They say good things come in threes. Also, it seems that all the great bands tend to have a triumvirate of great albums among others...less stellar. A similar thing may be said about book authors. It is a rare occurrence, though, when someone hits three brilliant pieces out of three! Well, today we have a shining example of that rare breed - Maija Soderholm.
Maija is a phenomenal exponent of blade arts, mainly of the Filipino provenance, and an excellent instructor, too. While it might be customary to introduce a person in this field by means of her teachers etc, she stands so firmly on her own expertise that even the fact that she comes from the lineage of legendary Sonny Umpad doesn't diminish her own contribution to the development and advancement of the arts. Fortunately, she happens to be as mighty with a proverbial pen as she is with a sword, thus writing a string of books hinted at in the introduction.
The thing that really made me love those is the common theme of all her products, i.e. higher-level, strategic dimension of dueling with sharp (and pointy) steel. In other words, Soderholm tackles the tricky topic of thinking process behind the seemingly "magical" performance by all the greatest exponents of this art/science. So, let me offer a brief review of her books, in the chronological order of their publication.
In the debut volume the author sets the standard for the whole "series" in several regards. First of all, I love the visual theme/design of the cover, which has been kept for the later volumes as well. Next, the title - The Liar, The Cheat and The Thief - is nothing short of brilliant! It very aptly represents the overall "mood" of the material contained within the book. Namely, Maija does not deal with philosophy and ethics of martial arts as they are typically presented nowadays, in terms of self perfection as part of a wider social environment. Instead, her focus is on the self preservation in the situations where life and limb are at stake. Even so, however, there are higher dimensions in this kind of endeavor, beyond the mechanics of technical performance, as important as they are.
To start with, the author describes a set of hypothetical circumstances that very well paint the kind of mindset required for thriving in the sort of situation that the material is aimed at. again - dueling with bladed implements. She then proceeds to explain why deception is the key word/idea in the foundation of advanced combative practice, in her view. The main section of the book, in Part 2, is dedicated to a number of drills designed to develop in the practitioner a constellation of skills that would help them in being successfully deceptive. The drills are divided into several categories, such as timing, footwork, faking, mirroring etc, depending on their primary developmental goal. This part is also where the only possible shortcoming of these books is found...all exercises and activities are described verbally, with no pictorial illustrations whatsoever. Now, this is not necessarily such a bad thing, as it means the inbuilt guidance to personalization and creativity in practice. Still, if you are adamant about seeing the "original" way of doing them, there is a set of corresponding videos available through Soderholm's website. The third and final section of the book offers several clarifications regarding the author's path leading to the lessons presented and several other tidbits that help put things together.
Her second title is The Hustler. While the previous one was mostly a hands-on instructional, this volume is more...theoretical in nature. More specifically, it will require that you put your thinking hat on and approach the material from the personal interpretation of the presented information. See, it still deals with deception, but goes a step further in treating the subject as a course in managing attention. Both the opponent's and your own. That said, it could be said that Soderholm is seeking to bring to the forefront certain facets of human nature that are relevant to the task at hand, which should help us understand the bigger picture of the activity (Remember? Yes, sword dueling!). And why is it important? Well, because it is easier to put the pieces of the puzzle in the right place if you have the picture before you, and it means the reciprocal endeavor of trying to figure out how to overcome the opponent, while simultaneously preventing them from overcoming you. Possibly most illuminating is the description and analysis of the Arc of Action, as she calls it, with its phases of before, during and after, because so many people seem not have the grasp of that continuum. The thing is, understanding that part will help immensely with the applicability of the rest of material, including time and targets, methods of control, and the art of reading the opponent. Obviously, the kind of knowledge that could be gained from understanding and working with this material is precious when you need to analyze other people's styles and overall strategies that run their approach to fighting. Whether that is for the purpose of countering or emulating them...I leave that up to you.
Finally, the last book (only for now, hopefully) is The Spy and the Rodeo Clown. This one also has the intriguing subtitle Swordplay and the Third Game, which is another way of pointing to the progression that these volumes present in terms of personal "game" development: the first book teaches us how to be unreadable for the opponent; the second is about reading their intention; while the this particular strives to reach the ability of "writing the opponent". In other words, guiding their actions to where you want them to be. In more other word, if in the first book you set the traps and waited (hoped) for the prey to fall into them, this time you are actively luring them to walk into that trap. It is possibly a more proactive approach, but in a rather subtle manner, since the trick is in making the opposition believe they are doing it of their own volition, i.e. in their best interest. Do you now get the references to magic and sorcery?
Maija has an interesting mode of presenting this material - she first gives you a set of tasks/assignments to do, and only after teaches how to solve the riddles and/or problems that might emerge along in the process. In my experience it is an excellent approach, because it starts with acquainting oneself with the context, so that everything learned afterwards makes much more sense and is easier to retain and further develop. Very few people in the contact weapons world offer that sort of instruction, and I have yet to see more of them getting so deep into it while staying practical.
The author is known for her championing the training method of random flow as the best way to instill this range of skills, but in order to make things easier to grasp, she first points to an important distinction between the interview and conversation, to better understand the scope of application and appreciate the spheres of influence in the contact range and edge of range (both while entering and exiting the contact range) etc. There is a lot of ground covered here, and it is not something that can be quickly absorbed into one's personal combative expression. It will take time and effort for sure, but in the long term it is not something that should be neglected or dismissed. On the contrary - at the advanced age you need advanced skill to compensate for deteriorating physical attributes, especially in working with weapons, where the margin of error is much narrower.
Before the end, I'd like to suggest a reading order different to chronology of publishing. Even though you can certainly go through the progression as already described, but from the standpoint of understanding the context first you may want to start with the Hustler, then carry on with LCT, and finally work on the Spy and the Rodeo Clown. Whatever the preferred order, you won't regret diving into the material.
In conclusion, for everyone who takes a serious approach to martial arts, training hard and smart, these books not only belong to their library, but ought to be read and referenced often and lot.
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