Most people engage in Martial Arts practice solely to keep fit or to learn to defend themselves from physical threat. These considerations are important, but they only scratch the surface. All martial arts practice worthy of the name is symbolic of something else, some other useful life lesson to be learnt. If practice doesn’t inspire us to look at broader considerations, then for me it is a waste of time. It’s got to be seen as part of something else.
In the act of breathing, we don’t just breathe to take in air, we breath to compliment the actions we are performing and everything else, even our mental state. We must breathe and move slowly in order to wind down, so that this also calms the mind. Similarly we shouldn’t just practice moves without any purpose behind them. For them to be effective and meaningful they must adhere to certain laws inherent in all dynamic and powerful actions. For example, martial arts utilises many different basic movements, from gripping to throwing, even in something as simple as a punch.
All effective movements share a common core. It’s just the expressions, or if you like the details which are different. One scientific version of this theory is called the “Generalised motor program”. For example, the punch uses the same rotation of the hips and shoulder as the kick. The trunk moves in the same way. This is why you can learn any skill from a true knowledge of one discipline. But you might say “In boxing they do it like this, and in Taekwondo they do it like that, they’re not the same at all!”. All I would say to that is, there are certain laws of nature upon which all movements are based and which nobody designed. These should be the main focus of training, not the thousands and thousands of details which just confuse everything. By knowing these fundamental truths, you can practice a simple set of skills which represent everything else. Steve Morris talks about this in depth on his website and DVD’s. I recommend searching them out. Steve says on his website:
“There’s lots of ways we can move. The combinations through the number of joint articulations makes for a lot of movements. But there are only so many successful ways we have moved over the course of time. Standing, running, climbing, pushing, pulling, swinging, catching, throwing…you know. All those things kids do! Those are the fundamentals. And beneath these, in order to facilitate a dynamic equilibrium of change, are the reflex patterns which allow you to work at an instinctive level. We’ve inherited them from our animal ancestors. You don’t have to think about how to maintain this equilibrium of change; the body is reflexively designed to do that for you. Indeed, any attempt to interfere with this process by motor oriented response, negates it. That’s why you end up with robotic movement patterns.”
What all this means is that you have every opportunity throughout the day to practice what we already intuitively know. There are instinctive actions we perform to achieve more complex movements. More complexed movements spring from these. These “Blueprints” are evident in everything, from when you reach towards the shelf for a cup, to when you tie up your shoe. Someone who is very conscientious of these things will see this in everything they do, and use the most mundane situations for effective training. All movements contribute to martial arts practice, and the more of these you turn into training exercises, the more effective your practice becomes.
Even breathing can be turned into an exercise. Just focus on breathing rhythmically, fast or slow depending on whether you’re relaxing or training intensively, and this will have a major impact on your energy levels and attentiveness to yourself and what’s around you. But look at how many people walk around mindlessly, thinking about what a chore it is to so much as walk to the shop or get out of breath They’d rather take the car! Avoid this kind of thing, and see every moment as an opportunity to strengthen yourself where possible. Again Steve Morris makes some interesting points about breathing:
One of the things is that your breathing mustn’t be timed to your arm movement, but to the body movements which are producing the shots. And it’s that movement of the body including the rectus, the obliques, the diaphragm and muscles of the pelvis (all those muscles that support ‘core stability’) that produces the basis and dynamics of the shot.
From this is clear that whatever we are doing, breathing and movement must be in synchronization. And if that’s true of punching then it’s true of all movements, because they all share a common core. In other words, the more you practice this principle in everyday situations, the more it will come to your aid when needed unconsciously. In this sense all movement is training.
For martial arts practice to be effective it must be inherently interesting and be intuitive. It should draw inspiration from all forms of movement, from everyday gestures to athletics. In this way it will relate to our subconscious mind, our instinctual side, and influence it. If training doesn’t do this then how can it be reinforced by our powerful motivational behaviours? Not only does it become dull, it becomes ineffectual. You’ve got to draw upon the same states which motivated our ancestors if you want to achieve anything and remain motivated long term. You might well get away with routinized training if you’re young and are just doing what everyone else seems to be doing, but eventually mechanical forms simply wear out the joints and muscles.
Many people think that performing violent actions will simply encourage unbridled aggression and bring out our worst instincts. This is sometimes true in testosterone fuelled environments where violence is glorified, but really these tendencies are already there. They certainly don’t need to be encouraged! How many people find this out to their horror when they end up behind bars? Instead, our instinctual side needs to be controlled. I don’t mean controlled as in repressed because this is also damaging since our vitality depends on these forces. But harnessed and developed in their capabilities through training.
The real idea is to develop our subconscious instinctual side and cultivate it towards a constructive goal, such as self mastery. In this way we are using powerful raw materials for modern circumstances. As I said at the beginning, training is simply symbolic or something else, and personally I have no desire to go out and fight anyone. It’s channelling energy and fighting to realize my ideals which interests me. Our instincts are there for us to evolve for new purposes. There functional operations include elements from our more primitive past. However, the laws of nature upon which they are based are still the same. This means that we have to build on the past because it lives in us and we can’t erase it. It doesn’t really matter what we are doing as long as we are practicing these timeless truths.
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