DISCUSSION

Back from holidays

We have a couple of new participants and the rest of you may have been with me all the way. Thank you!

I hope you all realize that it is impossible to teach all sixty years of martial arts training in only 12 hours. Everything takes a lot of practice on your part as well as effort on my side. Remember that knowledge is like a good book, you need to read it multiple times to really enjoy it in different ways. This class is almost like the missing owner’s manual for your body.

I started the current season going through the 5 wrist grips and escapes. While all of you can verbally describe the moves required, not everybody can execute it correctly. Some of you are still yanking your hand back. Do remember we have to perfect the technique till you can do it without depending on strength and speed. During class, I taught a way to practice all these techniques anywhere, even without a partner.

Even though we don’t depend solely on muscles and speed, it is nice to have a good base layer. This season, we will emphasize on getting you stronger, improving your reaction time and making you move easily.

Explore details beyond just copying visible movements

Flashy techniques as in the movies requires a lot of preparation. Both actors know exactly what is coming and therefore is relatively safe. Even with such elaborate planning, things can still go wrong. In movies, they can do multiple takes of the same scene until it is perfect.

A lot of teachers teach movements by getting you to simply copy them. However, not everything essential to making a technique work in combat can be seen from the outside if it is not explained.

Some examples are:
– There are multiple ways to round the back – These may look very similar from the outside, but they produce very different results.
– How power is generated – The amount of power you can deliver when you are focused on muscle contraction is significantly different from what you can achieve when you use the correct visualization, such as projecting something outward.
– What stays still and what part of the body is actually moving – Once you know what to look for, you can see it. However, we are not naturally used to picking up this level of detail.
– Timing – We are used to paying attention to the starting and ending positions. We don’t usually notice whether a movement should be performed in sequence, with everything moving together, or with one part starting just before another.

SCENARIOS

5 grips to start – We start with 5 different grips to help you understand some of the key concepts of what “effortless power” means. The following are the 5 grips:
– low, across center line, hand-shake grip
– low, across center line, palms down grip
– low, on same side grip
– high, across center grip
– high, same side grip

A few key-points / concepts universal across all of the skills
– stay relaxed, using muscles and yanking escalates and usually make thinks worse.
– you cannot telegraph your intent to get away. So you must move and affect as an entire unit. You cannot prepare before you deliver.
– keep calm and while smiling, identify partner’s vulnerabilities (e.g. where is his thumb?
– project your energy from belly button through your arm and beyond the fingers to maintain intended shape or structure
– always remember the entire technique doesn’t end until you strategically reposition yourself.

Explore projection

There are three types of power: bio-mechanics, psycho-mechanics, and nature.

The projection experiment done in class lets you experience psycho-mechanics yourself, not just watching a demo. So it is very learnable and you don’t need to train ten years until qi is cultivated:
– Unbendable arm – Key-points are correct visualization of an endless stream of energy going from belly button through your body to the arm and past the finger tips.
– Heavy elbow – Key-points are relax the shoulder and imagine a force like magnet sucking your elbow down, take your mind off the muscles. Just focus on the necessary visualization.

EXERCISES

Do practice by yourself besides coming to class. For some of these grip-escapes, the following are concepts are very very important:
– Stay relaxed
– No telegraphs. Don’t give your partner any indication of what you are about to do.
– Identify partner’s vulnerabilities. For example: Where is his thumb? What parts of my body can I still move even though my wrist is being held?
– Identify what stays and what moves. Understanding this can make a huge difference in the mechanics and therefore how effectively you perform the technique.

SIDE NOTES

 1. Class Logistics and Participation: Arrive around 8:45 for the warm-up. Review the notes on this website beforehand, write down any questions you have, and bring them to class. These extra 10–15 minutes are for Q&A, warm-up, and sometimes partner practice.

 2. Course Focus and Audience: Training is practical, non-sport self-defense methods oriented towards females and seniors. You will learn non-escalating responses to aggressive grabs and yanks. The techniques are used as vehicles for teaching underlying concepts. The priority is developing conceptual understanding. You will gain the ability to identify and correct errors, rather than simply imitating techniques.

 3. Safety and Partner Drill Protocols: The emphasis is on reaction and understanding, rather than cardio or muscle activation. During partner drills, calibrate the intensity to your partner’s ability. Ask permission before increasing the force—for example, “Can I grab harder?” Avoid overwhelming your partner, and communicate about grip strength: “Is this too hard, or am I too soft?”

4. Functional Fitness – If you have never taken the Martial Gym Functional Fitness class, you should try it at least once. It teaches you how to manage some of the common problems we experience, such as shoulder tension, lower-back discomfort, and difficulty sitting down and getting back up. We also cover ways to release tension through massage.

The class also teaches you how to fall properly in order to reduce the risk of injury. Even with common exercises such as stretching, there are details that are often overlooked, which can reduce the intended benefits of the exercise.