RULES? IN A KNIFE FIGHT?

 By Phillip Starr

One of my favorite lines in the classic film, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, occurred when the two return to their infamous “Hole in the Wall” gang after a botched train robbery. Newman finds that one of his gang members wants to take over the leadership. He's a huge, bulging fellow who challenges our hero to a knife fight...and he's holding a large bowie knife.

Butch says that before they begin, they've got to get the rules straight. The challenger is no intellectual giant and responds, “RULES? In a knife fight?” And Butch proceeds to beat the bejeezuz out of him as he explains the rules. It's a hilarious scene but also worth some thought because, as we all agree, I'm sure, there are NO rules in a knife fight. Or any other real fight, for that matter.

I remember back many moons ago when kicking to the groin was considered very “unfair” in a schoolyard fight; in fact, it was understood that kicks of any kind weren't kosher. It was considered unfair and something only a brute would do... and if one of the participants said that he'd had enough, the whole thing was over. Brandishing a weapon of any kind was considered cowardly. Alas, times have changed!

Over the years, (especially those spent as a state police officer) I learned more of the truth of it. The object isn't necessarily to “beat the other guy.” The object is to ensure that I get to go home afterwards. That meant ending the conflict as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Our martial arts ancestors understood this very well. It isn't a question of winning; there are no gloves or groin cups, no referees or judges, no roped-off ring, no points awarded, and no trophies or prize money. It's a question of survival, of not losing. Only one of the participants will be going home (maybe). There's no sporting aspect to it, no “playing fair.” Rules are a convention that works only if ALL participants adhere to them.

”Repetitio Est Mater Studiorum”

 

by Phillip Starr

 

It's an old Latin expression that says, “Repetition is the mother of all learning.” Truer words were never spoken. You all know that in order to truly learn any given technique or form, it must be practiced many, many times. It's often rather tedious, and is quite demanding, both physically and mentally...but such practice not only develops “muscle memory”, but a strong spirit as well.

Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used simultaneously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Examples of muscle memory are found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding a bicycle, typing on a keyboard, tying your shoes, entering a PIN, playing a musical instrument, poker, martial arts, or even dancing.

Because it is tedious, some instructors are hesitant to make students undergo such training. What they fear is that students will become bored and discontinue training. I say that such instructors lack imagination! When I ran a full-time school, I used various ploys to get students to (unknowingly) practice a given technique(s) several hundred times in each class!

The neijia (internal martial arts of China – taijiquan, baguazhang, and xingyiquan) speak about “getting the taiji body” and so forth, and this is a very unique skill that can be acquired only through endless (correct) repetitions of the form. But it's equally true for any given style of karate or taekwondo; each is intended to develop its follower's bodies in a certain way and only constant repetition of the form(s) will foster it.

If you could watch senior practitioners of a given style of karate, kung-fu, or taekwondo perform a form using only the footwork and body movements (no hand techniques or kicks), you could still easily identify from what art they come. The body movement(s) of taekwondo are dramatically different from, say, Goju-ryu, baguazhang, or any other style. This holds true for all arts and styles...and it is developed only through thousands of repetitions of their form(s).

PRIORITIES

 by Phillip Starr

We all have a list of priorities in our lives, whether it's in writing or not. What's at the top of your list? Is it your family, your job...? That's fine. If you have a family, they should be in the #1 spot and your job, which enables you to provide for them, should be right up there, too. But where is your training, both in and out of class, placed?

Many will allege that's near the top...but that doesn't prove to be true, according to their actual attendance. The may WANT to think it's near the top of the list but the truth is far different. Coming to class twice a month, training outside of class once a month (maybe) indicates that training is actually pretty low on the list. And if one expects to develop any real skill, it's going to have to be moved up. Period.

Most martial art practitioners enjoy their training as little more than a hobby, rather like bowling on Thursdays, or playing golf on Saturdays. “Play” is the definitive word here. “Play” is done for enjoyment and as a distraction from the pressures of work and/or the humdrum of daily life. And there's nothing wrong with that. But just as a weekend golfer can never realistically hope to become a pro on the PGS Tour, so those whose “hobby” is a particular martial art should never aspire to achieve any real level of high skill.

Martial arts were never intended to be practiced as simple”hobbies”, or forms of “play.” They were intended to become lifestyles. So I think it's necessary to consider what you want out of martial arts. Is it just an interesting distraction or do you want more? The more you want, the higher you must place it on your list of priorities.

PASSION

 by Yang Shuangxing

Watch a classmate perform a given form...then watch the same thing when it's performed by your teacher or a tournament champion. There's a difference, but it goes beyond merely slogging through the movements (even if it's done with good speed and power). It's FEELING! In the former, there likely isn't any real passion whereas in the latter, you can almost see the performer's adversaries yourself!

Remember – when you perform your form, you're engaged in a life-and-death struggle. There's no second place winner. You must FEEL it!

Of course, you must first know the interpretations of the various movements. Once that is accomplished, you must infuse the form with spirit and give it life! Your techniques must be so much more than just flowery movements that might impress an audience; you're fighting for your life! One slip, one error in timing, a single technique that's weak and fails to down the enemy, and you're dead meat...just another statistic.

As you perform the set and go on with the battle, you take the lives of several assailants. There is no time for remorse; you must continue the fight until all of your opponents are down. The form is not simply a set of exercises that are performed in a certain sequence; it is a violent struggle! And it should LOOK and FEEL like it.

NO SECOND PLACE WINNER

 by Phillip Starr

A well known master of the handgun once said, “In a gunfight, there are no second place winners.” True! In fact, in any life-and-death struggle it's the same thing. And that's how we must train our bodies AND OUR MINDS. You don't get a trophy or a medal for taking second place...you just get dead and a shovelful of dirt in your face.

Real fighting and sparring are two completely different animals. In a real skirmish, there are no judges or referees, no gloves or other protective gear, no trophies and no rules. The fight doesn't stop if, for some reason, you end up on the ground, or if you're injured. Or score a “point.”

The fact that you spar fairly well may be of some help once the fight is underway, but the truth is that most fights don't get “underway”; they're over within two seconds or less. There's rarely any “squaring off.” No fighting stances, no signals to begin or stop. And you have to be able to deal with getting “scuffed up”, at the very least.

You must be aware that the bad guy may very well be joined by one or more of his friends, especially nowadays. And you can pretty much rest assured that your assailant and/or his friends are armed with something. You must be prepared for this.

Sparring is useful in developing a sense of distance, timing, and several other important factors. But it's a far cry from real fighting where the only award you get is that you get to go home.

THERE'S NO NEED FOR TENSION!

 By Yang Shuangxing

Many martial arts devotees firmly believe that they're to tense their muscles like iron just at the moment of impact (when they strike something), and then they should relax. Most of them have been told that this is how it is to be done by their instructors and at the risk of losing some fans, I'm here to say that this is entirely wrong as well as unnecessary, for the most part.

I say “for the most part” because some measure of muscular effort is required to stop your blow; otherwise, it'd just keep going and you'd be out of control. Remember in the movies when the bad guy throws a wide punch and the good guy ducks? That punch just kept going, leaving the villain open to a quick counter, right? Well, we want to be careful not to punch or strike that way...

Normally, when we deliver a blow, there's no need to stiffen up like a wooden soldier at the end of the technique. In the past, some teachers were taught that stiffening the muscles just at the point of impact would provide more impetus to the blow (by increasing the amount of mass involved and stiffening the body – especially the joints – so that there was minmal “give” when the “reaction force” traveled back through the body). The truth is that tensing the muscles does not increase the mass one whit and attempting to time this hardening of the body AT THE INSTANT OF IMPACT is, frankly, pretty much impossible.

The instant of impact is measured in micro-seconds. If you throw a tennis ball against a wall and it bounces back...the tiny instant in which it is in contact with the wall is its point of impact. Same idea with delivering a blow. The point of impact is too fine to be seen by the human eye and if you consciously try to stiffen up at that very second, you're going to be too late or too early... And even if your timing was, by some miracle, perfect – it wouldn't matter much at all. You're not going to increase the mass behind the blow one iota by tightening the muscles.

The key is actually STRUCTURE, which is why I wrote my 6^th book – MARTIAL STRUCTURE. Our martial arts forefathers knew this but over the generations, much of it hasn't been properly passed down. Some of it has been misunderstood, mistranslated, or tossed out altogether.

It comes down to aligning the joints that are involved in delivery of the blow. Consider: a joint joins together two bony structures. If it's perfectly aligned, the two bony structures act as one; as if they're just ONE structure. However, if the joint is misaligned (even slightly), impact's reaction force is going to cause it to “give” a bit, depending on how serious the misalignment is. And that “give” means a loss of (striking) power. Period.

The body must be perfectly aligned rather than stiffened. Tense muscles prevent us from moving quickly, so hardening them reduces the acceleration of our technique; keeping them pretty much relaxed allows for maximum acceleration and at the instant of impact, everything must be properly aligned. Never stiff.

MIND YOUR MIND

 by Phillip Starr

We all know (although it sometimes seems otherwise) that we have a brain. It's a marvelously complex thing. If we could build a computer that could do all that a brain does, the size of the machine would be about the size of New Hampshire, even with the use of cutting-edge technology. Our brains continuously collect data, store it, analyze it, and use it to solve various kinds of problems. Is what we call “mind” the same thing; our brains? I don't think so (I'm bound to get many arguments about this, I know).

The brain is what I call the “conscious mind.” We're very much aware of it, what it does, and to a large extent, how it does what it does. But there is a separate thing; a “subconscious mind.” Some do not believe in it although many do. We don't know where it's located or how it does what it does, but the effects of it are easily seen.

It never forgets anything that you've experienced – it even remembers how many steps you took on your first day of your first job – and whatever it believes to be true (for you), it will ensure that it IS (or if necessary, becomes), in fact, true. Exactly how it does this is unknown.

Your mind gathers incoming data from your five senses and expresses itself through your body. This is why the ancients told us that “body and mind are one.” The body is an outward expression of the mind and what it believes to be true (for you). As you see and believe yourself to be, so you will be.

But how does this impact our training? Actually, it impacts it in almost every way possible. In so far as your forms are concerned, if your mind believes that you are simply doing exercises, that's how you will perform. On the other hand, if your mind believes you're actually engaging in combat... And repeated “experiences” in combat are extremely valuable. But you have to convince your mind that it's real (your mind can't tell the difference between reality and unreality unless you give it reason to do otherwise).

Remember that your subconscious relies on your five senses to determine what's going on. You must use them as best you can every time you perform your form; you must, as realistically as you can, VISUALIZE your opponents. But that's not enough to convince your mind that you're engaged in a life-and-death struggle. You must strongly imagine HEARING what would be happening – the shouts, grunts, yelps of pain, and background noises (such as traffic, passers-by, and so forth) as well – and imagine the SMELLS that would be involved (sweat, blood has an odor, too...and the enemy's funky breath). You can imagine the feel of striking him and deflecting his attacks, which brings TOUCH into the picture. There's not a lot that you can do for the sense of taste, but that's okay...4 out of 5 is plenty.

And you can bring in other feelings as well. The knot in your gut when you realize that you're about to get into a real fight... All of these things help convince your mind that it's all real. When it's over, your mind believes it and this helps your mind sharpen and refine your technique.

Having trouble performing a particular technique or form as it should be? Want to improve it? Sit back, close your eyes, and watch a movie of yourself doing it as you would like....be sure to utilize as many of your five senses as possible. Hear the background noises, smell the sweat of your classmates... Do this for 15 minutes each day. In a short time, your subconscious will come to believe that what you're experiencing is real. And it'll ensure that that's how you perform at your next practice.