Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Neko Ryu General Principles: Part 7 – Spiritual Balance

What the heck is “spiritual balance”? I’m not discussing religion here. I’m a Christian and proud of it, but spiritual balance in the context of martial arts is being “centered” and staying centered under stress.

I firmly believe that religious faith gives you a leg up in becoming and staying centered, but it’s not a prerequisite.

People of all religious faiths achieve centeredness at higher rates than non-religious people. However, very few people are centered regardless of their religion, or lack thereof.

In my experience, as a group the people most centered are long term practicing martial artists. I speculate that developing true centeredness is highly correlated with dedication to a life-long process of self-perfection, knowing it can never be achieved, and knowing there is always more that can be done to improve.

Christians call it sanctification – the life-long effort to become like Christ.

Martial artists call it mastering the art but it doesn’t end when they reach the rank of “Master”. In most ranked martial arts one is call a master upon achieving the rank of 5th dan and most ranking systems extend to 10th dan.

Professor Ernie Cates, the founder of Neko Ryu Goshin Jitsu, is 70 years old and is still learning and experimenting and expanding the Neko Ryu. There is no end except death.

Okay, so you’re not a long-term martial artist. You’re probably not really centered. Does spiritual balance apply to you? Yes, it does. Centeredness isn’t really completely achievable. It’s a relative thing and like the struggle for self-perfection one gets more centered but never completely centered.

If you are more centered than your opponent, you have an advantage. And, if you can “un-center” your opponent your advantage will increase.

Centeredness roughly equates to a calm self-control that preserves the ability to make reasoned decisions and take appropriate action. The opposite, un-centeredness, is emotionally clouded judgment that interferes with reasoned decision-making leading to inappropriate action.

To stay centered, or as centered as you can be, you control your anger, you overcome your fear, you stay loose, aware, and “in the moment”. To un-center your opponent you create fear, uncertainty, or anger. This is why verbal intimidation works, when it works, on the football field.

An old cliché says that when your opponent fears you will defeat him, he is already defeated. This, not some Asian death-wish is the reason Japanese samurai were taught to choose death when confronted with the choice between living and dying. This was supposed to remove the fear of defeat. This philosophy led Japan to defeat in World War II and I don’t recommend it.

Western culture substituted the virtues of courage and defense of others for the samurai choice and certainly, if you are a Westerner, the traditional Western cultural virtues will generally serve you better than adopted ones.

Spiritual balance, centeredness, is relative. You see a martial arts master and you think, “he seems so centered.” And you’re right. Compared to you and to most other people, he is much more centered. However, just like there is always someone stronger, smarter, or more skilled there is always someone more centered.

Becoming centered is a process, a path, not a destination.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Balance and Kuzushi

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Neko Ryu General Principles: Balance – Part 6 – Mental Balance

When someone calls you mentally unbalanced you rightly assume you are being insulted – called crazy. But, if you are momentarily confused, disoriented, distracted, or indecisive, you are mentally unbalanced enough to give your opponent an opportunity to launch a successful attack.

Anything that causes you to hesitate or take inappropriate or ineffective action mentally unbalances you. Of course, if you cause your opponent (uki) to hesitate or take inappropriate or ineffective action you create a momentary advantage during which you can launch an attack.

The kiai or “spirit yell” can mentally unbalance your opponent taking him by surprise. Using words to make him think there is a threat behind him might make him hesitate or take inappropriate action.

Inflicting pain, even without inflicting damage, will distract most opponents inducing momentary confusion and lack of situational awareness as the brain focuses on pain. The momentary confusion can be enough to permit your decisive action.

Any unexpected action you take could result in uki’s hesitation as he tries to understand your action. Against a trained and experience opponent, however, your action will also need to be coordinated, balanced, and leave no unintended openings in your defense. Else, your experienced uki will convert your action into an opportunity to delivery his attack.

Creating an intentional opening in your defense might cause uki to move in a predictable way that you can use to unbalance him. It may also cause him to hesitate, undecided weather or not to attack the opening.

A stomp of the foot, a purposely telegraphed glance, a threat to his eyes or groin, a downward motion of your hand in front of uki’s face, a noise from an unexpected direction; any of these could create mental unbalance, kuzushi, in your opponent.

Create your own surprises and distracters and practice them. Add them to your daily drill until they become a natural part of your techniques tool box.

Virtually anything unexpected might possibly create a momentary mental unbalance in your opponent. The more unexpected the action the more likely it is to be effective. On the other hand, the more experienced your opponent the less likely uki is to become unbalanced and, if he is unbalanced, the quicker he will recover.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Balance and Kuzushi

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Neko Ryu General Principles: Balance – Part 5 – Causing Uki to Move Predictably

You can put your opponent off balance, kuzushi, by forcing his center of mass past the edge of his balance zone or by extending his voluntary movement out of his balance zone. You can also off balance him by causing him to react in a predictable way and extending his reactive movement out of his balance zone.

Causing a predictable reaction from your opponent (uki) is also known as adversarial psychology. It takes advantage of your opponent’s mentally setting himself up as your opponent. As such, he wants to control you and he wants to not be controlled by you. So, when you act in a way that threatens to control him he naturally opposes your threat.

If you want uki to back up, pull him forward. If you want him to rise up, pull him downward; to go left, push right; etc. The objective is to apply enough force to convince uki that your threat is real so he will generate an opposing force. When uki exerts himself to oppose your force he is trying to move in exactly the way you want him to go – so you simply let him. You stop applying your initial force, you allow his force to move him, and you apply your preplanned real attack taking advantage of his movement.

A variation of this principle is the use of feints and combination attacks.

Feints are attempts to cause uki to react in a predictable way without applying force to uki’s body. Instead, you convince his mind that force will be applied in a certain way, expecting uki to defend against the threatened attack and give you an advantage – an opportunity to use his response directly or to quickly attack an opening created when he committed his body to defend the feint.

Similarly, a combination attack is an intentional but real attack with a planned follow up technique, or a drilled contingent technique to be executed if the original is unsuccessful. In either case, the follow up takes advantage of uki’s defense to attack an opening created by his movement.

Causing uki to move in a predictable manner is an effective way to set up your kuzush. When he moves as you predicted, and you are prepared to extend his movement or apply force in a way he does not expect, you can take his center of mass out of his balance zone. And, when his balance is gone, almost any technique will defect him.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Balance and Kuzushi

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Neko Ryu General Principles: Balance – Part 4 – Using Uki’s Movement

Kuzushi, putting your opponent off balance, is about moving your opponent’s center of gravity (center of mass) past the edge of his balance zone. You can do it by helping uki do it himself.

Every time uki moves he creates momentum in the direction of his movement; the faster the movement the greater the momentum. The longer his movement in distance or time the easier it will be for you to take advantage of it.

When uki moves, he instinctively coordinates his body with the intended movement. If he punches, he may step forward extending his balance zone in the direction of his movement. Human movement normally follows this pattern. The center of mass moves in an intended direction and the feet move to maintain the balance zone around the center of mass in a coordinated and more or less simultaneous way.

Helping uki move his center of mass past the edge of his balance zone is done by extending his movement farther than he intended and faster than he can adjust his balance zone by repositioning his feet.

Using the simple straight punch as an example; when uki throws a right-hand punch and steps forward with his right foot his movement is coordinated and he adjusts his balance zone forward as his center of mass moves forward. By grasping uki’s wrist while his punching arm extends and pulling uki forward in the direction he is already moving, you can increase the speed of his upper body movement taking it further than uki intended - taking his center of mass beyond the edge of his balance zone. Then, with uki’s balance compromised you can effectively attack him with a throw or a strike.

This example demonstrates the principle. When uki moves his body in any direction you have the opportunity to add force and further accelerate uki’s body in the direction he is already moving - extending uki’s movement farther than he intended and likely beyond his balance zone.

In the next post I’ll explore causing uki to move predictably.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Balance and Kuzushi

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Neko Ryu General Principles: Balance – Part 3 – Applying Direct Force

Kuzushi, putting your opponent off balance, is largely about moving your opponent’s center of gravity past the edge of his balance zone – but how do you do it?

Physically, there are three general approaches; (1) you can apply direct force to move your opponent; (2) you can take advantage of your opponent’s voluntary movements; or (3) you can apply a force to your opponent that produces a predictable response from him and then take advantage of the response.

All three approaches can be effective in the right circumstances. However, if your opponent is significantly bigger and stronger than you – as in a typical self-defense situation - the direct force approach is questionable.

Still, all three are useful especially when combined with mental and spiritual forms of kuzushi.

So, if you are going to apply direct force to move your opponent out of his balance zone choosing the direction of your force is extremely important. Notice the position of uki’s feet relative to his center of mass and either push or pull uki toward the closest edge of his balance zone.

His balance zone is a four-sided area described by the outside edges of both feet, a line connecting the balls of his two big toes, and a line connecting his two heels. Your primary objective in moving uki’s torso is the edge of his balance zone closest to his center of mass.

Understand that if uki can move his feet faster than you can move his center of mass you will fail to unbalance him in this try. You can make it difficult for him to move his feet by adding a lift component to your applied force taking his weight off his feet while you also move him laterally. You can also block or post the foot he is most likely to move planting your own foot so as to prevent the movement he needs to retain his balance.

Applying direct force to unbalance your opponent is a tactic commonly seen in sport Judo matches where contestants are matched in narrow weight ranges. It is not as useful in self-defense situations where your attacker is significantly bigger and stronger unless combined with other kuzushi techniques.

In the next post I’ll explore taking advantage of uki’s voluntary movement.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Balance and Kuzushi