And the Nitty Gritty is understanding the relationship and the interaction between two bodies in space.
Although we are not overtly referencing violence in this discussion we should never let our mind wander, what we do has a purpose, and that purpose is very one dimensional.
Successfully surviving a violent encounter has nothing to do with technique, it is not Tan Sau to Bong Sau to an Elbow strike, it is not about style, structure, power, or even speed, it is not about defending, it is not about attacking, all of this STUFF is useful, very useful, but can easily be made redundant by not paying attention to the things that count, the Nitty Gritty.
And the Nitty Gritty is understanding the relationship and the interaction between two bodies in space.
From a training perspective, this means internalising the Concepts that govern the interaction of two bodies in space.
Pushing a car, hanging out the washing, throwing a Frisbee, or fighting Captain America are equally governed by these basic concepts.
Once we have this down, everything just works.
We are all aware that Gravity exerts a downward force on everything on our planet, and as such everything we do is affected by it.
Therefore any movement that does not have a downward trajectory is actively fighting against gravity…
…take a pause and think about that.
To be expected, trying to fight off Gravity requires the use of physical force, which creates muscular tension, which prevents us from entering what I refer to as the ‘Conduit State’.
This condition is quite natural, our job is to observe it and not to create it, it is the state of being where force moves freely through us, in both directions.
If we craft and analogy using water as force, think drainpipe going down and hosepipe going up.
This is what I will address with the next installment, when we look at delivering force via the Kinetic Chain, so for now let’s keep it simple.
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I have at times heard students ask “But how do we use this out in the wild”?
That is the thing, the beauty, or the horror if you are on the other end, we do not use it, we do not even think about using it, it is a training device we employ to observe that this stuff just happens, all we want to do is trust the process and hit the Bad Guy in the head.
“In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.”
Albert Einstein
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 