Journal Martial Arts Energies in Practice

[HoldAll]

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(part 2)

You can also trigger telegraphing behaviour, although it's more a psychological thing. If you feint an attack and your opponent reacts even though not in actual danger, you're showing him or her up as a bundle of nerves, which he or she likely won't be, maybe just a bit apprehensive and jumpy (it's a macho-type challenge – you flinch, you lose – and I guess women are less affected by such silliness). Again, this is a trick to play on a weaker opponent, a stronger one is bound to play such head games with you. As always in such a case, your options will be more limited here, but the other guy telegraphing may give you at least a bit of a head start.

It's yet another reason why it's so important to have a good instructor or sensei: you very rarely notice your own telegraphing. It's something that should have been bred out of you during basic training and

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, but it can happen all the same. As I mentioned before, sparring and point-fighting like a truth serum, they'll unfailingly bring out your true colours and deflate your ego, which is why it's pointless to order yourself to be courageous, flexible and keep a cool head in any situation (and tell yourself not to flinch or telegraph).

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is quoting boxing history here: prior to his 1936 bout against Joe Louis, Max Schmeling had studied the fight reels of his opponent and noticed a flaw in his game: Louis had a habit of dropping his hand low after throwing a jab instead of immediately retracting it to his guard, thus leaving his chin unprotected. Schmeling was able to capitalize on this weakness just like in the movie clip, winning the fight but losing the rematch. Strictly speaking, it's not telegraphing but neat all the same.

Again, I would like to stress that noticing your opponent's telegraphing is no surefire recipe for success. It can give you an edge but when the other guy's bigger and stronger than you, all you can do is evade and watch the action unfold in all its rumbling predictability from a safer distance – which won't win you fights, of course, but beats getting steamrolled over.

Come to think of it, any pre-arranged partner drill performed slowly could be said to involve telegraphing since you'll not only know how your partner will attack but also when. It's ok when learning new stuff at the dojo but sooner or later you'll have to face unscripted attacks where your opponent doesn't leave himself or herself wide open and won't patiently wait for you to counter or apply an armlock or a choke. It's really easy to lull yourself into a false sense of security otherwise, and I suppose that's why there'll always be martial artists studying 'pure' self-defence systems that have a clever solution for everything (provided that 'everything' doesn't happen all at once!) – you win every time, so what's not to like? The danger here is that you'll get so used to that cosy telegraphing that soon you'll expect every aggressor to announce his dastardly intentions beforehand and then politely cooperate in his own demise.

You know what interests me most about armlocks? Not how to execute them but how to get out of them before it's too late. There's all sorts of videos where someone is attacked with a haymaker, a knife, a club and whatnot, and the smart defender will catch the other guy's arm, twist, turn, maybe add a punch or a kick for good measure, triumphing every time. If the lock is fully applied, leaving you no other chance than to tap out in a dojo setting, ok, but realistically, there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, and the guy may escape while you're halfway through your twisting and turning his arm, and now he'll really be mad.

'Pure' self-defence systems not only foster a false sense of security, but also of superiority. They seem to proceed from the assumption that all aggressors are dumb and clumsy just like baddies in the movies. And what do dumb and clumsy aggressors do? They'll telegraph their attacks, of course. Any why? Because they're dumb and clumsy, that's why. The further you progress in such dubious systems, the less serious you will take attackers – which is unlikely to happen in karate once you arrive at the sparring stage where more advanced students won't telegraph anything and will (very considerately!) wipe the floor with you. It's when you learn to survive at the start of your sparring career instead of winning a string of easy victories. It also keeps you from getting smug and lazy, which is the last thing you need in fighting.

 

[HoldAll]

A Provisional Summary

I think I've reached the end of the line with this Journal, at least for the time being. Much of my efforts here have been spent on demystifying the martial arts and recounting my actual experiences with them. While the general public has a fairly realistic idea about the martial arts and understands very well by now that they're first and foremost athletic disciplines which involve building muscles, developing robust cardio, and improving flexibility, NewAgers and the more naïve sort of occultist still seem to cling to a romanticized image of invincible masters from the mysterious East with supernatural powers, as if "Enter The Dragon" had just come out. In a way, all martial arts are closed practices: either you pursue them, or you're an outsider with half-baked book knowledge - who nevertheless has a very firm opinion regarding how martial arts should work according to your favourite narratives, irrespective of actual facts.

We have become too used to this imaginary hierarchy where the mind reigns supreme and the body occupies the bottommost rung, hence all these wild speculations about any number of astounding martial arts feats the mind can supposedly compel the body to accomplish. I would argue that it's the other way round in the martial arts and that it's the body that is affecting the mind here, and what's more, that it's the body that generates energies all by itself.

As opposed to the mind, the body's possibilities are restricted by its corporality. It's not only subject to gravity, its anatomy also permits it a limited number of movements; practicing martial arts will bring your mind back down to earth, put an end to its unruly flights of fancy and make it return to its primary task: processing sensory input provided by the body and thus perceiving the world as a flesh-and-blood being. It may be a daring thought but my theory is that performing martial arts techniques in a well-coordinated, focussed manner will help streamline your mental processes as well, to the exclusion of redundant cogitation and daydreaming; it will bring you firmly back to the Here and Now where you belong, back into the body you inhabit.

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There are all kinds of fanciful explanations and interpretations for this weird kata but for me, it's the most extreme example of a kata making it as hard as possible for a karateka to generate power. The idea is to maintain a solid straddle stance (kiba dachi) while performing all sorts of punches and blocks that would normally require the thrust of hip movements behind them to be effective. If your techniques are strong despite that handicap, you're ready for advanced class.

In my model, it's exclusively the body that creates martial arts energies. It can't be any other way. The mind may be able to sense them but physical movements are where they originate. I think there is too much emphasis on the 'software' aspect of martial arts and a conscious avoidance of the 'hardware' subject in occulture thinking, as if physical development was something of an embarrassing side-effect of martial arts practice. What's more, laypeople seem to focus exclusively on what the limbs can do (e.g. breaking bricks, performing spectacular jumping kicks) and ignore the fact that they're attached to the central hub of the principal kinetic chain, i.e. the trunk, without the involvement of which all that exotic flouncing about is useless. Martial arts are about forging all parts of the body into a single cohesive unit, and here we finally arrive at the hara, the fulcrum of all throws, the foundation of all strikes. As I've mentioned before, it's the support and postural muscles that are most important in martial arts, followed by the leg muscles for stability and only then by the bicep, and if you want to strengthen your hara, do core exercises religiously, and no, qigong won't cut, it's muscle mass you want to stabilize your techniques.

As my MA energies criteria so far include intent, focus, intensity, control, and skill, I would argue now that true martial arts energies additionally require strength and speed, and by this I mean strength and speed relative to yourself and your own potential, NOT in comparison to others. A petite woman with excellent, fast techniques can create more intense MA energies than a muscle-bound hulk with merely average skills. The same goes for speed – some people are naturally fast because they have a large amount of

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but if their techniques are sloppy and lack power, they'll produce less MA energies than slower but stronger students with better skills; you can sometimes watch this phenomenon in young brown-belt karateka with obvious fighting talent who're quick to hit their intended targets but whose punches and kicks are not yet strong enough to earn them points in competition.

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What it takes…

Another topic that interests me even more than martial arts energies themselves is their transformative power. Many occultists would be willing to concede that the physical activity of hatha yoga can change the mind but would draw the line at 'violent' martial arts. Is there anything inherently unspiritual about a boxer giving a heavy bag a good work-over? What I'm proposing is a bottom-up approach where the body and the MA energies generated by it will transform the mind. Something like that, we'll see.

 

[juanitos]

A Provisional Summary

I think I've reached the end of the line with this Journal, at least for the time being. Much of my efforts here have been spent on demystifying the martial arts and recounting my actual experiences with them. While the general public has a fairly realistic idea about the martial arts and understands very well by now that they're first and foremost athletic disciplines which involve building muscles, developing robust cardio, and improving flexibility, NewAgers and the more naïve sort of occultist still seem to cling to a romanticized image of invincible masters from the mysterious East with supernatural powers, as if "Enter The Dragon" had just come out. In a way, all martial arts are closed practices: either you pursue them, or you're an outsider with half-baked book knowledge - who nevertheless has a very firm opinion regarding how martial arts should work according to your favourite narratives, irrespective of actual facts.

We have become too used to this imaginary hierarchy where the mind reigns supreme and the body occupies the bottommost rung, hence all these wild speculations about any number of astounding martial arts feats the mind can supposedly compel the body to accomplish. I would argue that it's the other way round in the martial arts and that it's the body that is affecting the mind here, and what's more, that it's the body that generates energies all by itself.

As opposed to the mind, the body's possibilities are restricted by its corporality. It's not only subject to gravity, its anatomy also permits it a limited number of movements; practicing martial arts will bring your mind back down to earth, put an end to its unruly flights of fancy and make it return to its primary task: processing sensory input provided by the body and thus perceiving the world as a flesh-and-blood being. It may be a daring thought but my theory is that performing martial arts techniques in a well-coordinated, focussed manner will help streamline your mental processes as well, to the exclusion of redundant cogitation and daydreaming; it will bring you firmly back to the Here and Now where you belong, back into the body you inhabit.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

There are all kinds of fanciful explanations and interpretations for this weird kata but for me, it's the most extreme example of a kata making it as hard as possible for a karateka to generate power. The idea is to maintain a solid straddle stance (kiba dachi) while performing all sorts of punches and blocks that would normally require the thrust of hip movements behind them to be effective. If your techniques are strong despite that handicap, you're ready for advanced class.

In my model, it's exclusively the body that creates martial arts energies. It can't be any other way. The mind may be able to sense them but physical movements are where they originate. I think there is too much emphasis on the 'software' aspect of martial arts and a conscious avoidance of the 'hardware' subject in occulture thinking, as if physical development was something of an embarrassing side-effect of martial arts practice. What's more, laypeople seem to focus exclusively on what the limbs can do (e.g. breaking bricks, performing spectacular jumping kicks) and ignore the fact that they're attached to the central hub of the principal kinetic chain, i.e. the trunk, without the involvement of which all that exotic flouncing about is useless. Martial arts are about forging all parts of the body into a single cohesive unit, and here we finally arrive at the hara, the fulcrum of all throws, the foundation of all strikes. As I've mentioned before, it's the support and postural muscles that are most important in martial arts, followed by the leg muscles for stability and only then by the bicep, and if you want to strengthen your hara, do core exercises religiously, and no, qigong won't cut, it's muscle mass you want to stabilize your techniques.

As my MA energies criteria so far include intent, focus, intensity, control, and skill, I would argue now that true martial arts energies additionally require strength and speed, and by this I mean strength and speed relative to yourself and your own potential, NOT in comparison to others. A petite woman with excellent, fast techniques can create more intense MA energies than a muscle-bound hulk with merely average skills. The same goes for speed – some people are naturally fast because they have a large amount of

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

but if their techniques are sloppy and lack power, they'll produce less MA energies than slower but stronger students with better skills; you can sometimes watch this phenomenon in young brown-belt karateka with obvious fighting talent who're quick to hit their intended targets but whose punches and kicks are not yet strong enough to earn them points in competition.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

What it takes…

Another topic that interests me even more than martial arts energies themselves is their transformative power. Many occultists would be willing to concede that the physical activity of hatha yoga can change the mind but would draw the line at 'violent' martial arts. Is there anything inherently unspiritual about a boxer giving a heavy bag a good work-over? What I'm proposing is a bottom-up approach where the body and the MA energies generated by it will transform the mind. Something like that, we'll see.

Zen was incorporated in japanese martial arts...Musashi also wrote a book The book of the five rings.. So, martial arts energies were not separated from spirituality in japanese martial arts.. The same about Morihei Ueshiba-the founder of Aikido who is said to have attained a high spiritual level. Apparently, the way of the warrior is at the same time a spiritual way, as well...