Dynamic Combative Movement Infinite Possibilities Part IV

“A warrior has to believe, for belief is an essential part of his being.”

― Théun Mares

Okay, I’ll get right to it here. I've already discussed the importance of self-talk now I’m going to discuss creativity first and adumbration just from a macro level. Then I’m going to get into how we perceive information and why it is important to frame information whether for others or for yourself. And finally, I’ll get into the idea of properly understanding how to get ahead of movement by learning to recognize patterns and a proper understanding of what a pattern is as opposed to what people think it is.

Creativity Within Human Movement

Creativity – in Warrior Flow this is the ability to make logical, intuitive decisions through the Combative Movement Concepts to create what you need where you need it when you need it within time and space (i.e., the ability to draw logical inferences, connect the dots, anticipate and develop a level of adumbration based on what is known, unknown in context with the experience). The part of talent we in Warrior Flow call “Intellect” that allows you to transcend technique and physical limitations to neutralize an opponent’s movements and crush them. This is also the basis for “modeling” combative movement and how our “intuitions” are structured, but as always there’s more…

Using No Way As A Way Part II

“Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Adumbration – in Warrior Flow this movement, this understanding of movement is where we get this “foreshadowing” of a person’s movement, this “listening” to their bodies, feeling their impressions, their intent, their direction and speed, their adjustments to your movements.

As Dr. Joseph Riggio, Ph.D. describes it,

“…it’s also about developing a specific kind of intuition to notice for what is present but unseen, including the emergent future possibilities — something I refer to as adumbration or the art of foreseeing the immediate future that’s unfolding in this moment.”

Adumbration when coupled with deception, is the ability we all have to feel how another person reacts to our movement in real-time where you change your movement to alter their perception of what they think it is you are doing long enough for you to take advantage of their confusion. It’s all about using the Shadow Impression to get ahead of movement and deliver strikes at supernatural speed.

“If we wish to wrest an advantage from the enemy, we must not fix our minds on that alone, but allow for the possibility of the enemy also doing some harm to us, and let this enter as a factor into our calculations.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I’ll cover this in more detail later on but I would like to interject here that in all things when dealing with human movement there is a pattern or as we prefer to call it an impression of people’s bodies as they move. This is the reason we are able to get ahead of another person’s movement, at least in Warrior Flow we understand it this way. It is not so much that we just feel and recognize the patterns in their movement it is that we begin to recognize the “shape” of what it is to become. This is a different thing altogether and explains much as to why some folks can get ahead of others even if the other person has greater physical ability and where they have been training for less time. It is their ability to make this mental shift focusing on recognizing the shapes thus “adumbration”.

The idea of changing your movement in the middle of the movement where the change-up or movement is correct is the essence of adumbration and what you want to learn to be able to do.  But only if you are able to "recognize the pattern" of what you are experiencing according to the relationship between their body and yours in time and space before you go beyond the nexus point (the last possible point where you are capable of affecting what's going on), or reach the point of no return.  This is why in Warrior Flow there is an emphasis and focus on moving as little as you need and developing the ability to recognize the impressions or the shape of what something is to become before it becomes a problem for you. To do it any other way is to surrender the initiative to the enemy.

“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
― Bruce Lee

I hate to break it to folks but while human movement from our perspective can seem virtually infinite. The truth is it is not random but only seems that way if you cannot recognize what things are in time to do something about them.

When you train where you move more than you need to, or as if it is random, eventually you don't know where to go. You're just moving at that point for the sake of moving hoping shit works out. To express it in this fashion especially if you’re teaching someone who doesn't understand what I just said above is to lead them down the path to damnation itself. Eventually, they train themselves to move in that fashion and develop bad habits of movement by moving way too much. This is as bad as repeating the mistake of when you train to contrived choreographed movement.

Now, you can learn to move and play where the puck is going to be but you first have to have a better understanding of how to know where to go to get ahead of it. That means your interpretation of the flow of the game, the movement of the other hockey players in relation to the puck has to be understood beforehand where you know where to position yourself in time and space and see it in your mind and body first.

So like the lottery while there are a seemingly infinite number of winning combinations mathematically speaking there are still only so many possible combinations those balls can create. Thus how they are able to calculate out the odds of winning. Same thing here.

So the key is in developing yourself to recognize things soon enough based on how shit works to get ahead of it even through the "inverse" and to be able to dictate the pattern of movement or future course you want to put them on. To shrink the odds of them winning or increase the odds in your favor or compress time for them while elongating it for you. In other words, to focus on developing the ability to move in a way to get ahead of another person's motion within time and space and end it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, many folks are caught up in the same mindset of how most martial arts are taught and that is waiting for the other guy to do something and then responding to what they do. When you move do not wait for people, learn, and train to change the fight before it becomes a problem.

“A warrior never worries about his fear.”

 – Carlos Castaneda

The idea is to train yourself to recognize things before they become a problem and if possible, (and it is possible it’s called an ambush) shape the fight to your will but to get there, folks have got to be willing to accept that that's how it is done. That's how to varying degrees we already do this or else no one would ever be able to get ahead of anyone in anything.

This lack of understanding is exactly why many people in the fighting arts move way, I mean way more than they need to. So they are not able to capitalize on the excessive movement of others that would allow them to strike with more precision power and speed. By moving too much in your training you make the same mistake as the choreographed fight by the numbers fighters in that they are moving in ways to an extent that doesn't make sense because it is not necessary to do so. Inappropriate movement is inappropriate movement and I don’t care what you do.

At this point, you need to now refocus on how you train. So I’m just going to briefly cover a way to go about reorganizing your thinking as you train.

So Why Is Any of This Relevant?

I’m going to present this section mainly from the perspective as I would if I were speaking to some of my instructors because I believe whether you’re teaching others or yourself. The process of how you structure the training and how you present it in and of itself “is” the training. You see I can show anyone how to throw a punch or a kick but without presenting it in the proper context you’re no different than those folks who take a cardio kickboxing class and somehow think that it is somehow actually the same as training to fight a Muay Tai match. They are not the same thing.  

Training people (or yourself) to fight for their lives is a serious manner and while there is nothing wrong with having fun when you train, and you should have fun. You should always train with the spirit as if their very lives depend on it because someday it may. You need to learn to present information with professionalism and with all manner of seriousness and sobriety. The people you train only know what you present to them and if your presentation of information is in the wrong fashion you will destroy them.

How you present the information will impact in most cases how well they learn so unless they are already a person who intuitively knows how to model (which I’ll discuss in a bit). You need to learn to appreciate the importance of how you present information when teaching.

Now, what I’m going to present is a layman's guide so that as you train people and or yourself. You have a better understanding of how we all perceive our world and be able to pierce the cloud of The Matrix and see the universe as it is and how that influences how we use the information we receive. This is just macro-level wave tops stuff but this understanding will help you realize how critical it is to properly frame information when you train people. You need to understand that everything you do when you teach, and how you present yourself counts, and your students (including when you are teaching yourself) are always, always, “always” watching and listening.

Obligatory Editorial Comments (because… it just needs to be said…). You see the reason many people in the martial arts in my view never achieve their training goals even in the best systems is that the information is presented in a manner by instructors that is confusing, contradictory, unrealistic, defies the known laws of the universe, and is all over the place. All too often instructors forget that what is intuitive to them is not intuitive to those they teach otherwise those people would not be there to train with them.

They also fail in their understanding that teaching is a skill every bit as much as knowing how to throw a punch or a kick or execute a proper hip toss. It is a skill that has to be learned and worked at and refined like any other skill, and not magic. So whether you’re teaching others or yourself it is relatively the same process by which you learn ether in how you present information to others or to yourself in your own self-development thus the importance of proper self-talk.

Additionally, and this is a major problem, they fail to appreciate that words have meaning and if the words that we use don’t mean what we say they mean, then nothing we say means anything. That as a martial arts instructor you earn your keep by your ability to effectively communicate and present information. Meaning it’s not just about what you understand but what you can teach them and, can you effectively transfer the information? If the information is not transferable then it is meaningless.

So, here is something you need to be aware of because you’re probably wondering, why all this is even relevant?

It is because when you understand how people take in, process, and perceive information (i.e., you and I) you can then tailor how the information is presented (framed) and in the proper context. In order to get the desired outcome or help people achieve their desired outcomes whatever they are. It really is that simple. So as I present this understand that this is not a bunch of “new age” mumbo-jumbo or a bunch of willy-nilly BS as many think but a set of modeling tools that can be used to learn a new warrior skill, improve on existing skills, and produce/reproduce excellence. but first a definition...

Warrior Flow Modeling

“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Modeling - In Warrior Flow Modeling is not about copying movement or mimicking what others do. It is a calculus, a calculus that allows you once you understand the relationship of things to anticipate and play where the puck is going to be. It is about understanding the nature of things where like creativity you are connecting the dots based on what is known and what is unknown. making logical and intuitive inferences about what is going on and also what to do about it. It is the theorem of how a thing wors so that no matter what numbers of variables you plug-in you can predict the outcome to a high degree of probability even before you enter the battle. 

Again, I want to point out there are a lot of folks (a lot of folks) who have a total misunderstanding of how important what I am saying is and as a result, they do not build the proper models to develop the skills they desire. Nor develop the type of training models that will provide people with the skills to achieve their desired outcomes. The key to building proper training models for combat is by understanding how a thing works within time and space. Looking at the desired outcome and then factoring backward as to what must come before the other and so on. 

Once you understand how our perceptions shape the information coming in and that it is just that, “information”, data. Then it can be used to help you frame it and build proper training models to learn how to get ahead of the other guy and end the battle because you learn what to look for and when and what it means in the context of the battle. Trust me I could get into some deep stuff on modeling and I'll probably at some time in the future write a blog post on it but, for now, this is just to provide an understanding. 

What I’m presenting here is merely a methodology or a way of thinking to develop the type of training either for yourself or for those you teach to develop whatever skills you desire. That takes much of the trial and error or guesswork out of developing proper training because you already know how we all structure our world on a generic level.

Understand, that the concept of modeling is not the same as copying or mimicking. People who believe that (or say it) do not know what the hell they are talking about. Modeling is a calculus that allows you to get ahead of the curve and play where the puck is going to be. When I discuss patterns this will become clearer.

How We See the Universe

“Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes, and even ordinary thought itself.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Okay now that I’ve beat that dead horse.

Understanding Patterns and How to Reset Your Response

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”
― Bruce Lee

Like = Like Comparisons -  when we see things we are always trying to compare the info filtered through our mental perceptions to our internal library of information, our past experiences, knowledge, etc. and make comparisons to make sense of it (i.e., Like = Like, etc.). We are always looking for patterns in things or that which we already know and believe to be true. Always, this is where confirmation bias comes to play a strong role and why you must always evaluate whether you’re objectively evaluating things from what is known to be true in terms of how the body actually works and how humans move within the laws of physics, nature or if you’re just drinking in your own bathwater.

Now that I’ve teased at this I’m going to provide clarification because it goes to the heart of how you need to be thinking or not thinking while developing your combative movement through your perceptual awareness. When people speak of "patterned movement" I believe they are confused between "contrived" choreographed patterned movements or dogmatic movements based on assumptions of how people move under duress that just isn’t so. Versus the "natural patterns" of human movement based on our physiology, how the universe works, and how we move within it. Let me help you, my friends, they are not the same thing.

I think a better way to explain it is by distinguishing between choreographed or contrived movements and natural ways in which our bodies move. The mistake is if you cannot distinguish between the two you only learn to recognize for the most part gross specific patterns you’ve trained too versus the subtle patterns that have to take place before the movement.

The flip side of this is if you only train to defeat those patterns or choreographed movements that others train too. Then your focus, in my opinion, is in the wrong place as well. It’s sort of like folks who say, “Well we train to think and fight outside of the box…”

Okay… let me help you, there is no box, no really, there is no box so just like in The Matrix there is no spoon so there is no box. The moment you train in this fashion all you’ve done is created a bigger box around the one you’re attacking but it is a box none the less. Yeah, yeah… I know what people mean but you know what, words have meaning and the meaning you attach to is influences how you’re going to train. Sort of like the expression, “to a hammer everything looks like a nail”. When you train to defeat what is in the box you only see what is in the box to the exclusion of all else. My point is why limit yourself?

Anyway...

“In order to control myself, I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.”
― Bruce Lee

Here’s the deal, all human movement no matter how magnificent still moves within the natural range of what can be defined as human movement. This is why we are fascinated by a breakdancer or gymnast or an exceptional athlete. But at the end of the day, it's still within the natural range of human movement. But that's what makes it so impressive is that some folks have somehow broken the code to be able to move in a way that transcends what 99.997% of the population can do. None the less they are still bound by the same laws of the universe as we know them.

So while there are a seemingly infinite number of shapes and patterns or impressions as I like to refer to them that we can create They are still none the less, patterns within the human range of motion. So the difference is in what they do with them within what their bodies are capable of. Thus the concept, in Warrior Flow of The Quantum Sphere.

“To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.”
― Bruce Lee

People move the way they move in fights because they generally "lack control" and not necessarily due to a lack of speed or power. So their movements while natural are erratic because they don't train to move in a more dynamically coordinated manner because they simply don't know how. Most martial artists get their asses kicked in a real fight because they're trained to fight in a manner both mentally and physically that limits the freedom our bodies are capable of. In other words, they're trained for a reality that doesn't exist so even though they see, because they can't see it in their mind it is invisible to them. They also don't train to develop Ruthless Intent so there's a lot of unnecessary motion or exertion to what they do. Once again, if what I'm saying isn't true, then how does one person get ahead of the motion of another?

“If you think a thing is impossible, you'll only make it impossible.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

It is interesting because recently I was having this conversation with someone I was training so after he threw a punch at me I stopped him, and I asked him a couple of questions. It went something like this,

Me: So why did you do that?

Him: Well I saw an opening

Me: Okay but what were you going to do?

Him: Well I was throwing a punch

Me: Okay, but you could have also thrown a palm strike or a shop right?

Him: Sure.

Me: My point is it doesn’t matter what you were going to do with your hand if I couldn’t perceive what your body was doing and feel what your arm was doing before you got there it wouldn’t matter what you hit me with. Because no matter what I was going to get hit.

He thought about it for a moment and was like, “Right”.

Here’s the point I was trying to get across. If I can’t feel the impression (pattern) of a person’s movement in time I’m already hit because once they reach the future position on me "it" already happened. So it really doesn’t matter what they do. When I discussed how to recognize Inverse Relationships to movement I discussed that for example a person’s wrist no matter what their wrist only turns and bends certain ways, the same is true for how a person turns and bends at the waist, how their shoulders move and twist, etc.

The point is through knowledge and experience (and adumbration) we make certain logical assumptions and we learn to recognize the shape or pattern of the movement soon enough to do something about it. So providing that in training the information is presented and framed in the proper fashion. You can learn and/or teach someone to recognize the natural patterns in another person's motion but from the perspective of how the body moves within the natural range and not what technique they are trying to employ.

Make sense?

“Deep knowledge is to be aware of disturbance before disturbance, to be aware of danger before danger, to be aware of destruction before destruction, to be aware of calamity before calamity. Strong action is training the body without being burdened by the body, exercising the mind without being used by the mind, working in the world without being affected by the world, carrying out tasks without being obstructed by tasks.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I could literally go on and on with examples like this but hopefully, you get the idea and understand now where you focus your attention when moving with another person in your training. Again, at the end of the day, you need to train in a manner where they should be more worried about what you're going to do to them than the other way around.

“To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life.”

– Chogyam Trungpa

Thanks. 

P.S. for those who want to learn more about how to develop this type of movement.

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