Thursday 22 August 2013

Relax. It's only a training drill.

This week, I have been questioning whether I am suited to martial arts training.  During the Wing Chun class, I was useless at Chi Sau.  Me being rubbish during Chi Sau is not a surprise: it is a weak area of my Wing Chun.  The question it raises is how I can be good at free fighting, when I am shockingly bad during a training drill.

I recently added Eskrima to my martial arts repertoire, and the class has been useful in a few ways.  First and foremost, I get to test my three years' Wing Chun training against another art.  It also gives me the chance to think about weapons, and how I will deal with weapons in a combat situation.  Sometimes, though, it is useful in ways that could not have been predicted.

The Eskrima instructor was going through a flow drill with me, when he stopped and said that training with me was like coming up against a wall.  In both Eskrima and Wing Chun, there is a relaxed flow to movements, so tension is counter productive during any training drill.  In short, I need to relax during flow drills and during Chi Sau.

It's funny how your background in martial arts affects the way you fight.  Like a lot of British children at the time, I started with Judo and, being small for my age, had to use a lot of strength to perform throws and overcome some opponents.  When the school bullies took their chances, again it was strength that I used to avoid becoming a victim.  To be fair, Judo had taught me nothing about how to punch, and I did not have much time to read the boxing manuals in my local library: I picked up what I could, but my modus operandi became hitting as hard as possible, punctuated by brief spells of the grappling I had learned.  It was all about using what little strength I had.  It didn't help that I was a particularly placid child, so fighting only really happened when I was already angry, meaning adrenaline played its part.  Picture a young boy getting through a fight due to sheer determination, and you have the idea.

Years later, I came to Japanese Jujitsu.  Once more, I found myself using my strength, only this time I had become something of a man-mountain (I weighed 230lbs/104kg at the time).  Lifting my training partners off their feet, slamming them into the ground, putting on a powerful lock or choke hold all came too easily to me.  My technique may not have been the best, but I could simply power my way through.  It all became too clear to me during my white belt grading: my training partner was in a position where he could not tap out a submission, so he screamed at me that I was about to rip his arms out of their sockets.  I felt strong, I felt powerful, but I didn't feel good about it.  I realised that, rather than learning effective technique, I was using brute force as a substitute.

If you are not familiar with psychology, you may not have heard of a programmed conditioned response.  In essence, a programmed conditioned response is a learned behaviour that is triggered by certain external stimuli.  In my case, the response to a perceived physical threat, or anything that resembles a physical threat, is to keep it at bay using force.  When training against people who know Wing Chun, or Eskrima, it is not good.  It speaks well of my skill level that I can often recover, but the strength which served to keep me safe in my younger years can now be used against me.

Let's also consider self defence.  If my conditioned response is to load my system with adrenaline and blast through an adversary, I will have a hard time claiming I used reasonable force.  Worse, a reliance on strength quickly unravels when you are up against someone stronger, and there is always someone stronger.

So, maybe learning to relax will mean I actually get better with Chi Sau.  Essentially, I must change my reaction to training drills.  The irony is that I must undertake a course of strength training, because I am somewhat out of shape right now.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

The Night

Charles Dickens, in a piece with the title Night Walks, describes being out in London when most people are sleeping.  It's one of my favourite pieces of writing: a fact which is surprising when you realise I am not a fan of Dickens' other work.

This part of the day is the most difficult for me.  It seems like the whole world is asleep, and all its bars and restaurants are closed.  At times, the overpowering sense of loneliness and isolation, which is the curse of the insomniac, is almost too much to endure.  The darkness envelops all, only to be chased away by the dreariness of electric light.  Sleep comes easily to some, but not to others.

Maybe it's just my interpretation but, in Dickens' account, he seems to be seeking the company of another human.  There is a passage where he comes across a toll booth operator, with a fire roaring in his booth, and wistfully contemplates the chance of passing some of the night in his company.

Perhaps the night is the time when our desire for company is at its most strong.  You may have someone lying beside you, but they are likely to be asleep, so all you have is their warmth, if you wish to risk waking them.  We can only hope that sleep comes quickly, and that our dreams may supply us, in our slumber, the company we crave in our wakeful state.