From The Center Out

“I Tao, Qi Tao”

In earlier blog posts I discussed “The Circle in The Square” and “The Ball in The Cube”. I also discussed how it is that The Hsien Tien Ba Gua is the most important symbol in the martial arts. In this post I will tie together these two concepts with two others and this will complete my commentary on Movement. These two concepts are “From The Center Out” and “Body Mechanics for Rotation and Angles”

The subheading above, “I Tao, Qi Tao” can be literally translated as “Mind Way, Breath Way”. It means “Mind leads Dan Tien, Dan Tien leads Body, Body leads Hands and Feet”. The Dan Tien sits three fingers below the navel and two fingers deep inside the body. In Chinese metaphysics/philosophy it is considered to be the central storage place of Qi in the human body. The literal translation of Qi is “Breath” but it means the “Life Energy of the Universe”. Mathematically Dan Tien is the center of the human body. It is an infinitely small sphere that can rotate in any direction even multiple directions at the same time. The saying “I Tao, Qi Tao” as applied to the martial arts is that the Mind leads the Dan Tien. In turn, the Dan Tien Leads the Body. Lastly, the body leads the Hands and Feet. This is what I mean by the heading “From The Center Out”. Consider the simple action of taking a step forward; as long as one keeps equal weight on both feet, the body perfectly centered as when standing at attention, it is impossible to take step forward. Weight must be shifted to one side of the body or the other in order to remove weight from one foot allowing that foot to be moved forward. The first action the body takes is to have the Dan Tien shift. The action of walking is an exercise in how the Dan Tien functions in movement. We should glide. The Dan Tien makes subtle rotations causing the pelvis to both shift right to left, left to right while also moving slightly forward from the hip socket of the leg that is moving forward. We should land on the heel and as if the Dan Tien was pulling one forward causing the foot to move from heel to toes in effortless movement. If moving backward it is if the Dan Tien is being pushed back and the feet are placed toe to heel.

Let’s take this further. Stand in a way that the feet are shoulder width apart, the knees slightly relaxed and the pelvis “tucked” gently forward. Keep the pelvis in this position through out this movement. Think of a person on rollerblades, but you are not going to move the feet. It is best to do this in front of a mirror. Now turn the pelvis, spine and head as a single unit 45 degrees to the left. Do not let the knees move forward, only right to left. Ideally, the left knee should arrive at dead center over the left foot and the left leg should be at 90 degrees to the floor. The left hip socket should be pushed inward while the right hip socket is somewhat flush to the body and right leg. You should see an alignment of the left hip socket down across the center line of the left knee to the center of the left foot. You should feel every muscle in the leg being used and the glute muscles in your backside tense from exertion. Now drive to the center starting position and do the same movement to the right. There is much more going on here than meets the eyes. The shifting to one side drawing down could be executing taking an opponents arm into an armbar or evasion of an opponents strike. The drive back up is for a punch such as an uppercut or types of elbow strikes. This is the Dan Tien leading the Body. Feel the “center” of the body moving the body into position from center to left back up through center to the right and back again. Feel how this movement can be used to draw someone into a knee strike to the ribs or solar plexus. Feel the explosiveness of the drive up to and through the center. It is actually best to do this movement slowly to truly “get” the feel.

Applying this to angles is like the aforementioned walking. From a classic side stance ( think a boxer ) shift the Dan Tien in the direction you want to move. Feel how this removes weight from one foot or the other. Turning the pelvis/body will allow the non weightbearing foot to slide effortlessly in the chosen direction, landing and moving from heel to toe to continue the momentum developed culminating in the strike or takedown. Do not plod along like a zombie in a tv show. Use the shift of weight, a result of Dan Tien moving the pelvis, to move with quickness and efficiency and effortlessness. Practice moving to all 8 directions. I heard a fighter of great repute say that “ all that stuff about angles and math, forget it. Just move in and make the kill”. He was right, but only to a point. Understanding movement, angles and the geometry of it all is critical particularly for a novice martial artist. If one has no understanding of it, one may well walk directly into a strike that levels them. Understand this side of the chess match and practice it relentlessly - right up to the point where you arrive at being able to forget all of it because the body is now so well trained that “all this just is”. Then, spontaneous reaction to stimuli will be, without any thought of any kind, “I Tao, Qi Tao”.

On Efficiency In Movement in the Martial arts

Efficiency in movement in the martial arts, regardless of the art being Karate, Judo, Wu Gong, Gong Fu, Boxing, Jui Jitsu or Wrestling is of absolute necessity if one desires to win a contest, be it a competition or especially a life or death conflict. What exactly is “efficiency”? Efficiency means to take the path of least resistance. In engineering, one designs a machine to perform a given task in manufacturing to achieve that task in the least amount of steps necessary. In Nature, water always takes the path of least resistance. It will go around, over, or under or through any obstacle as it flows. This is part of what Bruce Lee was implying in his famous dictum “Be water, my friend”. He was advocating taking the fewest steps required to neutralize an opponent in a fight. See the Path of Least Resistance and follow it. He was also implying the need to flow like water when moving. Think of this: water can be perfectly still, a puddle that reflects like the finest mirror. And water can be like a massive tidal wave moving, pushing, flattening and destroying all in it’s path. And it can be every point in between these two extremes, the ultimate extremes being steam and ice. Regardless of whether still as a mirror or the most devastating tidal wave imaginable, the water in each of these states is flowing and each is in a perfect state of efficiency. In the practice of martial arts, these concepts must be applied if one desires victory in a hand to hand combat situation. Take the concepts of Offense and Defense; these are two distinct concepts, the absolute opposite of each other. Yet, just as the concepts of Yin and Yang demonstrate The Principle Of Opposites, so do Offense and Defense compliment each other, inextricably intertwined. In my post on the Hsien Tien Ba Gua, I mentioned how the extreme of Yin is Yang and the extreme of Yang is Yin. In applying this idea to Offense and Defense, this all means to not see them as separate things to be acted on separately. It means that they should be employed together, as one. Many of us have heard the old sports adage “The best defense is a good offense”. But we have also heard “A good defense wins championships”. These statements sound contradictory, yet both are true. This brings me back to Efficiency. In a martial arts conflict, if we can execute Defense and Offense together as one concept coupled with flowing like water along the Path of Least Resistance, we are executing with efficiency. In the picture above, I did exactly all of this I have discussed here. My student is throwing a classic roundhouse kick, believing he will connect with my left ribcage. I made one step with my right foot into his center line while putting my arms and hands into the position seen as I moved. My “block” with my right arm landed in his upper thigh while the hitting of his calf was “blocked” and absorbed by my left arm. Both arms are held tightly to my body. I exhaled upon impact and then rose into him with an elbow strike to his solar plexus followed by a backfist to his head. All one single, flowing movement. The technique can be seen in full on my Instagram page which can be connected to by clicking on the icon at the bottom of any page on this website. Efficiency is to move fluidly and directly. To move like this takes less time. Defense and Offense working in harmony like hand to glove lessens the amount of time it takes to execute a technique. The less time it takes to execute the less time the opponent has time to respond. Think on this and apply it as best as one can.

Thoughts on Martial Arts Forms

Martial Arts forms, known as Kata in Japanese and Tao Lu in Mandarin Chinese, are a common tool used to “learn” in many martial arts. I practice them myself and have for better than five decades. I have thought for very many years that the practice of forms is generally misunderstood. I will make a bold statement: forms do not teach one how to fight. I’ve actually witnessed practitioners in contact competitions fighting as if they were performing a form even doing the next movement in the form regardless of the context of the fight at that moment. These were persons who were still under the illusion that a form teaches one to fight. The following is of extreme importance to understand: Forms are a reference manual of two things- how to move correctly and techniques that can be used in a fight.

When I say how to move correctly, I am meaning in the body. Frequently in a form one will find themselves in a front facing high horse stance. Does this mean that in a fight you should face the opponent like this? No, only unless one wants to be on the receiving end of endless kicks to the groin. However, if one understands that being in this stance while being at a 90 degree angle to ones opponent or directly behind the opponent, this is perfectly fine.

When I say that a Kata or Tao Lu is a reference manual, I mean it in the same sense that a textbook on polymer chemistry and the compatibility ( or not!) of polymer chemicals listed in it is a reference manual for a polymer chemist when creating a formula. Movements in a form are both Surface level technique - that which is obvious, yet also Conceptual. Take for instance the hand and arm movements in a certain Wing Chun Tao Lu. The practitioner stands in Qi Ma ( High Horse ) while performing a series of movements first with one arm then repeating that series with the other. Each movement of the hand and arm is significant of blocks, redirections and strikes and often a combination of all three. The practitioner is practicing refinement of movement while also exploring concept. Every movement in every form regardless of style has both a Functional aspect and a Conceptual aspect. The Functional is the Surface aspect. A Quan Fa ( front punch in Mandarin ) has the functional movement of hitting someone with the fist. Conceptually, a Quan Fa can be used to redirect an opponents punch, block that punch, or to draw the opponents strike down to ones hip ( during the retraction phase of the Quan Fa ) opening the opponent for a counter strike. The retraction of ones punch is just as important as the striking out of the punch. The draw back can be an elbow strike into an opponent behind, the arm firm to the body, fist on the hip bone, protecting ones rib cage while absorbing a strike such as a roundhouse kick or hook punch to the body.

Techniques as seen in a form should be understood as things that can be used in a fight. Sometimes these techniques address very specific things. Sometimes these techniques can be used to address multiple things. This is another level of understanding the Conceptual nature of a given technique. How many things can this movement be used for? Also, understand that when one learns a style, one has learned a system. A system like an alphabet. An alphabet consists of meaningless symbols unless one understands how the system can be utilized to form words, into sentences, into paragraphs, etc. When one arrives at understanding that they have learned a system, they know that any movement, any technique, and “variation on a theme” of a technique, can be executed at any moment, all situationally dependent upon what the opponent is giving them. Regardless of the Martial Art style, know the Surface, know the Functional, know the Conceptual, know The System.

Using simple Martial Art Movements to counter common attacks

One of my instructors (my Kano Judo Master) said on his deathbed one word three times to one of my other instructors who was visiting him in the hospital. They were having a talk about the martial arts in general. My Judo master said; “Simplify, simplify, simplify”. When the other instructor and I discussed this conversation between the two of them, I took my Judo masters last words to heart. I spent a long time thinking about what he said. My Judo master was a truly phenomenal martial artist, a man who had studied in Japan for over two decades before returning to the USA. He was a man I felt it most wise to pay attention to any advise he gave. So, my own examination of all that I had learned from my teachers led me to believing that there are 9 Basic Movements from which all martial art styles can be reduced down to. In mathematics there is a principle called “extrapolation”. It means to build on. The most simple equation is 1+0=1. But we can build upon the concept expressed in this equation to arrive at the level of advanced calculus used to chart the movements of galaxies or the trajectory of a rocket launch to get a rover to Mars.

I’ll give you one example. One of the most basic movements learned by a new martial arts student is a block I was taught as a “lever block”. If one holds their right arm across their waist and swings the arm up in a circular motion bringing the fist up in front of the face ( not too close, not too far away and being able to just see over the top of the fist), they have executed this movement. Many will see this movement as just a tool to “block” a punch. But it can be used for much more. Let’s incorporate the principle of extrapolation…Lets say that somebody walks up to you out of blue and grabs either of your wrists. What do you do? Execute a lever block. But this time bring your fist up into the center of your chest, tight to the chest. If the opponent is grabbing your right wrist with their right hand, move towards and to the outside of them. Open your fist and roll over their wrist while your left hand comes up to their elbow. Grabbing their wrist and twisting it while rolling their elbow out and away from you will quickly put you in a position of being able to apply a severe armbar. If they grab your left wrist with their right hand, execute a lever block. In this case you do not have to move. Both these techniques work because we are using the very basic lever block to work against the joints of the opponent. We break the hold by the bending of the opponents wrist. In the first technique described above, by taking and twisting the wrist and elbow, we are working our way up from the wrist to the elbow to the shoulder to, ultimately, the spine. Generally, if one controls the opponents balance by controlling - i.e. bending - the spine, you are in control of the opponent and from that point do what you will. Knee kicks, groin strikes, throat strikes or takedowns are all options that could present themselves.

This is extrapolation. This is “simplify, simplify, simplify”. In my experience of over a half century as a student, practitioner and Master of the martial arts, it is that almost universally the most simple and direct technique brings victory. Simple and direct takes less time to execute leaving a very small window of opportunity for the opponent to counter your counter to their attack. Simple and direct also is just easier to execute than some intricate technique. Intricate technique can be both beautiful and deadly, but must be drilled tens of thousands of times to be used effectively in a real fight. In a real fight, maximum efficiency of execution is a must. The simpler the better.

The most important symbol in all of the Martial Arts is the Hsien Tien Ba Gua, wrongly referred to in much of the western world as a “Yin/Yang”. Yin and Yang are components of Hsien Tien Ba Gua, Yin being the black half and Yang being the white half. Within each is a dot of the other. This is to show that there is always some Yin in Yang and some Yang in Yin. Also, the shapes of these two sides are sometimes said to resemble two fish chasing each other. The reason for this; the large “head” moving to the fine point of “the tail” is to demonstrate that at times there is greater Yin ( or Yang ) and at times there is lesser Yin ( or Yang ). Regardless of where one may be in relation to either Yin or Yang, the symbol also represents Balance and Harmony, even taking into account the concept that the absolute extreme of either Yin or Yang is the other. This is known as “The Principle Of Opposites”. This idea of Yin and Yang endlessly flowing from one into the other is an essential part of the philosophical side of the Asian Martial Arts. This for many practitioners of the Martial Arts is the end of the road for what the symbol means. It is not by any means.

The symbol is almost always represented as a two dimensional object printed on paper or cloth. This is deceiving. It is actually a sphere, even though to the viewer it always appears to show what the viewer perceives as they would the 2 dimensional representation. Let’s begin with two dimensions. By the 7th Century bc, the symbol had been added to with the “Ba Men” or “8 Gates”. These were the “Trigrams” placed around it as seen in the ancient text the “I Ching” ( Book of Changes”). I’m not going to get into the Trigrams and their meanings here. Consider them to be akin to the eight main directions of a compass; they give you potential directions in which to move, forwards, backwards, side to side, or corner to corner. As a martial artist, we must understand that we are always in the center of the symbol; it moves with us. Wherever we are in a stance looking, we always have our “right, center, and left” options for movement - this includes any of the 8 Directions. But what about the “S” that divides “the Fish”? This is circular serpentine footwork be it a small circle with one foot followed by a larger circular step with the other or two large circular type steps moving us towards, away, or around an opponent. The large outer circle encompassing the symbol represents sweeps done with the leg to sweep an opponents leg.

But as I stated earlier, the symbol is actually a sphere. Picture a ball inside a cube, the ball just lightly touching the sides of the cube. You are in the center of the ball. All movements in the martial arts are in some way circular. Think on this. Even the straightest thrown punch has circular motion seen in the unwinding of the fist, like following the thread of a screw or drill bit. Humans generally are incapable of perfect straight line movement. Any action taken, be it an over hand strike (like that of swinging a hatchet) or a wide hook shot punch or a heel thrust kick off the back leg; all are done in circular motion. Thus, the 3 dimensions of the ball represents the natural circular movements in any direction made by a human when engaged in movement, even just walking. Now for the cube. The walls of the cube along with the floor and ceiling offer the “8 Directions” in 3 dimensional space. One may drop to the lower right corner by stepping in that direction while throwing a classic ( circular motion again!) “down block” or by an arm extending to the upper left corner to “block” a wide hook shot punch. Again, we are using the concept of the ball in the cube to guide us in which directions we need to move in to accomplish what we need to do to deal with an opponent. We should know this as Circular Motion Guided By Angles Of Direction. These things will be discussed in future blog posts and include things like control of space between ourselves and the opponent and using movement to put ourselves in a position of strength against an opponent while leaving the opponent in a position of weakness.