Align with Sports Science.

 

All power is momentum.

Momentum is a product of  velocity, in particular changing velocity, dynamics.

When I am digging deeper into the Fist Logic of Wing Chun my first port of call is to see if what is being suggested can be understood along known Sports Science and Modern Sports Methodologies lines, if it cannot it is dispensed with immediately, if it is dubious it is relegated to the bench to be explored at a later date.

Why do I do this, is Sport the same as violence?

Any one with competitive experience of any of the contact sports knows all to well that contact sports are a thinly veiled substitute for combat, in important matches between local rivals the veil often slips and we all know what happens next, many sociologists make a life long career out of just this topic.

North American first nation tribes such as the Mohawk and Choctow would solve regional differences with a version of what is now called Lacrosse instead of all out Martial conflict.

These types of  War games are at home in most cultures, in 600 B.C. Persian and Turkoman tribesmen would try to place a goat carcass in the opposing tribes territory, a similar game appeared in South America today it is organised into Polo and is one of the oldest team sports on record.

And of course there is the fighting sports, variants of boxing or grappling, the Greek style of Pankration was documented at least 2500 years ago.

There are very tangible connections to the creation of Kung Fu from Alexander the Great’s Army introducing Pankration into the Indian Martial Art which then made its way to China with Bodhidharma.

The practice of these Martial Sports was not just about conflict substitution or resolution, often and more importantly they were about conflict readiness.

Anyone can learn the moves of a particular way of engaging an enemy but making it work in real time against a real and equally engaged opponent takes hands on experience, in a Martial Sport you can fail, try again, fail again try again until you get it right.

There are no do-overs in war.

For me the question should not be why do I need everything to align with the most up to date Sports Science with my own M.A. training, but rather who are people kidding if they think that there is no need for them to do this with their own Martial Arts training?

I do not buy into the thought bubble of “not everyone does a Martial Art to fight”, people may very well remain in training their art long after they have developed a fighting skill set for other reasons, but everyone starts from the standpoint of wanting to fight better.

I have played numerous contact sports, Ice Hockey, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Lacrosse, the difference between myself and the many people that played better than me was very rarely plain old skill, often my own skill level was on par with them, usually it was speed and co-ordination, this gave them the opportunity to do the exact same things that I could do, but sadly before I could do them.

All power is momentum.

Momentum is a product of  velocity, in particular changing velocity, dynamics.

Violence is dynamic, if our training is not dynamic we are not training for violence.

In an organised and social society it is difficult to train for violence without being involved in violence.

Hence the importance of Sport, and here we are back at the beginning.