BEYOND TECHNIQUE

 by Yang Shuangxing (Phillip Starr)

Yes, I'm using my Chinese name this time – just for fun. It was given to me by my family in China and I'm proud of it...

I am often rather surprised at the number of martial arts practitioners who don't know that there is a dimension to their art that lies beyond technique and it is even more discouraging to hear them say that there is nothing beyond the punches and kicks and forms that they claim to practice every day. They insist that they KNOW this is true. Unfortunately, theirs will always be a shallow art.

The Yagyu Shinkage-ryu is an old, traditional style of Japanese swordsmanship. Yagyu Muneyoshi is accepted as the founder of this remarkable school. After many years of striving for techical perfection with the sword, he realized that technique would take him only so far. There was more to it than that...the secret was simple but extremely profound. It took him beyond technique and made his form of swordsmanship so effective that it was rumored that the warriors of this clan actually received special instruction from the “tengu” (spiritual goblins that were thought to inhabit various forests in Japan) and other supernatural beings.

To achieve genuine high skill, it is necessary to supersede physical technique. There's much more to the art than just learning how to punch and memorization of forms. It has to do with training the mind and spirit. I have been most fortunate in having met and trained with masters who realized this truth. On the other hand, I've met a good number of “masters” who not only had no clue about this feature of martial skill; they didn't even suspect.

How is this level of skill to be reached? First, one must be certain that there is a realm of skill that lies beyond technique; technical proficiency will only take us so far. Then it is most helpful if one has a teacher who has himself realized this truth and gone beyond. There are many who sense that going beyond technique is not only possible, but essential for those wishing to truly master the art. However, many such believers lack the gumption to train hard enough to attain physical perfection or anything close to it. Muneyoshi trained single-mindedly every day for years; he was obsessed with perfecting his skill. Most modern martial arts aficionados don't do this or anything close to it. It was only after his physical abilities had a reached an extremely high level that he was able to go beyond technique.

YOUR IAIDO SUCKS!

 by Phillip Starr

The iaidoka (iaido practitioner), a full 7^th dan and the foremost authority of the art in the U.S. began his kata again, for the umpteenth time. His teacher, the foremost authority on the art in the world, was visiting from Japan. But there was a problem; the performing iaidoka was nisei (2^nd generation Japanese, born in America) and spoke very little Japanese. His teacher, very old school, spoke no English and he was berating his student about something or other. The senior student tried to argue, but to no avail; his English words fell on Japanese ears. He was frustrated. At long last, his wife, a Japanese with a full command of the language and a skilled martial artist herself, stepped up to him. He looked at her with inquiring eyes.

“He says your iaido sucks!”, she said. “Do it again!” And so he started the kata over.

True story. I won't mention names because the senior iaido student is my iaido grandfather. But the phrase that his wife repeated for him stuck...”Your iaido sucks!” My teacher was present when this incident occurred. His teacher (my grandfather) is not known for handing out compliments (on one's performance), regardless of how well one has demonstrated his skill. When my teacher took his last examination, he anxiously awaited the posting on who'd passed the test. I knew my teacher would pass the testing; his technique is very, very good and his kata performance is equally excellent. When the posting was put on the wall, his name was on the list! His teacher was standing behind him and scowled.

“I passed you”, he said. “Barely.....”

These seemingly harsh admonitions aren't intended to be caustic at all. Rather, they are intended to keep the practitioner “honest”, aware that his skills can and should be polished further. Praise is extremely rare; the closest phrases to indicate approval might be something like, “That's better”, or something like that. In this way, the aspiring practitioner understands that he is slowly improving but still needs more polish. He is never allowed to be content with his performance. Those who look for, expect, or need accolades are in the wrong place.

WHERE'S THE MEAT?

 By Phillip Starr

I often tell people that I regard the “posture” known in taijiquan, baguazhang, and xingyiquan as “wuji” (aka., “quiet standing”) as the single most important movement – or non-movement, depending on how you look at it- of the entire set. It holds true for the position of “yoi” in karate and taekwondo, which occurs prior to any defensive or offensive movements. And as you might well imagine, I'm often asked why this is so.

Most practitioners hurry through this beginning position because they don't understand what it is and what it's for... This initial posture sets the “tone” for the rest of the set. In forms of neijia, it should be relaxed and qi/breath should sink to the dantien (tanden) while the spirit calms and the mind becomes focused and sharp. It is much the same in arts such as taekwondo and karate.

If the body or mind is tense, the form will be too tense and wooden. If the breath is shallow and high (in the chest), there is no “root”; balance is easily lost, and the spirit is in disarray. If the mind is not focused on the (imaginary) battle that is about to ensue, it becomes scattered and the movements will lack real power and focus.

Therefore, I encourage students to take a few seconds to relax (drop the shoulders naturally), sink the qi/breath, and focus the mind before beginning the actual form.

AND WHEN YOU'RE OLDER...

 by Phillip Starr

When I was much younger, I thought I understood how one should train when one gets “older.” I was wrong. But now that I've definitely passed over the “older” line, I understand it much better. Generally speaking, athletes start to see physical declines at age 26, give or take (This would seem in line with the long-standing notion in baseball that players tend to hit their peak anywhere from ages 27 to 30.) For swimmers, the news is more sobering, as the mean peak age is 21. For those of us in martial arts, I'm going to say that the peak age is about 26 or so.

The decline is gradual...speed and strength begin to ebb, although oddly enough, timing can continue to improve! But there's no reason to stop training! But you do have to make some allowances and adjustments as you get older.

First, you have to come to grips with the fact that you'll never be as fast, flexible, or as strong as you were in your younger years. You don't have as much energy as you used to, and injuries don't heal nearly as fast as they once did. You can't endure the hardcore workouts that you once did, nor should you try. You can still train hard but not quite like you did when you were 23 with a full head of dark hair! You have to train SMART!

As we age, flexibility is very important; I believe that one of the things that cause older people to “get old” is lack of flexibility. So maintaining flexibility is critical! But be careful when you practice stretching; torn muscles heal very slowly when you get older. Be gentle with yourself.

Maintaining speed is likewise important but again, be careful that you don't inadvertently injure yourself.

Sure, you can and should continue to push yourself... just push a bit more gently.

UNDER THE SUN...

 by Phillip Starr

I've got a great idea that'll make millions! Take a bread bun and slit it down the middle, put a sausage inside and add some condiments, like mustard or relish, and...voila! You've got a snack you could take anywhere...picnics, ball parks, whatever.

Now, in other arenas, this could pass for comedy but in the martial arts it's a fact of life...even in the East. Every now and then someone with a special aptitude might gain some “new” insights and make minor “improvements” to a fighting art. And I mean MINOR. Now, some valid “discoveries” have been made, particularly in training routines; the old “duck walking” exercise has been shown to be potentially harmful and they have consequently been dropped and although forms of resistance training have always been encouraged, most instructors left the students to find ways of doing them on their own. Nowadays we use improved, standardized methods. But with a very few exceptions, these small changes haven't been central to the core curriculum of a given art.

I'm not suggesting that all of the martial ways are absolutely perfect and must never be altered...just that changes occur only incrementally and only after practitioners have acquired a thorough understanding of the art. It must be borne in mind that the martial ways have evolved over a very long period of time, have been tested, and this should be considered VERY carefully before even suggesting any alterations. A LOT of people nowadays seem to feel that the estabished arts are somehow rather fragmentary or outdated at best. Many others seem to be completely unaware that such knowedge ever existed and it is this group that has provided us with so much amusement and it is to them that I turn my attention in this article.

They remind me of cartoons wherein some poor soul struggles so hard to climb up the side of a rocky mountain only to get to the top and find someone else already sitting there, having walked up a stairway carved into the other side of the mountain! I recall a well-known martial artist who “discovered” that by paying close attention to proper timing, it is altogether possible to lauch a counter (a kick, punch, or whatever) just as your opponent was initiating his own attack. There was no need to block anything and you'd catch the enemy at the moment when he is most vulnerable. This fellow even gave his new discovery a name...I believe it was something like “stop-time hitting.” These people are always very keen to give cute names to their “discoveries.”

It's true that his discovery really is a superb tactic and we would owe this guy a huge debt of gratitude but for one one thing....this tactic has been known and practiced for many generations. In Japanese, it is known as “sen” and it's been around for a very long time. Another guy “discovered” that it was possible to redirect an attack and deiver an effective counter strike with the same hand! I think this was called something like “redactive synchronicity theory” - I told you that they really like cute names – but it, too, has been around for a long, long time. Even basic forms (which would likely be disdained by this farsighted genius as non-functional) contain numerous examples.

These “new innovations” go on and on. Every shodan-level aikido student knows that a joint can be manipulated at more than one angle at the same time (making the lock more effective), and that the smaller the joint, the more immediate the response. But don't tell that to the various “experts” who think they've “discovered” this idea and conduct seminars to present their newly-minted ideas. The saying, “There is nothing new under the sun” is very apt here. So many people work really hard at reinventing the wheel...many of them are rather lazy, arrogant, or insensitive. They're like a person who's determined to invent his own language. Why go to such lengths when such knowledge is already available?

Of course, they're not always readily available; to learn such upper-level concepts and acquire skill in them requires submitting oneself to the rigors and discipline of a traditional school. One must be patient, perceptive, and persevering. But this often isn't to the liking of the type of individuals we're discussing here. They go off on their own, looking for shortcuts...and end up working harder than they would have if they'd stayed in the school.

TRY NOT!

 By Phillip Starr

Many years ago, I was giving my basic presentation of qigong for my class while an old friend (who was a psychology professor that I'd met while I was still in college many years before) looked on. He was visiting for the weekend and was a practitioner not only of Shorinji Kempo, but Taijiquan as well. I had given this presentation dozens of times and the whole thing was burned into my memory. One of the first things that I introduce is known as the “unbendable arm” in aikido circles and I explained how it is to be done before I finally told the students to “get a partner and do it.”

My friend, Dave, asked if he could address the students before they began practice. Of course, I agreed. He spoke to them, repeating many of the principles that I had previously mentioned. I was a little confused. Then he instructed them, “Okay, get a partner and try it.”

And they all FAILED!

None of them could perform the basic unbendable arm exercise! I'd taught this many, many times, even to non-martial arts groups, and they always succeeded! What was wrong? I explained to Dave that this had never before happened. He chuckled and told me that he was responsible; he wanted to teach them a lesson, He called the students over to him and explained what he'd done.

“When your instructor finished explaining the principles, he just told you to “do it”, he said as he smiled and looked at me. “But I changed that”, he continued. “I told you to 'try'. And when you 'try' to do something, that implies the possibility of failure. The human brain will always take the route of least resistance; the easiest way. So you failed.” Then I told them to get back on the floor and “do it.” And they all immediately succeeded!

I think I learned more from that lesson that anyone else that day. When I told them to “just do it”, they did it with no problem. The problem occurred when the word “try” was used. It's a word that I determined should rarely, if ever, be used...especially in so far as martial arts are concerned. Years later, I'd hear Yoda (of “Star Wars” fame) utter his famous word, “Try not! DO or DO NOT. There is no 'try'.” Whoever wrote that script understood this principle.

Since that day, I've not used that word in connection with anything I really wanted to do, nor do I allow students to use it.

THE STUDENT

 by Phillip Starr

The student. You. A student, in Chinese, is xuesheng. It is generally used to describe persons who are enrolled in some formal education institution, from kindergarten to graduate school. In traditional martial arts, the student was once called shixinren (始心人), which means roughly “beginning mind person.” The word implies that one is part of a family or at least seeks to join. The wise student remains a shixinren all during his training; his mind is always ready to accept that he hasn't seen it all, no matter how much experience and talent he may acquire, and he's always ready to learn.

The image it presents is that of a person standing before the “door” to the training hall for the first time. It will be entirely up to him just how far past the door or gate he travels. Looking at him, there's no way to tell. Oftentimes, the one who is ambitious and/or very physically fit gets bored quickly (especially after the endless repetitions of the same thing) or just realizes that this stuff isn't for him...and he leaves. Conversely, it often happens that the one who just peeks in and is rather tentative is still there decades later, totally immersed in the art. But all of them will eventually have reason to pause, just as you and I have done, to consider just how we happened to be here.

New students often find the path before them to be quite steep and narrow at times. There's no room for lugging around extra “baggage”; it will only weigh you down and may well cause you to give up. Those who aspire to become martial arts “heroes” like those depicted in Hollywood will be sorely disappointed. They likely won't get very far past the gate. I think every new student is initially confused and even intimidated by the behavior of his seniors and they should assist him in understanding how and why things are done as they are. After all, these are martial Ways of a wholly different culture than his own.

Perhaps one of the most difficult lessons to be learned is that there isn't going to be a “graduation” from the Way; it's a lifelong journey for those who have the enthusiasm and stamina to continue. For many, perhaps most, Western students, this notion of doing pretty much the same thing week after week, year after year, is just too odd – too foreign - and, too nonsensical. As you continue along the path, you'll think of it like climbing a tall mountain; many of your companions will lack the strength or capacity to live at the higher altitudes that you must reach. Others find that they are perfectly happy where they are and don't want to climb further. Bidding them farewell, if you plan to go further, is a hard thing to do and may cause you to question your own journey.

There will be others like you, others who are still climbing. If you ask them why they're still climbing, most will have a difficult time giving you a simple answer. What is it that keeps them coming to the training hall? Why have they stayed when so many others have quit? The sacrifices we make, the challenges and demands of the martial arts eventually cease to be of much concern. We follow the Ways because they have become “our Way.” We can't imagine NOT following the paths along which they have led us. We have not mastered the art; what we have done is gone through the gate. We have become students.