Transformative Martial Arts

During the Luo’s seminar in London Dave Bolton  mentioned a student who had studied a different variation of Gao style Bagua for a number of years. The student had to his credit come to check out Luo at the seminar that Dave had organised in Manchester.

I emphasise credit because many martial artists do not dare to go out of their little boxes and visit other teachers, or experience different ways of being hit. It takes curiousity and courage to do this and I think both are worth encouraging.

A little way into the seminar having watched Luo move, apply techniques, explain angles and principles of body use the student said to Dave ‘Everything I’ve learned is just a plastic copy of this…’ Not an easy thing to admit, more credit for that.

This is something I see a lot in martial arts. People who work really hard to copy a teacher’s movement. Their brows furrow with the concentration, but they do not really understand what they are doing or why. Even if they succeed in recreating the shape of the movement the result is just a plastic copy. If the teacher (as is often the case) then the result is even more certain to be lifeless.

The reality of being human is that we already know how to move. We just do not move with our full potential. We can mostly all walk, run, throw, jump up and down, climb and even dance. We do not really have to think how, and when we do it does not necessarily help. Our bodies have learning software built into the relation between structure of bones, muscles, ligaments and the nervous system. That’s how children teach themselves to walk.

While I cannot speak for other arts all the forms, and exercises of Gao style Bagua are just vehicles to engage more of your body in a functional movement, and condition it for the stress of combat. A functional movement is different from a copied movement.

Here is a contrast between a functional and a copied movement.

If I asked you to push a car you would simply set your body and do it. As the car began to move you would compensate with the length of your arms and the position fo your feet to maintain balance. If the ground was slippery, or you thought that the car might suddenly start and zoom off you would be ready because your body had already made appropriate adjustments. You would not consciously decide how to do it.

If I asked a stereotyped Taiji practitioner to perform a push from their Taiji form they might take the diametrically opposite approach, either trying to look like their teacher, or carefully positioning their hands/feet accordingto certain rules that they had read which had been awkwardly translated from Chinese.

A functional movement is intended to have an effect. That effect happens through the application of force. In martial arts the aim is to channel that force in particular directions and combinations of angles. There are guidelines to help maintain balance, to increase ability to change from one movement to another, and exercises to help wake up parts of the body that may not have been used in years.

The results of the two approaches are very different. The former leads to natural movement, the latter to dead, micromanaged movement.

As a species we are natural mimics. The mirror neurones in our brain are constantly calculating the body positions of the people around us, unconsciously trying on the shapes in our own bodies. This is how we make sense of other people, what they are feeling, what they might do next, whether they are dangerous or safe. We do not need to try and do this – though if we deliberately pay attention to people we can bring more of this innate sensitivity to consciousness.

Deliberately, consciously trying to copy a movement dulls this system. It puts verbosity in the place of the older language of the body, and again leads to a micromanagement of the body.

The skill of learning is to allow the conscious mind to notice what is already going on in the body, and work with it. Pay attention to body sensation, and give regular gentle suggestions:

‘move here’ ‘apply force here and stay relaxed’ ‘be ready for a sudden change of direction’ ‘Come on hips, put yourself in a position where you can contribute a little more’ ‘ok force, go right out to the tips’.

You need to trust your body, it has brought you this far and it can take you a lot further.

It is because we are natural mimics, that when you start deliberately learning movement it is a really good idea to choose a model that can move really well. You will pick up habits without noticing, so pick up models whose qualities will serve you.

We already have our own habitual movement patterns that we have ingrained to the point that they are imperceptible to us. These patterns can also make new movements seem alien to the point that we can gloss over their importance. As such we need to keep waking up to the our inner sensitivity, and what it is picking up from the examples we choose to emulate, and applying it to the function we want to develop.

Boxers and wrestlers train in functional movement, and animals just move functionally. As a martial artist this is a personal test of whether an internal (or other martial arts) practise is likely to be of any use. When you see a professional fighter in a ring is your body capable of matching those movements to defend, neutralise or counter?

Be honest. You may be an amateur who only practises a few hours a week while the pro may be training six hours per day regularly honing themselves against hard hitting partners so it is fine if the answer is ‘no’ (just do not hide behind stories of old masters who died before you started training).

The question is whether your training methods give you a greater sense of being able to match that speed, impact and variety of movement.  Does your teacher, the person who is a model for your movement manifest that capacity in their body?

This is not about needing to be a professional fighter, but a mental yardstick as to whether our training is makes you more alive to the possibilities that the martial world can throw at you.

Personally I am not about to enter a mixed martial arts tournament, so it is not a priority for me to train for that. I am happy that there is diversity of goal and approach within martial arts. But within the variety of practises that you use there is a the question of whether the exercises help you find more flexibility, variety and raw capacity for movement.

When you copy a form blindly you give away possibly your most basic capacity, your ability to control your body and you subordinate it some one else’s ideas. You turn yourself into a plastic copy, you ignore your innate intelligence and that makes you stupid. You can learn from someone else, but you need to play with and make the movement your own, to get inside the function, to engage more and more of yourself (without engaging too much). That makes you more alive, and being more alive for the time I’m here on earth seems like goal worth having.