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By Stephen Cheney
Magic Ingredients: Principles
There are a number of Prime Principles in the Martial Arts and you need to get acquainted with them. Some of the most prominent are:
- Balance: keep yours and ruin your opponent’s.
- Distance: You vary it to defend and to attack.
- Breathing: you control yours and for maximum strike effect you strike when he breathes in or when he has finished breathing out.
- Relaxation: tension slows you down and wastes energy so let the enemy be tense, while you relax to maximise your balance and speed. Relaxation is vastly assisted by controlling your breathing.
- Awareness: You can only deal with what you are aware of, all else is unknown and can be a surprise. Broaden your Awareness to see all their initial moves while you don’t telegraph your own moves to your enemy.
- Spirit: a highly spirited person is a force majeure; spirit is a force multiplier; your mind and body chemistry zinging. If you do anything with enthusiasm then you generate even more enthusiasm within yourself and within like-minded people.
After practicing a waza many times until you fully know the structure of it and what comes next after each part, you can then practice waza focusing on important ingredients that you need to have, include and do:
Do the waza focusing on your BALANCE: are you balanced upon every movement that you do? If not: adjust your body/feet. Standard stances are to assist in this. There is no set-stance-and-forget-it in combat, only a fluid warping between stances as needed.
Do the waza focusing on your ever changing DISTANCE from your opponent: Have you avoided his force area? Have you moved to get close enough to strike through his body and not just to its surface? How does the effectiveness of the waza change if you change the distance?
Do the waza focusing on your BREATHING: To move you should breathe slightly out of your mouth to allow your body a freedom to move fast. Breathe in through your nose and out through your nearly closed mouth – you do not wish your opponent to see your breathing cycle. In a waza you breathe out two thirds of your air, and that includes (when you choose) your sudden shout (Kiai) when striking. Leave one third air in your lungs to fuel any further moves you may have to make after your waza.
Every waza in battle should take no more than one second from start to finish, ideally. This disallows time for the opponent to design a counter. Practice and aim to complete a waza within you giving out one breath. One breath out also helps to synchronize and coordinate your movements into a smooth process. (synchronize: -- SYN: together, CHRON: time, NIZE: make happen).
Do the waza focusing on your RELAXATION. Stay loose at all times except when you impact; meaning you must after impacting immediately relax your limbs and body once more. Stay loose like an Octopus with whipping arms.
Do the waza focusing on your AWARENESS. Do not become fixated upon any one part of the opponent. Try to see all of him at once. If you look at what your own hands are doing you are not watching your opponent and so can be surprise attacked. As you do a waza expect him to do something disruptive, accept that and be aware and ready to counter it. A broad awareness is called ‘Zanshin’ in Japanese (ever-new mind).
Do the waza focusing on your SPIRIT. Determination and energetic force motivate your limbs. Your eyes should glare and the Spirit within you penetrate all obstacles. Zest or Oomph add much to the success of any waza. Thus, a vibrant shout when you hit your opponent is useful to shock his mind and to invigorate (invigorate: -- IN: into, VIGOR: liveliness, ATE: make) yours.
While you shout vigorously you cannot also be afraid as fierce shouting overrides thoughts. Fear is a thought reaction to danger inputs. Fear can come from thinking too much whereas in battle it is too late to distract your mind by having it consider outcomes when you have to deal with immediate physical incomes: incoming strikes, like incoming missiles. As is often said: It is not the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog, that sways the outcome.
RULE: WHEN THEY VARY, YOU VARY
That there can be no set defences to set attacks that do not need adjusting at some point in a real fight, or in practice where the opponent resists or tries to counter you. No two people attack the same, in precisely the same way, and they all can vary at any time. In JuJutsu a variance is expected and the training at higher levels needs to include that aspect of fighting.
When you are doing a hold and the opponent, not cooperating, varies their expected response, you also match that and vary. Happy to do so. Usually interposing a strike will off balance the mind of the opponent enough for you to finish the hold; or you simply know enough to switch from one waza into another. When holding an opponent be fully conscious of all the available strike points on his body, and thus what body weapon you have to strike there.
(Image: Waza in Martial Arts - Google Images)
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You are right about high spirits. Being sad and depressed shuns Light and brings in Darkness that puts us even more down and then we enter stagnation. You are good teacher.
ReplyDeleteIt's like when a dog comes to attack us we also should shout at him, that usually scares him off! Your lectures are always so spiritual: G-d doesn't like low spirits! He told us to always be Happy cause that way we received His messages and blessings more easily! I didn't know the same happened with combat! Thank you, Stephen!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Carla, defences to Dog Attacks is an interesting subject. I may give a lesson on it, but there is so much to cover and one must be very selective in short time and space: and that of course invites criticism such as ‘you left out this’, ‘what about that?’ One cannot be all-inclusive, in the martial arts there are precious techniques and forms to know; but no set ways, as in combat and life there are no set ways. Change and evolving is the way of the world. Farmers of the field, whatever we find we should enhance to make the Universe grow into something even more beautiful and have our personal mark as the artist and so we do, in that, last forever. The day that you awake to is not the same day as the one before. As we do not live forever, in this world, we are only visiting as it were. We cannot learn everything nor do everything nor have everything: and so must be selective in learning; understand that we have limitations and also something extraordinary within ourselves, and should be happy with what we have if it is adequate to our Basic needs. Make do, as we cannot command or obtain all material things, nor can we take it with us when we leave. The coins and goods remain behind. You do not own goods, goods own you; and it is you, who in the end, leaves Them.
DeleteLow spirits are a reaction to circumstances. And also mean you do are not fully immersed in the glory of being, a basking in the light of the immensity of the Universe of your god. Your god being the source of your spiritual radiance which you reflect, as a mirror the Sun. The bad times that are commonly experienced are very real. But it should be remembered that bad times are mainly external happenings and what happens within you, what your own attitude is, is up to you, is in your control. When it rains outside, you do not HAVE TO rain inside of yourself. It does take courage to live and determine what your attitude is to be towards whatever you meet. You do not at all rule the world but you should be very determined to rule yourself. For Here you Are, a Uniqueness in an Eternity.
When they vary, you vary...in other words we adjust constantly to our enemy's moves.
ReplyDeleteCarla is very right: in Judaism we are taught that everything that happens is because Hashem allowed it to happen, so we have no right to be sad. Sadness equals to lack of faith and security in G-d. In combat, if we are distracted by low spirits, we get discouraged, if we get discouraged, we get further distracted and decrease our situational awareness, if we do that then it's death practically. That is one of the reasons why it's important to motivate the troops - in the Torah, G-d killed those who discouraged the troops from the impending battle (from there we can see not only the importance of high spirits in a group, in war, but also how the act of discouraging others is a sin due to the nefarious results it can produce). Well done, Stephen.
ReplyDeleteHi Cristina, If you believe that you are on this world as a testing of your character and the virtue thereof: then all numerous hardships and the outcome of any physical battles are ultimately irrelevant. What is of meaning and value is what Spirit you have shown in trying to overcome the obstacles that come your way. You are your Spirit; the body comes, the body goes. The Spirit is your core, the body a shell. We all need to outgrow our shells and that comes from what we input into ourselves and what we output to the world. After all, we were forged in the stars; it is not a new or strange thing to know the energy of a Spirit.
DeleteIn a fight body clashes with body. Also Spirits clash. If you let your spirit drop out then you are fighting one down, a disadvantage. The body does so much but it is the Spirit that drives through. When you fight: send your Spirit into battle first. You body needs to move to catch up.