a blur,
almost invisible.
But is it realistic to assume
that you will be that much faster than your opponent?
In a fight everything speeds up.
Your attacker is going to speed up.
And that includes doing unorthodox things
that you won’t see on the mat.
So the idea of you being incredibly fast
and the opponent reacting in an exact, prescribed manner,
is false.
So,
solution.
Don’t practice techniques where the other guy waits for you to do the technique.
That was my first advice from the last newsletter.
AND…
practice techniques that are simple and basic,
and rely mostly on basics,
until you go out of your body.
This happened for me
right before I got to black belt
on applications from the form Botsai.
(Bassai, other spellings)
We did the three blocks
right at the beginning of the form,
and I knew I couldn’t keep up with the three attacks.
Month after month I practiced,
Trying to do something I knew I couldn’t do.
With endless practice I started to economize my motion,
and I started to use my body as one unit.
What I call CBM,
or Coordinated body Motion.
All parts of the body begin motion at the same time.
All parts of the body end motion at the same time.
All parts of the body contribute to the motion
according to the various percentages
of muscle, mass, etc.
One day I was doing the technique,
and suddenly it was as if I was behind my head,
not looking through my eyes,
but seeing everything without blinking.
My hands moved,
perfectly CBMed,
and my ‘whole body speed’ was faster than the attack.
That was a major point for me.
My body working as one unit,
being apart from my body,
and my body moving in response to my thought,
and not because of ‘reaction times.’
I often hear people talk about muscle memory,
and that is a silly concept.
Your muscles don’t remember sequences.
They remember pain,
but the real ‘memorization’
is a circuit in your mind.
And that circuit is enacted by you.
The human being.
And if you practice long enough
the circuits tend to delete
and you move without the need for circuits.
Which is seen as you being apart from your body.
Moving in…’the now.’
So good martial arts is liberating,
imparts a certain freedom of the soul.
And that is why you have to stay away from posers of ALL kinds.
Unfortunately,
most arts are so filled with posers
they rarely impart this freedom of the soul.
But almost any art can work
if you simply get rid of posers,
Focus on techniques that rely on basics
and a true estimation of time and speed of hands and so forth.
I would recommend applying Matrixing to your art
to make this happen.
Matrixing is the only scientific analysis of the martial arts.
Remember this:
Science only measures.
Matrixing provides solutions.
Obligatory ad coming up.
check out
The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing
GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!
This art has the meditative aspects of Tai Chi,
the simple, modular approach of Pa Kua,
the workability of GOOD karate,
and goes from block and punch
the closure of distance
to grab arts.
Incidentally,
I’m almost ready to publish a book on advanced Nine Square techniques,
including the only form in Nine Square Diagramming.
Stay tuned,
sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t,
and…
Have a great work out!
Al
Don’t forget to check out the interview
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