DON'T JUST GLOB YOUR WAY THROUGH IT

 by Phillip Starr

You see it in most karate, taekwondo, and gong-fu schools nowadays; when the students are told to go through a particular form, it's done in a nice 4-beat rhythm, kind of like Lawrence Welk counting off, “And a-one, and a-two, and a-three”... There's little, if any, spirit to it and the rhythm never changes throughout the whole set. I call this “Globbing your way through a form.” It's a necessary thing when students are learning a form, trying to memorize the movements. But once the body remembers the form and it can be done without having to consciously think about which movement(s) come next, such practice is detrimental to training.

It must be remembered that most forms are imaginary combat situations, wherein the practitioner is surrounded by numerous villains who are tring to hasten his demise. Some forms are practiced primarily to develop certain skill(s) and don't necessarily involve several imaginary foes. I'm not referring to such forms in this article.

Real combat doesn't occur in a nice, even 4-beat rhythm. So it must be with your forms. You have to study them carefully to determine where the rhythm changes. Without proper rhythm, there can be no real spirit; the form is stillborn. It has no soul.

DIFFERENT LENSES

 by Phillip Starr

How do you view the martial art that you practice? That is, what's the main reason that you practice it? Self-defense? Health maintenance? For sport? Is it a kind of social thing for you? Most of today's martial arts enthusiasts never really sit down and consider this simple question from time to time...and it has to be considered periodically because our reasons for training can, and easily do, change over time. And your main reason for practicing deeply affects HOW you practice it. The lenses through which most people view their training today is usually very different than the lenses through which our forefathers saw it.

As little as 100 years ago, our martial arts forefathers practiced primarily for reasons of personal defense. Period. And those who actually created the systems that we practice today created them as a means of self-defense. And that's how they...and their students for several generations, practiced them. Training was very serious, intense, and demanding. After all, one's life or the lives of one's family could very well depend on how effectively one could apply his art.

Of course, they came to understand, probably in their later years, that their training helped keep them healthy; but that was just a side benefit. Sport was never entered into the question and attending training for reasons of interacting with friends and “having fun” never entered their minds. Even today, in a traditional Japanese, Okinawan, or Korean dojo, “fun” is never considered and to say that you “had fun” in class is an insult to your teacher. You may say that you enjoyed class, but NEVER that it was “fun.” God forbid that he should ever hear you make such a statement!

Training there is extremely rigorous and very intense. Bruises, scrapes, bloody noses, and all the rest are accepted as a normal part of training.

So, back to the original question...what is your primary reason for practicing?

CHANGE IT UP!

 By Phillip Starr

A while back, one of my senior students was practicing with a group of other martial artists from various styles. One of them had been training in a popular southern form of gong-fu and my student tried to practice basic 1-step fighting with him. The hapless fellow had a lot of difficulty deflecting a quick reverse punch and a lunge punch devastated him. “That’s not how we do it”, he said. “We stand in front of each other and don’t drive in.” And as I later explained to my student, that was the problem. “That kind of practice teaches them to defend against persons trained in their style, but it’s very difficult for them if the person comes from another style…or no ‘style’ at all, as in the case of boxers or just ordinary streetfighters,” I told him.

Unfortunately, this same thing is exactly what most of us (traditional martial artists) do; when we practice applying our defensive techniques; the attackers fire out straight punches as they’ve been taught to do…which is nothing like what they’ll encounter on the street. So, why did our forefather practice in that way? The main reason is that it gave the aggressor additional practice with his basic techniques. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line REALISM was tossed by the wayside.

Nowadays, most “traditional” schools have their students engage in 1-step fighting in which the attacker employs ONLY traditional technique. The receiver learns to defend herself against such attacks, which of course, she’ll never see in the street. And believe me, the application of basic blocks/parries is considerably different when applied against boxing-type attacks. Because I taught my students how to do this, I was labeled as “untraditional” many years ago. I reminded the naysayers that our forefathers were PRAGMATIC and trained in the same way many moons ago.

If we hope to teach students how to survive on the street, it’s essential that we do this. To the instructors out there – if you don’t know how to do it, don’t get flustered…go outside the box and LEARN! Then pass what you learn on to your students!

THE BUILDING BLOCKS...USING THEM THE RIGHT WAY

                                                           by Phillip Starr

     I recently had a discussion with one of my senior students about why the vast majority of karate and gong-fu styles don't do their forms and fight in the same way at all, and how correct, traditional training builds a “bridge” between those two aspects of martial arts.  These are two different subjects (although they're closely related), so let me discuss them separately.

Westerners (Americans, in particular) tend to:

• Reject anything that causes discomfort.

• Be hobbyists.

Now, there's nothing wrong with not liking discomfort. BUT some things in life do just that…they cause some measure of discomfort. And to wholly reject them out of hand so that we can always be cozy and comfy comes at a rather high price. For instance, our ancestors (not very long ago) had to make their own bread. “Too much work”, we thought...so now we have factory-made bread-which tastes nothing like the original at all, nor is it particularly nourishing.

Your grandparents (and my parents) endured the deprivations of the Great Depression, WWII, and other really tough times. There was plenty of discomfort and inconvenience to go around for everyone. They decided that their children would never have to suffer such hardships and the result was that we were brought up always being very comfy and cozy (most of us, anyway). And lazy. So, now we suffer the health (both physical and mental) consequences. We love “instant” things (like microwavable dinners and instant tea) as well as whatever is “new and improved”, which is rarely the truth.

Learning traditional martial arts is something that is often VERY uncomfortable, even painful! So, many instructors changed the way they teach and now advertise classes that are “Fun for the whole family!” Our martial arts forefathers certainly didn't go to training to have fun, nor did they expect it. Even today in Japan, you dare not let your instructor hear you say that you “had fun” in class! Believe me, you won't make that mistake twice...

And we love our hobbies. Certainly, there's nothing wrong with having hobbies, but when you come to regard your martial arts practice as a hobby and train in that way, it's a problem. Again, our martial arts ancestors definitely didn't think of training as a hobby! They didn't practice just once or twice a week; they practiced every day!

Then there’s the training problem…most teachers don’t understand or utilize routines like 3-step fight (if they use it at all) or 1-step fight. NEITHER OF THESE EXERCISES WERE/ARE MEANT TO TEACH YOU HOW TO FIGHT! Rather, they are designed to teach and sharpen certain things that will be of great help when you get to the actual fighting training.

3-Step Fight is rarely taught anymore in the West. The instructors think it’s too boring and fear that students will quit. Actually, it’s much, much more than that. First and foremost, it teaches you about DISTANCE (much more so than 1-step). Beyond that, it also teaches the fundamentals of proper TIMING and RHYTHM. Just how this was done is largely forgotten but it I clearly shown in my book, MARTIAL MANEUVERS.

1-Step Fight is intended to teach you how to properly apply the various techniques of your art. But if you have no understanding of what is taught in 3-Step, it’s really pointless. Too many schools nowadays skip 3-Step altogether, allow the students to practice 1-Step for a short time, and then jump right into sparring! This is one of the main reasons why martial arts in the West have deteriorated. Students start sparring within the first couple of months of training! I don’t allow it for at least a full year after they begin training; oftentimes, it’s longer than that.

After 3 and 1-Step have been thoroughly practiced, students are introduced to Freestyle develops fighting skill. 1-Step, which is the bridge between form and actual fighting. THIS is the practice exercise that develops fighting skill. I have posted several articles on this subject previously. Sadly, this marvelous training exercise is being tossed aside nowadays; students want to hurry up and practice Freestyle Sparring. In the past, most schools didn’t engage in Freestyle Sparring at all. They felt it was unnecessary for the development of genuine fighting skill and could lead to the development of bad habits and sloppiness. Freestyle Sparring didn’t exist until after WWII – the great masters of the past who we admire and who possessed extraordinary fighting ability NEVER SPARRED AT ALL! Huh. Go figure…

THE TRUTH OF THE ART OF WAR

 by Phillip Starr

Sun-Tzu was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived duriEastern Zhou periodng the  of 771 to 256 BCE. He is credited with authoring the book, “The Art fo War”; a military class that is now utilized by military forces around the world (it is even studied at academies in the U.S., such as West Point and Annapolis), and even Wall Street!

An important saying from this book is often quoted by martial arts teachers everywhere; “Ig you know yourself and your enemy, you will be victorious.” However, this is not the full saying; two crucial lines have been forgotten. The full precept tell us:

“If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, defeat is inevitable.

If you know only yourself or your enemy, the odds are even.

If you know both yourself and your enemy, you will emerge victorious.”

So what does “knowing the enemy” and “knowing yourself” really mean?

Knowing your enemy means a bit more than simple knowing who he is. It means knowing him in so far as combat is concerned:

• What is his objective; what is he fighting for?

• What is his disposition? That is, is he physically, mentally, and spiritually prepared and strong enough to engage you in combat? How determined is he?

• How far is he willing to go to ensure his victory? What sacrifices will he make? Is he willing to give up his life? What price is he willing to pay?

• What particularly vulnerable spots can you see in his posture?

• What tactics is known to use? Does he use them effectively? Are there any flaws in them?

• How well-seasoned is he? Has he done this before? If he was victorious, how did he achieve it? Did he exhibit any weaknesses/flaws?

• What are his strongest areas of expertise?

• What weapons does he possess? Which ones does he rely on the most? Are they adequate?

• How powerful are these weapons?

• How far can these weapons reach out and strike you? What is their range?

• What are his biggest weaknesses? Not just physical things, but also mental and spiritual.

And you must thoroughly know these same things about yourself. You mustn't What price will he willingly pay?simply shrug and say, “Yeah, I've got it”; you must take time and study each of these items as they apply to you in depth!

Only when you know both yourself (very thoroughly) and your enemy can you hope to emerge victorious.

ARE YOU PREPARED?

 By Phillip Starr

For those who believe that the way they’re practicing gong-fu, karate, or taekwondo is providing them with real-life self-defense skills, I have a surprise.

You may be, and likely are, very wrong.

Actual self-defense may well be very different from what you imagine, and hence, train for. The first major consideration is DISTANCE. Almost all real self-defense situations occur at very close range; there’s no time (or adequate distance) to set up in a nice-looking fighting stance. Stand facing your training partner and stretch out your arm so that you can touch him. THAT distance (and often closer than that) is the distance where real self-defense happens. The attack comes out of nowhere…it’s very often preceded by a push or a grab, and then BANG! You’re hit. No time to back away or perform any fancy movements. So if you favor using really nifty-looking kicks, you’re in a very bad place. My friend, Master Seiyu Oyata (10^th dan Okinwan karate, dec.), demonstrated…walking up to his partner and stopping about 4 ft. away, he smiled and said, “This (distance) for sport, for fun”… Then walking up quite close to his partner, he said, “This self-defense!”

So your self-defense techniques should be practiced at this distance…from a natural standing position. You will quickly discover that freestyle sparring is NOT essential for developing genuine self-defense skills. It helps develop some things that are useful in self-defense such as timing, rhythm, and so on – but overall, it is of little use in real combat. Remember that our current version of sparring evolved from the culture of Japan, where many people once carried and fought with swords. There’s a considerable difference in “fighting distance” when you and your enemy are armed with 3 foot razor blades…

And when the attack comes, it comes in multiples. Nobody is going to throw a single punch and then stand there, looking into your beautiful eyes. The same is true of grabs. Punches are thrown in flurries (unless you break in and stop them). The head and face are the preferred targets.

There’s no need to try to land a decisive blow right away. You need to stop the attack long enough to give you the opportunity to do that. A solid slap to the tip of the nose (keeping the fingers loose so they can flop down towards the eyes) works very well. Not only is it very painful, but it causes the sinuses to go all off-kilter; the enemy’s eyes tear up instantly and he can’t see clearly…there’s pain and blood and confusion. And lots of time for you to deliver a deliberate, powerful strike…and it better be strong! And remember there are no rounds, no rules at all, no referees, and NO ONE is coming to help you.

Now, I’m not saying that things like 1-step, 3-step, and freestyle sparring are worthless. Far from it! But bear in mind that these are training EXERCISES. They foster the development of things you’ll need for real self-defense; a fine sense of distance, timing, rhythm, how to apply various techniques, and so on.

To become skilled at real self-defense, you have to train for it! And the single biggest consideration that practitioners forget about is DISTANCE. Nobody is going to stand 4-6 feet away from and move in to attack; real attacks begin at arm’s length OR LESS. Now train for it!

APPLICATIONS?

 by Phillip Starr

Okay...you've learned the application(s) of a particular movement in your form. So, what do you do now? Is that it? Is it over? I recall a instructor of Goju-ryu karate many years ago; I had shown him the application of a movement in his kata that had evaded him for years. He was appreciative and excited and later demonstrated it to his students...and that was the end of it. To the best of my knowledge, he and his students never practiced it again. They conducted class in my gong-fu school and I watched them to see what they did with applications of their kata.

And what they did is what I fear most people do; they excitedly practiced them, but only for a few minutes and then it was all over. This is not how it is to be done. The applications are there for a reason – so that you can learn and be able to apply these gems in actual self-defense. And unless they are practiced repeatedly, that's not going to happen.

Once you discover an application that you like, you need to practice it frequently, over and over...and you must envision its application whenever you perform the form in which it appears. Otherwise, you'll never be able to utilize it for its intended purpose.

DON'T LOOK DOWN!!!

 by Phillip Starr

You see it all the time in the training hall. Maybe it's you who's gazing at the floor or your feet or your belt or whatever. Students sometimes look down to ensure that their feet are in the right position, to avoid looking at someone in class or to avoid noticing that the instructor is looking at them. They do it when they practice basic techniques, when they practice their forms, when they engage in freestyle sparring. Whatever. They do it all the time. And it's a terrible habit to develop, one that's fairly difficult to break, and one that can mean the difference between success or failure. On the street it can mean the difference between life and death, losing or not losing. Why? Well, let's have a look...

Now, most instructors will immediately say that if you look down, you can't clearly see your opponent. That's true. I recall attending one of the early Gateway Open Karate Tournaments in St. Louis back in the 60's. A number of my students entered competition for the first time. Most of the other competitors were tournament veterans but my students had had absolutely no experience in competition. One of my students asked what he should do when the match started. I told him to stop, stand up normally, point to his opponent's crotch and tell him that his fly was open. And it worked! He pointed and told the other competitor that his zipper was down (bear in mind that karate uniforms don't have zippered fronts) but his adversary did what most men will do without thinking... he looked down to check it. And at that instant, my student landed a classical punch to his face!

However, there are other problems that arise from this nasty little habit, not the least of which is that it “breaks” your posture. When you look down (or up, or tilt your head in any direction), the cervical vertebrae are no longer aligned with the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. This means that your entire posture is unstable; you can be easily unbalanced and you can't issue maximum power. Two of my books, “Martial Mechanics” and “Developing Jin” discuss this phenomenon in some detail.

Moreover, looking down has the effect of “slamming on the brakes.” That is, you are unable to move quickly when you eyes are directed down (or up). You may begin a movement and then glance down for some reason and your forward action all but comes to a complete stop. It's like engaging the brake and the accelerator at the same time! Instead of being directed at your enemy, your yi (imagination, intention) and qi (vital energy) are directed downward!

Oftentimes, when we are confronted by someone we fear, we tend to look down rather than make eye contact. This displays a clear lack of spiritual strength and courage. And because body and mind are inseparable (the body is actually just a reflection of the mind; they're the same thing), your “broken” posture reinforces the feeling(s) of fear. You may know someone who just can't look you in the eye when they speak to you or other people. Now you know why. It's fear, plain and simple. It can be easily corrected by making them adjust their physical posture...

Hopefully, you can see that looking down provides your opponent with a HUGE opening in your mental and physical posture, an opening though which he can enter and drive his attack home! If students do it in class, they're often checking the position of their feet to ensure that their stance is correct. I always tell them that they must learn to FEEL the stance with their feet; they must never look down (unless instructed to do so). If they continue to look down, I tell them (in a loud voice), 'DON'T LOOK AT YOUR PEEPEE!” Of course, everyone hears it and stares at the offending party. If he does it again, I'll tell him, 'DON'T LOOK AT YOUR PARTNER'S PEEEPEE, EITHER...EVEN IF IT'S A REAL NICE ONE!” That usually takes care of the problem. Even now, students from 30 years ago recall my words of wisdom!

Next time you're in class, watch the other students and see if any of them glance down from time to time, especially when doing forms practice. Then check YOURSELF as you practice... don't drive with the brakes on!

CONSISTENCY IN TRAINING

 by Phillip Starr

If you aspire to develop superior skill; if you want to produce the very best students, there's one great secret to doing it...CONSISTENCY! You may think that that's easy enough to understand. After all, “consistency” means “regularity”, right? Well, yes...but consistency in training infers much more than simply attending class on a regular basis.

For one thing, it refers to the regular repetition of basic techniques. In my classes, students would drill the SAME basic techniques in every class for a week; we didn't drill different techniques in each class to make it more “fun.” Having fun is fine but not to the detriment of learning and developing real skill. If different techniques are drilled in each class it's next to impossible for students to really “internalize” any techniques. Their attention and effort is always changing. So we practiced the same set of techniques for a week. The techniques used for drill (which was practiced in every class) were listed and selectively chosen for various reasons. They weren't picked out just willy-nilly. And once the cycle (of techniques used for drills) was completed – which took about 6 weeks – we started all over again. And we always (and I mean ALWAYS) started off with a reverse punch and a front snap kick. I told my students that if they trained with me for the next 20 years, they'd always begin with these same two fundamental techniques.

And as students repeated the cycle over and over, I'd “tweak” the technique and body movement of the more senior students... and when I ran out of things to tweak, I'd start it all over again. AND the seniors would discover things that they'd missed the first or second or third (ad infinitum) times around. They came to understand the method behind my madness.

Consistency.

It was the same with forms. Each group (beginners, intermediates, advanced, and black belt) would practice a given form every class for a week. And I'd “tweak” those who were ready for it...

Fighting drills, which were practiced in nearly every class right after practice of basic techniques, allowed for some variation. The fighting drills were forms of one-step or freestyle one-step (see my book, “MARTIAL MANEUVERS”) that taught all of the tactics that we employ. Again, this was done cyclically. Over and over and over. And I would ensure that the way in which each tactic was employed in a given class made use of the basic techniques that we had drilled at the beginning of class.

If, for instance, we drilled a side thrust kick as one of the basics for the week, I'd try to make certain that at least 2 of the 3 tactics that we practiced would also employ a side thrust kick. The students enjoyed it and didn't notice that they were firing off dozens of side thrust kicks in class. And by the end of the week (they'd attend class three times weekly), they'd executed that kick many, many times in a variety of ways! This works much better than simply telling students to do 200 or 300 side kicks. If you do that, they get bored PDQ (that's “pretty damned quick” for you rednecks out there) and then their attention and yi (intention) wanders. In that case, they may as well not do the kick at all.

Everything was set to “dovetail” very nicely. It was always CONSISTENT. For instance, if one tactic involved stepping off at a forward angle to evade the opponent's blow, what techniques could best be applied? And because we also taught grappling techniques, it was necessary that they get in lots of practice with those, too. In such a (tactical) movement, what throws or joint twists were most applicable? How could the kicks, punches, strikes, and grappling techniques be readily applied sequentially? Then the students practice those for a week. Developing this kind of training regimen wasn't easy. In fact, it took me a very long time but it worked exceedingly well.

It may not sound like it was much fun but believe me, it was! The students thoroughly enjoyed training in this way while they made good progress through progressive, consistent training. One of the biggest secrets to learning lies in how the material is taught. If the teacher presents it and practices it in a mundane manner, the students will quickly become bored. They lose their enthusiasm and their progress will suffer. On the other hand, if the instructor is enthusiastic and excited, so will the students be. This is one of the most important keys... but like everything else in training, it has to be consistent!