Hatsugeiko-a-go-go

Yesterday we had our first workshop of the year and I thought it went pretty well. But about halfway through, everybody felt the weight of their training. It wasn’t the training itself, per se, everybody could do the physical moving and throwing, locking and striking stuff; that wasn’t the hard part, or the part that exhausted everyone. Rather, it was reconciling the perspective that made our brains hurt.

Recently, I’ve been harping on the principles in order to apply techniques. This sounds good, but what does it mean? There are technical or mechanical aspects to unarmed and armed combat. We should be familiar with these in order to ‘operate’ Taijutsu. But it’s the principles that make Taijutsu work as, well, Taijutsu.

Learning how to gunfight, has (at least) three elements to it. The first is why we’re picking up the gun in the first place – the ethical, willful, or spiritual considerations. We need to know why, and it had better be a good reason, because we may have to one day live with its consequences, morally and legally. Next would be the technical elements of the gun’s (the machine’s) usage – the loading and unloading of it, its firing and safety, its disassembly and re-assembly, its cleaning, its ballistics, etc. All of these and more constitute the gun’s practical elements, because if we don’t understand them we simply cannot operate the weapon. But none of these techniques require the kind of dedication, time, and energy as the actual reconciliation between man and machine in order to gunfight effectively under given circumstances.

Putting a bullet on a target that may be trying to do the same to you is nearly impossible if relying on technique alone. The awareness and familiarity that must be created between the body, the gun, and the mind that operates both takes years of experience to build. Taijutsu is no different. Too often, folks get caught up in the accumulation of technical matters instead of concentrating on their application.

Do we have to know technique? Yes, there are practical physical links we must be made aware of to appreciate their usefulness. But knowing them and doing them, doesn’t make them effective - principles do. We have to train ‘under the circumstances’ against an honest opponent, in order to see how techniques can work – how changes in our position, leverage, or timing impact what we’re doing. When we learn how to drive, we get in a car and pull onto the road, not sit at home playing Pole Position.

As we progress and mature, internalization of principles directly affects the degree to which technique is utilized. Without understanding of principles, techniques must be used in their most brutal fashion, with all the power, speed, and strength we can muster, or else risk their failure – and often they fail anyway. A broad comprehension of principles however, give us the surest way to apply technique to the degree necessary as well as allow the kind of detachment needed to flow and improvise, inherent in movement not relying upon memorized muscle memory.