The Relative Nature of Combat in Time
Dec 31, 2019
“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
I’m going to break this down in many parts because this is a very tough thing to discuss as it relates to combat. I’m going to lay the groundwork and build on this.
Oh and one more thing before beginning because it needs to be said. Every now and then I’m asked why I don’t cover a lot of stuff dealing with specific techniques and focus mostly on concepts. The reason is as I’ve said before a punch is a punch and a kick in the balls is a kick in the balls. Trust me like a lot of folks who've been doing the martial arts for some time, I can get into crazy detail with regard to various techniques but over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that for the most part it really doesn’t matter. You can either bring it or you can’t.
I had this conversation not long ago with a friend of mine where we discussed the use of various types of punches and it is amazing how in many arts they almost fetishize different ways to strike with the fist. It’s to the point with some arts that if you don’t strike in the fashion they do then it is as if you don’t know how to strike. Now obviously there are ways to strike that are just fucking wrong but for the most part, a punch is still just a punch.
In Isshin Ryu, I can remember how we were taught all of the benefits of “the vertical fist”, but you know what they say the same thing in Wing Chun, Bua Gau, Hsing-I, Tai Chi, etc.
As a matter of fact, in his book “Championship Boxing” the legendary fighter Jack Dempsey also showed how to strike with the vertical fist. Folks here’s the deal, there are only so many things you can do with your hands upon striking and that’s the way it is.
My focus is on helping people also develop the underlying mechanisms that make things work in the body, and how it works in the known universe because in my view it is the key to understanding how to make virtually any technique work. How to overcome any physical differences in size, speed, and strength. To be able to close the gap between your physical capability and your intellect when you’ve reached your physical limits and are just no longer that guy.
"When I have won a victory I do not repeat my tactics but respond to circumstances in an infinite variety of ways."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Too many folks in the combative arts want to know how to do something which of course is important but I’ll tell you. When you understand to the quantum level so to speak not just the how but the “why”. It is a completely different world and level of understanding one that transcends physical limitations, understandings, or technique.
Okay, here we go.
Time
"Knowledge without understanding is useless."
- Thucydides
Time…
What is it?
If you do any amount of research on the subject, here’s what you basically come away with.
- We really don’t know definitively what Time is.
- Time as our brains understands it is relative and more of a perception and is observational an experience.
I’ve discussed this in various ways before but what I’m going to attempt to do here is discuss it from the perspective as we view time within the system of Warrior Flow.
Now for the obligatory disclaimer: Listen just because I can teach you how to punch someone in the mouth doesn’t make me the definite authority on this by a long shot. So if you’re looking for the secrets of time, trans-dimensional movement, theories on time travel, or anything of the such you’re going to have to go elsewhere to people far smarter than I am on this stuff.
Everything Takes Time
"It's not what you appreciate; it's that you appreciate."
- Hannibal
In the last blog post as I said before everything takes time... moving takes time, thinking takes time, anticipating takes time, patience takes time. Einstein showed time is also relative to our position and observation of events and a perception and is every bit as much influenced by our thoughts and how our bodies process information takes time, and our perspective, observation, and understanding of it shapes what we think is possible. In this, you must gain an appreciation.
Galileo, Newton, and most people up until the 20th century thought that time was the same for everyone everywhere. This is the basis for the concept of timelines, where time is a parameter. The modern understanding of time is based mainly on Einstein's theory of relativity, in which rates of time run differently depending on relative motion, and space and time are merged into space-time, where we live on a world line rather than a timeline. In this view time is a coordinate.
Um, Okay… Anyway…
Time in physics is defined by its measurement where the concept of time is self-evident measured based on a set of accepted units of measurement. An hour consists of a certain number of minutes, a day of hours and a year of days and so forth. However, when it comes to combat because when in battle we are dealing with motion we are concerned with how long it takes to perform certain actions. Whether throwing a strike, evading or whatever in any event they take time. How we view it is a matter of perception but later on that.
“Attacks must be delivered with supernatural speed.”
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This is why in Warrior Flow we refer to combat as the equivalent of playing 5th Dimensional Chess because all of the pieces on the board are moving and engaging at the same time but they are also moving, forward, backward, up, down, left, right, diagonally, moving in arc’s, circles, and jump multiple levels, disappear and reappear, slow down, speed up, stop, all while clashing with what they can clash with or need to clash with and avoiding what they cannot afford to clash with. All with one goal in mind, “Checkmate!”
“Master all things.”
- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book Of Five Rings
Once again, you have to develop an appreciation for Time and how fast can a human being actually move or react to something within the known universe. If you are to develop Mastery in the body you must develop mastery over your movement, your motion. If you are to develop this, then you must develop an understanding of time and how it works on a basic level so you can develop the ability to manipulate it to your advantage in combat. I believe a lack of understating of how time works and how it relates to human movement is the number one reason most martial artists are not able to develop the level of skill they desire in the body. Now when I’m talking about time I’m also talking about how the body in layman’s terms processes information.
I’ll slay some sacred cows within this series as we focus on understanding time and how it applies towards developing mastery.
How the Universe Works Part 9,256: (i.e., How We Move Within It Is Critical to Developing Mastery)
"The first and most important rule to observe...is to use our entire forces with the utmost energy. The second rule is to concentrate our power as much as possible against that section where the chief blows are to be delivered and to incur disadvantages elsewhere, so that our chances of success may increase at the decisive point. The third rule is never to waste time. Finally, the fourth rule is to follow up our successes with the utmost energy. Only pursuit of the beaten enemy gives the fruits of victory."
- Carl von Clausewitz
You and I occupy three-dimensional space, we occupy this physical space, control it, live within it. It is our space. Now, that is in a literal sense however, we also control the space within our sphere of influence and beyond. This is the sense that people who play sports feel where they are keenly aware of how their movement within free space influences the movement and actions of others. This is especially noticeable in sports where there are generally only two people facing off where it’s easier to track the movement dynamics since the number of people involved makes it easier to see this.
In team sports, this is a little harder to see since the movement of all the participants is in a general sense influencing the actions of each other all of the time even if the people on the field are not actively aware of this. I can’t even tell you how many times as a football coach it would drive us nuts where our quarterback got sacked or threw an interception simply because a receiver ran a wrong route. Or how our running back was one step away from running for a touchdown and was tackled because someone on the opposite side of the field missed a block. Or how a play fell apart because a running back didn’t take a step necessary to cause the linebacker to step the wrong way and allowed him time to step into the hole and wreck the play. And on and on it goes.
"Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead."
- Carl von Clausewitz
It’s all about timing and when the timing is right everything works when the timing is even slightly off all hell breaks loose, chaos ensues… The Apocalypse.
According to our accepted understanding of speed maximum speed is finite. I’m not going to get into all of the physics behind it (i.e., no physical object, message or field line can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum). What is important to our understanding is that we as humans have a finite speed.
We must also underhand that speed with regard to humans can be both absolute in that it is measurable but also relative and observational, based on your understanding of it and where you are in time and space at a given moment thus observational. Therefore, in order to master our ability to manipulate the relative nature of how we view and observe time for combat we must first develop our bodies to move better. But before we can do that there is something else we need to do.
The Battle Starts in Your Mind
"One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself."
- Leonardo da Vinci
As I’ve said in other blog posts how we think influences how we move and how we move reinforces how we think about our movement and our capabilities. We must, therefore, monitor our beliefs because they influence our behavior. Remember your subconscious mind is always eavesdropping on your conversations and thoughts to include how you move or think about movement. This is where some imagination needs to come into play. Just something to keep in mind as I build on this discussion.
“When You Make Them Flinch You’ve Already Won.”
- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book Of Five rings
You know long ago Bruce Lee was on to something when he discussed the concepts of distancing and timing. So while not the first person to give voice to the concept he was probably the first one out there openly discussing the importance of it for the martial arts. Granted the concept in boxing is as old as boxing itself.
In Warrior Flow when training the body, we train to develop ourselves to move in a way that alters the other person’s perception of timing to get ahead of their movement to crush them or neutralize their action, their motion, etc.
Now I’ll try to explain this as close to the textbook description as possible so that there is little to no misunderstanding here.
In physics, motion is the change in the position of an object over time. Motion is (mathematically described) in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and time. In other words, the motion of a body is observed by attaching a frame of reference to an observer and measuring the change in position of the body relative to that frame of reference.
Now, if the position of an object is not changing relative to a given frame of reference, the object is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary, or to have a constant.
The main quantity that measures the motion of a body is momentum. An object's momentum increases with the object's mass and with its velocity. The total momentum of all objects in an isolated system (one not affected by external forces) does not change with time, as described by the law of conservation of momentum. An object's motion, and thus its momentum, cannot change unless a force acts on the object. (i.e., such as how you can train to change the vector of an incoming strike if you time it right with little effort relative to the amount of force of the strike. In Warrior Flow because we try not to create rules outside of what is possible within the laws of physics this is a totally learnable skill that is taught. Not as a first choice but as an alternative to getting punched in the throat or the lessor of two evils.)
Anyway…
In layman’s terms, when discussing mass, momentum, etc., this is why when people get into car accidents even at speeds as little as 20-mph if not belted in can still get launched through the windshield or into the dashboard with enough for to kill them. It is because their body is a part of the overall mass of the vehicle.
I saw this first hand over and over in Afghanistan where people would be hit by IEDs in their vehicles and while the blast may have not been enough to damage the vehicle. People, if not strapped in on the inside, were sometimes killed by being launched inside of the vehicle into objects such as radio mount brackets or hit by objects that were protected inside of the vehicle because they were either not secured or there was enough force to one side of the vehicle to dislodge them. Listen, I don’t care what you do if you in a microsecond suddenly and violently tip a 30-ton vehicle on one side if you’re not strapped in or if things are not secured it does not end well.
Having been in a vehicle where the road gave way and suddenly tipped into a canal it’s like getting tipped on one of those rides at Six-Flags where you feel like you’re being tossed around like a toy. We were lucky that the vehicle was just wide enough to get wedged in the canal and not fall into the water and become submerged. Unless you can open a 700-lbs rear hatch or a 400-lbs door while on your side underwater, that shit is not happening for you. As I said, we were lucky.
The Tool of Perception
I was having a conversation with a student recently and we were discussing how to get ahead of movement if the other person has already moved. In other words, once a person moves on you there is almost always a delay due to your reaction time. So, he wanted to know how to level it the playing field?
In essence,
How is it that some people are able to seemingly anticipate the actions of others with almost perfect accuracy?
In the image above is a rare looking weapon known as a Haladi. Haladi's were double-sided swords from India. The handle was made out of Asian elephant ivory. The blades out of pure steel with stories of battles engraved in the blades and sheaths on both sides and were the preferred weapon of the Rajput. Who was like the "Ninjas" of India with "Indian Katanas” and were a fighting group that dedicated the life for fighting and honor.
Your perception like the Haladi must become refined and deadly on both ends. You must be able to see an advantage in all movements.
The Relativity of Simultaneity
“Two events, simultaneous for one observer, may not be simultaneous for another observer if the observers are in relative motion.”
- Albert Einstein, Special Relativity
In Warrior Flow, there is a concept called the Inverse Relationships to Motion. In all that you do, you must seek to discover and understand that in all things there is virtually an inverse relationship. However, I want to point out this observation is relative. This inverse relationship is characterized by the ability to “switch” perspectives in a flash in the mind and see the future through the inverse. This is a rare talent that few can understand because it allows one to cut off and get ahead of another person’s movement even if the other person has already moved first.
"When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come."
- Leonardo da Vinci
In other words, if a person steps to the left, if your mind is attuned to it then it is no different as if you stepped to the right. Their push is your pull, their strike is your opportunity to redirect their arm or body, their withdrawal your opportunity to enter take space and pounce, etc.
Their moving forward no different than if you stepped in and closed the gap. If they seek to strike you, in your mind, it is no different than if they stuck their arm out for you to know now where to not be and so on. In order to create this, shift one must be willing to understand the relationships of their own movement and how it affects the other persons as well as be able to see the lines and arcs of their movement as you interact with them before they are able to affect your body.
By understanding movement, you are able to neutralize their movement by reciprocating in the inverse. The secret is always looking at the situation as if the glass is always half full and always seeking for an opportunity to crush them. I won’t get too much into it here because I plan on covering this understanding in more depth in subsequent posts.
Thank you.
P.S. for those who want to learn more about how to develop an understanding of this type of movement.
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Al Ridenhour
CEO, Creator Warrior Flow™