September 2009 Archives

In any area free of constant real life strife and risk, what dominates our view of true combat? Fictional depictions. Those images and sequences caught on film or in books. Of these, martial arts movies often depict the young protanganist, meeting the wisen sage, with his long flowy beard, and being taught the secret of martial arts. With these secrets, and the obligatory 5 min training montage in which said hero hits the air alot, gets beat up by said sage once or twice, and then maybe hits some hardcore training device such as a wooden posts, the young hero is now prepared to defeat those villians who with years of real combat experience, somehow didnt learn the one or two mathmatical equation or secret counter that enables our young protaganist to leave victorious.

Well, this kind of view of fighting makes for entertaining movies, particularly for younger folk who have never dealt with challenges, but in the real world in regards to real life fighting, this is what we can refer to as the martial arts lie. Now what is the martial arts lie in more real terms? It is the lie, that with some magical secret or perfect technique, you can skip hard work, actual painful experience (e.g. fighting), and overcome those who have not skipped these steps. It is the lie that tells you, dont fight, your technique is too deadly for sparring. It is the lie that tells you, that you are so effecient, that while in a sports arena you wouldnt last 2 seconds, magically the minute the gloves come off, in the hardcore forge of the street, your hours spent eating donuts will be more effect than the sports fighters hours running. It is the lie that tells you that when you get hit in sparring, its not because you lack experience, because you lack practice, because you lack dedication, but because there is either a mystical 56 counter that would answer all your questions. It is the lie that tells you that because you can mimic a basic movement in the air, and maybe parrot back a reason for doing it, or even better a strategy for using this movement, this is enough.

Well hate to say it, but well it wouldnt be a lie if it were true. There are no secrets in fighting. In the end, he who works harder, who has prepared better, who has more experience monitoring, and baiting will win. This isnt overcome by learning some magical secret technique. Effeciency doesnt make up for time in the ring. Instead, it is laborous, repitive, painful work. It is honing yourself into a human wrecking ball, not just in mind and spirit, but in the flesh. It is by being defeated 1,000 times in the ring. It is by fighting, it is by working, it is by dedication.

For all the flak sports competition gets in martial arts circles, it does give you basic truths in real time. There are no mystical maybes. No ifs ands or buts. There is simply a winner and a loser. In real life or death situations, there is only life or death. True Philippine Combat Arts realize this. They realize that when your life is on the line, you cant wait for maybes, or that mystical 33rd counter or form. Instead, we realize one learns to fight by fighting. We realize one gains strength and speed through hard work. We realize that training montages and secrets are fun for movies, but in real life, it is all about the hard labourous work, developing our tools for use, testing our strategies, and practice practice practice.

For the Filipino Combat Arts, a good tire dummy is the equivalent of a heavy bag to a boxer. It serves to help build many attributes, one of which is consistent striking power. There is a famous Bruce Lee saying that goes, "practicing striking by hitting the air is like practicing swimming on dry land". While there will always be those people who naturally hit hard, for the rest of us mortals, we need consistent practice actually hitting something, to build this attribute.

Furthermore, depending on how you work your tire, not only is it a tool to help develop power, but since proper technique is usually the most effecient movement, and power doesnt come from ineffeciency, striking a tire is an excellent tool to help correcting form. Adding footwork will also help correct, balance, as well as generally movement. Also, once one begins to string strikes together, one learns how to properly set up and execute a striking combination.

In essence, if you havent thrown it against the tire, you are less likely to throw it in the ring. This means, power, combinations, footwork, etc... Not to mention, the tire doesnt hit back, unlike a sparring partner, which allows you to work these fundamental movements in a less stressful environment. Furthermore, unlike a sparring partner, the tire doesnt become injured when you hit it full force 1,000 times in a row.

Boxers punch bags, kickboxers also hit bags, soldiers shoot targets, as practioners of the Philippine Combat Arts we hit tires. We guarantee that our strike will land, and will land devastatingly.

Recently we came in from our usual run before a session and a student of another class asked us if we just went on a run, we said "yes" and they jokingly asked us if we would be now too tired to workout in our session. Not that this is not a valid question and if we had taken the run to the limit maybe another hour plus workout would be daunting but not certainly not impossible. The reason I mention this is that I feel that a great part of learning skills is to be able to execute them to their highest degree. Fitness should have the same focus as your techniques, forms, striking or whatever you are working on. Conditioning is generally what wins a fight all else being equal. Kicks and punches can be executed well once or twice but how about over and over for round after round?

Anyway, as I run down the road to having at least some conditioning that is decent I always wonder what others are thinking in martial arts that don't associate their rankings with fight records or tournament wins. Blade fighting in particular is a tough one to "rank" because there are few tournaments and real fighting with live blades is impractical so you must improvise. Still, beyond the flashy techniques how long do you last in a sparring match without losing your wind?

Some martial arts will say they dont compete, because their art is too deadly for competition. Or that their art was proven in the battlefield, and sports competitions mean nothing.

Well show me a martial artist who says this, and I will say 90% chance that this is a guy who couldnt fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

Deadliness, and battlefields are all fine and dandy. Howeverm a few problems with these excuses exist. First, the guy who proved it in the battlefield isnt you. Living through other people's glory, is like saying, cuz the guy who's style I emulate is popular with girls, I dont need to find me a girlfriend. Really? Since when is some other guy, you? In many educational fields, the study is valid because some guy proved it, but let say lets switch it up, and your field is medicine instead of martial arts. Would you trust a doctor who said, well some other doctor did this surgery, and the patient lived, just because I never did it doesnt mean I cant?

Second problem, is that any guy who says his art is to deadly for competition because competition doesnt allow him to do X, again is a guy who likes donuts more than fighting. Real life combat, when your life is on the line, is stressful. If you cant handle the stress of a competition, where there are rules, people who can save you if things get out of hand, then how are you gonna last when these things are gone. Again, would you trust a Doctor, who didnt do his lab work in school, because his medical skills are only for saving real lives, and not for disecting dead animals?

Simply said, you dont learn to fight, if you never fight. If real life or death isnt available (which hopefully for most of us it aint), then we do our best to come close. And well, in most peaceful lives, this is competition. Modern armies play war games, why shouldnt martial artists, try and simulate their real fight?

However, competition has even more value. It provides motivation and validation. In our club, we dont have ranks. If you are looking for validation, go to a competition, and beat someone. In training, we always hit plateaus. Points in our training, where we wonder what the next goal should be, is this the best it gets? Where do I go from here? Competition, gives us a goal, it lets us know where our holes are that our training mates didnt notice. Competition is how you know what you worked on, really works, and not that your sparring mate just subconsciously got used to you.

Anyways, I dont care if your teacher eats steel and pisses lightning bolts, can you? If you are gonna say your style is the best, prove it. Otherwise, I got me a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, that your teacher told me is absolutely necessary to make you level up to ultimate ninja.