Articles

• Fights Part I: Types and Implications

  EXCERPT

  A fight’s a fight, isn’t it?

  Yes. No. Maybe? Different people think about fighting in different ways, with different assumptions, and often those different ways don’t mesh with the realities of a situation when fighting skills are needed most. The term “fight” has become many things to many people.

  To assist in the discussion of how martial arts or other training relates to fights, it helps to be very specific. To me, there are three general types of physical conflict, by which I mean adversarial, non-compliant altercations. These are: contest, dominance, and predatory. I categorize these types based upon their defining goals. Note that there can certainly be cases in which the lines between the types can blur, depending upon the individuals and any contributing context.

  Posted 2861 days ago, Author Dr. Tye W. Botting

• On Forms

  Posted 2871 days ago, Author Dr. Tye W. Botting

• Stances Part II: Power Generation

  Moving from stance to stance uses some of the biggest and strongest muscle complexes in your body – legs, hips, core, and lower back. It also usually involves either linear motion or rotation of your body’s center of mass. Both of these aspects come together with our ability to use the ground when understanding martial arts power generation. Think of your dantian (丹田) as your center of mass (tanden or hara for the Japanese stylists). Your ability to move your center comes most effectively from the muscle complexes around it and between it and what you’re bracing against – the Earth.

  Posted 3602 days ago, Author Dr. Tye W. Botting

• Stances Part I: Movement and Application

  In traditional Chinese and other martial arts, we do a lot of training on stance work. What is usually not so clear is “why?” Most students (and some teachers) believe it is simply to strengthen the legs and train your fighting positions. Because of this, some practitioners think stances are “useless,” and were that all there was to stances, I would pretty much agree. However, I put it to you that stances are actually one of the most effective aspects of your every move. The surface interpretation is just the tip of the nose of the dragon.
  […]
  In a combat situation, you shouldn’t “fight out of” a stance, rather you should be in a dynamic position, ready to move, to generate and apply power. And that should change freely based upon the circumstances of the moment. Instead of a base from which to fight or move, steps a large part of how you fight or move, in and of themselves. Moving from stance to stance, i.e. stepping (or shifting), gets you out of the way, controls of the relative distance and angle between you and your opponent, helps you manage your balance, generates power for striking, throwing, locking, etc. A fight is a dynamic thing, not posturing and posing – unless maybe you’re an extra in a bad movie!

  Posted 3604 days ago, Author Dr. Tye W. Botting

• On Drills

  You just learned a nifty new drill. Congratulations! Now what?

  By all means, work it until it becomes second nature, fast, impressive, and powerful. But, while you’re doing that, be sure to pay real attention, because the goal is not just to show off how good you are at just that specific drill – that’s just martial patty cake. No, you have to dig into them, and to do that, you have to use that gray matter between your ears. Drills are at least as mental as they are physical, perhaps even more.
  […]
  If you’re not doing these kinds of things with your drills, using intent, and exploring, dissecting, and even breaking them, then you’re just going through the motions, and you’re not going to get much out of your work with drills. I certainly don’t want that, and I hope you don’t either.

  Posted 3616 days ago, Author Dr. Tye W. Botting

← Older Newer →