Rhythm in hyungs (kata)

A brief training session in the garden today threw up the idea of rhythm within hyung or kata.

Although my main focus currently is Shorinji Kempo I still like to keep to date with my Tang Soo Do forms and as I was running through them today I was focusing on recalling them thoroughly, moving fluidly (thanks to this blog) and having strong techniques (not flopping my arms around just for the sake of trying to recall the hyungs). Along with these ideas another one came to mind and that is rhythm in forms. There is a natural rhythm to forms. I don't mean consistent and unchanging one-a-two-a-three-a-four-a- throughout.... Music is often syncopated to make it sound more interesting and music uses crescendo, diminuendo, staccato, stopping and so on. This gives more feeling to the music and helps tell a story more accurately.

Forms do tell a story but they should do much more too, so it's important to know when to pause, when to run two or three techniques together and when to speed up or slow down. Often in the lower forms there is a short pause after the punch but the block-punch is somewhat run together. So the tempo would be 'block-punch, block-punch'. This example is not a universal truth throughout all forms practice but it illustrates that forms must be performed with this 'punctuation' in mind otherwise it turns into one long chain of techniques. If you don't know where this punctuatino is in your forms, my advice is to find out!

Pyung ahn Ee Dan performed by a Tang Soo Do master and followed by Heian Nidan by a Japanese sensei. Both different interpretations of this same form but both with a rhythm to it punctuated by pauses, linking techniques together, crescendo and diminuendo (If you don't like the music analogy try thinking of commas, semi-colons, full stops...).

War dance and confrontational body language.

A very quick post tonight as I'm pooped. Need to get my feet up and a glass of whisky in my hand...

As the Six Nations is upon us I was intrigued to see the New Zealand team perform the haka the other day. This is a Maori war dance made at the opening of combat to strike fear into the enemy's heart through the words of the song they sing and the violent gestures used. I have since read that the word 'haka' can refer to any sort of ceremonial dance and the haka that the New Zealand team has used is called the peruperu. In any case check out the body language used and see those wonderful scary faces they pull. 

All these gestures seem quite frightening to me and probably have added meaning to Maoris. I especially like the tongue sticking out which although can be comical in isolation, when used here with eyes ablaze and arms slapped it feels far from comical. Some people have said it gives the kiwis an unfair advantage (to scare the opponents?) and maybe they took it too far during the 2005 tri-nations series when they used a new haka (Kapa O Pango) finishing with a thumb drawing across the neck gesture. Very aggressive, and highly laced with symbolism. It was eventually withdrawn, despite one of the South African opponents who saw it for the first time saying it was a great privilege to see it.

Many opponent teams brave it out and maintain it has no effect. That may be so but in any case what an amazing way to pump yourself up pre-fight erm, I mean pre-match. Shouting (or singing) helps get oxygen into your body and performing like that in front of the opponent would no doubt allow you to disspiate a bit of your nervous energy.

Try it next time you spar.....

"Ka mate, Ka mate...."

!

(see also: A BBC clip explaining the background to the haka)

The first enemy

"It was a troublesome scramble...because I momentarily behaved like a bad tempered boy who is apoplectic with his toy-train. The straps were a fuddle, the engine was recalcitrant, and ...I ...noticed someone had altered the setting of the rudder bar. Ugh-urrr!

'Oh, Jesus , this is it, this is it-just time to get above...Where the hell!'

Momentarily I panicked, my mouth became so dry it seemed I had been licking thousands of stamps.

Then my thoughts raced with a hare's rhythm. Battle had commenced!"

Once Kenneth Hemingway had attacked some enemy bombers with his Hurricane in this, his first enemy engagement he, by his own admission, was quite calm: "my nervousness had gone".

When I read this story (taken from Wings Over Burma, 1944) about a fighter pilot in the Second World War who flew alongside the AVG I was intrigued by his pre-combat 'nerves' and it reminded me much of something I'd read by Geoff Thompson who wrote comprehensively about the fight or flight phenomenon. I was also interested in the clarity or calmness that this pilot achieved in the midst of combat.

In Thompson's book 'Dead or Alive' he identifies aspects of adrenaline in order to understand, to know what the body undergoes in stressful situations. This way we can better face it when it actually happens. There is a huge section on adrenal reactions and I'd recommend getting hold of the book. Besides if I reproduced it all here Geoff Thompson would kick my head in...

As a taster here is his list, some of which can be seen in the above story.

Adrenal reaction

- Pre fight shakes

- Dry mouth

- Voice quiver

- tunnel vision

- Sweaty palms

- Nausea

- Bowel loosening

- Adrenal deafness

- Time distortion

(edited list)

As Hannibal Lecter said in Red Dragon, "Yes, that's the fear. It takes time and experience to master it..."

The second idea relating to martial training that I was minded of was 'mushin no shin' or mind of no mind. This is the state of mind open to all senses without being transfixed by anything. this freedom from extraneous 'clutter' enables the warrior to act and react without hindrance. A calmness just like the hurricane pilot felt after his initial adrenaline squirts.

Andy Hug and the Axe kick

Checking out Mark's training blog and I came across a post about axe kicks. There was of particular note an interesting video dedicated to Andy Hug (1964-2000), a Swiss born kyokushinkai karateka who gained fame on the F1 circuit in Japan and the amazing sobriquet of 'The blue-eyed samurai'. Even more amazing as he had brown eyes.

His trade mark axe kicks are quite something to see.

It seems to me that the effectiveness of the axe kick depends on getting the leg up very quickly. It's a confusing kick to counter. As the foot whips up into the air the defender feels like maybe a crescent kick is coming not knowing that it's really going to come slamming downwards usually on the clavicle, or perhaps even the chin. As the defender it's hard to pick this one out. See at about 41 seconds in the above video the defender raises both his hands either side of his head but too late for hug's kick to raise and pop straight down between them. Wollop (in the vernacular). At 1 minute 15-same deal in slow motion. Kick shoots up fast, confuses 'uke' who's arms protect either side of his head. Shame Hug's foot is now travelling down chinwards. Eat foot.

Hug obviously trained hard and long on getting his kicks rapidly up very high. This makes the axe kick devastating but also check out his spinning crescent kicks and spinning round kicks- fast, furious and fatal...

As with all high kicks there is a risk of becoming unstable and vulnerable to counter, especially if you're striking with force- you don't want to bounce off at this point! But see the way Hug stays rock solid: no tottering, stumbling or chance for the opponent to counter. Of course this is a 'best of' video but check out his stats: W37 (KO22) ,L9, D1. This guy worked and trained hard, and got his high kicks up rapidly.

http://www.andyhug.com/

Do raku

I like to think. It's what distinguishes us from animals (as well as recreational sex...and then again dolphins do that apparently!) and I like to think. That's why I've got the blog on the go. To think and analyse my way through the martial arts and to make it more worthwhile. Maybe I think a bit too much though and as I was flicking through a French kendo book I found this interesting and striking quote:

"L'aspect du kendo, vecu comme une discipline de vie...ne doit pas faire oublier que, comme l'indique la sentence 'Joue sur la voie' le fait de pratiquer le kendo doit etre vecu comme un jeu intense, joyeux." Decouvrir le Kendo, Cl. Hamout, K. Yoshimura.

[Kendo is a life discipline but it is also, as indicated by "do raku" (enjoyment on your way), to be experienced as intense, joyous play.]

Maybe I think too much and work at it too hard and forget to enjoy it. The martial way is a discipline and for many has to be worked at constantly but it should also be enjoyed intensely.

Enjoy yourself on your way.

Incubation, learning with Abba and chunking.

Not only did I sit through Mamma Mia (the Abba film/musical) last night I also endured the documentary about the making of. I consider this paternal duty. 

During the choreography documentary the associate choreographer, Nichola Treherne, kindly announced to the dancers not to worry if they hadn't fully remembered the entire dance sequence as it would be better the next day, "Somehow," she said, "the body learns it overnight!"

I thought this was a great insight and made me think of the 'incubation' period we usually go through when learning new systems or structures or even when we're weighing up a big decision in our mind. this takes me back to my thesis on design development and the creative process. Incubation is often referred to as the period between  setting the objectives and actually getting down to doing the concept generation. Incubation might then be considered, as Debussy defined for music, "the silence between the notes" : That time during periods of creation or learning when we've committed the problem to our mind. It then goes and works on it in the background while we get on and do other things so that when we apply ourselves again to the problem (be it creation or learning) we've already got a bit of a head start (pun intended).

So learning as a process might have useful 'spaces' between practice too: just like those Mamma Mia dancers whose bodies magically remember moves overnight, then we can be encouraged by the fact that complex new forms or sequences might be helped by periods of incubation.

As incubation is helpful to learning new sequences, so too can chunking. (This idea first came to my attention from reading a blog but I can't find the reference for it! If you've seen it let me know and I'll gladly acknowledge.)

Sadly chunking is not a new form of Cadbury's chocolate. Happily it is helpful in our training and maybe even when teaching techniques to others. Chunking consists of breaking down new experiences to be learned into chunks of seven (plus or minus two). It is said that our short term memory has this capacity (7+/-2) and that learning within these confines is beneficial to increasing the power of our learning capacity. For example I would find it quite hard to memorise a number such as 3871095847, but if I break it down into 'chunks' then it suddenly becomes much more 'appealing' to my cranky old brain: 38, 710, 958, 47. The first string is 10 digits so more than our 7+/-2 but the second sequence of four chunks falls within this easy-to-remember range.

The similarity to learning new sequences or forms in the martial arts can easily be seen. Chunking might be a good teaching aid for seemingly bafflingly long hyungs. Often we break down these long forms into shorter chunks for the learner to easily digest. Hopefully not ALL in one go as I think quality is sometimes lost but at least this rule of thumb helps in knowing how much information to give to newbies.

So don't forget: having trouble learning that new form? Don't worry: chunk it up and sleep on it!

Incubation:

http://blog.thinkforachange.com/2008/04/29/what-is-incubation.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubation_(psychology)

Chunks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two

Snow way to train

As I was making the snowman by rolling a ball in the snow I thought about pushing with the whole of my body not just with arm strength and slapping the snow away like a Sumo wrestler.

The questions are:

a. Does this make me a martial arts nerd?

and

b. Is my stance a bit high?