The Effectiveness of Martial Arts Today
(continued)So how do the rest of us open the jar and get the opportunity to explore the contents inside in their entirety? Let me share with you a way which I call the five principles of technique development. With these principles, we can open and truly savor the contents of the mason jar, which has housed the real combative ability of the martial arts for so long.
PRINCIPLE #1: CREATE VARIATIONS
You must begin by creating variations to all knowledge that you have. Especially self-defense techniques. For example, if you think of one defense you know against a hair grab, build five variations to it that are totally your own. By doing this, you are giving yourself a deeper understanding of an attack from that area and are building techniques that are unique to your abilities and ways of movement, using the material from your chosen discipline.
PRINICIPLE #2: MINIMUM MOVEMENT, MAXIMUM EFFECT
You must now examine this material that you have created. Could the defense have finished earlier? Were there too many movements to be effective? Could you have finished your opponent off much faster had you disregarded proper technique and form?
PRINCIPLE #3: OPEN MIND
You must have an open mind when defending yourself. Learn to see all parts of your opponent's body as targets and learn to accept that most of your body parts can be used as a weapon. Do you seriously think in the days of old that they were even the least bit concerned with "fighting dirty" (for example, pulling hair, biting, gouge, and so on)?
PRINCIPLE #4: EXPECT AND DISH OUT THE WORST
When someone lays a violent hand on you, they either want to take what is yours away from you, hurt you, or kill you. One of these three things for certain is on their mind. They are not thinking about loving you in any way. Be sure of that!! Take each threat as exactly that, a threat: a threat to your personal safety, a threat to your life. Do what you have to do to escape alive. And yes, this can usually be done without killing the assailant.
PRINCIPLE #5: MENTAL VISUALIZATION OF PERFECTION
It is true that even the fanciest movement in your art forms part of the foundation to any effective material you are going to create. Being so, we must be able to really have down our basic skills to the highest degree. Take 10 minutes at the end of each practice session. Close your eyes and relax as you would for Mokuso (meditation). Visualize the movements you have just practiced. See yourself performing these movements with the utmost speed, power, and perfection. The mind will take mental pictures of this and program the body to move this way, when those particular movements are practiced again.
By incorporating these five principles, you can re-discover the potency of the true combative intentions of your particular art or style of choice. Mind you, none of what has been written here has been written with the intent of degrading the artistic way of doing things. The artistic ways that we have grown used to must remain alive as well, for the masters of the day that created these ways of movement were masters and geniuses indeed, to build what they did. We do not have to disregard it; we only have to try and truly understand it.
About the author: Dave Degrouchie, founder of the World Budo Alliance, resides, trains, and teaches the martial arts in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. To contact him, email budo_4_all@yahoo.ca.
