TIMING AND DISTANCE BECOME ONE

 by Phillip Starr

When students reach a certain level of skill, I tell them that timing and distance are actually the same thing and I demonstrate what I mean. It's kind of the martial arts definition of “space-time.” We measure distances by how long it takes to go from Point A to Point B at a given speed (unless you're Canadian, since they measure distances in beers). Changing the distance and/or the speed or velocity of one's movement will impact the timing of the movement/technique.

So we must first define “timing.” It is, roughly, the point during a given movement when you execute your technique. Take a lunging punch, for example...should your punch land AFTER your front foot hits the floor, AT THE SAME TIME that your front foot hits the floow, or...BEFORE your foot hits the floor? You'd hopefully tell me that it depends on how far the target is from you. So the distance determines the timing...right?

Most of us practice to step and strike at the same time. This is what our forms teach us to do.

But...we can adjust things a bit.

The object in combat is to take the enemy's ground. That means that he can no longer be occupying the piece of real estate that he's currently standing on. It also means that we must drive in powerfully and PENETRATE him as he strike; we must literally run over him like a high-speed tank. If we fail to do this; if we step up TO him and strike AT him so that there still remains a little distance between us, he can shift or maybe just lean back a bit and defend himself without too much trouble. Then he fires out a blow and we must do the same thing...and back and forth and so on until one of us manages to land a technique. It's the old “kung-fu fighting” scenario.

Ugh.

How about driving THROUGH him? If you learn to do it correctly, he CANNOT adequately defend himself and he is struck almost before he sees you move. But to do it right, you're going to have to adjust your timing. Training for this is shown in my book, “Martial Maneuvers.” It requires considerable practice.

If you reflect on it, you'll see that timing and distance are actually the same thing. Initially, they're taught separately but they eventually must meld into one.