Following on from the last post on Leading the centre i
thought i would through some light onto the subject of projecting the opponents
centre or ‘finding the line through’. This is a great skill to have and can
create very different striking sensation as well as very useful throwing and
take down skills.
What is the ‘line
through’.
When i say finding the line through what i mean is the line
from point of contact through the structure that disrupts the balance with
minimal appreciable effort. Here we are not looking for the opponent to ‘form
up’ behind this pressure, but for them to be unable to create any resistance
back through that line.
A simple example.
Get your partner to
stand with legs shoulder width and locked. Place your fist on their breast bone
and gently push. This line is unopposed and can affect their balance with ease
and minimal input of force.
Obviously that is just to give an idea, and when applied
against a structure with dynamic movement and changing support positions the
skill becomes more difficult and refined.
Why find the line
through
Finding the line through the opponent’s structure is
extremely useful for striking and especially throwing or taking an opponent
down. The Line through essentially represents a past of least resistance into
the internal body structures (organs, bones etc). For striking this is a very
useful idea for obvious reasons!
When it comes to throwing the line through will aid the
direction of off balancing (see three pillars of throwing article). You will be
able to effect the opponents position with minimal effort and maximum
efficiency of direction (see defining martial arts article)
Some exercises
1 - The line through
a stable structure
Here we get our partner to stand in the strongest stance
they can and try to find the line through.
Ask your partner to take a strong stance
Place your hand or fist on the partner approaching him from
the front
Push straight ahead with a consistant pressure. Not enough
to make him move.
Maintaining the same pressure slowly adjust the direction
and angle of your pushing force until the partner looses balance. It is VERY
important that you dont ‘try’ to push them over but simply let the line find
the best route.
Variation –
Your partner maintains doesn’t move their feet but tries to
escape your pressure as you constantly change to find the line in a moving
structure.
2- Line through a moving structure.
Here the partner is in motion using whatever footwork they
like as you try to find the line through.
Your partner starts from 4 – 6 feet away and walks towards
you.
You place your hand or fist on them and apply pressure to
the line through
The partner should be stopped, pushed back or diverted in
their direction.
NOTE: it is important your partner does not try to use their
arms to block yours or similar
Variation –
Your partner uses combative footwork as do you, still he is
not utilising his arms and your simply applying a force to find the line
through
In both of these training methods you should not be ‘muscling’
though the opponent, it should feel like you hardly push at all but the effect
is significant. When this happens you have found the ‘line through’.
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:
Loop a belt around a pole or tree
Stand with feet parallel and shoulder width
Hold each end of the loop in each hand
Pull with one hand
The body will rotate around its axis and the opposite side to the pull will go forward
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.
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.)
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
