The Inverse Relationship to Movement Part II

“It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.”

• Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi

In the last post, I discussed how developing your mind to see the Inverse Relationships is literally a different way of thinking. The truth is if you cannot make this mental shift it's really difficult to do this and for some, the truth is it may be a bridge too far. As I' ve discussed in previous blog posts there is a dimensional feel or way in which the human body moves especially under dynamic conditions. This is why human movement can feel or be perceived as chaotic and random. However, if you trained right it's only chaotic if you don't know what you're looking at or if your body does not have the ability to move freely or you are not trained to expect the unexpected. 

Now... there is a technique that I teach in Warrior Flow that is a form of what is known as progressive desensitization, which allows people to learn in the body how to filter out the noise in their environment when moving with another person and enter the state of flow or tachypsychia, Mushin, ZaZen or whatever you want to call it.  Where they are able to focus in ways where everything just melts away except what is before them, all under Heaven seemingly falls to their will where there is only their sword and their opponent's sword and nothing else.

Where they have the moral certainty and perfect clarity to take action where their body moves in ways where they seem to be watching themselves perform from the third person. Where there is no hesitation, no fear only recognition of danger and taking action to end it. There is a feeling of power, grace, and effortlessness when in this state.

That will be something that I might cover in another post but the key understanding is it is built on a foundation of skills like the one I'm discussing in this series of posts. Which is why I'm talking about this shit now. 

Optimal Understanding For Optimal Performance

"The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that
which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun..."

• Ecclesiastes 1:9

If you were a kid who grew up playing sports in the 1970s and 1980s this was not only the heyday where weight training became the en vogue thing in sports programs. But all sorts of studies started being done on ways to achieve optimal performance in athletes. All sorts of studies where done to determine what made the elite athletes in any sport better than people who in some cases even had a physical advantage over them.

The main take away was that all things being equal the best athletes understood how to move in the most efficient manner as well as the optimal range of movement to perform a given task. The other thing was they were also keenly aware of their bodies and were able to make adjustments to their movements with movements within the movement, as they were performing a given task or skill (i.e., adumbration).

"Winning is the science of total preparation."

• George Allen, NFL Coach of the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Renskins

I'm obviously oversimplifying this but the reason I bring this up because it is totally applicable to what I'm discussing here and that is when you learn to use the inverse to movement it automatically allows for a level of efficiency that cuts down on the amount of movement you require to kick that ass if you have to. 

A couple of questions as I play the role of Socrates messing with folks in the public square so to speak, 

If you could end a fight immediately... would you?

If there was a way to move where you could cut down on the amount of ground you'd have to cover to neutralize an attacker wouldn't you like to know it? 

Hopefully, you answered yes to those questions. 

Laying Bare The Bones

"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known."

• Luke 12:2

Folks, what I'm going to show you here though a continuation of the last blog post is the very concept that eludes people in their martial training and why they can't get to the promised land. However, it is one of the main ways the most advanced fighters do what they do even if they are not aware that they do it.

“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet”

• Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

When you go through this you will understand why I spent so many electrons on explaining how Time works for humans. But understand if you do not on the most basic level understand how everything takes time and that there is a timing of how this is done you'll probably never develop this skill. It's just that simple...

I only say this because I've taught this concept to folks over the years in some cases to even advanced practitioners of the fighting arts and I realized one of the reasons why some of them just could not grasp the concept. Was because I needed to explain to them how the universe worked first or there was no way in Hell they were going to get there from here. I other cases they outright rejected this way of thinking so they never developed this skill. A skill that if dealing with someone faster than them may be a matter of life and death. They perpetually fail in understanding... so they perpetually fail. 

You see when this skill is employed under high-speed conditions it happens so fast that it really can't be seen with the eyes it has to be seen beforehand in the mind and trained to the subconscious competency level in order to be seen the mind for it must reside in the body first or else it just does not exist for you. 

“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions”

• Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

Now, while what I’m about to show you may seem like it’s more complex than what I demonstrated before but it really isn’t, it’s the same thing and same concept. Only now you are dealing with their limbs as well as their body. Just as long as you look at it from the same frame of mind you’ll get this.

One thing I want to point out is when you perform this type of movement whether you slide up their arm, or you allow their arm to slide through the sensation feels the same to your hand. Meaning you don’t have to do anything special with your hands since it’s the same sensory input you just need to adjust your hand and arm position as you allow them to slide through.

This idea, by the way, works for virtually all movement. The key is practicing this when you do the Warrior Flow Exercise to develop this understanding so that your movement can become more economical. After a while, this way of thinking and moving becomes a habit where you’re always seeing opportunities to take advantage of these inverse relationships. To the point where you are able to at times move much slower than your opponent striking with more efficiency and accuracy without any loss of striking power. 

Trust me I can get into some really deep stuff here because this idea has a compounding effect on how it compresses time for the attacker. Each time they move where you are able to take advantage of an inverse relationship it exponentially collapses time for them while lengthening it for you. 

How to Practice this Part II:

So, if you practiced the way I stated in the last installment then this is going to take your skills to an even higher level. I recommend that you do not do this until you practice the previous skills until you are comfortable with the movement.

Whether it took you a week, a day, or five minutes to be able to develop that comfort level you still want to practice learning how to move your body first. This is a must!

Here’s the deal, moving in this fashion is as I said just a different way of thinking and the way you think about moving influences how you move, and how you move reinforces that the most important thing you need to be able to do in a battle--move your body.

Too many people focus on what their arms and legs are doing in the martial arts and not what their body should be doing which is moving the whole body as one versus trying to accomplish everything with their hands and feet. When you do this or think in this way you limit the range of motion of what your body is capable of within your own sphere.

Humans have this omnidirectional way of moving when developed, this is that dimensional feel that I keep talking about when moving with people who know how to move and use their body as a whole and not a bunch of independent parts.

The reason is you have to change what’s going on between your ears is until you can see it in your mind. You will not be able to see it with your eyes, even more so, you will not be able to make those logical inferences to connect the dots so to speak.

You’re now going to pretty much do the same thing only now you’re going to do it with a training partner.

Also, remember that your movement and even the position and attitude of your body influences how they move. How you move once engaged, influences your actions because you cannot "not" feel where they are and vice versa. The key is in order for them to deal with this their mind has to on some level understand this and how it works but then they need to train to do it.

For the next week or so focus on doing this simple exercise.

“To become the enemy, see yourself as the enemy of the enemy”

• Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

So, I want you to think about something. If you’ve ever seen some of those crazy horror movies like the ones I like to watch. One of the eerie things they like to do is show people looking into the mirror while seeing their reflection move in the opposite direction. Well, when learning how to see things in the inverse this is how you want to think.

You want to learn to see in your mind to always be where they are not going to be as they move. Later on, I’ll probably put together a diagram that can explain this a little better but more importantly learn to see this in your mind and "where" to be in the future as you see the lines and arch’s before they move or are able to get their stuff off.

Just as before where you learned how to see the inverse in their movements only now you’re going to employ the same skill to their limbs. So for example just as in the diagrams above you want to do this when moving with them learning how to feel with your body but also see with your mind the relationships with your body and to anticipate their movement where you learn to let them go as I like to say.

In other words, instead of trying to stop or suppress their movement either give them the path they want to go on or help guide them to where they want to go or better yet where you want them to be.

[Special Note: don't let anyone tell you that there is no way to stop a person's movement under high speed or chaotic conditions, don't let anyone tell you differently. There is a way to stop or suppress their movement but that is another skill beyond the scope of what I'm discussing here and requires supreme confidence in your abilities to do so. I've done this many, many times to people much bigger than I in both workshops and knuckleheads looking to try me. Oh yeah... they're out there. Hell, you even see people do it in fights on YouTube, at least I have. Maybe they lack finesse when they do it but they do it. More importantly, who gives a shit as long as it works?  To deny this truth is to close people's minds off to what is possible and how the universe works. If it were not possible then how do people tackle people in football and in some cases people much bigger than them? Especially when they're running at each other at full speed? I'll let you think about that one because it really speaks for itself... Anyway, it has to do with timing and what I am discussing here and is a totally learnable skill that I teach often. It's just not the first thing I teach because there are much easier ways to deal with size and speed. I only point this out because you cannot always assume you are able to get out of the way of things. Sometimes you have no choice but to try to stop things as opposed to getting your head crushed.  To tell people it cannot be done is to blind their minds to the possibility and if you don't believe it then it doesn't exist for you. I just wanted to point that out so you do not think that the concepts I'm discussing here don't have other applications aside from being evasive.]

Once you feel you’re in the clear you can then “jump off” and strike. The key to being able to do this is you have to get into the habit of, no matter what, moving your body or at least begin to move your body out of the way first.

I cannot overemphasize this point!

In your mind or through movement practice moving in the opposite direction of the other person or letting them go. To see the inverse relationships as well as opportunities to strike. 

If their arm moves left, in your mind it should be no different than if you moved your hands or arm moved to the right.

So you should be thinking about what you would do if you moved, stepped or turned to the right such as throwing a strike or whatever. You should also anticipate that they may change direction. After all the bad guy gets a vote in the fight as well. 

Okay because I need to insert this point in here before I lose my train of thought. This way of thinking in your training if you practice it eventually gets to the point where it just becomes a way of not only thinking but even the movement becomes so ingrained that your ability to anticipate their movement gets to the point where it really doesn't matter what they do.

I mean you do want to win the fight right?

How are you going to do that if you do not think and practice the thing you want to do to win the fight?

“If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult.”

•  Heraclitus

If you train to expect the unexpected you tend to see it before it becomes a problem. If what I'm saying isn't true then how is it that one person is able to get ahead of the movement of another in a battle if all things are equal?

They are not...

“The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win”

• Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

There is nothing random about combat it only seems that way to the loser... The moment you get that in your head the more you will begin to see in your mind the thing they do before the thing they are going to do happens. The easier it becomes in your training to connect the dots and build your intuition. 

My point is the fight is only chaos if you don't know what you're looking at and have not trained to it. We all agree that a real fight is utter chaos and not the choreographed stuff of the movies.

So then if we already know that then what is the problem?

“Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.”

• Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

True it is not possible of seeing everything or know everything but isn't the purpose of training to reduce the friction, the fog of war, to shrink the haystack so that finding the needle is much easier? If not then you are leaving it to fate. If that's your plan then why train at all? 

In Warrior Flow, the fight is neither this or that it just "is".  We train people how to fight period and are no respecters of style, tradition, rules, idiosyncrasies, we train to fight and fight to win and end it in our favor or die a warriors death. Otherwise, what's the point of training?

We're all about it. 

If their hands move towards you in your mind it should be no different as they extended their arm for you. So you should be thinking about how you would be out of the way and not be there for it and strike them on the way in.

As they retract their arm you should take that space and move in to strike. If they turn towards you let them pass by and strike them after they over-travel in their movement.

Understand, once they commit to moving in a certain direction unless they have trained how to not over travel and decelerate their motion. They aren’t doing anything else until they stop moving in the direction they are heading. The key is to not give them time to adjust.

To reiterate, the movement part of developing your body in my view is the easy part. It's what you do when you move that counts! So move first if possible or at least anticipate their movement and develop the ability to make the shift in your mind to reduce the amount of time it takes to take action.

This is a way of thinking and not just moving your body but in order to get there from here, you have to put the brainpower into it eventually it becomes a purposeful habit, just something you do, a part of who you are.  

This once again prevents you from making the crucial mistake of thinking of being defense or looking at the glass as being half empty, which is totally the wrong way to think. It is always half full or nothing at all.

In my next installment, I’m going to get into some other aspects of this and delve a little deeper.

It’s really simple and it only seems hard so you've got to practice it.