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Martial Arts Drilling

Posted on August 25, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 826 ~ Subscribe now!

The Secret of Two Directions in the Martial Arts

Thank you to everyone
who has purchased the
Tiger and Butterfly Martial Arts System.

A complete Martial Arts System! ~ Click on the cover!

If you want videos of the forms,
if you want to expand your understanding of the two systems
from which this system came,
check out the Matrix Karate
and Shaolin Butterfly courses.

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Okay,
here’s some stuff about martial arts drills.

When somebody is training a person,
maybe to close distance,
they might set them up a few feet from a bag/wall/whatever,
and have them practice shuffling forward.

You shuffle and shuffle,
people get tired
and go do some boxing.

Hey,
it’s true.
People don’t understand the classical,
get tired of the grind,
they want to fight,
so they go somewhere where people do more fighting
and less drilling.

But the drilling is crucial.
The martial arts are like a wall,
the bottom bricks need to be firmly in place
before a student can build the wall higher.
So you have to practice these basic drills,
and build the basic building blocks.

So,
you are drilling,
practicing closing with the wall,
trying to get the time from launch to impact
to disappear.
And you are making a crucial error.

There are two directions to a line,
and no matter which direction you are going,
both directions are important.

Watch a person start to walk from a standing still position.
chances are
they lean backward
so they can push a foot out.
It’s true,
they unbalance themselves,
so they can fall forward.
They go in two directions to go in one.
A most inefficient method for starting the motion of walking.
But,
if you watch the martial arts,
you will see the most amazing examples
of similar inefficiency.
People just don’t know how to get started.

The correct method is to bend the legs slightly,
and cause yourself to lean forward,
into the motion,
by thinking about it.

And,
if you are going to close distance
in the martial arts,
you need to set your stance
so the ‘wave’ of your legs
can be properly unleashed,
and every part of the body
can contribute to the forward motion.

CBM,
Coordinated Body Motion,
put to work in the simple act of walking.

Now,
if you are not guilty of unbalancing yourself to walk,
if you are already engaged in CBMing to walk,
then let me give you a further example.

Do both the hard and the soft!

I had a group of students attempt to close distance.
They would shuffle and punch,
and they were abysmally slow.
And they didn’t even like it.

So after a few minutes of springing forward,
I had them play a game.
I had them move forward,
extend a forearm for the grabbing,
and spring back when their opponent grabbed.

This put a whole new excitement into the drilling.
This made the student think backwards,
even as he was going forwards.

Then I had them do the original exercise,
and they were shocked
at how they had improved at closing distance.

Try it for yourself.
Drill one way,
then set up the opposite direction,
then go back to the original direction,
it won’t be long before you are faster.

And,
the drill can be used quite gloriously
when it comes to freestyle.
You can set up different targets,
move them into range,
retreat with verve,
and,
here’s a kicker,
set up a counter to attack.
And you will be most excellent at the counter,
because you are adept at moving in both directions.
You haven’t gotten bored with going only in one direction,
which breaks the concept of yin and yang,
of opposites in the universe,
and have become adept at the whole motion.

This drilling,
incidentally,
is the product of neutronics.

Matrixing provides logic.
Gives understanding to the whole picture.
But who is doing the martial art?
You.
That is what neutronics is about.
And in this case,
you are taking advantage of the two directions of a line,
and training in both directions,
to fully understand one direction.

Most people only train in one direction.

Here’s a neutronic datum for you:

The purpose of the martial arts
is to deliver a force or flow
while avoiding a force or flow.

How are you going to accomplish that purpose
if you don’t understand the martial arts in,
at least,
two directions?
How are you going to master the hard,
if you don’t understand the context of soft
from which it comes?
And how are you going to master the soft,
if you don’t understand the contact of hard
from which it comes?

So,
I say it again,
if you know Karate,
or TKD or Kenpo,
or some other hard art,
then you need to learn Aikido,
or TCC,
or some other soft art.
Only if you understand two directions,
will you master one.