The Limits of Extremes Here is an area of martial arts and combat that has not been worked to it’s full potential.
This is where an art that successfully blends the strong points of both yields combat supremacy to the trainee.
Most martial arts lean either toward the internal at one extreme or to the external at the other.
By internal concepts we mean the cultivation of balance, body unity, looseness, sensitivity, alignment, gravity, momentum, efficiency, and relaxation through a highly trained nervous system that does not rely on sheer muscular exertion.
Sensitivity and Grappling A big advantage that today’s grapplers and some mixed martial artists have is that they are applying one of the most important facets of internal fighting which is sensitivity.
If you examine closely you will see all of their training is up close and personal.
As good as the grapplers and kung fu arts are, most of them do not create a segue between hard and soft.
One of these reasons is that most of the arts are caught in the idea of learning by memorizing a particular response to a particular stimulus.
To quote Professor Brad Steiner, President of the International Combat Martial Arts Federation: “A choice must be made. If a method can be practiced full force in a competitive venue, then obviously it lacks crippling, maiming, and killing skills – all of which, whether it is popular to say so or not, must be taught and embedded in the student’s psyche and nervous system. If a system is fully combat worthy, then any competition or full contact training in the skills is nothing short of insanity.” Spontaneity is King In extreme internal arts emphasis tends to be on strict form to the detriment of creativity and real killing strikes practiced full power against targets or half-power against uncooperative opponents.
Regardless, whether sport-based martial arts or classical kung fu and karate is trained, the tendency in most styles is to stiffen the practitioner’s ability to flow spontaneously with movement that approximates realistic movement in a completely free-form and un-patterned manner.
This can be said about any martial art/sport that is not truly spontaneous.
What I am trying to reiterate is that in the more internal/external arts, realistic and effective flow can only happen in a natural, non-patterned way to be effective.
Most of the internal/external martial arts/sports practice with choreography or from very structured positions and postures.
Cooperative vs. Non-Cooperative Training Also, remember that nothing is a guarantee of success.
Are you on a stairway or in a vehicle or asleep in bed when the nasty visit happens? The first step toward proper training in the various arts is to have a person move from the point of cooperative movement to non-cooperative movement for at least brief periods of time.
As long as proper balance, sensitivity and spontaneous movement occurs the practitioners will enhance their reality based fighting ability while not losing their particular martial arts identity.
A central tenet of this training however involves learning to listen with your skin and blend with the other’s motion without technique or choreography, using only general rules of physics to guide you.
Adding Guided Chaos Principles to What You Already Know I consider Wing Chun to be one of the best martial arts for practicing sensitivity.
In one particular case one of these talented highly skilled practitioners trained for three months.
Remember: It is not the martial art or sport that is lacking, it is the application of the basic principles that will enhance any of them.
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