Learn to look beyond technique

Learn to look beyond technique!

Dan Inosanto once said that one of the advantages of training with Bruce Lee was to get an “educated eye” andrefers to the highly conceptual nature ofLee’s Jeet Kune Do and that it is similar to the Philippine martial arts approach.

Even an employee, a waiter who has achieved a deep understanding of the fundamental concepts and principles of F.M.A. can have an eye educated to “read the message correctly”.

One of the most important things that Lee bequeathed to fighters was the approach, the innovative vision that goes beyond technique and that takes you to observe martial arts from a new perspective.

Lee himself periodically changed his martial programs and constantly evolved the concept, but this, if in someone’s eyes, may seem unsafe on the way to reality denoting that martial art is alive and above all evolving except in one thing in vision and fundamental concepts.

As I have spoken to you on the blog several times the real research was related to attributes and it is not a question of techniques but of inserting the technique within your attributes to make it effective to your game and your strategy.

A bit like in music the notes and the musical rules are the same for everyone but the music changes and the same thing happens in combat and imagine that music remains always the same in time I think it is an obtuse way to look at art and life, there is an evolution that you have to know how to grasp while respecting tradition (traditional martial arts) but that you have to study as a passion to evolve in the most modern arts to find inside anyway tradition but with all the evolution that has occurred in the meantime and the increase in knowledge and tools that have allowed its evolution.

But going back to the concept of “education” what is important is to be able to read the content giving a useful meaning to your context.

Knowing how to read a movement of whatever art it is allows you to understand how it is generated, the timing, the recall of muscle groups, what it does to make it effective and functioning, etc., in practice attributes.

This polite eye is the advantage that is often seen in a Kali/Eskrima practitioner compared to other martial artists who consider martial arts only in terms of techniques.

Boxing and boxing

Take boxing as an example because it is an essential aspect in any martial art.

It’s amazing how many old-school excriminators learned boxing almost naturally as if they already knew.

For example, the legendary Johnny La Coste and the master father and son Lucky and Ted Lucaylucay, were all experienced boxers during their time.

The reason perhaps was that the conceptual nature (concept) of Escrima allowed him to train in boxing with ease.

They didn’t observe the techniques themselves, but everything that revolved around them.

When an excriminator examines the dynamics of the boxing movement, his first concern is not the techniques or weapons involved, but the angles of attack.

Attack angles are constant and if you understand this the understanding of techniques is easier to use techniques than through those angles they reach target.

Returning to boxing, the cross jab are simply motions pushed from the point of view of an excriminator.

The hook, uppercut and overhand are just punches directed at a target through horizontal, diagonal and vertical angles in varying degrees.

Now, “this shot or that” is just an attack that goes through an angle, a trajectory.

In the defensive phase, however, understanding the angles of attackallows the escrimadores to monitorthe movements of his opponent efficiently so that theangles of attack are constant, then you can more or less predict where your opponent’s shots will come from.

Lee has repeatedly reiterated a concept that encompasses a great truth:

“I don’t believe in different ways of fighting now.

I mean, unless humans have three arms and three legs, then we’re going to have a different way of fighting.

But basically we all have two arms and two legs, that’s why I think there should just be one way to fight and it’s not at all obvious.”

Lee wanted to achieve a unification of martial arts where diversity was tied to attributes, a bit like music.

Now if you start thinking not about strikes but about the concept of angles, you can only do a few things while attacking and against an oncoming attack.

In defense, the available options are under the attack plan, evading the range of the incoming weapon or stifling the attack before it gains momentum.

The latter can be a block motion or a stop shot.

The escrimador also knows that the underlying concepts of hitting with a weapon like a stick are the same as striking with empty hands.

Muscle contraction and relaxation are two constant elements in striking with a weapon or with bare hands.

In combat with sticks, the escrimador understands that maximum muscle contraction on impact is necessary to cause a powerful blow and to prevent injury on itself but also knows that it can not be in a constant state of muscle tension because it slows it down.

During a fight, he knows that he must be relatively relaxed when he does not attack and contract the necessary muscles at the moment of impact when he pulls a shot and immediatelyp— to protect himself and get out of reach of the other escrimador.

Is there anything different about boxing?

No, as in no art can you read it!

The technique performed correctly

Another thing that is a constant requirement for efficiency is the correct form. Needless to say, the individual must know the correct form of a technique, whether it is a weapon technique or a technique with his bare hands.

But the biggest advantage of getting a polite eye is that it will allow you to intelligently choose things that fit your natural skills as a martial artist.

Attention is not about making a collage of techniques but all this reasoning is related to the obsession with Bruce Lee’s attributes.

Those who think and say that JKD is a collage of techniques taken here and there have not understood anything about what the Jeet Kune Do is,and probably never practiced it to make such a distant statement.

Back in 1990 in the Black Belt magazine of December that I found in sharing fortunately during my research where already 30 years ago Inosanto brilliantly exposed this concept saying (and attention to what it says about technique and attributes):

“Well, join me in some verbal research.

Consider a side kick:

• how does a Japanese stylist counterattack a side kick?
• and how does a Chinese designer do it?
• or how does a street fighter handle it?
• how about a wrestler?
• Etc.

First, you look at all these different ways.

Then you have to choose one for yourself, and the key ingredients, as Bruce Lee said, are timing and rhythm, and not so much technique itself.

That’s why a person can use a technique that is not very efficient, but if he has the timing and an understanding of the structure, he can make it work.

For example: in basketball, if you make 30 percent of your shots on one side of the court and make 90 percent of your shots from the other side, you’d take most of the shots from the latter.

What Bruce Lee was trying to say is this:

Find the movements that will work for you in combat 90 to 100 times, but stay open to other arts to see what they do, because unless you understand what they’re doing, you can’t really understand the total fight.

When silat stylists descend to the ground in a sitting position cross-legged, this is foreign to the boxer, because how is it going to hit or cross a guy who is on the ground?

And it’s also foreign to Wing Chun, because how are you going to deliver a pak sao, lop sao technique (hand slap/hand grip) to your opponent when he’s on the ground?

Now a grappler will take care of that position because he’s used to the rug, but for people who aren’t, it would be hard to handle.

But today, many martial artists will say, “My style is A, and I won’t even consider B because A is better.”

Their minds are already closed. “

It has been 40 years and more from these sentences and even today we hear about better and worse arts, man has not evolved, he continues to ask the question always the wrong way.

Conclusions

If you classify martial arts according to techniques you risk limiting your ability to look and then understand the mechanisms that allow you to evolve your martial art.

If you can’t get out of the usual patterns, you risk getting trapped there for too long.

Free yourself from patterns and preconceptions.

Stay Tuned!

Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport

Andrea