Developing the Legs (Part 1)

One of the key methods in Martial arts training, especially when you read about the old masters, is the development of the legs through deep stance training and a lot of hard focused work!  Often you hear that an IMA master would have spent many years training an external style and mastering its basic foundation training before moving into IMAs. Much of that time would have been devoted to training the legs so that the tree has good roots.

Beyond Kicking there are plenty of good reasons to develop good leg skill. We need good legs to transmit and receive force from the earth,  we need them for good powerful and connected footwork, we need to them to lift and throw people ... the list is a long one!

But what attributes are we specifically trying to develop in our leg training, well here are a few of them:

- Freedom of movement and mobility in the joints,

- Strong lines of connection 

- Endurance

- Power

- Sensitivity.

How do we train the legs to achieve these things?

Here are some basic training exercises to help develop functional leg skill and bring out some of the above attributes.

SQUATS

Clearly the Squat is one of the most fundamental excersises no matter what the discipline. It is a great tool for developing leg strength and how to align the bones of the legs with your direction of force. However beyond the basic squat we have several other ways in which we can train this basic exercise.

- Speed variation

Try performing a squat with variation in speed. You may go down very slowly and then shoot back up, you may fall into the squat as if someone took away your support then stand very slowly. There are a lot of ways you can try this .. but here are a couple of specific drills which are both challenging and useful.

1. 30 breath squat

Perform 1 squat but take 15 breaths to sink and 15 breaths to rise. This should be a very smooth and slow motion with not jerks or pauses.

2. 5 as fast as you can then 1 slow

Perform 5 full squats as fast as you can remembering to breath, then perform 1 squat with 5 breaths down 5 up. 

3. Explosiveness

Using a jump squat drop down very slowly, as soon as you reach the bottom point explode up into a jump, when you land again, very slow drop.

- Height Variation and holds

One very useful way to mix up your squat training is to hold the position every so often at different heights during the squat. Try the exercises below:

1. Step and Squat height variations

Take a forward step and then make a full squat, another forward step 2/3 squat, anther ½ squat, another 1/3rd ... Then turn around and repeat backwards.

2. Hold variations.

No in a static position try to hold  the ½ squat position for 5 seconds as you go down into a full squat. Then the same when you come back up. You can hold for longer and longer or at different points in the squat range.

Integrate breath

Clearly we need to breath to live! But when we  train any sort of loading exercise it can be useful and increase your performance if you actively think about how your breathing as you move through the exercise. The squat is a very useful exercise to start this training on as it acts very much like a pump, changing the pleasures in the body as you move through the exercise. Try these ways to begin to integrate your breath and movement.

1. Breath Pump

As you squat breath out for the entirety of the movement, then as you stand breath in! Its fairly simple, but you should remember that the breath should go out for the WHOLE movement down and in for the WHOLE movement up. Focus deeply on this cycle and repeat very gently and slowly for 8 repetitions. 

2. Listening to the Natural Breath 

The natural breath is what your Body requires in terms of oxygen. This natural cycle is very smooth and precise when there are no mental/physical blockages making the breath become stuck. Try performing relatively slow squats and breathing in accordance with your bodies requirements. Here you are merely watching what your body does and not trying to enforce any set breathing pattern. 

Breath integration can be continued in all exercises but it is good to start out with something very simple like a squat.

HIP MOBILITY AND LEG CONTROL

One of the most important factors in training the legs is training their ability to move and change direction at will. There are some very simple exercises that help to build the mobility attribute.

1. Leg hanging & swinging

This method is used to help the hip joint soften up and move unimpeded in its joint.

- Stand on a step with on foot on the step the other off the edge, so the edge of the step should be on along the inside of the supporting foot leaving the other leg hanging.

- Ensure the pelvis is level and that you have something to hold onto for support.

- Gentely swing the leg back and forth, extremely softly. 

- Focus deeply on the hip and release any built up tension with each out breath.

- Repeat for an equal amount of time on each side.

2. Tag the Target

This exercise is suprising demanding to do well! It is a simple game of touching targets that you have laid out for yourself with your big toe.

- Pin small circles of paper to a wall (or use post-it notes) These should range from next to the floor to hip height . You can extend this to shoulder height when you get better.

- Stand close enough to the wall so that you can touch it with your big toe with a bent leg.

- Stand on one leg ensuring that the pelvis stays level. Touch the targets in a random order continuously without dropping the foot to the floor for 30 seconds.

- Change legs

Note: Make sure that you are not leaning the body or tilting the pelvis as you go through the exercise.

3. Kick Walks

This one can look a little funny but has great benefits to the mobility and movement involving the Psoas and adductor muscles.

- stand feet together body upright

- Without adjusting the body at all or moving the arms or pelvis raise the knee and kick out the front holding the leg in place. Knee should be bent and the feeling of lifting should be in the hip. 

- Holding the leg up allow the body to fall forward so that you end in a front lunge with the kicking leg supporting.

- The rear hip should be open and stretched

- Pulling up with the original kicking leg drag the rear leg up and then kick up forward. 

- Repeat the process

4. Leg rolling Adductor/Abductor

Very simple exercise this but it can cause some difficulty in the rest of the body.

- standing on one leg raise the knee out too the side as high as possible.

- swipe inwards with the leg until it is just past straight ahead .

-drop the knee back in line with the standing leg and then repeat.

Be sure to change direction as well to work the outside muscles.

One important point with this exercise is to not have any resulting movement visible in the rest of the body. Make the body tight and tied together so that the arms are not flapping around and your not leaning or wobbling around.

In part 2 i will aim to talk about Power, Sensitivity and Connection training methods related to developing the legs for Martial Arts. Try the exercises above for a month and let me know how you get on. I think you will find a good improvement in mobility and strength fairly quickly.

Fascia 'fuzz' release

This is an interesting video showing the Fascial 'fuzz' that builds in between the body sliding surfaces when we are at rest or when we are injured and movement is inhibited.

I think this very nicely highlights the usefulness of integrating bodywork and movement into your daily routine.

NOTE: this video does show cadaver portions.

The frame from the ground up. (part 1)

The initial ability to stand with a functional frame is an important first stage in IMA body methods.
I thought i would throw up a quick post on some of the points for setting up the body frame ready for standing or movement practice. There is much greater detail that can be discussed, especially in terms of how the anatomical lines spiral and link to each other. But to begin with lets talk about the basics.

1. Feet
The feet are your best receptor for recognising how your body weight is paced. Listen to what the feet tell you in terms of position of pressure. The foot provides and all round receptor to feel motion forward back and side to side. The primary contact points of the feet are generally the toes, metatarsal heads (ball of the foot),  Outer longitudinal Arch and the heal.
To help us recognise and find the central point in relation to the feet, rock back and forward, making the movement smaller and smaller until you arrive at the central point with the balance evenly distributed. Repeat this rocking side to side.

2. The Toes
The toes play a very important role in how the foot connects with the earth. They help to control balance and stability but also allow us to connect more securely with the ground itself. We should lightly grasp the earth as if the feet were plungers or suckers.  This has the effect of activating the ‘bubbling well’ point just back from the metatarsal heads in the centre of the foot, which increases the connection with the earth.

3. Knees
The knee alignment is of huge importance when working with static postures or slow movement training when load is constant. We need to make sure that the knees follow their correct path. The Knee is in essence a weigh transfer joint, allowing articulation in a very strict limited direction, when compared to the hip for example which is what I call a movement joint. If we try to make the knees go in directions outside of this plane they will suffer tissue damage.
To maintain the proper alignment we should make sure than the knee follows the line of the big toe. The knee should be softly bent and relaxed, not locked or overly flexed so that the thigh muscles are working a lot.

4. Pelvis and related level
The pelvis is the base of the body lines. It is a very important area to set up correctly when starting to work with internal body mechanics. We need to look at the tissues surrounding the pelvis as well as the connections too it and the position of the bones themselves in order to set the rest of the body us correctly.
a. Relax the Glutimus Maximus. Your buttocks should be soft and relaxed, this will have the effect of helping to drop the coccyx down levelling up the pelvis.
b. Relax and open the Inguinal Crease. Also known as the Kwa we need to relax this meeting point of the thigh with the hips and let this crease naturally open up. This will further let the pelvis sink and sit naturally.
c. Pull up through the inside line of the legs. This will have the effect of stabilizing and ‘setting up’ the lower frame like the arch of a bridge and will help to maintain exchange up through the Hui Yin (perineum) point.

5. lower back and lower abdominals.
To help the pelvis find the right position we need to release and control the postion and state of the lower trunk of the body. There are two major areas to focus on. The Thoracolumbar Fascia plays an important role in correctly relaxing the lower back. This may take some time to come under conscious control so that you can release the area and allow the pelvis to hand in the correct position.  Also relaxing the transverse abdominis will allow the pelvis to sit even further down in a pendulum style position from the spine.

6. Spine
The spine should be straightened smoothing out the lumbar curve somewhat. But this should not be an enforced process of reversing the curves. The method is to lengthen the spine from the crown of the head. As we have already relaxed the structures around the pelvis the lower back should be relatively flat anyway. So the focus should be on extending to the top of the head, eliminating the outward curve of the upper back and inward curve of the neck. The feeling of pulling the chin in helps to open up the neck somewhat.

7. Rib cage
we want to aim for balance in the setting up of the frame, therefor its important not to collapse the chest inwards or puff it out. But rather keep it naturally in the centre. The rib cage will sit naturally allowing the diaphragm to work well aand keeping preasure of f the lungs and heart. When done correctly the chest will seem to hollow ( not cave in but become hollow inside) and the internal body weight will sink to the lower abdomen.
The other important point here is that the upper back remains naturally centred as well. The back should not be curved out or flexed back.

8. Scapular
The connection through the top of the back between the sides of the body is an important area to ‘set up’ in this initial building of the frame. The scapular should sit flat to the back, sunk and in towards the spine without undue tension in the creation of the posture. This will have the effect of pulling the shoulders back slightly in their socket and allowing the chest to be natural.

9. Shoulders and Arms
The shoulders are important as they are the movement joint for the arms much like the role of the hips for the legs. The shoulders should be sat down in position with the Trapezius muscle very soft and open. The more the shoulders are pulled up by the traps the less connected to the body frame they will be.
The result of correctly seated shoulders is that the arms should have the sensation of ‘filling up’ . Here we need to release the elbow joint by softening as much as possible and letting gravity do its work. The same is true of the wrist and finger joints.

10. Neck, face and head
The head and especially the face is often full of unrecognised tension and emotional residual tensions. If we are going to work freely we need to begin to desolve these points of tension from the outset. Practice releasing the Neck, then the face, then the tissue over the skull with every out breath. As you relax more and more the entire frame should start to be felt as a single unit. Allowing you to begin whatever work your going to start.

As i say there is a lot more detail that we can go into .. in Part two we will talk about.
- Drawing up with the legs,
- Arms and legs like drills
- Winding around the body
- Ming Men and Taodao
- Breath integration
- Intent driven structure setting.

Happy training

Every day training

Training is a funny thing for some people, they go to the Dojo or training hall a couple of times a week, work hard for an hour or two on specific body skills then as soon as they get into the car or walk home they revert back to their way of moving before the session. One of the aims of training should be that it is a constant consideration, a process that happens from the moment you wake to the time you lay down to sleep (even some work can be done while you sleep .... but that's a bit ahead of me currently!)

I would like to give you some ideas on things you can do in your everyday life that will assist your IMA training so in no particular order!

-          Shoulder relaxation at your desk
One thing that we often see in desk jobs and office work is stresses in the upper back and shoulders. A very simple method you can use to work on relaxation of the shoulders and upper back is:

o   Sit with your Keyboard close to the edge of the desk so that your wrists rest on the desk but your elbows hang down.

o   Make sure you sit with a straight spine and your chest open.

o   Work on the elbows becoming heavy like weights relaxing and opening the shoulders.

-          Standing for any period of time (in a Queue etc)                             
Ok, your not going to stand in Santi in a Queue in public as it might attract some funny glances. However you can do some very good constructive work on the inside lines of the legs while standing in a natural position

o   Stand naturally but squat very slightly down

o   Have the feeling of pulling the feet together on the floor to engage the inside lines of the legs

-          Standing and sitting
Not an easy time to be thinking about training! However this simple practice can be performed from the moment you go to get up out of bed.

o   When sitting in a chair and going to stand have the feet shoulder width, pull on the inside of the legs and extend the spine

o   Follow this leading force to stand, with as little forward lean in the torso as you can manage

-          Washing your hands
to test your speed!

o   Try to shake all the water off your hands with a single motion, (a slap or flick)

-          Walking on busy streets
One for those living in busy cities. It is a very good way to recognise intent, develop smooth movement and all round awareness            

o   Begin to walk in your intended direction

o   Soften the breath and expand the peripheral vision

o   Soften the stride and legs

o   Increase your speed so that your walking at a greater than normal pace

o   Do not allow yourself to touch another person at all, leave and move very smoothly as you walk.

o   Try to avoid the ‘double take’ where you both avoid in the same direction by recognising their intent and movement direction as it happens.

-          Climbing stairs
A good workout for your stepping and leg power.

o   Climb with as smooth a motion as you can at a higher speed than you normally would

o   Avoid up and down jumping motions

o   Aim to glide up the stairs

o   Thighs should rub together with every step and you should be squatting slightly.

-          Walking under a door
This is a good way to develop a certain thing or build a certain strength

o   Select a door in your home (one that you use regularly)

o   Every time you walk under that door in any direction you perform the selected motion or exercise. It may be a pull up, it may be a Beng Quan.

         Opening a door
This is useful for kick training.

o   Whenever you walk through a door place your toes on the bottom of the door without a sound, open the door by the handle but actually push with your foot.

o   Close the door with you foot too.

o   NOTE ... this shouldn’t be kicking doors in!! It is controlling your power output with your legs and manipulating the hip to control and use the legs with precision.

There are many other basic things you can do throughout the day to continue your training but these are a few examples I use on a daily basis. Be creative and find that any action you make can be ‘Training’!

He Jinhan - Spine work

My friends Sifu, Mr He jinghan of Yin Bagua tradition discusses some methods relating to the spine.



thought it might interest some of you.

regards

Utilizing the Spine

The ability to manipulate the spine as a way of developing power, enhancing health and increasing mobility is a point central to many martial arts. We can even say that without spine mobility the effect of striking, throwing and movement will be greatly diminished.

Whether it is Brazillian JuJutsu or TaijiQuan the ability to manipulate and move the back effectively is one of the things that separates the excellent masters from the rest. However training methods specifically designed to work on the back and spine can sometimes be somewhat lacking in many arts.

Here are a few training ideas that you can try to help increase overall back and spine mobility.

Rolling.

If you follow my blog it is no secret that I rate floor rolling to be a superb overall health and development exercise. However there are specific benefits to this work that directly relate to spine health and mobility.

1)    Rolling for massage.

When rolling on the floor in specific ways you actually massage the muscles around the back and spine, dissipating tension and smoothing out any points of stiffness or sticking. After a very short period you can feel the benefits of this work.

2)    Rolling for mobility

Also when rolling around on the floor your are extending and opening the spine in multiple directions. This means that the connective points of the spine are becoming more and more relaxed but increasing in load capabilities. Gravity is the big friend here and working slowly will increase the effectiveness or this work greatly.

Rolling is a great way to start any work with the spine or back. Once you have warmed up the back and spine through rolling it will be much easier to find points of tension or sticking when working on the next exercises.

Axis twisting

Here we consider the spine a central axis of the body with two ‘sticks’ coming out of it forming a line through the shoulder joints and through the hip sockets. Imagine  the points that these two sticks cross the central line.

1)    Stand arms outstretched and feet shoulder with apart.

2)    Fixing the pelvis and lower stick in place, Turn the upper stick so that it is at right angles to the lower stick when looked at from above.

3)    Once you have twisted into this position, mentally relax any tension created by leading it out of the body through breath.

4)    Come back to the start point and repeat on the other side.

This exercise has several benefits.

- It increases the ‘wrapping’ of the body around a central axis

- It stretches the side lines of the body

- It helps you to recognise the central point and where the shoulder hip alignment it

- It develops twist force

Spine Wave.

This is a little trickier to achieve at first. The aim here is to initially create a big wave up the spine from the point of the coxyx to the base of the neck. As the practice progresses we make this wave smaller and smaller until it is very short in nature. This is where a vibration or short emission of force from the spine become possible.

First exercise, wave and return.

1)    stand feet shoulder width, feet centred on the ground,  hips relaxed, spine extended to the crown and body soft with the shoulders sunk.

2)    Starting at the very base of the spine, Roll each vertebrae forward and then let it naturally retreat. Like a wave rolling onto a beach.

a.     This should be a large movement without any forward action on the body

b.     Maintain the base and position of the pelvis

c.     Do not start the wave in the legs and involve the pelvis in the wave by moving it forward and back in space.

Second exercise, Wave and project

In this instance rather than letting the vertebrae of the spine retreat back naturally you hold them in place so the wave has a forward aspect and momentum

1)    let the body be lead forward from the point the wave breaks.

2)    Done not hold back or try to stop the forward power of the spine wave, but simply ride it and take a few steps.

Spine Hanging

This is a very good closing exercise to relax the spine and let any excess points of tension dissipate.

1)    Feet shoulder width apart, knees and hips soft

2)    Raise the palms out to the sides and up over the head, connecting at the back of the hands  and leading down the centre line of the body

3)    As the hands lead down you will feel a point where the body wants to bend, allow this top happen naturally making sure that the head and neck are also being fully release

4)    Lead all the way down until the torso is hanging from the hips. As if you are being held up by someone at the point of the hips but the rest of you is fully relaxed.

5)    Make the head a weight pulling downward with gravity opening each vertebrae as you hang there.

6)    Hold as long as is comfortable making sure that you breath naturally and are mentally relaxing the back with every out breath.

7)    Very slowly, one vertebrae at a time, stack them on top of each other starting at the base of the spine. The head should be the last thing to come up.

I hope these exercises are useful for you in your daily lives and your martial arts. I will post a video in this Blog post very soon to help with these exercises. 

Happy training.

Pack Mentality

During my time in security there were many occasions when I faced more than one attacker or aggressor. This is more the rule than the exception for anyone dealing with violent confrontation. One of the things I learnt to apply was awareness of pack formation when looking at a crowd. I would stand in the DJ box and point out where a fight would most likely kick off 5 minutes before it did and 9 times out of 10 I would unfortunately be right!

Saftey in numbers

One of the primary things that arises in multiple opponent fighting is often that the individuals themselves may not be strong accomplished fighters in many case but, much like in the animal kingdom, are reliant on the whole for power and protection.

It is very easy to see when you work in the security industry how a person on their own may be reasonable and somewhat fearful of confrontation but when surrounded by a few mates he becomes empowered, feeding off the added security and power that a group brings.

This is not only to empower them to fight, but also it gives them the feeling that they may not be so easily damaged should an encounter occur.

Crowd Density

Crowd density has a lot to do with pack mentality and group fighting. By this we mean how many people are packed into a certain area and also are there any obvious Gaps in the crowd density.

The first point is fairly easy to understand. If you have a large volume of people packed together, it is very easy for misunderstandings to occur regarding shoves or accidental pushes.

The second point is also pretty straight forward, if the area is full of people but everyone is avoiding a certain point in that crowd, you can bet that there is something/someone or some group that people don’t want to tangle with in that area.

Diminishing the effect of pack mentality.

So how do we diminish the effect of pack mentality when faced with a potentially violent situation? There are several useful tactics to employ when looking to break a pack of people up:

1) Split their intention.

Used if there are several of you dealing with the pack. Here the aim is to draw the attention of the group away from a single point. You can direct your collegues off to the sides slightly or even better on more acute angles so that the group is having to deal with a greater arc of threat. Then through discussion and dissuasion the effect of the pack as a whole is diminished as their collective attention is split to multiple points. Should physical encounter be inevitable then, much like a pack of wolves circling a flock of sheep, the mentality should be to separate the groups intent to fight. As each individuals chances of injury increases their want to get involved will decrease.

2) Separate individuals

If you are able to subtly separate individuals from the pack you will find the overall intent of the pack drops. This is a much more subtle and difficult method to achieve in real time, and is mainly useful if the pack are aggressive but nervous in nature. Verbal dissuasion and distraction techniques are very useful here along with body angulations. You can begin to separate individuals very subtly while you colleagues manage the rest of the group. Often you will see that this has the effect of turning the attention of the group as a whole to ‘what are they talking about’ rather than violent action.

3) Funnel the group

Like sheep moving through a gate, give plenty of space to a group that are acting aggressively but cut off certain routes of escape. This action triggers the flight response in people as soon as they move out of the gap. Like sheep spilling through a gate into a field and running off, often the same feeling of freedom will follow a group moving out of a space through an obvious escape route. It is very important that careful understanding of control and separation occur after the direction has happened, re-grouping can occur very rapidly, especially in an enclosed space.

4) stack the group.

Most clearly useful if your facing a pack on your own. In this instance you try to position yourself in a narrow area so that only a small number of people can attack you at any one time. For instance backing into a doorway or an ally will mean that a maximum of 2 people at any one time can attack, no matter how many you face.

There are many other methods for the professional to use in a potentially violent group situation but these few should give you an idea of some of the principles behind beginning to defuse intent in this sort of an environment.

What are the Chances?

It is more common now to be faced with a multiple opponent attack than simply to face off against one attacker. This is the unfortunate truth of my experienced on the doors. Gone are the times of the honourable duel with two people squaring off and slugging it out. Understanding how a pack forms and the mentality of a pack once its formed should be at the very forefront of the Security professionals mind and be a constant point of awareness and focus.

But more than this, it should also be a central point of avoidance for the person interested in real self defence. Avoiding areas when in a crowd, using awareness of individual vrs group psychology and never putting yourself where you think something could occur are extremely important considerations.

Ginastica Natural - Movements

Lovely display of movement strength, flexibility and floor fluidity from  Brazilian JuJutsu expert Fabio Gurgel



anyone working on the Ukemi things i have posted should get some good inspiration for new movement patterns from this work.

Working in the Recovery Moment

Timing and rythm are two very big factors in effect Martial application. There is quite an interesting aspect to these two points of combat I would like to discuss in this post and that is the focus of work within your opponents mental and physical recovery phase.

What is the Recovery phase?

The recovery phase refers to the points within an encounter where the body and mind are ‘re-centring’ themselves after expression of force, power or intent or after a period of defensive action.

Physically this could mean:

• Moving back or re centring from a failed body movement.
• When retreating back from a strike (either with the striking weapon returning or with the whole body)
• Removing a point of density or tension when in the clinch or grappling (usually to change into another movement or technique)

Mentally this could mean

• After defending a flurry from your opponent where you ‘reset’ and settle down to re attack
• After your failed attack where the mind establishes the next course of action
• After anything unexpected happens that causes the mind to freeze (there are many ways to insight this reaction in an attacking opponent that i will go into at a later time)

Recovery phase is linked quite clearly with visual comfort or acuity. (this is clear from drill 1 below.

Why work within this part of fight rythm and timing?

There are several advantages to working within this aspect of the fight process, most notable that the opponent will not be in a defensive or offensive phase when recovering their mind or centre. You are able to take advantage of their physical and mental lack of expression and take their centre or mind as you begin to apply your work.

This is a very big topic and applying your force or attack at the perfect time is related to awareness of the moment and not necessarily ‘reactions’ as these are too slow. This moment only lasts for a miniscule period of time so you have to already ‘be there’ or it will be too late. However training this idea will eventually bring you to the point where your naturally exploiting this moment of recovery.

Some Drills:

1) Turning from a wall. (visual acuity training, and moment of relaxation when the site is familiar with the scene) Recognising the point of mental physical relaxation.

a. Stand with your facevery close to  a wall, eyes open

b. Your partner stands at varying distances from you each repetition

c. Partners says ‘GO!’ 

d. You turn to face the partner ready to receive a tap to the top of the head

e. Your partner waits for the moment they perceive you relax and tap the head at that point (this moment of ‘settling’ or relaxing should be fairly apparent to begin with)

f. Repeat. 

Note : it important that this drill has the partner at varying distances and has a random tempo/timing to their touch.

2) Slapping palms. (recognising relaxation after a flurry)

a. Hold both palms out close to your head

b. Partner slaps the palms any way they like with a flurry of slaps and backhands.

c. As soon as they stop and go back to guard you try to catch the point where they are re-setting, neither in attack or defence mode, by taping the head.

Note: when done correctly they should be unable to check your tap, even at a lower speed. 

3) Striking pads.

a. Have your partner put some focus mits on.

b. They slap your sides and side of head with focus mits while you cover, check and defend.

c. Then suddenly stop and hold the pads up to be hit. 

d. Not the time it takes to go from defence to offense. This is the recovery phase where you are re-centring and regrouping.

The next stage on from this training is to work inside their rythm. You may be going exactly the same speed as them but quarter of a beat inside their beat. I will talk about this next time. 

Ukemi - intermediate level rolling

This video follows on from my last one which highlighted ground rolling for spine health.


Now the aim is to increase softness and ground awareness and also start to move between standing and ground into rolls.

Push ups for connection & joints

The push up is one of the classic basic exercises of most training regemes, and for good reason. It is a very effective upper body workout, has a myriad of variations and a large number of benefits.


In our class we use press-ups as a means of building arm to body connection, how to apply force through the arms correctly and how to use certain mechanics to develop or transmit force.


The basic push up is probably well know to everyone. The main areas being worked are the chest and arm muscles. We are looking to begin to combine a few different ideas in the push-ups we train that are slightly different to the normal push up method.


1) Slow speed for joints
We use very slow repetition speeds to help the joint structures naturally and safely work with the weight of the body.  The General idea in IMAs is that the tendons, ligaments and Fascia store energy and the Muscles use energy. This is not to say that we dont want to use muscles, in my opinion, we definitely do! Simply that we use them in a different way. When  we train slow you will feel over time that joints become ‘wrapped’ and protected, you will notice that your tendons feel much more solid when in use and much softer when not.


2) Training to Fatigue
We are not training to build big muscles here. However, we do need to train to a point of fatigue where the other supporting structures can begin to be utilised to support the frame. This is a bitter training but very fruitful if you stick with it.


3) Breath
It goes without saying that we need to breath ;), however when under load the mind often has a habit of disrupting the breathing cycle. Breath and oxygen are vital for the energising of the tendons and ligaments however so we need to breath in a manner that gives the body exactly what it requires. There are many methods of breathing with the push up motion and some to release fatigue and tension when things get tough. I will discuss these another time.


4) Work your way up
Dont start out your training with a 10 minute push up! You need to begin very slowly with a deep focus on the mechanics of the movement. It is important that you understand fully what your trying to do and why. Then you can begin to play with the push ups and invent your own movements spontaneously.


Push ups or ‘Arch ups’?
One of the things that we have been working on is the idea of forming a bridge or arch between each hand to support the upper body. This is very similar to the idea of Dang Jin or Crotch Arch in the Chinese MAs. Think of it as a sort of horse stance for the arms. This has a couple of implications for the movement.


1) The body is supported through a connection of various structures without joints between them. The power is unbroken between the hands
2) When ‘pushing’ the formation of the arch by pulling inward with the arms recruits a larger amount of structures and results in less effort to create the up force. This is clearly felt when the methods done correctly.


Here is a short video of the basic method in the arms and a few very simple variations on the push up.

Through the Back

Several Chinese Martial Arts work with through the back power or a connection through the back. It is indeed a very useful connection for transferring power between the side lines of the body or from one hand to the other. In Japanese arts this partially covered in the Hitoemi Principle or the ‘one line’ idea. 

What does it mean and why is it used?

‘Through the back’ means transfer of power from one side of the body into the other, more specifically from one arm into the other. A very simple exercise to highlight what we mean:

1. Loop a belt around a pole or tree
2. Stand with feet parallel and shoulder width
3. Hold each end of the loop in each hand
4. Pull with one hand
5. The body will rotate around its axis and the opposite side to the pull will go forward
6. Remove the rope and try to create the same response to the one hand pulling back

This is a very clear demonstration of through the back power in action.

The uses of through the back power are many and varied but I will list a few ideas of how it is useful in a combative context

• Receiving with one side while simultaneously projecting with the other.
  For instance, I block a strike coming in with my left arm, the force of that strike immediately travels through the back into the right arm which shoots forward to strike.
• Power in the back hand
  This is useful to hide the source of power from your opponent. When using the back hand to send power to the front you are able to keep the ‘intent’ or weight of force out of the striking side of the body. This is used Extensively in Xing yi and the ‘changing’ strikes it can result in are extremely hard to stop.
• Short Range striking
  Through the back power also enables very short range striking with a large volume of power. Your closest weapon, that is even in touch with the opponent does not need to load before striking as the power comes from the opposite side of the body.
• Twisting throws
  When close in you can pull back on one shoulder sending the other forward when combined with stepping to create a powerful twisting throw.

The area of ‘the back’ that is mainly in use when working through the back.

The Primary muscle groups that the force will transfer through are the deeper back muscles relating to the scapular area of the back. These are the:

• Infraspinatus
• Rhomboideus Major
• Teres Minor / Major
• Deltoids
• lower trapezius.

Understanding the central line

One of the first ideas to understand is that when talking about transferring power between the sides of the body we have to recognise a central line that this force moves around. This is simply the central channel of the body, the spine is the obvious body part that can be thought of as a central channel or point. It is a little more complicated than that but for the purposes of beginning to feel power switching sides the spine is a good starting point.

You can feel that this central channel turned as power transfers across it , this turning is useful (when combined with work with the Kwa etc) to begin the process of ‘winding’ the tissues around the body. This winding helps to load the next strike and fuel your body movement.

In Summary

Through the back power is a primary driver for many arts method of power generation. The ability to switch sides, transfer force between the hands and send force back to the opponent is an extremely useful skill that some teachers have perfected to a very high level. I hope to film a few exercises to help you develop a feel for ‘through the back power’ in the very near future so stay in touch and it should be up fairly soon.

Fighting a crowd

It has been very rare an occasion when working professionally or being involved in street altercations that i faced just one opponent in a classic ‘fisty cuffs’ dual, rather it would one or a few vs a pair or group of assailants. With this in mind I feel that an often wholly overlooked area of self defence or combative training is the work against multiple opponents.  You do see alot of attension paid to this sort of work in Modern combatives systems or systems stemming from people real life experience and training, but in the traditional arts there are very few systems out there that realistically take on the reality of facing a group of determined attackers.

Once system that originally had this very idea as a primary focus is the Chinese IMA of ba gua. However, this idea of fighting several people at once has somewhat fallen out of the Ba gua basic training in favour of 1 on 1 training.

When we look at ba gua’s movement patterns and general dynamic strategy we can see very clearly that one of its great strengths was this ability to take on multiple opponents at once. From its unique stepping and flowing movement to its evasive mindset and constant turning motions the core basis of the system seems to very clearly be about fighting more than one person. Of course Ba gua is an extremely useful method of fighting a single opponent, but what i would like to discuss here are some general principles that i have found in ba gua, other IMAs and from real life encounters that are practical and useful against multiple  opponents.

First some general points regarding reality.
1) You will get hit!
I can honestly say that i am very lucky in that during the many multiple opponent encounters i have been in there have only been a few cases where I required some form of hospital treatment for injuries sustained, these occasions were for broken noses and the injuries did not inhibit my ability to end the confrontation. However, As is often the case with certain types of martial arts training, it amazes me how students do not think they will get hit when training. In a 1 on 1 encounter you may well be able to check or block alot of attacks, when facing 10 fists rather than 2 however, the chances are you will get hit a good few times! Once the student accepts this reality they are able to move forward and practice without the mind being too stunned every time a strike lands. Clearly we do not want to allow people to hit us ... but reality is they will ... they may even stab us, but we need to learn to fight through.

2) Do not exhibit pinpoint focus.
One thing that ba gua trains very well is the vision. When walking the circle in basic training, the vision opens up to draw information from the entire scene. After some training you are able to perceive movement and action at the extreme periphery of your vision. This is a vital part of working against multiple attackers. You have to be able to ‘take in the scene’ as a whole rather than simple the guy throwing that first punch!

3) Accept your environment
A lot of times we train in a very comfortable environment, a clean dojo with a matted floor for example. This is, however, not the real environment where we may have to employ these skills. It is important that you are mentally prepared to navigate and more importantly USE your environment to your advantage. Training with obstacles in the way or in an unusual setting is a very good way to help your mind learn to adapt.

4) Treat the group as one
When looking to defend against MOs you need to start to view the entire group as a single opponent, this way the mind and psychi will not be overwhelmed with the information of trying to keep up with 5 individual units.

5) Limit the amount of people that can reach you
All of the principles below are based around this central idea. The ability to limit the amount of weapons heading your way at any one moment. This has very obvious advantages that i am sure i do not need to explain.

Principles of Multiple opponent Defence.

Moving
If there is one thing that i would like to drill home when talking about combat against multiple opponents it is that constant movement is one of the key requirements. You really do not want to be stood in one place for too long ... you may well end up with 2 kicks and three punches all arriving together!

Movement is one of the fundamental requirements of good MO (multiple opponent) defence tactics. If you can move smoothly, efficiently and change direction on a dime, you will have the tools to fool and slide past the opponents.

Specific training methods are present in Ba gua for drilling this idea of constant motion and effective movement.  They include:
- Kou Bu Bai bu steps
- Circle walking with Sliding mud and goose steps
- Deer Running and leaping training
- Palm changes
- Changing centres
- Turning skills

One important point is that movement is not simply about footwork, but is equally about the ability to ‘change’. Ba gua is often described as the art of change and this idea of changing direction or motion, line of force or position of centre when the opponents least expect it can help to result in the following methods.

Stacking.
Contrary to some ‘multiple opponent demonstrations’ you see from MAists, this is not about 5 people attacking one after another!

When we talk about stacking in MO situations we are specifically referring to positioning yourself in the first movements to a position where the opponents stack up and will have to fight through their friends to reach you.

The primary idea of stacking is in the strategic first motion of the encounter and in the pack mentality that the opponents will be exhibiting. At the moment of attack you will usually find that all opponents will head straight in your direction, this is the ideal situation to use a stacking tactic.

One of the main initial ways you can achieve this is to ‘stretch out’ the line by moving rapidly out of range while angling your line. This will result in the initial attacker and next closest angling in towards you in order to reach you, blocking the path for the others.

Shielding
Shielding is often used in conjunction with the strategy of stacking and has the same ultimate goal, to limit the amount of opponents able to take you on at any one time.  When you use a shield you protect yourself from attack in that direction. In this instance we are talking about using one of the opponents as a shield.

One of the best methods of this is to get to the opponents back gate and follow or control their motion from that potistion. It is often not the person you may be engaging with that you will get to the back of, but the next person who is stacked and trying to move forward. With correct change and footwork you can move past the immediate threat (maybe with a quick slap) then get behind one of the other attackers while they jocky for position at you.

Barriers
This is linked to Shielding but also very much refers to using the environment around you to make it hard for opponents to reach you or to help to stack them. The barrier may be a doorway or a table, or of course it could be an opponent you have put on the ground! Anything that you can get in between you and the opponents that they then have to climb over is a barrier.

Using barriers if very useful in the real world environment where you have bus stops, benches, tables, chairs,  walls, doorways, bins etc, all of which you can get behind or move in front of you.

Final thoughts.
As you can see i have not discussed the methods you will use to actually strike or throw or take down your assailants here as i feel those tools are to be trained with a good instructor. What i have discussed are the underlying tactics and principles you will need to employ when a multiple opponent situation presents itself. Although now one of the most common forms of real world requirement the actual physical part of any encounter is just one of many facets of self defence that need to be taken into account, from situational awareness to control of the pre fight build up and the resultant adrenaline dumps.

Here are some videos that show the basic MO work i have been discussing
NOTE: i have no affiliation with these teachers and am not holding these videos up as perfect examples of total method, but as videos that highlight specifics that i have been discussing.

Master Su Dong Chen (movement, stacking and shielding)

Scott Sonnon of ROSS (start of the video shows use of barriers as opponents have to step over each other)



Alex Kostic Systema Expert (This video shows multiple opponent free fighting and highlights the use of turning and movement to decrease the ability of both attackers to strike simultaneously.)

Cardio training for IMAs

I want to share some of my ideas on Cardio training for combat, specifically relevant to those training in Internal arts, as I think this is a wholly neglected aspect of body work by IMA practitioners.

Firstly i would like to say that the idea of Cardio training in the Internal arts is certainly nothing new! There are numerous examples of famous Internal Martial Artists consistently training cardio vascular fitness alongside their other basic training ... a few primary examples:

• Ueshiba Morehei of aikido running to training areas during his younger years.
• Wang Lai Sheng of Ziranmen Running in the hills every morning, even into old age.
• Sun Lu Tang – running up a nearby hill with his students and often beating them up and back, even into old age.

The list goes on and on so i think we can safely say that Cardio training is not detrimental to the development of internal skill or other IMA training methods. 
Why develop your cardio strength?
The reason is really very simple ... The fitter you are the more ‘battle ready’ you will be. For example, if you work in the security industry as a bouncer and have to have 3 or 4 serious encounters a night, you need to be able to sustain your physical, and just as importantly mental, capacity throughout your period of work.

The saying, ‘healthy body healthy mind’ relates very clearly to a good level of fitness. When the body finds everyday tasks like walking a small distance or shifting things around easy and without effort your mind will be under less general stress.

In relation to combat more specifically, cardiovascular health allows us to be functional for longer, but just as importantly can in some people, help to limit the effect of adrenaline dumps and shock based fatigue.

Functional Fitness
Functional fitness is a term coined by many health professionals to describe a fitness programme that is useful to the goal of the individual. For us as IMAists we need to aim to follow a programme of fitness that will not only build a good base level of cardiovascular capacity but also one that will not build up excessive tension in our frame, muscles or mind.

With this primary idea in mind here are some general training principles to ad heir too.


1) Build up slowly!
Take it from someone who knows how it feels to suffer from ‘overtraining’, you need to start any cardio fitness program slowly and progressively. There is no point in getting out in the hills and running 10K right out of the gate. All you will do is damage your joints, overstress your immune system and seriously ruin your ability to improve your cardio vascular fitness. So take it slow, especially to start with.
2) Listen to your body ... but not too much!
You have to listen to what the body is telling you in any physical training, but its important not to be ruled by those nagging voices telling you to stop 200mtrs from your goal. Always push past this and treat it as mental or mind training, much like meditation. What you should be aware of is how your structure and frame are handling the work, if you have any build ups of excess tension or pain, then slow down, or stop and release that area. 
3) Cool down and warm up properly
To warm up a gentle run is all you need, but, to make it relevant to your internal training, work on your breath co-ordination and tension control as you warm yourself up. Likewise after the exercise, cool down with deep attention of your breathing, body tension and frame state.
4) Dont just stop!
Just as it is important not to undertake heavy training without building up to it, it is also very important not to just stop training without properly slowing down. By this i mean , if you are running 10k 3 times a week and want to take a break, you will need to spend the next couple of weeks reducing your distances to allow your body to acclimatise to the difference. If you simply stop there will be a lot of excess energy buzzing around your body and it will lead to illness and immune system problems.

There are plenty of running, swimming, circuit blogs out there with very detailed methods and training for how to build cardio fitness so I will not go into detail about the hows or provide training plans in this post but you can see some videos i like below.

Here are some more basic things to bear in mind with your cardio training that may help to relate to your IMA training.

Catch the leading force
Especially when running , you can work on catching the leading force. This means that you project your intent to the horizon and follow that line. Like your being pulled to the distance rather than running too it. This is a very interesting training with great depth and can really help to produce sharp focus and forward intent.

Be aware of time dilation
It is very easy to recognise time dilation when doing cardio training, you will sometimes wonder where the 45 minutes went, other times you will feel like that last minute lasted an hour. Become used to recognising how the mind focuses in on specifics or opens out freely. This awareness of time dilation is extremely useful in combat arts ... It allows your work to become much smoother and perfectly timed.

Recognising  tension
This is not just related to body tension, but also directly relates to breathing and mind work. Tension is often created by mental stress, which is exactly what Cardio training can create if the work is hard. Learn to release mental stress through breath work and conscious relaxation, even under heavy training.

Here are some good videos of what i would call functional cardio training from various experts in the field.






If you are training IMAs dont shy away from cardiovascular training, when done correctly it fires up the immune system and give fuel to the engine that drives your IMA body!

Master of Judo - Mifune

I just had to post this video for people to see.

This master of Judo, the great mifune, demonstrates such perfect timing, precision and connection it is a must view for any serious martial artist from any discipline.

Some points to note.

1) the combination of, off balancing, removing support and contorting the structure.

2) the timing of the application being when optimum for maximum result with minimal effort

3) the dynamic root

Truly an inspirational piece of footage!

De-fanging the snake

Sounds pretty esoteric but I think this phrase often used in Chinese Martial Arts paints a good picture of what I would like to discuss in this post.

Essentially what we are talking about is damaging or destroying the opponents weapons or his desire to use those weapons. When i talk about weapons here i am talking about their body weapons, eg. Punch, palm, elbow, shoulder, headbutt, kicks, knees etc.

Its a pretty big subject so i aim to give a brief overview of what I think about the subject and also a couple of examples of methods that can be looked into and tried out.

AIMS & GOALS.

‘To remove the opponents desire or ability to use their primary weapons against you’

There are several ways to achieve this goal. Some can be used against semi aggressive attackers or people you do not wish to seriously damage, some can be used to mechanically destroy the opponents ability to use the weapon. Lets look at the options for achieving this goal.

1. Shock the system

Here we are aiming to shock the attacker into rethinking their choice to attack. This is one of the most useful primary methods than you can begin to work with as it is not a destruction but a much more light method. It can be used to strip away an aggressive persons intent and is linked directly to the opponents thought processes.

Often Termed ‘shocking the guard’ as it is commonly used to attack the opponents guard in some way, this method is all about ‘sharp pain’ and ‘shaking the centre’. The damage may not be great but we need the opponent to feel as though they have been shocked with electricity when you attack their guard. Once you have shocked their guard you need to leave room for the opponent to think ... this is where people often get the method wrong. It is in that thinking space that you follow up should come if that’s what your trying to achieve with your shock. Shocking the guard is very much like physically asking a question, as they think about the answer ... whack!

Of course you can also ask .. ‘are you sure you want to continue?’ ... if your shock is good enough they will more often than not say ‘no thanks!’.

2. Split the muscles.

This is a combination of shocking and partially mechanically disabling. The aim here is to target the muscles that connect to the body weapons and that are utilised in their deployment. For example you may Target the Bicep just above the elbow joint.

When we say split the muscle this is really what we mean! Usually you will use a single knuckle or the knuckle ridge to achieve the sort of penetrating force we require to achieve this. We want to hit with enough force that we actually damage the muscle tissue and cause a great amount of pain in a localised area. We also want this damage to partially inhibit the ability to use the limb.

There are a few very nice methods that can be used to split or damage the muscles, my teachers have shown me some of them to great effect!

3. Separate the tendons & Ligaments.

Next we move to real incapacitation of the attacking limb. Here we are talking about destroying the supporting structures of the joints in the main often without breaking the bones themselves. I know from personal experience that a separated, split or disconnected ligament or tendon can be much worse in the long term than a bone break.

These methods are normally applied in joint manipulations but can equally be applied when a joint is turned and then struck. This is a particularly violent way of incapacitation and is much more likely to separate the ligaments or tendons than a joint manipulation.

When applying joint manipulations in this instance there needs to be a strong, shocking or explosive force behind the method. You often see ‘wrist twists’ or joint ‘locks’ in JuJutsu, Shoalin Chinna etc but we are talking about something different here.

For example, if you get a wrist twist, the aim is to turn the hand around without affecting the rest of the opponents structure. Rather than the more classical, twist the wrist to take them down, type of force. This level of force requires a very strong pulse from the whole to achieve the method.

There are certain styles that will also specialise in gripping certain tendons and ripping them from the bone, although this is not a speciality of what I train I am reliably informed that these people can disable your arm very quickly.

4. Shatter the bones.

Finally there is the practice of shattering the bones, or as is said in The Chin na of Xing Yi ‘Turning their bones to dust’.

Here the aim is to actually break the bones in and around the joints or to break bones that will hinder limb motion. For instance, to disable the arm, you may strike the collar bone to smash it to pieces.

These methods can be linked very closely with separating the tendons as certainly if your breaking a joint you will often break or stretch the tendons and ligament of that joint. But mainly we are focusing on again, applying a very powerful full body movement against a single weak point on the opponents weapon structures.

Typical methods used are:

• Locking in place and striking through.
• Striking through (trust kick to the knee is a good example)
• Locking and crushing the joint.
• Striking associated targets (Collar bone etc)

Summary

These methods are very useful provided you are able to apply them in a live environment. I know fighters who can apply elbow strikes to the face of an incoming fist at full speed, this obviously takes time to achieve, but is very valuable.

Most of these methods, especially ones that involve locking or breaking should not be sought after but should be utilised when the time arises.

Many of these methods are psychological in nature, an opponent had the desire to attack you, you strike their limb with such force that the decide to re-evaluate that decision.