The Thing of Mastery Part III    

“Using order to deal with the disorderly, using calm to deal with the clamorous, is mastering the heart.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

If you’ve been following my last few Blog Posts on “Mastery” one of the themes that I’ve been touching on is the notion that when two or more people are engaged in combat that there is nothing “random” about their movement. That the choices we make right or wrong are not random but based on perception, an “observation” of what we think is happening.

So while talking with another instructor along the same lines he brought up something that I never really gave much thought to and that is while we say it, and Lord knows I’ve said it a thousand times in my writings over the years that a real fight is chaos, etc.

He pointed out that a fight is “NOT” chaos but only chaos if you don’t understand it and the dynamic of combat.

So with that said I threw this out there to the group to get their thoughts. The question I asked is:

Is a fight chaos and if so why? 

Here are some of the responses I received and by the way I don’t’ profess to think there’s only one right answer this.

 "I have never seen a fight at the prison either between inmates or one I have been involved in go according to plan it’s a total cluster fuck. People move different from the way karate schools practice people just collide and everything is moving. That is why 3-point sparring sets are crap. The only plan I have is I will survive and walk away from it when it’s over. You have to decide you will be as ruthless as you can bite, rip eyes out twist someone’s balls off if you have to."

• Chuck

“I feel you have to train your mind and body to handle a lot of things that are happening in the moment. Are you alone? Do you have family members around you when something happens? You cannot freeze. Or run away. Is your mindset today may be my last day on earth and I am ok with it? There can be a ton of chaos going on around you. Touch it do not embrace it.”

• Art

 “If your mindset is that of a warrior and you train to deal with whatever presents itself in combat, then no it is not chaos it is combat. The outcome of that combat goes one way or the other. Your mindset should be if anything happens you will fight with everything you have to win. If it is not enough then you will die in battle an honorable death. The only reason folks call it chaos is fear. Fear is the only chaos that can enter a person's mind and causes this so-called chaos. Fear is uncertainty! So many worries about what can happen or not happen. That kind of thinking takes away from what you need to be focused on. That is the battle at hand and destroying your enemy”.

• Mike

I agree. It’s only chaotic if you are totally unprepared and have little or no training.

• Marc

Two men at a set time and location walking to the center of a ring bowing and waiting for the ref to say ready begin. No chaos in that. If you are in the middle of 15 or twenty people seriously attacking each other are there guns’ knives watching 3 people stomp out a person. Who is with you? Who wants to hurt you? Chairs bottles people flying through the air. Screaming yelling the sounds of a person getting the boot to the side of their head. Knowing if you get knocked to the ground you are going to get stomped out. The scene is very chaotic. Very scary!

• Art

“Art, that was every night when we worked at Bar A. Ask Kevin it was like that at the Headliner. It was doing business to those of us who had to maintain order. To folks who do not bounce it chaos. You have to agree right?”

• Mike

“Mike, one person's chaos may be a typical day at the office for another person.”

• Art

“True…”

• Mike

On Warrior Perspective and Perception

 “It’s not enough that you recognize what you see do you understand what you see?”

—Leonardo da’ Vinci

And there you have it... the essence of the thing. It’s all about perspective but also having the right “perspective” to develop your powers of “perception”. Art really nails it because how we perceive the battle is every bit as important as to how we will react to what we see because it influences our understanding of what is going on at that time and also shapes future training and possible future battles.

This is not to say that there is no chaos as Chuck and Art aptly point out, but it is also not as if through training you cannot train yourself to overcome it and that is what I am talking about here.  Recognizing the danger and developing a set of skills that allows you to overcome and prevail. This is the reason that within Warrior Flow the highest form of skill to develop through mastery is “creativity”.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Perspective - a particular attitude or mental view toward or way of regarding something; as well as the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.

How this plays with regard to combat is significant because both our perspective and our perceptions are filtered through our knowledge, experiences, sense of being, capabilities and wisdom or intuitions. It is through these filters that we view whether a situation is chaotic or if it is just the way it is.

Perception - can be said to be a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present. On a physical level, it is influenced by our ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through our senses. It’s also the state of being or the process of becoming aware of something through them.

Perception in Warrior Flow is that level of awareness that act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by not just our senses but of the mind. That cognition as well as understanding. It is the immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, the insight; intuition; discernment and the ability to judge well. (i.e., thus the Warrior Flow concept of Perceptual Awareness).

When Hannibal stated that, “Perception is a tool pointed on both ends.” He was discussing how our perspective greatly influences how we process the information that is presented to us and thus how we respond to it. In other words, we filter information as it comes in which shapes the character of the information which then influences the output or outcome of how we respond to it. Just by the fact that you know something if you understand how it works then you know what to do about it provided you have the proper perspective and perception of what is actually taking place.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”

• Sun-Tzu, The Art of War

This is why perfect clarity is a must because it allows you to see through the bullshit and cut to the heart of the matter or if you possess the requisite knowledge and skill to manipulate the situation within the laws of physics and human physiology. When the glass is always half-full for you. You can begin to clearly see this. As I tell people all of the time in training the ultimate level of where you want your mind in training is to see the Future and go to where you need to be before they have a chance to respond to what you are doing.

Playing in Traffic

I remember reading in one of Tim Green’s books, who was a former pro football player with the Atlanta Falcons, and was a teammate of one of my good friends when they played together at Syracuse. About how when he had his first hitting practice in the NFL he thought he was going to be killed. He said something like,

“What it’s like in a pro practice is you feel like you’re standing in traffic and all of the cars are moving 60 miles per hour.  But after a while, as you develop and get up to speed you find you can run along with them”. 

Basically when he was still green behind the ears because the level was much greater than what he was used to his first impression as with anyone was overwhelming. In other words, it seemed, confusing, dangerous, and chaotic but once he got up to speed it was just the way it was. While this may be difficult for some to understand think of it like this.

When we all learned to drive I don’t care who you are the first time you got behind the wheel of a car you’re both excited and scared. And at each step in your progress there was a level of fear and at times especially the first time you drive in traffic it can feel a bit overwhelming. But as you learned and became experienced you became desensitized to it and you learned to filter out the noise until you just knew how to drive. Now, you just jump in your car with no thought to it. The point is at first it was scary now it’s just… well, something you do. Because you trained yourself how to deal with it. 

On Warrior Planning

“Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Now for folks who served in the military, you always hear people talk about von Clausewitz’s concept of The Fog of War. It’s even gotten to the point where even the talking heads on TV discuss it. The bottom line is the fog of war is what we call uncertainty and in war, there is always a level of uncertainty. von Clausewitz also discussed and offered up that “…no plan survives initial contact”, which as anyone who’s been in combat can attest is dead on.  

So, if this is true then how do you deal with this fog this uncertainty?

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”

• Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The answer is instead of being reactive to what the enemy may do to change your plan, develop a plan to be able to change upon contact. Okay, now what I said there for some folks is going to sound like I’m talking a little out of the other side of my mouth or for others may seem obvious. This is a very hard concept to grasp because you have to be able to take the leap of faith and accept a level of risk that you can train well enough to do this on the fly. Not easy.

Remember there is always friction in battle because the enemy has free will and is responding to your actions as well this, therefore, this must become a part of your calculous in your training and requires much introspection to get at the truth if you are to learn to do what we call in the military “getting ahead of the curve”.

You see it's only chaos if you don't understand it. It’s only chaos if you haven’t trained in the body to deal with change, roll with the punches and prepared your body to get ahead of the battle by being able to move in a way that throws off the other guy’s movement. To use deception to disrupt the pattern of his movement by changing the position of your body relative to where he is in time and space. This takes training and faith in your ability to do it.

Like I said this stuff is not random it only appears that way if you don’t understand what the hell is going on. However, if you train to respond differently in the body then your less likely to be taken by surprise. Which isn't that kind of the whole point to training? 

“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”

• Sun Tzu, The Art of War

When I was an Intelligence and Operations Officer one of the things we used to always rack our brains over was developing ways to get ahead of the enemy's actions. But also locating him to prevent him from gaining an advantage in the first place. The idea was when looking for a needle in a haystack instead of trying to sift through the whole haystack, which was a wasteful exercise focus on reducing the size of the haystack (this is the essence of the concept we teach called Adumbration of Movement. When I discuss how Time works for combat in a later blog post I will cover this in more depth for it is integral to Mastery).

This is the concept of predictive analysis. I’m not going to get into methodologies here just understand that when we’re talking about predictive analysis to get ahead of the curve. We’re talking about a level of perceptual awareness as we say in Warrior Flow, to “play where the puck is going to be”. I’ll be very blunt here, one of the reasons many martial techniques fail under the test of battle is not so much because of the techniques they use. After all, a punch is a punch and no matter what I’ve studied in my life whether boxing, karate, etc. the last time I checked I still ball up my hands and commence to swinging. It’s that most systems focus on figuring out what to do after the fact.

Here’s the deal, if you know all of those things then why not focus more of that time in training figuring ways to get ahead of the bad guy?

As I say to students all of the time if you know that what the Hell are you waiting for?

Just sayin…

You see when you can to some degree anticipate possibilities and probabilities or what we call in Warrior Flow the 6^th Dimensional Aspect of Combat. The idea is all about removing as much of the ambiguity of a confrontation and as much of the fog of war, and as much of the perception of the fight being chaos as possible. Now, are there things that will take us by surprise? Sure but if you train to also expect the unexpected you’re probably less likely to become frozen in panic by them. or at least learn to panic the right way.

The whole basis of awareness training is built on the concept of predictive analytics to get ahead of the curve. Those things that appear random or chaotic are those we haven't trained to mitigate. Again, once you understand how your actions also influence his actions you can develop a different understanding in your training where you can actually make his actions more predictable and on and on. This is what I’m talking about when discussing what I call in Warrior Flow, 5th-Dimensional Chess. Where all of the pieces on the board are moving at the same time and you’re either trying to put the other guy in a state of “checkmate” or “check”.

Seeing Beyond Your Eyes

What I mean here is you need to learn to look beyond what is obvious and right in front of you all of the time and trust your judgment based on your training. Because that which is unseen can be just as effective as that which is seen (after all in combat what you don’t know can kill you). 

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

• Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In order to develop your “mind’s eye” on this or ability to "see it in your mind, you have to take the leap of faith and trust your ability to do this and yes, make an educated guess based on what you feel. In sports, we call this “savvy” but for our purposes here because I think it’s a little deeper than that. I’m going to call this type of thought intuitive judgment, or better known as “Wisdom” which is basically the application of intelligence, and knowledge guided by experience.

“You have to believe in yourself.”

• Sun Tzu, The Art of War

You have got to develop some "wisdom" on this stuff and stop thinking that how it works is through total happenstance. Nonsense! Otherwise, there would be no delineation between people at various skill levels which, as we know is not true. That those, especially at the higher levels of any art, are actually "doing things" to influence the outcomes and no matter how imperfect.

“Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Again, even if we are unaware of it ourselves to "influence" people’s movement. If what I'm saying is not true then how does a running back in football, soccer player, boxer, or basketball player fake out their opponents? It's because they're doing things in real-time to "influence" the movement or behavior of their opponent. they may not be thinking about it but they're doing it and it is not just some random act they are engaging in. Anyone who tells you different is full of shit. 

Adumbration of Movement

“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

You know it’s funny, a few days ago as of this writing I was talking with one of our instructors on the phone about the nature of a real confrontation and this idea of the fight being chaotic etc. mind you this guy works in a jail and has had more than his fair share of altercations. And he asked me if I could sum up what it is we really do in Warrior Flow what I thought it would be?

I gave it a little thought, (I’m always giving it thought) and I said something like,

“In Warrior Flow, we focus on training to move in a way that alters the other person’s perception of timing to kill them.”

He agreed and I went on,

“Now, if a person gets into a situation where they move to a position where they can take someone out but choose not to as far as I’m concerned that’s their choice. I’m okay with that, that’s their choice and be it far from I to tell them what choice to make in that situation. My thing is the one thing they will not lack is the ability to do so should they make that choice. But in order to be able to do that they have to be able to get ahead of the other guy’s movement.”

This movement that I’m talking about is a way or type of movement 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. The ability to feel how they react 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 take advantage of their confusion. It’s all about using the Shadow Impression to get ahead of movement and deliver strikes at supernatural speed.

(I would also like to point out 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 their movement or disrupt it when we do the Warrior Flow Exercise. However, it is not so much that we feel and recognize the patterns it is that we begin to recognize the “shape” of what it is to become. This my friends is a different thing altogether. It is this ability to make this mental shift focusing on recognizing the shapes thus “adumbration” that allows for this.)

Too many people are training to deal with the problem after the fact, such as someone throws a punch you block it then respond with a strike, kick throw, etc. so more often than not, they allow time for the situation to reach the point of it becoming overwhelming thus the perception of chaos. 

Well hell, if you had the ability to block it then you knew where it was so what the hell are you waiting for?

If you had time to block it you probably had time to move out of the way or a combination of both. How do I know this to be true?

Because it is not uncommon that after an altercation people are capable of recalling how the thing got started in the first place. Not all of the time but more often than people think. In other words, there was a level of awareness already present that was a clue that something foul was afoot. 

The point is why make it more complex than it has to be? 

In Warrior Flow, we train to overcome the chaos by disrupting and pre-empting the possibilities in the body before it becomes a problem. It is a calculus and the very means in which we get ahead of another person’s movement to the future. Adumbration also has an internal feel to it within your joints, muscles, the center of gravity, sense of equilibrium, etc. where it governs how you adjust and know how to move within your body just enough with the right amount of movement at the right time.

We do not strive to follow people although at times it cannot be avoided we strive to lead them to the wrong place. This is the ability, to perceive and cut things off beforehand to reduce the unpredictability of the battle and the chaos, that all practitioners of Warrior Flow need to strive for in all they do when performing the Warrior Flow Exercise. 

Well, that’s it for now. I know this was a little long-winded but I felt it was important to cover before discussing some of the things I’m going to discuss down the line as they relate to Mastery.

Thank you. 

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

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     Al Ridenhour

     CEO, Creator Warrior Flow™

Al Ridenhour is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marine Corps with 28-years of service active and reserve with multiple combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has also served as a Law Enforcement consultant to the NJ State Police Special Operations Section, NJ Transit Police Operations Section, The NJ Regional Operations and Intelligence Center, the FBI Philadelphia Bomb Section, and subject matter expert to the US Department of Homeland Security's, Explosives Division. With nearly 40-years of Combative Arts experience, he is recognized as a self-defense expert worldwide and is highly sought out for seminars, workshops, lectures, and special individualized training.  He is the author of "Warrior Flow Mind" (2019), Co-Author of "Attack Proof: The Ultimate Guided in Personal Protection (Human Kinetics, 2010) and the Co-Author of "How to Fight for Your Life" (June 2010).

For more go to https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/

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