Is your natural movement warped by ideas?
During the Summer I taught a number of introductions to Bagua outdoors in the jardins de Palais royale. I had a variety of people come to train, but two young women stood out for me, even if each attended only once. While they were both distractingly pretty what I really liked about having in them in the class was that they moved simply.
Simple natural body movement is something so obvious that it probably needs explaining, and the best way I can explain it is through contrast.
I have seen a lot of martial artists in my classes and seminars, as well as the ones that come to Luo laoshi’s seminars. These martial artists are mostly male, and come from a variety of styles. When I watch them copy a movement, or try and perform and exercise it is clear that their prior conditioning makes it very hard to move naturally.
Actually I think that their conditioning makes it hard to even see what was demonstrated. They see what they think martial arts should look like, and in imposing these ideas they warp their natural movement.
I see two main ways that these people to warp their movement.
The first is that they try and make a movement snappy and forceful– more common from shaolin or karate backgrounds.
The second is that they try and make the movement conform to some idea of what they think their art should look like. As a result their movement is excessively flowery, complicated and contrived. Often the more contrived the movement the smugger they seem in their ‘achievement.’ Often I see both in the same person. I call this martial arts disease.
In the case of Bagua these people think that Bagua is circular, so they try to move in a circular manner and twist themselves into bizarre contortions.
It is not Bagua that is circular, it is human movement that is circular.
Trying to move in a straight line is like trying to stop change. It is difficult if not impossible. If sometimes we do give the impression of moving a hand or an object in a straight line it is the result of a whole range of joints circling around each other.
Look at people involved in other sports. The legs of football players swing in arcs as they run, as do the arms that harmonize and add to the overall motion. Football and basketball players curve around each other as they aim to conserve their momentum on their way to their goals. Cricketers and golfers swing their implements through circles around their centres, bowlers and pitchers transfer the momentum of their bodies into a roundly whipping arm that releases a projectile at a tangent which gently curves downwards in gravity’s embrace.
None of these athletes needed to be told to move in a circular fashion. While they may have spent time developing their fitness, strength, reflexes and coordination their movement is essentially natural.
Natural movement means using the anatomy we have to perform a function. For example to get somewhere fast, lift something, throw something, kick something, or dodge something. The movement is derived from the function, the intention to achieve a certain result. Natural movement does not come from trying to micromanage the body, or make it conform to an idea.
Internal martial arts may seem complicated and a long way from natural, simple movement. After all they give so many instructions as to how to hold the body – sink the shoulders, drop the elbows, hollow the chest, raise the back, unify the upper and lower body.
It is simple if you just think of these as useful tips to maintain integrity through the body while applying force in different directions.
Now let’s take a step backwards. The first requirement is internal martial arts is ‘to relax’ which really just means to use appropriate natural power – not too much and not too little. But due to movement habits, bizarre ideas, stiffness from lack of use, poor coordination or emotional over reaction actually not many people in our society have very relaxed movement.
Is there a remedy for contrived movement? Yes, there are several. The hard part is to show people that they are doing it.
Some people are so invested in the contrivance of their movement that they find it hard to give them up. They fear that simple movement would make them less special or unique. After all simple movement is just every day and ordinary, like babies or sunsets or cats. They may have forgotten that just as we do not have to try to move circularly we do so automatically, we also do not need to try to be unique – we already are.
I have decided that the best way to make them aware of their unnecessary complication is through relentless teasing.
You can divide the antidote to contrived movement can be divided into two parts. The first is in simple movement, for example easy qigong with no application, just feeling the weight of the body and moving with minimal force. Gentle Yoga or Feldenkrais serve the same purpose.
The second is in joyful exertion. Run faster than your mind can coordinate. Give the controls back to your body. Play football, basketball, frisbee, rugby, tennis or anything that you do not associate with a style.
All our movement is based in (but not reduced to) the transfer of mass through the medium of bone, tendon, connective tissue and supported by the earth. We can go into levels of refinement but that’s the foundation. We can explore an intricate pattern of angles, shapes and directions but they still come back to a dance of mass.
I do not know if the two women who I referred to at the start of this article will come back explore the swirl of arcing physical forces, animal emotions and human ideals that I love in martial arts. Their natural movement will be welcome.
If not I’ll simply have to ask them for a drink.
Tags: Baguazhang, Baguazhang Paris, Luo dexiu, natural movement, seminar, Training in Paris, training in the park
