Go with the...flow!

 Asked what are the characteristics of a high-level martial art exponent, several typical responses come to mind - ease of movement, grace of execution, thinking ahead of the opponent etc. - but when they are all integrated it would be fair to say that when they are at their top game, such expert practitioners all seem to possess and exhibit flow in performance. However, this very notion may prove to be rather tricky in its meaning. Also, there is no consensus regarding if it is possible to be trained. 

Interestingly enough, some martial systems emphasize flow as their prime goal and desired result of training but may have very different ways in seeking to achieve it. Let's take the example of grappling arts such as aikido and BJJ: the former strives to develop flow as a component of its technical base and seeks to train it through relaxed and soft execution of specific techniques through high repetitions; the latter perceives flow as the result of having all other technical components in order, and tends to come at it through sparring, i.e. free rolling. 

If you have had the opportunity to try or at least see both approaches in action, you may have noticed that their understanding of what, or better yet - how, flow is is not exactly the same. In aikido it is seen as good if the whole sequence of moves and techniques runs seamlessly as one long, uninterrupted statement, even speech. But, when reading a well written article/book, or listening to an engaging speaker, you have certainly noticed full stops at the end of sentences and heard pauses at varying times in the speech. In a conversation, this is even more obvious. This is why BJJ sparring seems more natural, with its transitions, isolations, positional escapes and finally submissions - this is how a natural conversation may be represented visually. 

But, what with the striking arts? Obviously, there is high value placed on the flow in those as well, but again, the approaches frequently differ. Filipino martial arts are known for professing their preference for the flow as a supremely important aspect, but quite often it is attempted in practice in a manner similar to aikido...artificially, devoid of context, via so-called flow drills. Here is an example...

What technical attributes do you see being drilled properly here? Stance, biomechanical structure, distance, footwork..? Not exactly the most brilliant display. That said, the drill itself isn't necessarily faulty, be it sumbrada, hubad or whatever. With proper energy and intent, all those other things would fall into place. As an example, seek instruction from Roger Agbulos, either seminar or classes, to see how hubad, when well done, tend to resemble wrestling's pummeling drills. 

Over the years of my training with Alex Kostic, we came at a notion of "punctuated flow", as a term that may better represent a genuine state of performance in actual fights. To most of us, seeing a good boxer doing his craft would be a great visual representation. The following clip shows some of those, but I especially like the portion starting at 1:38, because it is a great parallel to giving a good speech, as mentioned earlier, with its pauses between well connected phrases and sentences. 

See what I mean? Now, some people may argue that flow is a mental state that cannot really be trained. I will readily agree that with some practitioners it is more innate and easier to attain, but it can be trained for sure. There are many factors involved in an adequate training methodology, but let me point to an important one to begin with. First, the trainees should be working on longer series of technical maneuvers and looking for fluid performance, but the thing is they should be aware of the purpose of each individual component, while facing progressive resistance and increasing demands in doing, so. Why? Well, once you know what are you doing and why, it is much easier to have proper intent behind your actions. Whoever has seen a Thai boxing fight knows that most exchanges are short and crisp, done explosively, and yet, in most schools you will find many strings of long combos, such as this one:

The point there is that the person practicing the drill knows the purpose and function of their individual techniques and their possible combinations, which enables practitioners to take them apart and reassemble them in different ways, according to the context and circumstances of the fight. Like learning foreign languages - you may and should learn entire phrases and expressions, but also need to know meaning of individual words and rules of linking them when expressing new meaning. Here, meaning is intent...without you can throw together any words you like in any order you want, but they might end up sounding like gibberish. 

And we all like being well understood, right?

Challenges in training - focus

To set things straight right away, this post will not be dealing with the focus in the sense of being fully present, “right here, right now” during each and every one of your training sessions. As hard as it is sometimes to maintain, I take that one as understood. Instead, I will touch upon the question of one’s focus in view of the entirety of their training. The big picture if you want.

We have two basic widespread problems here, of course, on the opposite sides of the spectrum. One is characteristic of beginners and young practitioners, who are so concerned about covering as much ground in the shortest time possible (running through the belts, or whatever grading system is used, if it is implemented in their chosen school). In the process, they lose sight of the fundamental principles and teachings, so while they may end up having a fairly complete idea about the system they are studying, they also have a fairly shallow understanding of any of its parts, let alone the whole of it. That reminds me of people who run through a museum to see as many things as possible for the price of a single ticket, but in the end do not really remember anything they had seen.

The other problem occurs when a practitioner (either beginner or advanced) stumbles upon a portion of the system that they really, really like. Now, in this case, liking means feeling very comfortable with the execution of the moves (favorite drill, technique, exercises), so just for the sake of enjoying it, the trainee loses from the horizon the place of that segment within the entire system, i.e. the purpose it is meant to achieve. In extreme cases, this will even lead to the skewed view of the system itself. 

 

 

 

 

Distance? Structure? Power?

 

Probably most frequent appearance of this is the notion of “flow drills” and “sensitivity/softness in training”. The former is quite spread in the Filipino martial arts, Indonesian silat, pushing hands in some Chinese boxing styles etc. namely, in order to make those drills really flow as water, the exponents will often disregard some fundamental principles like mechanics of delivery, posture, footwork and so on. And of course, when they engage in sparring of other drills with resistance, they wonder how come none of their hubud and/or siniwali never seem to appear in those. The analogy I have for this one is a person who reads a book and stumbles upon an illustration they really like, but then only thinks of that particular illustration through the rest of the book, while losing the track of the plot .

Mechanics? Power? Balance?

 

The overemphasis on softness is traditionally characteristic of aikido, but seems to be spreading throughout the world of Russian systema as well. What was meant to be the exercise developing the evasive ability on defense and swift changing of targets/attacks on offense, has turned into the totally non-resisting performance that hinders the development of both competent defense and offense. So much so, that even the people who offer even the slightest resistance, as in the case of simply waiting for the technique to just start actually working on them, are frowned upon as “brutes and muscle-heads”. 

Posture? Intent? Balance? Power?

 

While there might be such thing as the guiding idea or overarching principle in any martial art system as such, keep in mind that there is no single best training method to attain it, especially not to a degree that would allow and justify completely neglecting everything else. Can you imagine a student of physics who becomes so mesmerized with learning Newton’s second law for example, that he or she then never moves on to any other laws and principles of physics?

Naturally, it is absolutely necessary to have some teaching/learning progression in place when embarking on the study of a martial art. However, none of those steps in the progression is be all end all, otherwise all those other steps would not be there, would they?

Of course, there is always the matter of different people training for different motives and aims, but even they would benefit from keeping things in perspective, as that would help them keep track of how to best enjoy the aspects they like.

Why do it?

One of the main things that make people outside martial arts look at us “insiders” as immature, hormone-raging and irrational types is certainly the shape that some of the martial art discussions (read: meaningless quarrels) take. Essentially there are two types of those – first the inner disputes within the same system/style, second the “whose d!ck is bigger” debate among the practitioners of different ones. The former case is almost always politically motivated, so I am not going to delve into it here and now.

The second kind, however, as it seems to me, tends to be more or less sincere in the beginning, but deteriorates due to some fundamental lack of understanding between the parties involved. My experience tells me that on most occasions those irreconcilable disputes are based on the failure of all sides involved to understand and acknowledge their own and other people’s motivation to do martial arts in the first place. I will try here to offer a view that could maybe help in preventing of dissolving such waste of energy.

Let me start outright by saying that I feel almost any motive to get involved with training in martial arts is legit, as long as it is authentic. By authentic, I mean entirely based on interior benefits, and excluding exterior ones (commercial success, social status and similar). Some of the more common ones that we see are:

-         the genuine need for self-defense skills;

-         the need to build one’s self-confidence and sense of well being;

-         a cultural/ethnological study of sorts;

-         means of recreation;

-         competing in sport events;

-         spiritual uplifting and/or self-actualization.

Now, it is obvious (at least I hope it is) that each of these motives requires different approach to and emphasis in training in order to be realized. Therefore, whenever you look to join a martial art class, ask yourself what are you looking for and why are you doing it. Try to answer your own question as sincerely and honestly as possible, as it would save you a lot of time, frustration and disappointment later. Once you know what makes you tick, you can set off on finding a right school for you.

It means that your driving motivation will decide on which elements of the whole package may have more or less importance in whether you choose to join a particular group – is there a required uniform or not; are there some customs/rituals that are mandatory; is there emphasis on the original terminology etc.

For example, if you really do need realistic self-defense methods, especially in hurry, you ought to seek a school or a program that teaches some sort of combatives. Certainly the best known such type of system today is krav maga, but most other RBSD methods that focus on scenario type training and stressing adequate physical and psychological attributes will do just fine. On the other hand, in this case the only rituals observed should be those relating to the safety in training and the uniform should not play that much of a role.

Should you be on the quest to learn more about some culture’s expression embodied in its form of martial art(s), it is then certainly important to embrace the whole thing – uniforms, terminology, proper code of conduct (as long as it does not stand in direct opposition with you own set of deeper values), hierarchy…

However, it is my firm belief that the relations that may be of utmost importance within the school, during training, should not necessarily transfer to your daily life. In other words, please do not be a medieval ninja or a renaissance nobleman fencer, nor an MMA athlete or a SEAL commando at your daily job as a post office clerk, as it will usually make you a modern day jackass. Whatever you do, it only makes sense in its proper context.

 Those in need of some recreation after hours of sitting at work might be more concerned about the proximity and cost of the class that about the actual material being taught.

By now you should get the idea and the main point of my lecture, but there is one aspect that needs be addressed individually. When it comes to the whole spiritual/mental aspect of training martial arts, I really feel that if you mange to find a healthy environment in which the training is conducted, and you work with dedication and commitment, the spiritual and mental improvement will come on its own, almost as a side-effect of your training. Personally, I’d say that if you are searching primarily for that kind of effect, you will be better off doing yoga or practicing one of the many meditation methods out there (DISCLAIMER: look for proper guidance here and I am not recommending anybody’s approach in particular). Otherwise, you will be frustrating other people in you martial art club who are there for actual training.

And now, back to being sincere and honest with yourself. If you are, you will avoid getting involved in an argument over the street-effectiveness of aikido, tae-bo and capoeira, or the authenticity of lineage in kickboxing or MMA. That said, nevertheless, it is a fact that even within the same general system or style of martial art, some schools will put more emphasis on one aspect of training or another, so you might want to do some previous research into that as well.

Finally, there is one more thing left to stress here. It is normal for people, especially those who are into it for a long time, to change their point of view or focus of interest in training, so there is nothing bad in changing schools, trying out new things or combining two or more training approaches on one’s own personal path through the world of martial arts.