THE WARRIOR FLOW COMBATIVE MOVEMENT CONCEPTS
"By training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit..."
-- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
The main thing about the Warrior Flow system is that the focus is on the understanding that the human body is the human body and when properly developed you are able to possess a wider range of freedom in your movement for fighting. This is the main thing we try to develop in people.
In other words, we are not concerned with whose Kung Fu is better because we want to make everyone we train "better". So, we really don’t give a shit what people think or say, it’s all about what you can do if your moment of truth arrives. You are either trained or you’re not and you can either fight and “bring it”! And are able to stand in that space, hold the line! Or not... We are focused on helping you achieve your martial goals in the shortest amount of time possible.
It's really that simple...
The other thing is because we are all different the key is we all teach people through "Concepts" of body movement dynamics that apply to all human beings, rather than just a series of techniques so that they learn to fight and "win" within the body they have. We are only concerned with developing and helping people develop superior combative movement.
This is our "Way", The Warrior Flow Way!
THE CONCEPTS
Equilibrium Control – the ability to control your equilibrium as well as the ability to strike or evade from any position or while moving “at all times”.
Subtle Muscle Control – the ability to control your body in a way to isolate, create space, take space, create different states (vapor, liquid, solid) within your body, with different parts, and everything in between, and sometimes all at the same time.
Perceptual Awareness – Perceptual Awareness – the ability to use your body’s natural senses (kinesthetic and proximity awareness) as well as intuit with your body and “see with your mind” (i.e., see the Future, play where the puck is going to be).
Dynamic Coordination – a culmination of all “Combative Movement Concepts” working together within time and space (Quantum Sphere Concept).
Creativity – Creativity – 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. The part of talent I 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” and how “intuitions” are structured. (i.e., 7 Dimensions of Combat all must be taught and developed from a position of “Mastery” of the “concepts”).
Equilibrium Control is the foundation that all of the other concepts rest on top of. Notice the disproportionate size of the “Equilibrium Control” section as it relates to the rest of the concepts in the pyramid. This is no mistake but done on purpose to reinforce the importance that Equilibrium Control plays with regard to developing real fighting skills. Without Equilibrium Control it is very difficult to remain pliable no matter how gifted you may be and without Subtle Muscle Control, it is extremely difficult to respond through your Perceptual Awareness in relation to what you physically, visually or “mentally” perceive. Also without Equilibrium Control even if you are pliable without being connected to your root you are not able to bring your power to bare where you need it when you need it. Equilibrium Control is nothing more than being able to control your equilibrium under “dynamic conditions” and it has a physical as well as a mental aspect to it.
Subtle Muscle Control reflects both the physical and “mental state” one must engage when becoming “unavailable yet unavoidable” since it is applied to varying degrees when moving at times it can have an almost “spring-like effect” sometimes referred to as “Pliability”. Think of “Pliability” as a “sub-principle” of Subtle Muscle Control. Subtle Muscle Control is nothing more than using your muscles in an efficient manner unitized manner. It is not just muscular relaxation as some think although that plays a role it is the “subtle muscle control” one requires when moving to strike from one point to another or while avoiding a strike while delivering one all at the same time. It is the ability to be hard and soft all at the same time and everything in between. It is the ability to slip through the smallest space possible or elongate your body when you need to. It is the ability to be solid as a rock, liquid or vapor all at the same time by isolating various parts of your body through subtle muscle control.
Perceptual Awareness is nothing more than what you “mentally perceive” based on your sense of touch or what you see (or perceive in your mind) in context of the fight. This is a skill that we are born with but in order to use it for combat, you have to develop it so that you understand what you see and feel in context. As with Equilibrium Control and Subtle Muscle Control, there is a mental as well as a physical aspect to this, which cannot be ignored. Perceptual Awareness is what tells you where to be when you need to be there and drives the other concepts in as much that it tells you where to be pliable - hard/soft - where to root, shift or step without thought. I will cover this is a little more detail when discussing Dynamic Coordination.
Dynamic Coordination is the culmination of these concepts “working together”. Dynamic Coordination which is really a “super principle” since it encompasses all of the other concepts and attributes of human body movement dynamics. Trust me when I tell you that whole books could be written on Dynamic Coordination, and the virtually limitless possibilities it holds. If you want to know what allows some practitioners of Warrior Flow to seemly transcend the physical limitations of their bodies and continue to improve and thrash younger, stronger more agile guys it is the development of Dynamic Coordination through the concepts. Forget fancy strikes and kicks; through the development of proper Dynamic Coordination, you can basically do what you want to people and in some cases instantly master various techniques that normally take people years to develop.
This is not hyperbole but fact and those who have been around the martial arts long enough know exactly what I’m talking about because you’ve probably experienced it for yourself first hand. I personally have students who have mastered certain techniques in a fraction of the time it took me simply because their understanding of the concepts and how to train to develop them was much greater at the time. The point is there’s no magic to this, as long as they do the exercises focusing on applying the concepts when training in Warrior Flow and they will get good.
While Subtle Muscle Control greatly facilitates this, it is still a Dynamic Coordination issue because even in the subtlest of movements you need your whole body working together to make this work to the degree where you are able to strike with bone-crushing force in the shortest possible span under dynamic conditions, which is what a real fight is all about. The reason Subtle Muscle Control “seems” like the catalyst to all this is because like Equilibrium Control it is the one, which feels more tangible to your body. However, at the end of the day, it is the culmination of the concepts working together or Dynamic Coordination that makes this all possible.
Just as a general comment keep in mind at least in my opinion, most of what we have learned throughout our lives about body movement dynamics especially for fighting is probably wrong. I say this because it never ceases to amaze me how many people even those with good athleticism. Find that their bodies are out of sync when it comes to the kind of movement necessary to survive a real violent encounter.
Much of this I believe is because when we are young we are able to overcome a lot of inefficiency in our movement and we’re just able to “muscle through it”. However, as we age and lose some of our strength we are not able to compensate as well. Also, there is not enough focus on developing proper neuromuscular development in most arts and too much emphasis on just striking or techniques without any consideration as to the delivery system of how to get there in the first place.
