If you’ve got no equipment, no one to train with, and can’t get to a gym, the best exercise I can suggest is shadow boxing. In fact, as a staple exercise there’s nothing better. By shadow boxing I don’t mean just moving around the ring without a focus for a minute or two throwing punches and doing blocks. This is alright, but you want something to focus on whilst doing these things. The shadow gives you this figure to focus on.
The term shadow boxing actually means your shadow is boxing. You can learn a lot from watching your shadow box, dance, or move around in general. I’ve found that the concept of shadow boxing works with things like Tai Chi, and posture activities: You can sense whether your symmetry and equilibrium is where it needs to be and adjust automatically.
In general, watching silhouettes seems to be a meaningful experience which captures our attention. We recognise the characters and what they are doing, even though there are no details. Our creative imagination fills in the rest. As far as boxing goes, our shadow shows us if what we’re doing is poised, graceful, and balanced. From this basis, you can then generate powerful moves which are more adaptable.
This is what I do: find a space outside and focus on my shadow and watch it moving to see whether my form is correct. I don’t mean “correct” in terms of analysing every move in detail, because then you never get an overall picture. I mean correct in the sense of checking whether everything is moving fluidly with speed and precision, in a coherent way. For example, if an artist drew a picture it would look awkward and unbalanced if everything were out of proportion, the angles were wrong, and there was overemphasis on one detail at the expense of the overall picture. This is how you can tell if a drawing is accurate even if it lacks fine detail. Whereas if you add detail on first it is often difficult to make sure everything is in proportion. It is the same with shadow boxing, you are looking to get a sense of overall poise rather than thousands of details. The details can be added later as you go.
Personally, I use video recordings and get an intuitive feel for the moves too, but the shadow never lies. It will teach you everything about technique. But by using all these ways of viewing your practice you can link all the experiences together. For example, if I am feeling an intense energy when hitting the heavy bag, I can then put this experience together with seeing the recording. By doing this often you can then intuitively know what to look for in a potential opponent, because you have seen and felt what they’re experiencing. You can’t do this well if you haven’t felt this yourself, or haven’t observed it mindfully. On a side note, in the same way you can camouflage your appearance by cultivating a fluidity and dynamism on top of the raw state. You can then also recognise the camouflage of others by knowing yourself well enough. For example when someone looks calm in the ring, you can learn how to spot whether they are poised to attack at a moments notice. But back to shadow boxing.
By focusing on the shadow you are viewing a basic outline rather than getting lost in the details. You want the overall impression. You will soon see whether your technique lacks fluidity or is awkward. At the same time, you can focus on specifics, like the head or shoulders, but you will be able to view how they relate to everything else. As a side note, you are obviously not learning to fight by doing this, just practicing the skills involved, which are sometimes very subtle and seem totally unrelated to martial arts.
When shadow boxing, what I like to do is work in bursts, or look at phases of different potential scenarios. You can then work at using unpredictable timing and tempos, or going “offbeat”1. For example, you can move backwards or to the side whilst doing combinations and varying the rhythm. You then go back to the start, or centre. You don’t need to worry about what techniques you are doing, you’ll find they rattle of nicely by themselves. But obviously you need a basic knowledge of how to do them. After this, you will be able to see for yourself, after a bit of practice of course, what options are available to you as you move around. You will see what works and what doesn’t by whether your shadow is able to do it, or more precisely whether you are.
How does all this work? Human beings are able to follow simple outlines, such as shapes and figures and then elaborate on them. These basic imprints are innate to us. We are able to relate to these thanks to our instinctive sense of proportion and certain shapes, like the human figure. Once we see these at work performing certain tasks, we can mimic them and then begin to add details as and when needed. It is a process of evolution from basic to complex. For example, when a baby learns to walk it doesn’t first learn all the details. It views an adult, gets a general idea and slowly puts it into practice. Watching a person doing something and then memorizing all the details is like memorizing a script word for word. It takes time, effort and it is merely an act. Instead you’ve got to feel and understand on the intuitive level what you’re doing.
Once you get used to viewing your practice from the shadow perspective, you will begin to feel as though you are the shadow itself moving about. Importantly this takes away the self awareness and vanity aspect that a lot of people feel about themselves in training. This self awareness often directs their attention towards unnecessary points, which can actually make you tire more quickly and miss the main point.
By viewing yourself as the shadow you are able to get a general outline of what you are doing. You begin to get a sense of what it feels like to move powerfully and without resistance once you have seen this from outside yourself in your own shadow. It’s a way to view yourself from the outside. Sure, an outside expert can give you some useful tips, but really it’s up to you to experience it and see it in action.
References
1 See Steve Morris getting in rhythm and breaking rhythm, YouTube clip.