Clarity in Your Training

I brought up the idea of the different between a classical martial art and a martial art sport in the post, Optimization and Martial Arts. I'd like to explore that a little further, especially after reading a very good post at Ikigai Way on Knife Self Defense. Please read the post at Ikigai Way and watch the videos, they are mind opening.

Martial arts can be practiced as a type of Budo, a sport, or for self defense. These areas overlap, and are not mutually exclusive, but they are certainly not all the same.

I thought the Krav Maga videos gave the best advice on what one could do facing a knife. Bursting. I find it interesting that I think that's the way I imagine the taijiquan I study would be expressed in a live situation. In the form I practice, I see a lot of simultaneous attack and defense movements.

Here is a video clip of Eddie Wu, the Gatekeeper of the Wu style of Taijiquan giving a seminar in Hong Kong. Unfortuneatly it is in Cantonese, and may as well be Greek to me. However, at about 1:10, Sifu Wu demonstrates a movement from the beginning part of a reoccuring posture in the Taiji form, Brush Knee and Push. Here we see that simultaneous movement that the Krav Maga guys used so effectively.

I was a bit troubled by the aikido videos, coming from an aikido background myself. I can't believe for a second that the techniques we practiced in our study of budo on the mat would be meant to be applied so literally against a real weapon. In fact, I know of an aikido student who was confronted with a knife in a parking lot once. He tried to use the evading movements without any soft of "bursting." He was stabbed in the leg. His attacker must have been shook up by it as well because he ran away.

As the character Buddha Hat (who provided "security" to a drug dealer) said in the book Clockers, when explaining why he preferred a gun to a knife, knifing a guy is really personal.

When I trained in aikido, virtually every technique we practiced began with the same format. The uke (the attacker and person who received the technique) would attack, and be met with a simultaneous strike to the face, and the initial movement of a response. Sensei said that this strike was a distraction, but if the distraction was strong enough, maybe the technique didn't have to be completed. I think he was hinting at bursting. Thinking about those techniques, I'm sure of it.

Another martila art that is more purely a budo is archery. At Zen's Sekai I, there have been several recent posts on the art of kyudo. I think there would be little doubt about applying archery literally to self defense, except for the training in keeping a clear mind. I'm certain that would have direct application.

Well, my point is not to be mistaken in what youre training for. You make be a killer MMA fighter in the ring, but those skills aren't likely to get you anywhere except maybe a knife in the neck.

Here's a thread from the Rum Soaked Fist forum, regarding a movie entitled The Hunted, in which a realistic depiction of knife fighting is featured. Watch the video. How do you think your current training would stack up?

For myself, I train in Taijiquan because it's an activity I find engaging. It's something that I can hopefully continue to participate in, well into my doterage, and that practice will help me keep going longer. It helps me clear my mind, stay strong, and flexible. It helps me relax.

I think that if you study a martial art, the litmus test is that you have to be able to fight with it. If you can't, you're not doing it right. I can't do that with taijiquan yet, I don't think. I have a way to go yet, but I'm clear about that.

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For those of you who are going to join me on the Lenten Challenge, I just wanted to remind you that it starts tomorrow.