Recognising your lines of force.

Its been a little while since i have posted any information on here, so sorry about that. I have been very busy training in various arts to expand my knowledge base and test my body skill.  But i have a few posts on the go so will be updating again in the next few days with some more information.

I was recently talking to a friend who was explaining a method of pushing on a wall to recognise what line was in use in a given expression of power. It is interesting that this guy wasn't from an IMA background as this sort of structure testing is something we do quite often.

But this way of establishing the line is just the first step in recognising what is required of the body and its lines when expressing directional power. Lets have a look at some ideas relating to this method.

1) Push the wall.
Here we simple take the position of a specific method, a punch or kick, shoulder bump or elbow strike, while placing the striking surface on a wall. We then push or press against the wall to feel what parts of the body are being engaged. This anatomical line is the one we form up behind the given direction when we make said movement.

This is the first line to recognize and really feel. It will highlight to us what the forming up line is behind a given movement allowing us to tailor solo and power training to developing that line for maximum expression behind the applying surface.

2) The empty lines/areas
Next we need to focus on the areas of the body not involved in forming up behind the applying surface. So for instance, in a straight punch the back leg to front hand may be the primary line of force, so we need to examine the front leg and non punching hand/side of the body.

Once we are able to feel these ‘empty areas’ of the body we need to work to engage them. Or fill them so that they are no longer empty. All the while still applying force along our primary line. We don't want them to be along for the ride but actually contributing directly to the stability of the structure or expression of force.

This is much easier said than done but the aim is to have a unified force  assisted by complimentary forces fed in from areas not required in alignment behind the specified direction.

3) Opposite directional forces
It may seem counter intuitive to have a reactionary force opposing the primary direction, but this is also a requirement if we wish to establish and maintain an equilibrium. When applying force along a direction or around an axis it is easy to ‘overcomit’ our power in said direction making us very vulnerable. The application building of a complimentary but opposite force is needed to retain our centre and balance.

This isn’t an easy concept to grasp but for instance for certain strikes the spine will be used like a bow or a spring, in a bow the tips spring due to the opposing central pressures (otherwise the whole bow would move through space) In a spring the compression is opposed by the solid base or equal pressure from the other side. Without these opposing forces there would be no potential to emit power.

Summary
Actually developing these lines and ideas once recognized is the one of the overriding principles of the internal arts. We are aiming for Maximum efficiency and mechanics in a given direction. But first, as seen above we must understand what the direction actually is inside our body, rather than outside in the resultant motion.

Missing out on Realism.

Recently I watched an interesting video airing on Chinese television at the moment which follows a couple of young MMA and Wing Chun guys travelling around to various masters in China to experience and ultimately test various martial arts.

This episode related to the home of Xing Yi Quan and XinYi. There was some good interesting information in the program and some interesting demonstrations of application of forces etc on opponents, some nice forms and training methods and some good body work on show. But with that in mind look at this video of the exchanges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=91ythWqde-c

When these ‘masters’ of Xing yi came to ‘spar’ with the presenters they found themselves completely unable to apply their method, principle and general combat goal. Why?? Let’s make no mistake, these are good level masters in respected Xing Yi traditions.

The answer is fairly simple really and something that many in martial traditions do not like to admit.

Their training has an absence of realism.

What do i mean by this? Well in my opinion training can be broken down into a 3 areas.

1) BodyworkThis means we are building the body specifically for the combat work it will undertake. This means functional cardiovascular fitness, power, co-ordination, strength and mental capacity. No matter what style or approach to combat you need these basic qualities.
2)Application of force principlesThis is where we work on ‘applications’ of the frame or body to test power and co-ordination against a moving opponent.
3) Testing of combat capacityHere we work on free, unpredictable combative work. This can be sparing, free pushing hands, Situation work, and multiple opponent drills, whatever is not fixed in place.

It is in that 3^rd part of training that we test our ‘Unconscious Competence’. That is our ability to do things well without thinking of doing things well. This is the stage that a lot of people miss out on and is the only way to realistically test how our training is affecting our combative capability.

This is worth thinking about if training IMA’s etc. These guys are at the source, the root and home of Xing Yi and couldn’t perform past the basic level of an amateur sport fighter ... Does your training give you an understanding of your ‘Unconscious Competence’??

NEW CLASS - Monday 7th January 2013

IMA / Combative Fundamentals Class

Starting Monday the 7th January 2013 I will be holding a new session for those interested in Combative training from the ground up.  

With the information base coming from the internal arts and real combat experience the Fundamentals training will combine innovative body work training, realistic combat drills and combat methods for all ranges and situations. 

The aim of this 1 year training is to bring about a good level of skill within a year. I will back up the weekly training sessions with a monthly 4 hour evaluation session to give more detail and see where the group is at any point.

An rough outline of the course is shown below. Please not that although the first few months will be focused primarily on health, fitness and body development the program will always include some 2 person training in all sessions and all work is combat relevant. The sessions will work top to bottom so for the first few months this can be viewed as a health and fitness class in many respects.

At the end of these first sections you can expect to be, stronger, leaner, more co-ordinated and better able to move with purpose.

Please inform anyone that is interested in training from the ground up, be them experienced martial artists looking for a new dimension to training or complete beginners looking for something new.

This going ahead is based on numbers so please let anyone you can know!

Body skill training

-          Basic Body strength

-          Basic Connection

-          Flexibility

-          Fluidity

-          Natural movement

-          Contextual movement patterns

Line training

-          Targeted tissue development

-          Linking the body

-          Continuation of body skill training

Level 1 Training

-          Fundamentals of stand up wrestling

o   Listening Skill

o   Push & pull

o   Twist & cross

o   Catch the joint

o   3 pillars of throwing and take downs

-          Fundamentals of striking

o   Mechanics of alignment

o   Mechanics of generation

o   Force transfer

o   Placement

o   In/out – open/close

-          Continuation of Body skill training

Level 2 Training

-          Range training and Listening skills

o   Free work feed drills

o   Movement flow drills

o   Kick>punch>elbow>grapple listening drills

o   Multiple opponent flow

o   Pad work

-          Knife

o   Check training

o   Move training

o   Hit training

o   Flow drills and integration of strategy

-          Self defence considerations.

o   What is it

o   What do we need to be effective

o   What DONT we need!

-          Continuation of body skill training.

1 YEAR MARK

Level 3 training

-          Advanced h2h combat training

o   Will be explained at this stage **

-          Advanced Self defence

o   Will be explained at this stage **

** This part of the training is reliant on the foundation/fundamental training that precedes it and the content is not usefully explained unless that training has been completed. No secrets, just reliance on previous fundamentals.

Pressure Testing & Internal Martial Arts

It is clear that the general consensus among the martial artists of the world is that martial arts like tai chi are mainly for health and have lost any connection with real combat. Although this may be the case in many, many instances the Internal arts were and are actually based in the idea of ‘testing’. But this does not only mean getting in a ring and duking it out! There is a huge amount of testing in the Internal Martial Arts that may surprise most people with its vigour and rigours attention to detail.

Pressure testing the Body

One of the earliest forms of testing that the Internal Martial artist undertakes is the pressure testing of their body. This means both its ability to maintain internal principles under load (positional and external) and under combative pressure.

There are a vast array of ‘testing’ methods for the body in Internal Martial Arts, From pushing hands in Taiji to simply holding postures for long periods of time to work out alignment and muscle usage. But the basics of testing are these:

• Find where tension builds either under load or from static holds so that you can re-align or relax the area and release the tension.
•  Find out how breath and internal pressures are affected under load
• Find gaps or ‘sticking points’ during dynamic movement
• Find movement instability of problems from load or pressure.

These points, once worked out can prove invaluable for the next type of testing that we do in the IMAs.

Pressure Testing the Principles & Skill sets

After we have refined the body and tested it against force we are able to begin pressure testing the principles we train in order to become combatively viable.

This process is a gradual increase of test, adjust and retest but can often start with ‘being thrown in at the deep end’ to give an honest impression of how the mind is acting when conscious control is lost.

As we layer up the Testing of our combative skill set we can begin to test refine and retest the following:

• Movement fluidity
• Listening skills
• Reaction and action capabilities
• Our ability to deal with large volumes of force
• Power generation and Power redirection.
• Ability to change

Both of these testing Phases are then fed into the next phase of IMA pressure testing

Pressure testing the mental Capacity

This is one of the most interesting phases of pressure testing in that it aims to bring out the nature competency (or incompetency) of the individual through focuses but randomised training methods.

From Free sparring to Wrestling to Free Push hands there are many training methods that help to really put the randomised element into the testing of the two above phases.

During this phase there are many layers and ways of maintaining a randomised movement dynamic while still staying within the boundaries of a specific drill. For instance, in a free push hands session you can move with the aim of touching the chest and not, as is common, to push the other guy. This changes the force dynamic and can result in real time movement that will help you or your coach to find deficiencies.

It is also in this phase that people can go off out to other arts and test their skill set and body against other arts and styles.

Return to the First Phase

Once you have been through these phases you can then return back to the first phase, refining your body skill specifically in line with the deficiencies that were highlighted in the preceding phases.

As you can see, there is a good structure to testing ones capability in the IMAs. 

Taking the centre Idea 2 – finding the line through

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’.

Defining Internal Martial Arts = The search for efficiency.

A question often asked of someone who says they do ‘internal martial arts’ is ‘what are internal martial arts’.

This is a classic and ongoing debate on message boards and between martial artists of varying backgrounds and styles. Here are some of the main definitions that we come across:

• Internal martial arts are those arts founded inside china (Taoist) rather than derived from India via shaolin (Buddhist)
• Internal Martial arts focus on the development and use of ‘Chi’.>
• Internal Martial Arts are soft, external Martial Arts are hard.
• Internal Martial Arts are specifically, Tai Chi, Xing Yi & Ba gua as defined by Early artists from these styles.
• Internal Martial Arts use connective tissue rather than muscle.

Personally however i do not think that any of these classic and much discussed definitions really define what i have found Internal Martial Arts to be. My definition would be this:

Internal Martial Arts are practices to find efficiency.

For me IMAs go beyond tradition, they are not a system, not a set of preconceived notions that can be put in a box and labelled as this art or that. They are the individuals search for efficiency. So why still call them internal? Well the reason is simple, the struggle to find efficiency is largely introspective. You are constantly looking inside yourself to find the optimum. It becomes more the ‘you’ inside than the label others put on what you do.

This is the best definition of IMAs that i can come up with because the best Martial Artists that i have met live in this manner. Every one of them were researchers of efficiency, none of them were rigid in their notion of what something ‘should be’, none of them were married to their tradition to the expense of their freedom to explore any and all other combat or health practices they wished. But it always came back to THEIR journey ... not the ones who came before.

So, with this in mind lets look at a couple of things that I look to achieve in my IMA practice.

Efficiency of body

The way you move in combat or in any physical action is central to the ideas of the IMA’s. The aim here is to be as efficient as possible for the given task with no excess tension, no forces that oppose the goal and no wasted effort.

To do this we must be able to recognise ‘inefficiency’ in what we do. This is largely a very difficult task indeed!!

Is it enough to get someone fighting full speed and let the efficiency come out on its own? For some people yes i think it is, if they have a very good body map. But for most people,  feeling where they are inefficient in a certain movement requires that we slow the movement down from full speed training to ‘zoom in’ on it.

I have recently read some very interesting articles, books and blogs on the process of learning (see the bottom of the post for recommended reading!) In brief we can say that in order to maximise our ability to recognise inefficiency we need to slow a movement or practice right down and really get inside it. That process amounts to these two things...

1) The Weber Fechner Law
Definition:
describes the relationship between the physical magnitudes of stimuli and the perceived intensity of the stimuli. Fechner's law states that subjective sensation is proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity.
In plain English what does this mean for our practice? This Law states that if we move with a high rate speed and muscular effort we decrease dramatically our ability to perceive our efficiency in that movement. The slower we go the more able we are to perceive the efficiency of the movement.

2) ‘Deep Practice’
What does this mean? Basically it means ...’How we learn’ and relates to the process of Myelination in the brain. This process is key to how we learn new things and retain or become better at other things. Myelin can be thought of as the insulation around a wire, The more insulation the less signal is lost. Our ability to increase the Myelin around a certain neural pathway is directly related to ‘how’ we learn.  For the martial artist this is achieved through what is called ‘deep practice’.

" Deep practice, "struggling in certain targeted ways -- operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes -- makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them...end up making you swift and graceful without you realising it."

If we apply these two ideas correctly then we can begin to maximise our body’s learning efficiency.

The internal traditions already had these two ideas down, the very slow or static training is specifically designed to both zoom in on muscular and structural inefficiency as well as create an environment for ‘targeted struggle’.

Not just fast... not just slow ... but training both!

One thing often missing in some IMA training is the very fast or full speed training. We must also practice at full speed to understand how the body needs to move, then draw that back to the slow movement practice to maximise its efficiency and get inside the movement.

Tai chi is an example of this fast/slow training being lost to the focus on slow training. Traditionally the forms and fighting combinations were performed at real speed, slow speed, mediums speed, with jumps, agile footwork, static footwork etc ... a myriad of ways. 

A great example of how this lack of speed training has effected modern tai chi is how many Tai chi people will stand bolt upright throughout their form, but when they speed up they lead with the head and incline in the direction of travel or force expression ... they do this naturally but do not feed this back into their practice. When you look at older taiji guys you see they knew about this and the lean in their forms reflected the functional requirement.

If we are training for combat then we have to understand that speed, rythm, timing and confusion are fundamental aspect ... you cant just practice slow ... but by the same token you cant just practice fast if you want to obtain the ultimate goal of IMAs ... efficiency.

The body structures.

As you slow down fast movements you will recognise excess tension in the musculature and misalignments that can explain ongoing injuries or soreness whenever your going full speed. What you also notice is that as you work these problems out in a focused way you begin to use a different type of body method.

What the IMA traditions do have in abundance is exercises striving to sort out muscular and structural problems as their primary goal, but more than that, exercise that build the lines of tissue and alignments needed at full speed.

As a real life example of the need to train these tissues, I knew someone who was training full speed doing a slapping motion with his palm and broke a tendon in his wrist. The movement was natural but the conditioning of the structures in use was not there.

This is a really important point.  It is all well and good to train at full speed to bring out combat efficiency, but without the body to back it up the risk of damage is much higher and for most ... almost inevitable.

So one of the primary goals of IMA training is to build the body that is capable. The body that can be tuned to any skill without fear of injury. The body that can produce huge forces without creating tendonitis or elbow and knee problems.

Anyone that has trained Muay Thai, Judo, MMA or any of a number of arts will attest to the ongoing niggly little problems with the shoulder, wrist, elbows, knees etc. This is largely down to lack of conditioning of the correct structures ... They might have big muscles but their connective tissue is weak. When i trained these arts i had tennis elbow often, had tendonitis in my knee and had hip flexor problems ... nothing major but these little niggles were the result of the training methodology. Most injuries occur in the connective tissue and not the muscle. So why do they happen?

1) too much force to the elastic aspect of the tissue to cope with
2) force produced along a misaligned joint
3) reactive damage from impact.

The structures we aim to train are those that connect the body together, the ones that tie and wrap the joints, the structures that link muscle groups. If these are conditioned then we can move full speed without fear of injury. This is the IMA body.

Here is some interesting information on the role of connective tissue as it relates to understanding proprioception and kinesthesia.

Finding #3:The fascial system is far more innervated than muscle, so proprioception and kinesthesia are primarily fascial, not muscular.

This is a hard concept for many fitness professionals to get their heads around, but it is a fact: there are 10 times as many sensory receptors in your fascial tissues as there are in your muscles (Stillwell 1957). The muscles have spindles that measure length change (and over time, rate of length change) in the muscles. Even these spindles can be seen as fascial receptors, but let’s be kind and give them to the muscles (Van der Wal 2009). For each spindle, there are about 10 receptors in the surrounding fascia—in the surface epimysium, the tendon and attachment fascia, the nearby ligaments and the superficial layers. These receptors include the Golgi tendon organs that measure load (by measuring the stretch in the fibers), paciniform endings to measure pressure, Ruffini endings to inform the central nervous system of shear forces in the soft tissues, and ubiquitous small interstitial nerve endings that can report on all these plus, apparently, pain (Stecco et al. 2009; Taguchi et al. 2009).


So when you say you are feeling your muscles move, this is a bit of a misnomer. You are “listening” to your fascial tissues much more than to your muscles. Here are three interesting findings that go along with this basic eye-opener: Ligaments are mostly arranged in series with the muscles, not in parallel (Van der Wal 2009). This means that when you tense a muscle, the ligaments are automatically tensed to stabilize the joint, no matter what its position.


Our idea that the ligaments do not function until the joint is at its full extension or torsion is now outmoded; for example, ligaments function all through a preacher curl, not just at the ends of the movement. Nerve endings arrange themselves according to the forces that commonly apply in that location in that individual, not according to a genetic plan, and definitely not according to the anatomical division we call a muscle. There is no representation of a “deltoid” inside your movement brain. That’s just a concept over in your cortex, not in your biological organization. Apparently, sensors in and near the skin are more active in detecting and regulating movement than the joint ligament receptors (Yahia, Pigeon & DesRosiers 1993).

Understanding the body training

To the outside observer standing arms outstretched will not relate to combat. But then neither would watching someone in a Gym doing a deadlift or someone on a hill doing sprints. However they are all combat applicable to some degree.

Context is important. If you want to work on connective tissue there are certain ways that can help you to achieve this. The internal arts use slow movement for targeted muscular release, dynamic positional holds, specific twist methods and stretches from finger to toes ...  Modern sports science uses methods like the ‘static partial bench press’ etc. The outcome of such training is that when you return to combat specific training the body is more connected and capable.

Of course all these plus points make sense from a health perspective as well. When we are correctly aligned our torso is open, the internal organs are not compressed or confined and our joints are able to function with all round support and re-enforcement.

Next up ....Efficiency in Combat, cross training, the search and experience mentality.... Stay Tuned!

Recommended reading:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Talent-Code-Greatness-born/dp/0099519852
also ref Myelination props go to Chris McKinley for sharing this information and getting me interested.
http://www.bettermovement.org/2010/why-practice-slow-movement/#comment-20539
http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/fascial-fitness

Taking the Centre idea 1 - Leading the Centre

The first method for taking the centre i would like to discuss is the method of leading or re-directing the opponents mass, direction or support into ‘emptiness’.

This sounds fairly complicated to the uninitiated i am sure but it is something we have all felt from time to time. Imaging going to lean on a wall without thinking to much and it being a foot further than you assumed, or that feeling when we climb unfamiliar stairs in the dark, stepping on the last step that isn’t there. This is the feeling of falling into emptiness and is partially the feeling we look to recreate with this method of Leading the opponent.

For this method to work we obviously need to have something to lead so to discuss this method i will break it down into what types of things you can lead or do to create an opportunity to lead. Note that all of these methods mix together into one dynamic method of leading the opponents centre and are not to be thought of in isolation.

1. Leading a movement

This is arguably one of the simplest methods of leading the opponent into emptiness and it is seen in many  arts, especially those involved in throwing or taking the opponent down. I define this method of leading thus:

“Capturing an opponent’s movement during its trajectory and redirecting it into space where the opponents centre must compensate.”

This method can be broken down into two distinct parts. 1) capturing the opponents movement. 2) leading that movement.

Both of these things are far easier said than done, and dont work in all situations. Essentially what we are talking about here is recognising a direction of force from contact and then altering it so that it extends to a place where the opponent is not.

It is important to understand that this is not really possible from visual acuity. It requires, in most cases, a point of contact. Luckily the opponent will be striving to touch you in some way, be it a strike a grab or a shot so we are nearly always in a favourable position to use the method from a point of contact.

Exercises to try:

1) Redirect/Lead a push

This simple drill is a good basic introduction to this concept but can be refined and refined until it is quite subtle.

a.       You partner stands feet shoulder width, then steps forward trying to push your chest. Make sure this is a single step and push. The structure should be strong and powerful, not loose and floppy.

b.      From a natural stance you firstly try to connect with his arm as early as possible. Then as the power extends towards you redirect is softly to the opponents front.

c.       Reduce the power you need to do this more and more until it is extremely soft

d.      The aim is for the opponent to have to take a step to regain their balance or for them to go to the balls of their feet.

2Shoulder Barge
This drill teaches subtle redirection using the body specifically. You have to maintain contact and control of the opponents centre and recognise the forward force immediately.

a.       Stand one leg forward one back arms down opponent stands in the same stance, shoulders touching

b.      Opponent shuffles forward and bumps through your shoulder line with his.

c.       You rotate your Axis, and touch the opponents back with your opposite hand.

d.      The aim is for the opponents forward force to be converted to a force into the space infront of him making him go to tiptoes or take a step.

3)      Grip Leading
This is a fun, free training method that really boosts your ability to listen and lead the opponents centre when they apply forces.

a.       Both of you are working to off balance the other here.

b.      Take the same stance (forward back, front on, one leg! You can play with different stances)

c.       Your right hands grip the opponents left wrists (and change after some time)

d.      Then start to move the free hand to pull push the opponents structure around.

e.      Feel the directions of force and lead the opponent into emptiness.

f.        The aim is for the opponent to step or go to heals or toes.

2. Leading a response.

This method is extremely useful for creating the right conditions for an opponent’s centre to be led. It revolves around the natural body reaction of tissues forming up behind a point of excess pressure in order to provide support to the structure and maintain the structural integrity. I define this method of leading thus:

“The method of creating a consolidating response in the opponent and then leading the resulting return to the normal state’

This method can be broken down into 3 parts. 1) apply a force to the opponents frame 2) release the force 3) lead the resulting return to a natural position.

We mainly use this if the opponent is not moving towards you or is maintaining a position, however it can also be used to take an opponent off balance before an encounter happens. A friend of mine who had never done any martial arts but was a long time bouncer had a favoured method that included a very similar principle. He would put his hand gently on the chest of someone that was confrontational, as they talked and waved their arms around they wouldn’t notice they naturally increased the pressure on his hand. When he had enough he would remove the support and turn to take them to the floor in one motion. He was leading their return (actually they over stretched and were not returning but more falling from the removed support ... i will talk about this another time! ;) ). This is a good example of this principle in action, although a slightly crude example for an opponent with no ‘mind’.

We can create a similar situation when we apply a small force through a point of contact. The tricky bit here is you can’t just push the arm as it will move ... you have to put a pressure through their entire structure.

Exercises to try:

1)      Pressing the body
This is a very simple way of feeling the opponent ‘form up’ behind a contact point then recognising the resulting return to centre.

a)      Your partner takes a natural standing position, not a fighting stance

b)      You place your palm on their chest, back, shoulder etc and apply a very gentle pressure to their structure.

c)       Feel the line form up through their body as you apply pressure,

d)      Release the pressure suddenly and observe the body reaction

e)      Now release with control and try to capture that release and push with the other hand align their return line

2)      Pressing the Guard
Here we make a point of contact with the guard and apply a moment of force through their structure, before releasing. Then we must hook onto their structure and lead them off balance as they attempt to regain.

a)      Opponent takes a guard stance

b)      From your guard, put your hand over their guard hand and cover downwards

c)       Aim to find the line into their body and not just affect their arm

d)      Release the pressure as you lead them to their ‘off balance point’ (please read the three pillars of throwing post for information on this.)

e)      Play about with this method while moving, while covering strikes etc.

3)      Close grappling
This training method is used in stand up grappling. Here we want to apply a force in through there structure then as they return we add to the movement and apply the three pillars of throwing and take downs.

a)      Start from elbow to elbow or knee to knee range.

b)      Opponent trys to hold onto you/grab and smother you.

c)       Your aim is to find a good place to apply pressure to their structure

d)      Then release and apply the 3 principles of throwing or take down. ‘off balance point’ ‘remove support’ ‘manipulate structure’

2. Leading the mind.

As esoteric as this method might initially sound it has far more to do with instinctual reaction and visual sensitivity than it does anything mystical. The basis of this method is the ideas of ‘support’, ‘security’ and ‘threat’. I define this method thus:

“The method of creating a mental response to a perceived thread, point of support or positional security that then manifests in the body as tension or movement”

This method is often very useful in the first few seconds of an encounter or before the encounter goes physical. After that point the mental receptiveness of the opponent may not be there to pick up on the presented threat level or capturing methods.

So how is this done? Well there are a number of methods that are used to create a mental response that manifests in the body. For instance if i lift my foot to kick you in the balls you may well react. That is me affecting your body through your perception and that is the sort of method we can take advantage of in this instance.

Unfortunately I am not a good enough wordsmith to put this information into a usable format for people. But if you try the methods above you may start to understand the way the mind is effected by the lack of physical balance. The method of leading the mind is like turning that process around and putting the mind before the body as the point under attack and out of balance.

Summary

So we now have three methods of ‘leading the centre’

“Capturing an opponent’s movement during its trajectory and redirecting it into space where the opponents centre must compensate.”

“The method of creating a consolidating response in the opponent and then leading the resulting return to the normal state’

“The method of creating a mental response to a perceived thread, point of support or positional security that then manifests in the body as tension or movement”

It is a fun and useful practice to try. I hope its helpful.

Next ... Projecting the centre (finding the line through)

Taking the centre (part 1)

Taking the centre of the opponent is a concept common to many martial arts. Some styles may call it taking the balance, some may call it contorting the structure and these are certainly aspects of ‘taking the centre’ as we mean it in the internal arts. But there can be more to this concept than these ideas. In these posts i will try to outline some of the many ideas associated with ‘Taking the centre’.

Firstly some definitions:

Centre.
This is open to interpretation depending on the theory of your style. But for now let define the centre thus:

‘A state where the Mind is in control of the body support, balance and structure creating a physical  stability’

Taking

Here we mean to bring something under our control, or take it away from the opponent.

Taking the Centre

So we can define taking the centre as:

‘Removing the opponents physical stability, their ability to control their support, balance, structure and mind to the point where they must recover before being able to act.’

Why take the centre?

Before i get into how we take the centre of the opponent, i think it is useful to ask the question of why do we aim to take the centre of the opponent.  In my opinion it boils down to these reasons:

1. It breaks the structure of the opponent in such a way that he cannot strike or throw you effectively.
2.  It creates opportunity to strike an unprepared structure. They cant brace to receive the hit.
3.  It allows you to throw/take down the opponent with relative ease.
4. It disrupts the timing and rythm of the opponent.
5. It can nullify Fighting intent (but doesn’t always).
6.  It causes a feeling of insecurity and loss of control.
7.  It triggers defensive reaction instead of offensive.
8.  It buys you time in an encounter to bring the situation under your control.

So here we have an outline of the aims and benefits of taking the opponents centre as i see them. In the next post i will discuss in detail the first method of taking the centre.

Stay Tuned!

Internal Training Exercises

Here are some of the basic internal training methods I have developed and been working on. I am not so good at them yet but they may be useful for some of you out there looking for internal training

The devil is in the detail with all these of course and over the coming months i will take each of these 5 exercises and put a detailed description of what they are and how they should be trained online.

1. Body cross
2. Body row
3. Pushing mud
4. Slapping water
5. Horizontal coil

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.

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’!