An orthodox application might not be realistic self defence as such, but it does contain a lot of valuable information which is up to the practicitioner to refine. Depending on the practitioner’s level, constitution and individual experience the manifestation – the actual self defence technique – will differ from other practitioners. Although there are some ”blue prints”, there is also scope for individual freedom. In this way Tai Chi Chuan can truly be considered a living form of art.
After gaining a grasp of the principles, components of pressure, speed, force, spontaneity, mind-set and aliveness have to be added. This requires the practitioner to be extremely familiar with the orthodox technique, to be reasonably conditioned, and able to work with a training partner with the ‘right’ mind-set. Behind this, there has to be a basic understanding of timing, distance and correct positioning/angle for the specific technique.
San Shou - ‘Scattering Hands’
The core of any martial art must naturally be the actual use of the different techniques and principles within that tradition. San Shou translates into ‘Scattering Hands’, in other words this kind of training contains the idea of something chaotic, spontaneous and unpredictable. To be able to cope with situations like this we have some building-blocks in our orthodox applications. They might not always be the most realistic self-defence techniques, but can be considered as foundations providing us with useful tools to deal with a certain situation.
To be able to perform any kind of self defence there are some fundamental areas that have to be understood and trained, beyond the actual technique itself. One of the basics is to have fundamental conditioning in order to actually be able to deliver the technique and to be familiar with what happens and how it feels to be on the receiving end of a technique. This should be considered as basic level practice. To take things further – beyond Form and Pushing Hands – you have to add an adversary or training partner who gives you resistance and is working with the ‘right’ mind-set. An unwilling opponent is something other than your casual everyday training buddy. Note that this kind of training does not necessarily always have to be extremely forceful or hard in a physical sense. One of the most important aspects is that of the ‘right’ intent/mind-set.
Distance
To understand distance, means you have the knowledge and feeling of where to be positioned for a specific technique. If there is lack of knowledge here then the technique will be unsuccessful or lack power, and it will be very easy for your opponent to counter or control you.
Timing
One crucial element is timing. If you are too late (after the attack), your opponent will easily get you. If not fatal, you will spend your time only defending yourself and/or letting the opponent control you. It is better to be able to detect the opponent’s attack, defend and counter. This can considered as acting during the attack. Depending on the circumstances the result can be successful or not. At last there is acting before the attack. This means you are able to detect the opponent’s action before it manifests, very early on in the process of him attempting to launch his attack. This action can enable you‘to hit the opponent to the punch’, or to lure the opponent into a situation where you actually want him to be, which makes him vulnerable to your attack.
Angle
This means to position yourself in favourable angle for the specific technique. The idea is that you want to be in a position where you can launch your technique before your oppnent can respond forcefully.
The OODA-loop
One useful tool when training and understanding self-defence, is called ‘The OODA-loop’. The capitals represent Observation, Orientation, Decision and finally Action. This is a process where we go through totally autonomously every single moment when we are awake. It is required for functioning and solving everyday problems, but is also crucial when understanding self-defence scenarios. This is the reason why we need to train applications and drills in a repetitous manner. We want to get a certain behaviour ‘into our system’ - that being the nervous system. For something to be really fast and effortless it needs to be spontaneous and autonomous. These processes are the same no matter if it is a one-to-one situation, or big battle scale using radars, or other high tech equipment. This loop is always gonna be there, and it translates well into the idea of Dong Jin – Understanding Force; Ting (listen), Hua (transform) and Fa (discharge).
Observation
This is of utmost importance, to be able to find the threat before it finds you. This requires practice and experience in a realistic training scenario, such as sparring or more realistic self defence practice. Understanding different weapons and bio-mechanical possibilites – unarmed (hands, feet, throws etc) or armed (sword, knives, guns etc), how they are used and at what distance. With more experience you also know what to look for. There are usually signs that can give away the opponent, providing you know what they are. If you detect something early, then your chance to be successful is far greater than if you detect it late on, or are already hit by it. Usually it is a good idea to try to practice peripheral vision in different ways, since this is something your nervous sytem will try to shut down in favour of tunnel vision when you are stressed or feel fear. Tai Chi Chuan provides great tools to practice this feature. Observation doesn’t necessarily mean only using vision, we have many senses and the better you train them the more you will discover. Staying sharp is also a matter of being totally present, which is actually what we are when practicing the correct way, no matter if it is Form, Pushing Hands or Applications.
Orientation
Means to establish reality. Getting the perspective, based on your sensory input, real time input, prior experience and your assumptions. Your brain and nervous sytem is not a linear processor, it is parallel since the sub-conscious probes with the conscious mind. Your conscious mind is then choosing what to pay attention to. If you have ever been in an extremely stressful situation, when recalling that same situation you always get fragments of memories, not a flow of them. After more experience these freeze-frame memories tend to construct into a more flowing, streaming movie. It becomes familiar territory. This is of course because you become more accustomed to the situation and your system can, with experience, evaluate more factors than you initially didn’t even pay conscious attention to. For example most people getting hit don’t get knocked out. They are shocked, their systems are not used and they cannot understand and evaluate the signals of pain. This is where conditioning comes in. If you cannot take anything, you are going to have a real hard time delivering something. When we are presented with a brand new set of circumstances, with no prior reference points, we get disorientated. This is why we need realistic training. It is interesting to see how most martial artists react to a knife. Even if it is a blunt training blade, even the most experienced martial artists – if unused to knife training – will tense up, freeze, using erratic movements and much more energy than actually needed. People experienced in knife training react very differently. It’s all about experience. Since all of us go through the OODA-loop, you should of course aim to distract your opponent. This buys you valuable time. It can be done with movement, a jab, set-up technique, throwing your bag in the face of the opponent blocking his vision, or something else depending on the scenario. Once you distract your opponent you want to move on to the next stage in this process. When distracted, your opponent has to move back in the OODA-cycle to stage one – observation - and since you have moved on to the next stage you will have an advantage. His perception of time will get distorted, incoming data will be dismissed, decisions become irrational, and his actions become erratic and ineffective. This is where you want him to be.
Decision
Getting there. We make decisions in two ways. All of the time. The first way is when we work out thousands of variables, simultaneously in parallel, via our sub-concious mind, and the second one being when the conscious mind processes a couple of variables at the same time before mis-interpretating incoming data. This means – if you want to react fast, you want to react via your subconsious mind. This is achieved by repetition and experience accumulating data and getting updated on a regular basis. Everytime the subconcious has new experiences it creates an improved matrix of actions increasing the probability of success in the future.
Action
This is where most people spend their time practicing, although it might not always be the most beneficial area to train. This is where you hit, get hit, run, call for help or any other action. Naturally you have to be able to act forcefully, but it is everything that leads you to the point where you launch your technique that matters most. Your observation, orientation and decisions are what makes it possible to use relatively minor actions or energy to define success or failure. Most people look for the manifestation. Submission is usually what people are looking for. But before you can get in control or in submission you have to learn how to postition. Before you have to mantain proper distance, enter the distance to your opponent at the proper time, apply the proper technique taking control over your opponent. If you master this sequence it means that you can employ the same technique over and over again even if your opponent understands what you are doing. If you can read him and catch him in the Observation – Decision phase in the OODA-cycle you will control him. This is true mastery of space and time – before the actual techniqe is employed. Understanding and training this cycle will result in greater awareness and an enhanced sense of presence.
Paul Silfverstrale is based in Sweden and regularly teaches in various European locations.
Visit: www.ptcc.se
