Breakthrough time!
What I wrote last time was sufficient enough to confuse people who are still learning and adequate enough for the old-timers to understand—or at least they wouldn't admit that the didn't understand it. Sorry for that.
This posting will break it down and correlate it in a more simple manner.
Have you ever seen a dog get an offensive mentality? Or any wild animal? In most cases you notice that they show there teeth, hunch their backs and they will likely bark and snap at you (if we're still talking about a dog). It is very clear that they don't want you messing with them. Part of this is a bluff, a warning, but part of it is an offensive mentality. It comes about, usually as a result of a defensive feeling the dog gets but turns offensive. They don't care if you have a stick, knife, gun, or their's six of you, they are going to do whatever is necessary to protect themselves if you keep messing with them.
THAT is an offensive mentality. It doesn't mean that I have to be the first to attack—though that may be appropriate. It doesn't mean that I have to talk smack or yell or throw a fuss picking stuff up and smashing it—though, again, that may be enough of a warning to end the situation.
However, there are some other things we can take from this example. Once a dog is in this state, there is no separation between the offensive mentality they have and how they move, or the energy they give. It is all connected. It is all focused. I guarantee that if you try to kick that dog it's going to try and bite your leg and it's going to bite it as hard as possible. The dog is not going to give you a warning bite at that point.
—Energy
—Angle
—Intent
All will correlate in this dog'se response to the attack. They may still use a defensive movement with an offensive intent but they will do so with the intent to be able to counter effectively while sustaining the least amount of damage.
Let's break it down some:
•If the energy is weak, then the bite will not do it's damage.
•If the energy is weak, it's possible that the dog will receive more damage than it will be able to withstand to ward off further attacks.
•If the angle is weak, then the bite will not do the amount of damage it could have, potentially no damage at all.
•If the intent of the dog is weak, it may not even see the kick coming with enough surety to act. Or it may be intimidated by the attacker and tuck it's tail instead of defending itself.
So how do WE get there?
Understanding that they all work together is a central ingredient. In addition, you glean one other aspect from this situation. The dogs posture is representative of it's intent. Since intent and mentality correlate, it stands to reason that the dogs posture would reflect it's intention as well.
Some simple things you can consider doing to help—assuming your mentality is in the right place.
Tuck your chin. This posture change will normally cause a weight change that brings you more onto the balls of your feet and will compress your posture some by slightly rounding your back forward. It's also going to give you a bit more of a feeling of safety so you will be inclined to be a little more offensive.
Understand your set points. These are the points at which, your system of silat, your body type, and movement style converge. At these points you will be most prepared for anything and will be able to respond with no need for the minor adjustments I see many people do before they move. This includes counter-attacks.
Slow down. Have clarity of movement first. Then speed up. Don't rush the process but don't be afraid to stress test things either. Confidence yields greater confidence, which in turn allows for greater focus on intent, movement, and an angle that further solidifies confidence and angle. It's all connected.
There are likely many other seemingly minor things that could make a difference here. It's up to us as teachers to understand how all these things work together and not give up on watching our students to find their particular need. It's there and it's up to us to find it, to point to it, and guide our students.
Teaching masses makes this difficult, if not impossible, but to turn out a quality student you must invest in personal training and personal adaptation of training to give the most benefit to a student.
Keep training!
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Energies, Angles, Intention—Part I
Last night during class we got into a longish discussion on energy, intention, and angles and how the three of them are inter-related with offensive and defensive mentality. It was not that clearly defined but that was the essence of it. The conversation seemed like it would be valuable enough for others that it was work posting as a blog. It's been a while anyway so I'm way past due.
Receiving
To start, it would be good if we lay the framework for the information. To "receive" is to allow, to varying degrees, an attacker to attack you. This does not mean that they will successfully hit you, or that you would not move, and thereby cause them to miss the intended target. Rather, it means that by the perception of the attacker, there was a vulnerability worthy of exploitation by which they decided to attack or they were just indifferent enough to the relationship to do what they wanted to irregardless of the consequences. To receive implies some sort of contact to the attack itself.
Issuing To "issue" is to launch your own attack at an attacker and to varying degrees, for them to "receive" it. The issuance could be direct, indirect, and with varying proximity and methodology but also implies a degree of "receiving" of energy in this context. Likewise, it is possible for you to issue energy without an attacker receiving it by them simply moving out of the way.
Offensive
To have an intent of offense within your movement—both in receiving and issuing states. It is really more of a mental state that is manifest physically, the primary intent of which is to control the relationship by assuming the timing of the conflict and thereby determining the course of the engagement pro-actively. What I call an active state or being active.
Defensive
To have an intent of defending oneself from any harm—both in receiving and issuing states. However, it is a mental state that manifests itself physically by responding to the timing of the conflict passively. What I call a reactive or passive state.
Engagement
If you're fighting with someone, you are primarily receiving or issuing energy in most cases. It must be understood in that general statement, that it is also true that in most cases you do both issuing and receiving.
For example, parrying an attack is a type of receiving energy through the yielding process. Likewise, the parry itself is a minor, defensive issuing of energy. It probably will not hurt the attacker, but will disrupt.
To add to this, there are ways of parrying which are primarily defensive and some which are primarily offensive. Avoiding an attack through retreating while parrying would be primarily defensive, while propelling forward and parrying would be primarily offensive. Again, it is often the mental attitude reflected in the movements that determines which. One method often allows the attacker to continue to issue while the other often sets up counter attacks and places you in a strategically advantageous position to counter.
Another example would be a totokan or destruction. In that case, I can use the attackers offensive issuance as a means for my own offensive issuance by utilizing anatomically weak points as a focal point for my own counter attacks which ultimately also parry the attack but that can also change the ownership of the timing of the engagement. The intent of the strikes must be offensive, while it's possible to still be retreating if an attackers own energy is offensive enough to compensate.
Angles
So where does all of this go? Well... if you can sort through all that I've written, then you may already know how it all works together. If not, keep reading it and considering it in your own context of combat. It's not something that is often explained in this fashion but sometimes it's best to understand things intellectually in order for your body to make the transition—and sometimes the opposite is completely true—you must understand with your body in order for your intellect to get it.
As it concerns combat from a very simple perspective, I recommend that you consider issuing and offensive actions to be your primary goal AND doing all of that with clarity of movement and clarity of thought. If you can, you are well on your way to getting good at PSP and, dare I say, any martial art. One simple way to think about it is to consider angles. These can be angles of defense, offense, attack and retreat.
For example, if you attack me by moving forward and I, in return move backward, you are attacking me on an acute angle. However, to be primarily successful in defense I must take a more offensive initiative and counter by moving at acute angles. Those acute angles are not always the angles of footwork, sometimes they are the angles of the parry or destruction as well, but most often, acute angles where you are mentally offensive also include the whole of the body as well as the ability to issue destructive energy.
The more this is employed by the whole of the body, the more destructive, acute, and more offensive you will be. Below are a few quick charts to diagram out the idea. They are not exhaustive but may help you down the path of understanding. It should be understood that whether or not something is deemed as acute or not, has EVERYTHING to do with the relationship of the defense to the offense or attacker to defender.
Receiving
To start, it would be good if we lay the framework for the information. To "receive" is to allow, to varying degrees, an attacker to attack you. This does not mean that they will successfully hit you, or that you would not move, and thereby cause them to miss the intended target. Rather, it means that by the perception of the attacker, there was a vulnerability worthy of exploitation by which they decided to attack or they were just indifferent enough to the relationship to do what they wanted to irregardless of the consequences. To receive implies some sort of contact to the attack itself.
Issuing To "issue" is to launch your own attack at an attacker and to varying degrees, for them to "receive" it. The issuance could be direct, indirect, and with varying proximity and methodology but also implies a degree of "receiving" of energy in this context. Likewise, it is possible for you to issue energy without an attacker receiving it by them simply moving out of the way.
Offensive
To have an intent of offense within your movement—both in receiving and issuing states. It is really more of a mental state that is manifest physically, the primary intent of which is to control the relationship by assuming the timing of the conflict and thereby determining the course of the engagement pro-actively. What I call an active state or being active.
Defensive
To have an intent of defending oneself from any harm—both in receiving and issuing states. However, it is a mental state that manifests itself physically by responding to the timing of the conflict passively. What I call a reactive or passive state.
Engagement
If you're fighting with someone, you are primarily receiving or issuing energy in most cases. It must be understood in that general statement, that it is also true that in most cases you do both issuing and receiving.
For example, parrying an attack is a type of receiving energy through the yielding process. Likewise, the parry itself is a minor, defensive issuing of energy. It probably will not hurt the attacker, but will disrupt.
To add to this, there are ways of parrying which are primarily defensive and some which are primarily offensive. Avoiding an attack through retreating while parrying would be primarily defensive, while propelling forward and parrying would be primarily offensive. Again, it is often the mental attitude reflected in the movements that determines which. One method often allows the attacker to continue to issue while the other often sets up counter attacks and places you in a strategically advantageous position to counter.
Another example would be a totokan or destruction. In that case, I can use the attackers offensive issuance as a means for my own offensive issuance by utilizing anatomically weak points as a focal point for my own counter attacks which ultimately also parry the attack but that can also change the ownership of the timing of the engagement. The intent of the strikes must be offensive, while it's possible to still be retreating if an attackers own energy is offensive enough to compensate.
Angles
So where does all of this go? Well... if you can sort through all that I've written, then you may already know how it all works together. If not, keep reading it and considering it in your own context of combat. It's not something that is often explained in this fashion but sometimes it's best to understand things intellectually in order for your body to make the transition—and sometimes the opposite is completely true—you must understand with your body in order for your intellect to get it.
As it concerns combat from a very simple perspective, I recommend that you consider issuing and offensive actions to be your primary goal AND doing all of that with clarity of movement and clarity of thought. If you can, you are well on your way to getting good at PSP and, dare I say, any martial art. One simple way to think about it is to consider angles. These can be angles of defense, offense, attack and retreat.
For example, if you attack me by moving forward and I, in return move backward, you are attacking me on an acute angle. However, to be primarily successful in defense I must take a more offensive initiative and counter by moving at acute angles. Those acute angles are not always the angles of footwork, sometimes they are the angles of the parry or destruction as well, but most often, acute angles where you are mentally offensive also include the whole of the body as well as the ability to issue destructive energy.
The more this is employed by the whole of the body, the more destructive, acute, and more offensive you will be. Below are a few quick charts to diagram out the idea. They are not exhaustive but may help you down the path of understanding. It should be understood that whether or not something is deemed as acute or not, has EVERYTHING to do with the relationship of the defense to the offense or attacker to defender.
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