Anything that has life in it is an organism,
and it is in the very nature of an organism that it never remains in the
same state of existence.
(D T Suzuki)
Techniques
Techniques are
formal applications in response to specific criteria.
As such, they have severe limitations.
In practical self defence, you could never reasonably apply a technique
because to do so assumes foreknowledge of the opponents intent.
So why do people practice them?
Techniques train habit patterns.
A technique shows you
where to place yourself relative to the attack, how to manipulate the opponent,
where to hold, where to strike...
These habit patterns enable the body to become familiar with moving in
relation
to another person.
Drills are the same.
In our school, we train no-technique.
Mushin.
Edward De Bono:
You can never improve the quality of your final choice by limiting the range of
alternatives.
Know how to generate alternatives and know how to choose between them.
What suits you?
For an application to be effective it needs to utilise the shape of the
form movement.
The form explores a massive variety of possible movements, so the
potential applications are enormous.
Each posture contains as many applications as you can find utility for.
This means that every student will favour applications that
suit their inclination, stature and demeanour.
Providing the application incorporates the form movement, remains soft,
yields to force, uses 4 ounces of pressure and is effective - it
is valid.
Just move
In actual self defence, you simply move.
An attack will occur too quickly for you to formulate the appropriate
counter beforehand.
Your body will subconsciously produce responses relative to the attacker.
If you have trained a repertoire of applications and techniques, you will
engage the opponent in a physically adept manner.
Whilst it is unlikely that any formal technique will emerge, the
essence of how to move will be there.
If you haven't trained any applications or techniques, there is nothing
that could come out except the movement.
This may sound sufficient until you consider that raw movement is
meaningless in itself because you have no idea how to use it.
Page created 5 August 2000