Don't Fight The Tao

"You may train for a long, long time, but if you merely move your hands & feet and jump up & down like a puppet, learning Karate is not very different from learning to dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; your will have failed to grasp the quintessence of Karate-Do." ~Gichin Funakoshi

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All Martial Arts instructors must've had this happen to them at least once: A student comes up to you and asks "When will I learn the next form? (or self defense set, etc). As their instructor, you might be tempted to look at them with a raised eyebrow, and say in your best Yoda-like voice: "When you are ready".

Of course, the student already *thinks* they are ready, or they wouldn't have asked in the first place, right? If they've been at your school for some time, its okay that they think they're deserving of something new and novel, right?

Dojo etiquette aside (in the Dojos I've trained in, it was bad manners to ask for a new technique or Kata from the teacher), I don't necessarily see a student's desire for the next Kata, waza, kumite combo, etc, as a breach of ettiquette.....instead I see a student who is setting goals for himself/herself, and knows how to get there. That's great! I tell my students that I like how they're progressing, and how I like to see that they're setting goals for themselves.

But then, I tell them that we teach new material when we see that a student has worked enough to understand the "base" of the Kata (at our school, we call them "Taolu" or simply just "Chuan" (fist), and that they'll get a new Taolu or technique when we deem they're ready. I ask that they "look forward to the surprises when they arrive". I suggest that they practice the movements until there is no thought involved. I once told a class "You should feel the form in your bones, you want to almost feel the emotion of the form. With practice, your form will be you, not merely some set of movements strung together".

However, another thing I teach my students, is that simply knowing the sequence of movements to a particular Taolu, doesn't necessarily mean they've mastered the art as a whole. I'm a firm believer in that Forms are not merely requirements for belt ranks, or merely a cardiovascular exercise or a dusty long-worn tradition. I believe that even in today's evolution of Martial systems, the seemingly "old style" drill of kata, taolu, or whatever you'd like to call it, is a valuable link to not only history, but also a valuable link to all things of  BodyMind connections.

Call me "old school" if you'd like, but when I trained in Karate, my Sensei had us practice Kata till the cows came home. Every day, Kata. I do remember as a child, wondering when I'd actually learn how to fight just like in the "Kung Fu" TV series that I so faithfully watched every week. Then we'd do Kumite (sparring).....and I still wondered when I'd learn how to fight. However, when belt tests came, we were required to defend ourselves against the rest of the class, some of them with weapons, some of them without. That's when the "actual fighting" came out. But where it came from, I had no clue! I just remember seeing people attacking, then it would be over and on with the rest of the belt test.

It took many years after my youngster days, years of studying other martial systems, for me to realize that "fighting" is merely a nice batch of extra icing on the big cake of Martial Arts. All of my other teachers required the same.....form practice every day, over and over. Drills practice, over and over. Fighting techniques, sometimes brutal, over and over. My teachers expected "perfect practice", not just plain old practice. My teachers expected that we adhere to good effort in anything, no matter what. I knew that in time, all that effort would someday make sense. There were days I puked in the corner from the effort of class. Days were I couldn't lift my legs, some fainting spells, and lots of contusions. It was only after these many years did I realize that the long journeys down these sometimes bruisy and bloody paths, whittled down everything that wasn't useful to me: arrogance, anger, envy, jealousy, hate, self-loathing, laziness, pretentiousness, discrimination, selfishness, etc etc.  I began to get glimpses of what really makes "me".

For so long, I merely "danced" and jumped around "like a puppet". I still do, But I'd like to think, that I can at least catch myself doing so, and get right back to the business of  practicing well, not just merely practicing moves.  And....not trip over my own two feet!

(However, just for the record, although I see goal setting, confident students when they try to ask me for more forms, our Dojo etiquette is "Do not ask. you'll be taught, don't worry")

Softness triumphs over hardness,
Feebleness over strength.
What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable.
This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them,
...of mastery through adaptation.

- Lao Tzu
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The other day, a student emailed me and asked:  "What is the point of Tai Chi practice? How effective is it at all, for self defense. Soft is weak, slow is not powerful and will not defend yourself. I don't get, what's the point? I want to defend myself powerfully, not be weak."

....And that, dear student,....is where your current weakness is....

Now, this student is an "external" Wushu student.....not a Taiji student....he has been around long enough to know the movements, but not long enough to know the "art" yet. I pondered for a day before responding to his email. At first, I took it sort of personally,....I thought he was putting down Taijiquan and labeling it a weak method. After thinking about his email, I realized that he was genuinely curious about something he does not understand.

I did write back, citing the above mentioned quote, and attempting to explain that Taijiquan does not teach one to be slow and weak. But how do you explain it while typing? Its something that has to be shown, experienced, and explained verbally. So, the next class the student was in, I introduced the "slow and low" approach to Taolu (forms) training. I had the whole class practice the 1st basic routine, with 2 stipulations: 1) They had 10 seconds to do each movement...they could NOT be done with a movement before the 10 second timer went off, and 2) Their upper body movements and lower body movements had to precisely timed to end at the same time....no stances being finished before the hand motions, and vice versa.

We did this exercise for about 10 minutes, and at first, I noticed that everyone "cheated", by establishing the stance first, then finishing with their arm or hand movements. After the exercise, I mentioned that they would need to work on moving slowly, in order to move quickly in an effective manner. I said "Lao Tzu has a quote...."Softness triumphs over hardness, Feebleness over strength.What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable.This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them,...of mastery through adaptation." This doesn't mean that you have to be weak, flaccid, lacking strength. It means that you shouldn't always rely on brute strength alone. If you determine victory solely by size and strength, you'll one day experience defeat when your strength wanes. You guys are using so much tension and strength just to do 10-second movments.....relax a little, take your time instead of timing yourself! Be aware of every movement, how it feels, where your body is in space at all times. Establish and keep your aligned posture". I then showed them some tips on how to move effectively while moving slowly.

After another 15 minutes of practice, they were beginning to get a bit more versed in moving slowly.....not quite picture perfect Taiji form, but they at least were getting the idea. I ended the exercise with "That, everyone....is Taiji. It doesn't matter what movements you do, so long as you keep Taiji principles. You don't know the principles by academic standards, but your felt them tonight. Now, lets do some self defense!"

I noticed, that all the students moved a little more swiftly, with a little more flow and little more agility. Without much thought, all the students applied "ting jin" (listening energy) instead of merely throwing strikes and kicks in hopes that they would hit something, or put up a blind block or blind parry.  At the end of class, I said "Thanks for practicing Taiji with me tonight. All of you fought well in the self defense drills......we do the same in Taiji class....different form movements though. Other than that, know that true martial arts use BOTH hard and soft energy.....never just one or the other."

As we were prepping the studio to leave for the night, the student who sent me the "what's the point of Taiji?" email, approached me and said "Thanks for answering my questions".  I laughed and said "YOU answered your questions....by struggling through what you initially thought was soft and weak. Now you know how to adapt to your sparring partner's movements and attitudes"

Hopefully, this student will understand how softness and hardness, can pretty much be the "same"......

Today, I allowed Ego, Pride, and emotion dicate how I saw myself. I allowed anger and pride talk to me, and convince me to doubt myself.

I write this, so that my students can remember that I'm human. All too often, we put our teachers (in any art or skill) very high on a pedestal. I must remind my students that the higher they place teachers and mentors on a pedestal, you won't be able to reach them, and the only way the teachers can teach you is to shout (which results in misunderstanding a teacher's words), or to drop ther knowledge down to them (which results in an unpredictable place where it may fall).

For a little while today, I went through a little bit of a struggle to keep Ego and emotion in check, but somehow they convinced me to doubt myself. The subject of this struggle is not important....what is important, is what I learned from it...

I've always known that "anger" is a secondary emotion. I usually check myself, asking "is this primary emotion i'm feeling, a good reason for me to feel anger?"...and either I let it go, or seek to dissolve the reason of my anger.

Sometimes, though, no matter how grounded we may think we are, how balanced we think we are, it is ultimately us that makes or breaks our groundedness. Just like martial artists learn to defend against attack, we must remember that every defense has a counter attack. In my case today, I defended, and got angry that my defense was weak. As a result, I counterattacked with too more force than was necessary.....I countered with an emotion. (of course, I'm not speaking literally of me defending against a kick or punch....)

So, what did I learn from this? Self doubt can be a good way to hurt yourself. Anger is a great way to blind yourself, and negative emotion is the fastest way to lose your groundedness.

So, students......I'm human. Get me off the pedestal and realize I'm merely farther along a path, NOT way above you. Besides, I'm afraid of heights! :-)=

Ukemi (Japanese): "Receiving", "To receive or absorb", "To turn away (from a strike)"

On my news feed today, I came upon a story about a performance artist that takes pictures of himself falling from trees, buildings, etc,....for Art. (Check out the story and pics here  http://tinyurl.com/cf62jl)  According to the story, Kerry Skarbakka was inspired by Martin Heidegger's description of "human existence as a perpetual state of falling".

I had stumbled upon (No pun intended!!) Martin Heidegger's philosophy of "falling", and was impressed by it. Our falls are long ones.....ones where we have to twist and turn to manipulate our bodies to avoid the obstacles in the way during the fall....or at least position ourselves such that impact with an obstacle does not kill us!

My best friend is a stunt person, and from what I've seen and been told, there is a method to stunt falling. You just can't blindly throw yourself out the window of a 30 story building for a movie scene, and expect to land on the air bag. From what I understand, you have to plan your takeoff from your perch (the plan changes depending on how high up you are) and plan your landing so you 1.)land on the airbag and not do a dreaded "bounce off" from the bag onto the pavement) and 2.) land in a good position so you don't break anything.  On the other hand, the safety crew handling the airbag is of utmost importance as well! They have to make sure the bag is positioned correctly for a safe landing, and they have to be keen-eyed so as to adjust the bag in real time during the stuntperson's fall.  Whew.

While thinking about this today, I've found that in comparison there are several things in Martial Arts that might result in us falling (there are more, I'm sure...be sure to add your additions in the comments section of this blog entry):
1) We trip over our own feet (i.e. "we have no balance or coordination").
2) We're taken off balance and thrown or swept.
3) We attempt a sweep, throw, balance maneuver, etc on someone else, and lose our balance in the process.
4) Our terrain (floor, mat, grass, ground, etc) may be uneven, slippery, or gravelly.
5) We attempt a technique, jump, throw, sweep, etc. without being formally taught it, and losing balance due to faulty understanding of the core concepts (i.e. "trying to imitate a book or a video")
6) Our own attempts at attack are neutralized and redirected to the ground.
7) We are too overconfident in our abilities, and maybe overlook safety precautions or proper execution of technique.

Let's explore this further, shall we?

1)  In my years of teaching martial arts, I've found that there's no such thing as someone who's is truly "uncoordinated". Instead, I found people gain coordination for activities through experience, surroundings, and even social interaction. When people say "I can't dance", I hear "I haven't yet been taught the relationship between movement, rhythm, synchronization, and expression.". We are all coordinated in certain ways.

2) We're taken off balance: Sometimes, in martial arts, if we space out for just a second, we are able to be pushed, pulled, or directed off balance.

3) We attempt a throw, and lose our own balance. This may be due to a good counter-technique by our opponent or training partner, or faulty technique on our part.

4) Uneven terrain. Sometimes, yes,....terrain will provide an element for surprise, even with skilled practitioners.

5) Attempting a technique without fully understanding how its done. I've seen this many times. Unfortunately, I also see many injuries from the falls or off-balancing.

6) Our own attacks are neutralized. It is considered a great skill to be able to neutralize an attack (instead of only blocking it) and redirect the energy back at the attacker. Although many arts are more well known for this (Aikido, Tai Chi, Judo, Jujutsu, etc), ALL arts carry this concept.

7) Overconfidence, and the tendency to not heed cautionary advice, safety precautions, etc.  Come on, folks, we've ALL done this......jaywalking counts as this!


Regardless of how we fall, it is a matter of how we control our perception and reception of the attack (or force that causes a reaction), descent (or positioning) and landing "receiving" the ground). "Ukemi", as these types of skills are called in Japanese arts, is truly and art in itself. When I took Aikido lessons, the basic Ukemi would never really prepare you for when you're taken on a throw. Being thrown by a beginner Aikidoka, was a whole heck of a lot different that being thrown by a black belt.  There is no cookie cutter way to fall when thrown by an expert.....you just have to really understand the concept of Ukemi, and adjust accordingly in real time......a tough thing, sometimes.  "Ukemi" itself, is not falling...its about learning to "receive" an attack, either by blending with it or redirecting the full brunt of impact. 

When we become blinded by our own preconcieved knowledge, no wonder why we lose our balance and fall. I read somewhere long ago, that binocular vision is aided by our nose being on our face.  Why is then, than some people choose to cut off their own nose, and put out one eye with all their "know-it-all" knowledge?  I can't help but look on in disapointement and contempt when I hear martial artists say stuff  like "Oh yeah....it was a great seminar with Master so-and-so, but it wasn't anything I didn't already know....it was soooo boring. Why couldn't they teach anything new?"   I just want to say to them "Well, looks like you're stuck with your old techniques then, even though you think you know it....you won't attain anything new at that rate".

I've also seen people get thrown during sparring sessions, then get upset and blame their partner.  "I wasn't ready yet, damn it! Why did you sweep me like that?".  Come on.....bitching and moaning isn't going to change the fact that you were taken off balance!  Why be mad at your partner for doing a sweep or throw correctly? In those cases, the real cause of your ire is that you think you might appear less skilled or afraid of looking stupid. I've met many people who vehemently refuse to learn any new skill in front of people, for fear of looking "stupid".....this is where ego can mess up our training in ANYTHING. I mean, what are they afraid of....losing their reputation? Its not a reputation if the people around you don't know who you are!!

Learn to fall without hitting the "pointy spots" (elbows, knees, shoulders). Fall with a sense of intent....an intent not to hurt yourself, but to follow gravity's pull safely and get back up again.  That's the key....GET BACK UP AGAIN. Learn from the reasons why you fell. Don't blame the ground for causing you an injury.

How's your Ukemi? Do you practice Ukemi? Or do you just keep it on the back burner hoping you don't trip and no one throws or sweeps you? Feel free to add your 2 cents.

See here for a great definition and description of "Ukemi", by Brad Ellin, Nov. 2002: "Ukemi- Recieving with spirit"